Digiday+ Research: More than half of marketers invest in TV and streaming, with an eye on impressions and branding

This is based on a Digiday+ Research survey conducted in the second quarter of this year among 100 brand, retailer and agency professionals.

Digiday’s survey found that more than half of marketers are investing in TV ads. Fifty-five percent of brand, retailer and agency pros said they’re currently spending on TV (including streaming), compared with 45% who said they’re not investing in TV this year.

And when it comes to streaming, specifically, the vast majority of marketers spending on ads are investing in impression and branding ads. Eighty percent of marketers said they’re investing in impression and branding ads on streaming TV, making it the top type of streaming ad by far this year.

Shoppable ads came in a distant second, with 30% of marketers saying they’re investing in shoppable ads this year, followed by QR code ads, which 28% of marketers said they’re investing in.

It makes sense, then, that Digiday’s survey found that marketers are focusing their TV investments on impressions and branding ads this year much more so than other types of ads — and this focus has even grown since last year. Seventy-nine percent of brand, retailer and agency pros told Digiday in Q2 2025 that they are investing most in and focusing most on impressions and branding ads in the next six months, up from two thirds (66%) in Q2 2024.

Impressions and branding ads were followed by shoppable ads in this year’s survey, with 19% of marketers saying they’ll be most of their TV investments and focus toward shoppable ads, on par with the 20% who said the same last year.

QR code-based ads saw a significant drop in 2025 compared with 2024, however. In Q2 last year, 14% of marketers said QR code ads would be their biggest focus or area of investment when it came to their TV spend. In Q2 of this year, just 2% said the same.

These survey results are in alignment with how marketers said they measure the success of their streaming TV ads. Thirty-nine percent of brand, retailer and agency pros told Digiday this year that impressions are the main success measurement for their streaming ads, while 26% said the same of conversions.

Thirteen percent of marketers said clicks are their main measure of success for their streaming ads, and 11% said the same of watch time and completed watches.

Moving forward, though, marketers’ plans to spend on Amazon’s streaming platforms is a bit more unclear. Nearly half of brand, retailer and agency pros (46%) did tell Digiday in Q2 of this year that they will purchase video ads on an Amazon streaming platform in the next six months, which is certainly a meaningful percentage.

But nearly a third of marketers (30%) said they don’t know whether they’ll invest on Amazon streaming platforms in the coming months — more than the 24% who definitively said they won’t spend on Amazon streaming ads moving further into 2025. This seemingly leaves the door open for further shifts in the way marketers spend on streaming platforms through the rest of the year.