CTV Retargeting: Why Retailers Are Piloting and What It Takes to Scale

CTV retargeting gives retailers a real opportunity: reach shoppers on the screen where they're already spending the most time, using the same personalized retargeting approach that already works across other channels. The retailers who figure out how to run CTV well now will have a real advantage over the ones still waiting to sort it out.

According to data from Pathways to Retargeting Campaign Effectiveness, an AdRoll report created in collaboration with eTail Insights, CTV adoption is racing ahead of CTV confidence: 91% of retailers are already piloting the channel or plan to launch within 12 months, but 71% rate their organization's current CTV effectiveness as low, and only 8% have gotten retargeting running at scale.

Cross-channel coordination is the deciding factor in whether a new channel like CTV succeeds. Most retailers are piloting CTV on top of channels that already don't coordinate well with each other, and that's what's driving the gap between adoption and confidence. Here's what the data says about why retailers are piloting anyway, and what has to change before CTV can actually deliver.

What is CTV Retargeting?

CTV retargeting means serving ads on streaming and connected TV apps to viewers who've already engaged with your brand, the same core idea as retargeting on display or social, delivered to the biggest screen in the house.

CTV Retargeting Adoption Stats: Why Are Retailers Piloting CTV Retargeting Despite Low Confidence in It?

The adoption numbers only make sense once you separate where retailers are today from where they're headed. Right now, most organizations are still in early testing.

• 62% are piloting or testing CTV retargeting on a limited basis

• 29% plan to launch CTV retargeting within the next 12 months

The retailers piloting CTV programs now are pioneering tactics and solutions as it evolves into a standard channel. If you're still building out your CTV campaign strategy, it helps to start with the fundamentals of connected TV advertising before layering in retargeting specifically.

Is Channel Expansion Actually Retailers' Top Priority?

CTV expansion doesn't happen in isolation. It's part of a broader push, and retailers are ranking it alongside another major initiative for the year ahead.

• 29% name expanding into new retargeting channels as their top priority for the next 12 months

• 29% name adopting AI and machine learning as their top priority for the same period

These two priorities are tied for a reason. Adding channels like CTV increases the number of moving pieces a team has to manage, and AI is one of the few practical ways to handle that volume without adding headcount. 

Retailers planning to expand are also planning to lean on automation to make that expansion workable. Since CTV buying runs through a demand-side platform, the same automation retailers are counting on here is built into how programmatic advertising already operates.

But ranking both as top priorities doesn't mean retailers have solved for either one yet. The same data that shows this dual focus also points to what's standing in the way of it.

How does CTV retargeting fit into my existing funnel with search, social, and display?

CTV doesn't operate in a vacuum. It has to sync with the search, social, and display channels already running in your retargeting program, and that's exactly where most retailers hit a wall. When asked to rank their biggest execution challenges, two answers rose to the top:

• 32% name coordinating messaging and timing across channels as their number one execution challenge

• 25% name measuring ROI and attribution across those channels as their top challenge

Both of these point to the same root issue: retailers can run individual channels, but they struggle to get those channels working together as one system. Adding CTV to a funnel that already isn't syncing search, social, and display only increases the coordination load.

This is the wall retailers hit when they try to expand into CTV while their existing channels still operate independently. It's the same wall retailers run into with cart recovery, where the report's data shows only 13% of retailers recover more than 20% of abandoned carts despite near-universal confidence in their programs.

How Do Retailers Benefit From Piloting CTV Right Now?

None of this changes the underlying opportunity. The report describes CTV as a channel poised for significant growth, in part thanks to the groundwork early adopters have done in finding and solving challenges. That trajectory already shows up in the adoption data: a separate eTail Insights report, Personalized Channel Activation in Retail & eCommerce, found that 36% of retailers already include CTV advertising in their coordinated, insight-driven customer activation efforts, ahead of DOOH, audio, and direct mail.

Piloting now gives retailers a head start on a channel that's moving past its emerging status faster than its effectiveness ratings suggest. Waiting until CTV's numbers catch up means competing for the same audience once every other retailer has already built the infrastructure to reach them there.

CTV Success Depends on Fixing Coordination First

CTV initiatives tend to fail because retailers are layering a new channel onto messaging and measurement processes that already don't sync well across social, email, and display. CTV needs its own timing and its own attribution tracking, and a team that hasn't solved that for the channels it already runs won't solve it automatically for CTV either.

Retailers who get real results from CTV will be the ones who first fix how their existing channels work together, giving CTV a functioning system to plug into.

For mid-market teams with limited bandwidth, the highest-value move right now is auditing how retargeting messaging and measurement work across the channels already in place, and fixing what's misaligned before scaling anything new.

If you're ready to fix coordination and launch CTV the right way, see how AdRoll's CTV solutions bring your channels into one system.

Last updated on September 2nd, 2026.