There are 30+ platforms that’ll sell you CTV inventory. Most PI firms don’t need to evaluate all of them. If you’re still figuring out what CTV advertising actually is, start there. Otherwise, you need to understand three categories and pick the right entry point for your budget.
Three Ways to Buy CTV
Every CTV purchase flows through one of three paths. The platform you choose determines your inventory access, targeting precision, and how much work you’re doing yourself.
Programmatic (DSPs)
- Buy across dozens of publishers in one interface
- Unified targeting and frequency capping
- Competitive bidding keeps pricing efficient
- Trade Desk controls 63% of this market
- $20-40 CPM range, flexible minimums
Direct Publisher Deals
- Buy guaranteed placements on one platform
- Premium content adjacency (Hulu, Peacock)
- Publisher-specific targeting only
- Higher minimums ($75K+ typical)
- $35-60+ CPM, negotiated pricing
The third path: specialized CTV platforms like MNTN that sit between DSPs and publishers. They buy programmatically but package everything (buying, creative, attribution) into a managed experience. That’s where most PI firms start.
The Programmatic Giants
Programmatic DSPs are how the majority of CTV inventory gets bought. Three platforms dominate.
The Trade Desk
The 800-pound gorilla. Trade Desk processes nearly two-thirds of all programmatic CTV spend and has partnerships with Disney, NBCU, Netflix, Roku, and Walmart. CTV represents roughly 40% of their $2.4B annual revenue.
What matters for PI firms:
- Broadest inventory access in streaming. Your ads can run on Hulu, Peacock, Paramount+, Tubi, Pluto TV, and hundreds more through a single buy.
- UID2 identity resolution connects ad exposure to website visits across devices. Most major streamers have adopted it.
- You don’t access Trade Desk directly. You work through an agency or managed service partner who runs campaigns on your behalf.
The catch: Trade Desk is built for agencies and enterprise buyers. No self-serve option for individual firms. The 19-21% take rate gets added to your media costs, plus your agency’s management fee on top.
Amazon DSP
Amazon’s platform with unique access to Amazon purchase data and Fire TV inventory. If you could target people who bought a car seat in the last 30 days for your auto accident practice, that’s the kind of data Amazon brings.
What matters for PI firms:
- Purchase behavior data that no other platform has. Amazon knows what people buy, not just what they watch.
- Fire TV is one of the largest CTV device platforms. Amazon DSP gets preferred access to that inventory.
- Minimum spend requirements are higher. Managed service starts around $50K+.
The catch: Amazon’s data advantage is real but narrower than it sounds for PI. You’re targeting accident victims, not shoppers. The purchase data is more valuable for consumer products than legal services.
Google DV360
Google’s enterprise DSP. Access to YouTube CTV inventory (the largest single streaming platform) plus broader programmatic supply.
What matters for PI firms:
- YouTube reaches more households than any individual streaming service. If you want scale, this is it.
- Integrates with Google Analytics and Google Ads for cross-channel measurement.
- YouTube inventory is different from traditional CTV. Viewer behavior, ad formats, and skip rates don’t match premium streaming.
The catch: YouTube CTV isn’t the same viewing experience as Hulu or Peacock. Viewers are more likely to skip, engagement patterns differ, and the content environment is user-generated alongside premium. DV360 also requires significant expertise to operate.
Performance CTV Platforms
These platforms exist specifically for advertisers who need to prove CTV drives results. They’re the most common entry point for PI firms.
MNTN
MNTN’s entire pitch: CTV that works like performance marketing. They’ve built an identity graph covering 99% of US households and can tie ad exposure directly to website visits.
What matters for PI firms:
- Verified Visits attribution connects ad exposure to website visits across devices. You can see which households watched your ad and then visited your site.
- Creative services built in. They’ll produce your spots, not just place them. For firms without existing TV creative, this removes a major barrier.
- SMB-friendly by design. The platform is built for your budget range, not Fortune 500s.
- Attribution that actually works. Correlation-based measurement beats guessing whether CTV moved the needle.
The catch: MNTN’s attribution measures correlation (same household saw ad, then visited site) more than causation. It’s better than no attribution, but it’s not a controlled experiment. And their CPMs include platform fees, so direct cost comparisons with raw DSP CPMs aren’t apples-to-apples.
How MNTN Attribution Works
Ad Serves to Household
Your spot plays on a streaming platform through MNTN’s programmatic buying.
Identity Graph Matches
MNTN’s graph links the CTV device to other devices in the household (phones, laptops, tablets).
Website Visit Detected
When any device in that household visits your site within the attribution window, MNTN records it as a Verified Visit.
Conversion Tracked
Form fills, calls, and other actions from attributed households get tied back to the campaign.
Other Specialized Platforms
Roku OneView — Roku’s own DSP with privileged access to Roku device data. Reaches 80M+ active accounts. Useful if Roku devices dominate your target market, but limited to Roku-centric inventory for its best targeting.
Vizio Ads / Samsung Ads — TV manufacturer platforms using ACR (Automatic Content Recognition) data. They know what content was watched on their hardware, enabling retargeting based on viewing behavior. Niche but powerful for competitive conquesting (targeting people who watched competitor ads).
StackAdapt — Multi-channel DSP with strong CTV capabilities. Less CTV-specialized than MNTN but offers native, display, and audio alongside streaming. Good for firms wanting one platform across multiple channels.
Direct Publisher Deals
For firms with bigger budgets who want guaranteed presence on specific platforms.
| Publisher | Minimum Commitment | CPM Range | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hulu/Disney | $75K+ | $35-55 | Premium content adjacency, Disney data |
| Peacock/NBCU | $50K+ | $30-45 | Sports, news, NBC content |
| Paramount+ | $25K+ (Ads Manager) | $25-40 | Self-serve option, lower entry |
| Roku | Varies | $20-35 | Device-level targeting, scale |
| Netflix | $100K+ | $37-55 | Prestige, limited ad load |
Direct deals make sense when you’re spending enough that guaranteed placement on a specific platform matters strategically. Below $50K/month, programmatic usually delivers better efficiency.
The Decision Framework
Stop thinking about which platform is best. Think about which path matches where you are.
Choose Your CTV Path
First Time ($10-25K/month)
Go with MNTN or a similar managed performance platform. Built-in creative services, attribution, and SMB-friendly pricing. You’re learning what works. Keep it simple.
Scaling ($25-50K/month)
Agency-managed Trade Desk campaigns or MNTN at higher spend. You’ve got performance data now. Optimize toward what’s producing cases, not just impressions.
Serious Investment ($50K+/month)
Mix programmatic (Trade Desk for efficiency and reach) with direct publisher deals (Hulu for premium). Cross-platform frequency management becomes critical at this level.
Market Dominance ($100K+/month)
Full portfolio approach. Programmatic base, direct deals on 2-3 premium publishers, FAST platforms for incremental reach, and retargeting on manufacturer platforms. You’re the Morgan & Morgan of streaming in your DMA.
What Actually Matters More Than Platform
Here’s what most platform comparison articles won’t tell you: the platform is maybe 15% of your results. The other 85%:
Creative quality. A bad spot on the best platform still loses. A great spot on a decent platform still wins. Most PI firms run the same “Were you injured?” template. The ones building real brands stand out regardless of platform.
Targeting strategy. Household-level targeting that reaches the right demographics in your DMA matters more than which DSP serves the impression. The data layer beats the plumbing layer.
Measurement discipline. Can you connect ad exposure to website visits to signed cases? That loop determines whether you can optimize or you’re guessing. MNTN’s Verified Visits, Trade Desk’s UID2, and third-party measurement all solve pieces of this. None solve it perfectly.
Frequency management. The same viewer watching your ad 15 times in a week isn’t 15x better than once. Cross-platform frequency capping prevents waste. This is actually where DSPs have a real advantage over direct deals — they can coordinate frequency across publishers.
The Emerging Challengers
The CTV platform landscape is shifting. Keep these on your radar:
Viant/Adelphic — CTV-first DSP pitching lower take rates than Trade Desk. Gaining traction with mid-market buyers who want DSP power without the Trade Desk price tag.
Pontiac Intelligence — Another low-fee DSP challenger specifically targeting the CTV opportunity. Transparency-first positioning.
Self-serve platforms (Vibe.co, Adwave) — Starting at $500 minimums. Not yet sophisticated enough for serious PI campaigns, but they’re democratizing CTV access. Watch this space for firms wanting to test before committing to managed service.
The Bottom Line
Don’t overthink the platform decision. For PI firms, the realistic options narrow fast:
Under $50K/month? MNTN or agency-managed Trade Desk. That covers 80% of firms reading this. MNTN if you want built-in creative and attribution. Agency plus Trade Desk if you want broadest inventory access and already have creative assets. For a detailed CTV cost breakdown by platform, CPMs range from $15 on FAST channels to $55+ on premium inventory.
Over $50K/month? Add direct publisher deals on Hulu or Peacock alongside your programmatic base. The combination of efficient reach (programmatic) plus guaranteed premium placement (direct) is the playbook that scales.
The platform gets your ads in front of households. What those households do next depends on your creative, your targeting, and whether they remember your name when they actually need a lawyer. Most firms haven’t made the streaming shift yet, which means the early movers still have a window.