Why U.S. marketers are reallocating social and search spend into CTV

Connected TV (CTV) was the fastest-growing digital video channel in the U.S. in 2024 — and media buyers are making it a priority for 2025 by moving budgets from paid social media and search.

That’s per IAB’s recent 2025 Digital Video Ad Spend & Strategy Report, which found that over two-thirds of marketers now consider CTV a “must-buy” this year — ahead of social media.

Importantly, the dollars are following that sentiment: 36% of the marketers surveyed say their CTV investment will come from reallocating social media spend, while 32% plan to divert budget from paid search.

What’s driving the shift

Media buyers say the move toward CTV is largely about finding more incremental value, according to agency leaders who spoke to The Current.

“Sometimes, when [advertisers] look at [platforms like] Meta or Pinterest, the incremental value isn’t always there. That’s when we encourage brands to look into TV — both CTV and linear — to try and see what the incrementality is for them,” says Kris Tait, chief business officer at Croud.

Others say the reallocation from search also speaks to a broader trend of brands rethinking the marketing funnel.

“There’s a rebalancing happening among some clients … going from a really focused performance mindset into that rebalance across the full-funnel planning,” says Stefanie Flaum, Mediaplus North America’s group media director.

“It’s been easier to attribute sales to that lower funnel, but when we think about driving incrementality and incremental sales, we’re starting to see that advertisers are rethinking how to continue bringing people into the brand, not just focusing on that final click.”

By the numbers

CTV ad spend grew by 16% year over year, and it’s expected to grow by another 13% this year to $26.6 billion, according to the IAB report.

Overall, digital video ad spend jumped 18% in 2024 to $64 billion and overtook linear TV for the first time. It was the fastest-growing digital video channel last year.

For 2025, 68% of advertisers say CTV is essential for their media plans, followed by social video (62%) and national broadcast and cable TV (39%).

The big picture

Improved measurement capabilities and programmatic offerings have also helped boost marketers’ confidence in CTV.

CTV’s ability to target audiences is especially attractive for brands in categories like health care, where reaching a specific audience is crucial, says Gina Whelehan, strategy and partnerships group director at Butler/Till.

“Part of why we’ve been able to grow [CTV] so substantially is being able to activate it from a programmatic perspective,” she adds.

“Over the past two years, we’ve completely transformed how we approach digital video — especially CTV. We’ve shifted more than 60% of our investment from traditional IO-based buying to a programmatic-first model.”

The growing confidence in CTV coincides with declining social media investment, which in 2024 hit its lowest level in seven years, according to the report.

Ongoing opportunities

More established brands may already be comfortable in the CTV space, but there’s a lot of value for newer brands looking to drive brand awareness to invest in CTV — especially with more affordable testing options available through programmatic.

“A smaller advertiser has more opportunity now to test into CTV where maybe it has been more cost-prohibitive in the past,” she says.

Tait agrees, noting that a well-planned campaign should focus less on the revelation of CTV growth and more on how CTV is integrated into any effective media plan.

“For us, it’s less about the shift that is happening and more about: [CTV] is here now. It’s on every media plan, and we’re really interested in the interoperability and the integration and the way that we set up these campaigns to measure them,” he says.