.png)
In this post:
-
Holiday TV streaming on Roku has become a ritual. Use it to your advantage with a CTV campaign that lasts the whole season.
-
October: Get discovered while shoppers build lists and compare deals.
-
November and Black Friday weekend: Pair high-impact creative with shoppable ads.
-
December through Q5: Stay visible for late shoppers, gift-card users, post-holiday bargain hunters, and New Year’s resolution-makers.
There’s something special about gathering around the TV during the holidays. Buddy the Elf frolics through Manhattan. Charlie Brown gives a small tree its big moment. The screen lights up, and everyone leans in for holiday favorites, big blockbusters, and streamable shows.
Holiday streaming has become a ritual. During last year’s holiday season, Roku users streamed 33.8 billion hours between October 1 and January 15. Roku’s biggest streaming weekend of 2025 landed during “Cyber 5,” the five-day holiday shopping period from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday.1
At this time of year, peak viewing and peak buying converge.
For advertisers, that creates an opportunity to reach people in an environment built for storytelling and discovery, rather than compete for a quick glance in a crowded social feed. In fact, CTV ads have a 96% completion rate, since there's no skip button. Social and search remain important of course, but CTV gives brands a high-impact way to reach the whole household on the largest screen in the home.
So, how should marketers plan for the 2026 holiday season? Here is a practical playbook for every phase, from October through Q5.
33.8 billion. Number of hours streamed on Roku from October 1, 2025, through January 15, 2026
October: Get on the shopping list early
Your move: Build awareness before the rush while capturing early shoppers.
Holiday shopping no longer waits for Thanksgiving. In Roku’s holiday shopper research, 39% of Roku holiday shoppers began to purchase holiday items from October to before Thanksgiving, as many as those that shop during the traditional holiday shopping period of Thanksgiving to mid December.2 Holiday viewing picks up early, too: Holiday content searches on Roku saw an 86% increase over the month of October.1
October is the time to introduce the product, establish its value, and earn a place on the wishlist. Lead with memorable, upper-funnel creative, then use audience targeting to focus on the households most likely to care.
Value should be easy to understand. Highlight bundles, promotions, or practical benefits, but give the brand story room to breathe. October’s job is to prime the pump.
39% of Roku holiday shoppers who planned to start shopping as early as October
November and Cyber 5: Peak shopping meets peak streaming
Your move: Make the brand unmissable and the next step obvious.
By November, holiday-related searches on Roku rise an average of 39% week over week. The surging holiday spirit is mirrored by consumer activity, as about half of Roku streamers shopped Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals in 2025.2
Viewing data from last year raise the stakes further: Roku’s number-one streaming weekend in 2025 fell during Cyber 5.
That makes November the time for strong offers and festive creative. Technology brands can use CTV to cut through a flood of competing deals. CPG, food, beverage, and pet brands can lean into gift bundles, stocking stuffers, hosting occasions, and impulse-friendly purchases.
Make the call to action direct. Or take it a step further with Roku Action Ads which add an interactive prompt to the video, allowing viewers to press OK on the remote to buy directly or receive more information by text or email.
The objective is simple: Shorten the distance between “That looks good” and “I’ll take it.”
December: Convert late shoppers while attention stays high
Your move: Keep campaigns running while optimizing your message and offers.
If you’ve ever fought through the crowds at a big box store on a Saturday in December, holiday shopping doesn’t end on Cyber Monday. In fact, Roku’s research finds 15% of streamers waited until December to even begin.2
If they’re not shopping or baking cookies, chances are they’re streaming. Roku research released in 2025 found that the four most-streamed weekends in 2025 all occurred in December. In that year, December streaming hours were 17% higher than the annual average, while holiday searches jumped 78% during Christmas week.
Marketers can leverage that attention on CTV and shift creative to match the calendar. Emphasize shipping cutoffs, last-minute gifts, digital delivery, local availability, store hours, and limited-time promotions. Brands with physical locations can focus on the states, ZIP codes, or market areas they serve rather than paying to reach households outside their footprint.
Also act on campaign data you’ve already collected throughout the season and optimize accordingly. Roku’s Pixel and Conversions API help advertisers see which audiences and messages are driving actions such as page views, sign-ups, add-to-cart activity, and purchases, so they can optimize campaigns while the season is still underway.
4 of the biggest streaming weekends in 2025 were in December
Q5: Carry the momentum into 2027
Your move: Do not treat December 25 as the finish line.
The stretch between Christmas and mid-January, often called Q5, brings a new set of reasons to shop. Consumers are redeeming gift cards, browsing post-holiday sales, buying what Santa didn't leave under the tree, and acting on their resolutions.
Nearly 56% of Roku holiday shoppers said they planned to keep shopping after the winter holidays. Over 20% of holiday season streaming happens between Christmas and January 15—almost as much as the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve.
Extend the campaign into January and update the message. Health and wellness brands can transition from gifting to “New Year, New You” messaging. Furniture and technology advertisers can promote year-end clearance deals. Local service businesses can shift toward fresh-start messaging and lead generation.
The decorations may be coming down. Purchase intent is not.
56% of Roku holiday shoppers planned to continue shopping after the holidays
Why Roku Ads Manager is your best bet for holiday campaigns
The holidays reward marketers that move quickly, target precisely, and learn as the season develops. Roku Ads Manager brings those capabilities into a self-serve experience designed to feel familiar to advertisers who already manage search or social campaigns.
Reach holiday viewers at scale: With 100 million streaming households, Roku gives advertisers access to audiences across a significant streaming footprint. Whatever location, age, or purchasing power defines your target audience, they're streaming on Roku.
Control the campaign: Marketers can set a goal, define an audience, select locations, upload creative, establish a budget, and publish a campaign through one platform. Roku Ads Manager then optimizes delivery based on the campaign’s selected parameters.
Holiday campaigns can home in on their desired audience using a combination of Roku data, first-party data, and custom audiences created from an advertiser’s own event or customer data. Local advertisers can focus on specific states, ZIP codes, or market areas, making CTV practical for regional retailers, auto dealers, home-service companies, and other Main Street businesses.
Connect awareness with action: Action Ads give viewers a way to respond to holiday offers while interest is fresh. Depending on the setup, a viewer can press OK on their Roku remote to receive more information, visit a website or app, or begin shopping. Shopify integration powers a simple checkout through the television. No need to ask the viewer to remember the brand or search for it later.
Start building your 2026 holiday campaign
Begin with the seasonal outcome you hope to drive: awareness, online sales, leads, store visits, or another measurable goal. From there you can define your audience and location parameters, upload or adapt your strongest video creative, set the budget and campaign dates, and establish measurement before launching.
Then use the season to learn. Test messages in October, scale the strongest ideas for Cyber 5, update offers in December, and carry the winners into Q5.
The holiday rush will get crowded, but your campaign setup doesn't have to be complicated.
Launch your holiday campaign with Roku Ads Manager.
1Roku Internal Data
2Roku+ Lucid Holiday Survey, January 2026
.jpg?width=1600&height=900&name=LolaVie_Ad%20Manager%20Email_1600x900-1%20(1).jpg)
