Premium vs. Programmatic: Choosing the Right Video Ad Buy Strategy for OTT/CTV

As connected TV (CTV) and over-the-top (OTT) streaming continue to dominate how viewers consume content, marketers are faced with an important strategic decision: where — and how — to allocate their video ad budgets. Two common approaches have emerged in the streaming ad ecosystem:

1. Programmatic ad buys through platforms like The Trade Desk – Access to nearly the entire OTT/CTV landscape

• Premium inventory ad buys – Direct or curated deals with high-profile publishers like Hulu, Peacock, Disney+ or Paramount+

While both strategies can be highly effective, they serve different goals and offer unique trade-offs.

Audience Reach: Scale vs. Selectivity

The Trade Desk (TTD) Inventory

Buying across the full OTT/CTV landscape via TTD allows brands to access a much broader audience, spanning hundreds of streaming apps, free ad-supported TV (FAST) channels, and smart TV OEM inventory (e.g., Roku, Samsung TV Plus).

• Pros: Massive reach potential, access to niche and underrepresented audiences, scalable across devices and platforms, can reach known/onboarded audiences where they are streaming
• Cons: Quality can vary; ads may appear on content with less brand equity or unknown publishers

Bottom line: If broad reach and cost-efficient scale are your goals, The Trade Desk offers superior flexibility. But if you want to ensure your brand appears only in premium, high-visibility environments, a curated premium buy may be more appropriate if your budget allows and your campaign has flexible impression goals.

Premium Inventory

Premium inventory deals provide access to household-name content on well-known streaming services. These platforms typically have stringent ad controls and limited inventory, which means your ads are shown in environments with high viewership and brand safety. However, reach is inherently limited by both cost and the finite number of impressions available in these high-demand environments.

• Pros: High-quality impressions, highly targeted audiences in known content environments
• Cons: Smaller reach, premium CPMs, limited inventory during peak seasons

Audience Engagement: Environment Matters

The Trade Desk Inventory

While TTD’s environment spans a wider range of content types and platforms, engagement levels can vary. A viewer watching niche content on a FAST channel may not be as engaged as one watching a prestige drama on Hulu. However, The Trade Desk’s strength lies in its data-driven targeting and optimization. You can dynamically adjust bids, audiences and creative based on performance — something that’s harder to do in a fixed premium buy.

• Pros: Granular targeting, real-time optimization, performance-based buying
• Cons: Viewer engagement and completion rates may vary by publisher and content quality

Bottom line: Premium buys typically offer stronger engagement by nature of the environment. Programmatic buys offer agility, personalization and data-driven performance — but potentially at the cost of viewer attention. One thing to note is that we typically make weekly manual shifts to programmatic buys to optimize on the goal (awareness or clicks) and don’t rely solely on automation and AI. This helps to get the highest click and video completion rates when balancing KPIs for both OTT and CTV if serving a blended campaign.

Premium Inventory

Premium content environments tend to drive higher engagement. Viewers watching shows on Hulu or Disney+ are often deeply immersed and less likely to skip ads (especially on ad-supported tiers with fewer ad breaks). Additionally, these environments often offer fewer distractions and more control over ad frequency.

• Pros: Higher completion rates, better brand recall, elevated trust by association with premium content
• Cons: Less ability to optimize mid-flight, limited personalization of creative

Which Strategy Wins?

Use The Trade Desk when:

• You need scale across multiple audiences and geographies and want to reach the audience where they are streaming.
• You’re running performance-based campaigns or always-on acquisition.
• You want to test, learn and optimize across multiple CTV environments.

Use premium buys when:

• Brand safety and content adjacency are top priorities.
• You’re launching a brand campaign and need high impact.
• You want guaranteed placements during high-profile tentpole events.

The Best of Both Worlds?

For some campaigns, depending on the goal, marketers don’t have to only pick one. A hybrid approach — allocating a portion of spend to premium inventory and the rest to programmatic via The Trade Desk — can provide both the prestige of premium content and the efficiency of data-driven scale.

Ultimately, it’s not just about where your ad runs — it’s about who sees it, when they see it and how they respond. Choose the strategy that aligns with your objectives, audience and brand positioning.

Want help designing a hybrid OTT/CTV media strategy? Let’s talk.