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Creative best practices for TV streaming ads

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Great ad performance starts with great ad creative. In fact, creative contributes more to sales than any other element of your advertising: more than targeting, reach, or context.

As you map out your advertising campaign, it’s crucial to think through each channel’s unique creative capabilities, how they can contribute to your goals individually, and how they work as part of a multichannel ad strategy.

Why creative matters

Creative drives engagement, and engagement drives purchases. On Roku, we see that streamers are more inspired to purchase or learn more about products after viewing an engaging creative ad.

After seeing an ad:

  • 39% of Roku streamers got ideas for specific products to purchase
  • 33% reported discovering new products¹

What differentiates TV streaming 

Marketers can use TV streaming to get the best of both linear TV and social media. Their messaging will reach users on the big screen. However, they can also leverage the benefits of digital advertising like fine-tuning creative for specific audiences and building interactivity into the TV experience.

 

3 proven best practices for designing TV streaming ad creative:

1. Ensure that branding best practices are in place – even if performance is the main goal. 

Although branding is an upper-funnel tactic, it often has a huge impact on lower-funnel metrics. Make sure your brand is mentioned in the first few seconds of your ad creatives and maintain a consistent brand presence throughout the ad.  

2. Have a clear call-to-action.

Call-to-actions (CTAs) drive performance by encouraging viewers to engage with interactive elements directly on your ad. For optimal performance, the CTA should be visible for most of the ad, with clear instructions for how to act on it, using a combination of voice and text to reinforce your message.

3. Lean into the digital capabilities of TV streaming.

Streaming TV brings together the reach of linear TV with the targeting and fine-tuned creative of digital advertising. Marketers can reach a broad audience while scaling personalized and segmented content.

Consider how you might adjust creative for different audiences. Think about how you might address different stages in the funnel with your creative. For example, use interactive ads to drive conversions.

Want more tips? Download the guide: Creative Best Practices for TV Streaming. The guide is based on our experience running thousands of ads through our platform every year and helping brands boost their awareness, clicks, and conversions through these proven creative best practices. Get your copy of the guide here.


¹ Roku Internal Study, 2021  

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