How Streaming TV Advertising Drives More Leads

Marketing can feel like a balancing act, especially in large, expensive media markets. Many business owners focus only on “lower funnel” channels like paid search or paid social because they seem most likely to generate leads. But what if adding upper funnel tactics could improve your lower funnel results?

That’s exactly what Strategic America’s media team saw in a recent campaign with a home services client in one of the top 10 most costly media markets in the U.S.
Because of perceived high costs and wasted impressions, the business had always avoided broad reach media. Until the SA team shared how introducing Connected TV (CTV) as an upper-funnel awareness tactic could make a difference. The results were impressive.

The company wanted to grow brand awareness and get more qualified leads. Traditional broadcast TV in this market would have required a substantial investment while reaching many households outside the business’ service area. They needed a smarter way to reach homeowners in the market without wasting budget.

Connected TV (CTV) provided a far more efficient solution, delivering premium television inventory while allowing the campaign to focus only on high-value homeowners within priority ZIP codes.

Using Resonate consumer intelligence data, the SA team analyzed homeowners in the area who were actively considering major home improvement projects. This helped us understand their media habits before building a strategy.

What we found surprised even the client:

• Their audience watches a lot of streaming TV, 11–20 hours per week.
• 92% of them use on-demand streaming services.
• They over-index on premium platforms like Prime Video, Hulu, Disney+, and Peacock.

These insights made it clear: streaming TV was the right place to invest marketing dollars.

Instead of buying expensive broadcast TV, SA used a private marketplace connected TV bundle. This gave us access to top streaming platforms like Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Peacock, and Disney+. These marketplace bundles lower the minimum investment typically required for premium streaming placements, making connected TV a viable option even for regional businesses and smaller advertisers.

To ensure the budget reached only people likely to become customers, we targeted homeowners with properties valued at more than $700,000 and focused on the top 20 ZIP codes where the client sees most of their sales. This meant every impression was meaningful.

Over a three-month period, the campaign delivered:

• 339,000 video impressions
• 332,000 video completions (98% completion rate well above the 86% benchmark)
• Average frequency of 9x, helping build strong brand awareness.
• Premium placements on Hulu, CBS, NBC, ESPN+, Disney+, Amazon Video, and more.

But the biggest impact showed up in their website and lead performance:

Web Analytics (Campaign vs. prior 3 months)

• Organic Google Search traffic up 650%
• Direct traffic up 50%
• Contact form submissions up 45%
• Home page sessions up 10%

These results highlight how upper-funnel awareness can support and amplify lower-funnel performance. As the campaign ran, the client saw increases in search activity, website visits, and lead generation.

While connected TV served as an upper-funnel awareness driver, lower-funnel channels — especially Google Search — saw significant improvements during the campaign, suggesting stronger brand interest and engagement.

During the CTV flight, search engagement and efficiency improved significantly: click-through rates rose 34%, including a 63% lift in branded terms, indicating stronger brand interest. Conversion rates increased 35%, contributing to a 42% jump in total conversions, while cost per conversion dropped by 22%.

These effects contributed to meaningful business outcomes: over the two-month CTV period, the client achieved their highest year-to-date sales and delivered a 7x return on marketing investment (ROMI).

Based on the success of this campaign, we’re expanding reach in 2026 and looking to layer on tactics like video event and website retargeting.

This will help increase frequency among people who saw the ads or visited the client’s website, keeping the brand top of mind until they’re ready to convert.

If you’ve been hesitant to try upper funnel media because of cost, geography or concerns about wasted impressions, this case shows that smart data and targeting can eliminate waste, upper funnel media like CTV can be affordable even in big markets, and awareness plays a huge role in driving search, traffic and leads.

Most customer journeys begin with awareness, not a search query. When done right, upper funnel strategies can accelerate lower funnel results. Need help maximizing the impact of your advertising dollars? Strategic America is here to help.

Carole Curtis is the media director at Strategic America (SA), an integrated marketing and communications agency in West Des Moines, Iowa. Learn more about SA’s media planning and buying services.