Digiday+ Research: Agencies’ clients more likely to invest in CTV over traditional TV

Digiday’s survey found that more than two-thirds of agency pros (69%) said their clients spend at least a small portion of their marketing budget on TV — a number that has remained fairly steady since the start of last year.

This year, agencies said their clients are most likely to dedicate a small portion of their budgets to TV (including traditional TV and connected TV): 32% of survey respondents chose this option. This is a change from the third quarter of 2022, when the largest percentage of agency pros (28%) said their clients spent a moderate portion of their marketing budgets on TV. In the first quarter of last year, the largest percentage of survey respondents (32%) actually said their clients spent none of their budgets on TV, but, interestingly, those who said their clients spent a large portion on TV was a close second at 29%.

Notably, the percentage of agencies who said their clients put a large portion of their marketing budgets toward TV has steadily fallen since Q1 2022: from 29%, to 25% in Q3 2022 and to 21% this quarter.

But it is also important to note that 69% of agency clients spending at least a little on TV marketing is significant.

Agencies’ confidence in TV marketing is a bit shakier than their clients’ ad spend on the channel, Digiday’s survey found.

As of last year, the largest percentage of respondents to Digiday’s surveys said they were somewhat confident that TV drives marketing success for their clients (29% said this in Q1 2022 and 30% said this in Q3 2022). But this year, the largest percentage of agency pros are only slightly confident in the marketing success of TV (31% said this in Digiday’s most recent survey, compared with 19% a year ago and 16% six months ago).

Meanwhile, the percentage of agency pros who told Digiday they are confident or very confident in TV’s marketing success has fallen compared with last year: About a quarter of respondents said they were confident in TV in Q1 2022 (24%) and Q3 2022 (25%). This quarter, 19% said this. And the percentage of agency pros who said they were very confident in TV’s marketing success was up to 15% in Q3 2022, but this quarter only 9% of respondents said they’re very confident in TV. (Ten percent said they were very confident in TV in Q1 2022.)

This year, Digiday’s survey asked agency pros to break down their clients’ marketing spend on traditional TV advertising versus connected TV for the first time. And it turns out that they’re more likely to spend on CTV.

Eighty-seven percent of agency pros whose clients spend money on TV marketing said they spend at least a small portion of their budgets on traditional TV. That sounds like a lot. But not when you compare that percentage to the 97% of agency pros who said their clients who spend on TV spend at least a small amount on CTV.

When looking at agency clients’ spend on traditional TV, the largest portion by far spends a small portion of their marketing budget on traditional TV at 43% (compared with 19% who spend a moderate amount of their budget on traditional TV and 26% who spend a large amount).

The largest portion of those who spend on connected TV also spend a small portion of their marketing budget there (38%), but it’s by a much smaller margin: More than a quarter of agency pros whose clients spend on TV advertising (27%) spend a moderate portion of their budget on CTV, and nearly a third (32%) spend a large portion on CTV.