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Is self-serve CTV viable for larger budgets?
Posted by on March 4, 2026 at 6:31 pmOur CAC on Meta/Google campaigns has been crazy yoy and (finally) we're now looking at CTV to diversify. The only issue I see is, most platforms I've tested feel like they're built for small budgets or need an agency middleman. I wonder if there's any self-serve CTV space mature enough to handle serious spend without the managed complexity? Looking to hear from anyone who's scaled successfully.
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1 Reply
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Your CAC is exploding because you’re bidding to the wrong goal.
The main problem with CTV is robot views. Fraud is rampant. If you’re going to buy CTV maybe split test it against about the same budget for podcast live read style ads.
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Yes be sure to have :15s and :30s
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Self-serve CTV can absolutely take on bigger budgets, but you will need to rebuild your operating model. Imo, the bottleneck isn’t inventory, it’s governance: frequency across apps, household deduplication, and incrementality testing. If you run it like paid social, CAC will look broken. Treat CTV as a reach and lift layer, then connect it to controlled geo or audience holdouts.
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I’d challenge the goal slightly: chasing a “Meta-like” self-serve CTV experience is the wrong bar. CTV at scale is a media planning problem, not just a buying problem. Work on solving supply quality, content adjacency, and reach curves first. Then build a lightweight in-house trading workflow. CTV platforms feel immature because most teams skip the planning layer entirely.
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