Video Marketing

Your Guide to Connected TV Video Ad Specs (2024)

by QuickFrame
Apr 03, 2024 · 12 min read

If you’ve landed here, we don’t need to convince you of the performance power of Connected TV (CTV). But here are a few facts in case you need a refresher: 

  • More people are streaming television than ever before. With over 205 million video-on-demand subscribers in the US, advertisers can reach a wide audience with streaming ads. 
  • One study found 95% of advertisers plan to maintain or increase the amount they spend on programmatic CTV, underlining the channel’s importance in marketing strategies. 
  • You can pair CTV ads with streaming content that appeals to the viewer, drilling down to their location, age, interests, and other demographics to create ads that resonate with your target audience.

But you might not know all of the hyper-specific technical specifications your video ads need. Each CTV platform has different ad specs advertisers are required to use for their content. Since this information can be legitimately hard to find (seriously: why do they make it so hard to find?), we’ve compiled, by platform, every single CTV video ad tech spec you need in one easy-to-use guide.

Consider your days conducting incredibly creative Google searches a thing of the past. If you plan on placing your next video marketing campaign on the leading CTV platforms, then it’s time to bookmark this page. 

Hulu

With over 49.7 million paid subscribers, Hulu is one of the leading premium streaming services in the United States. What sets Hulu apart from other CTV platforms is that it offers its subscribers not only a library of original content but also instant access to current shows from every major U.S. broadcast network.

Hulu offers a video commercial ad package you can use to place your ad into their long-form content.

Video Specs for CTV Advertising on Hulu

  • Aspect ratio: All files must be in 16:9 
  • Max file size: 10 GB 
  • Video length: 15 to 30 seconds
  • Frame rate: 23.98, 24, 25, 29.97, 30 fps
  • Bitrate: 10 Mbps – 40 Mbps
  • File type: QuickTime, MOV, or MPEG-4

CTV Ad Creative Tips for Hulu: Utilize an Engaging Hook

Use the first 3 to 5 seconds of your ad to hook the viewers through dynamic motion graphics, unique aural experiences, or top-line value props. This is especially true for 15-second content, as this can increase engagement by 12x. Plus, if you can cater or nod to a streaming viewer, the better. 

For example, you can include mentioning things like watching your favorite shows back to back or not wanting to use products that aren’t at your fingertips. Other tips to keep in mind:

  • Make sure the ad can creatively begin and end with the brand name or logo.
  • Put your brand front and center. In 2020, 63% of top-performing campaigns from emerging brands on Hulu had the first branding moment immediately at the beginning of the ad.
  • On-screen text that corresponds to spoken word (VO or Dialogue) performs well, driving home messaging and branding.

Roku

A pioneer of streaming to television, Roku has emerged as a leading global CTV platform, with millions of consumers in North America, Latin America, and parts of Europe. This platform unlocks a massive and highly engaged consumer audience that any brand can reach. With advertising tools built for streaming, Roku can deliver brands relevant audiences and measurable results. Placing ads on Roku lets you reach more users and personalize your ads to speak to your desired target audience. According to Statista, the platform has over 80 million viewers in the U.S. alone, creating an incredible opportunity for advertisers to reach their audience.

Video Specs for CTV Advertising on Roku

  • Aspect ratio: Must be 16:9
  • Max file size: 200 MB
  • Video length: 6 to 92 seconds
  • File type: .mov or .mp4
  • Frame rate: 23.98, 25.00, or 29.97
  • Minimum bit rate: 6 Mbps 

CTV Advertising Creative Tips for Roku: Native Branding

Roku ads must adhere to the Roku voice and style guidelines. They must also include The Roku Channel logo, follow visual guidelines in the Roku color palette, and use approved attribution language: “brought to you by [your brand name here] on The Roku Channel.” The voiceover and music selected must also align with the Roku voice and style.

Tubi

Tubi has over 50,000 movies and TV shows, providing the audience with a massive amount of content. And it’s worked — the platform has attracted a user base of over 74 million monthly active users. Tubi offers a personalized experience for its users, sending tailored recommendations based on previous viewing history.

Video Specs for CTV Advertising on Tubi

  • Aspect ratio: 16:9
  • Minimum resolution: 1920 x 1080 is recommended
  • Max file size: 135 MB
  • Video length: 6, 15, or 30 seconds (45- and 60-second spots by approval only)
  • Frame rate: 23.976, 24, 25, 29.97p, 50i, 59.94i fps.
  • Bitrate: 25 mbps
  • File type: .mov, .mp4, .mpeg, .mpg, .mxf

CTV Advertising Creative Tips for Tubi: Craft a Narrative

Storytelling can make or break a CTV advertising campaign. That’s why you must keep a cohesive narrative, whether you have 15 seconds or a full minute to tell your story. Your audience needs to understand your message to be able to remember it and act on your call to action (CTA). You can complement your ad’s visual effects and narrative with sound effects, dialogue, or a voiceover. 

Peacock

NBC created Peacock as a way to offer its back catalog to customers. According to Business Insider, “Peacock Premium and Premium Plus plans both feature more than 80,000 hours worth of on-demand TV and movies.” And thanks to this wide inventory of content, the number of viewers continues to increase. Per a report from The Verge: “The streaming service gained 3 million subscribers over the past few months, bringing its total number to 31 million.” 

Video Specs for CTV Advertising on Peacock

  • Aspect ratio: 16:9
  • Max file size: 10GB
  • Video length: 6, 15, 30, 45 or 60 seconds
  • Frame rate: 23.98, 25, or 29.97 (based on native frame rate)
  • Bitrate: Greater than 15 Mbps
  • File type: Video Ad-ID required (.mov and .mp4 also accepted)

CTV Advertising Creative Tips for Peacock

As you get started advertising on Peacock, you’ll need to complete a couple of tasks before you can air your ads: 

  • Register for an Ad-ID.
  • Send your creative to the team five days before launch.
  • Ensure your ads fit the technical requirements. For example, you cannot stitch two shorter ads together to create a longer video. 

When you’re planning your video production, make sure you craft a variety of ads to run. You’ll need to rotate your ads regularly to combat ad fatigue. 

Amazon

Amazon’s CTV platform lets users access almost all of their favorite apps, including Prime Video and Freevee (formerly known as IMDB TV). Amazon Fire TV continues to grow, including through a partnership with Panasonic, which will release smart TVs with Amazon Fire built into them. You can choose to advertise directly with Amazon Fire TV or advertise with one of the video on demand (VOD) platforms supported by the device. And now that Prime Video is ad-supported, brands have more choices than ever before on where to air their ads on the Amazon platform. 

Video Specs for CTV Advertising on Amazon

  • Aspect ratio: 16:9
  • Max file size: 500MB
  • Video length: 15 or 30 seconds 
  • Frame rate: At least 15 FPS
  • Bitrate: 2 MBps recommended
  • File type: Video: H.264, MPEG-2, or MPEG-4

CTV Advertising Creative Tips for Amazon: Adopt an Audience-First Strategy

Most campaigns are not a one-size-fits-all solution; people tend to respond better to content that looks and feels tailor-made. With that in mind, all marketing efforts should be planned to revolve around a particular target. CTV is a performance marketing platform that allows you to reach your core audience. Make this advantage work for you by:

  • Emphasizing scripts for each customer persona.
  • Casting talent that’s relatable to your audience.
  • Underlining your unique value propositions.

Sling

Although Sling TV has been around since 2015, it is becoming more popular because it offers a hybrid model of traditional live TV and on-demand streaming. People can tune into their favorite local news and live sports channels while also binge-watching their shows later. The company has over 2 million subscribers in the United States.

Video Specs for CTV Advertising on Sling

  • Aspect ratio: 16:9 (1920 x 1080)
  • Max file size: 300 MB
  • Video length: 15, 30, or 60 seconds 
  • Minimum bit rate: 20 Mbps
  • Frame rate: 23.98, 29.97 (same as source)

CTV Advertising Creative Tips for Sling: Feature Core Values and Products

Many families sit down in together in the evenings to enjoy their favorite shows — and this is great news, regardless of your marketing goals. Co-watching CTV video ads can lead to more exposure for your brand and products. 

Whether you’re looking to create brand awareness or conversions, you must always keep the door open to new customers by introducing them to your core values and offerings. Use a different creative approach than the one you’re already implementing on your social media video marketing campaign and other higher-funnel performance marketing platforms.

Netflix

One of the most recent brands to join this list, Netflix released its first ad-supported tiers on 2022 in the U.S. After launching its streaming service in 2007, the platform was ad-free for 15 years. This change, however, has opened up new doors for advertisers and viewers alike. 

Video Specs for CTV Advertising on Netflix 

  • Aspect ratio: 16:9 
  • Video length: 15 or 30 seconds 
  • Frame rate: 23.976, 24, 25, 29.97, 30
  • Bitrate: For H.264, greater than 8Mbps for 720p & 12Mbps for 1080p. For MOV, greater than 42Mbps for 720p & 80Mbps for 1080p.
  • File type: .mov, .mp4 

CTV Advertising Creative Tips for Netflix: Focus on Quality

Above all else, advertisers need to focus on crafting high-quality ads for Netflix. Since the brand has extensive quality control in all aspects of the business, we can expect the same will be in place for the video ads on the platform. 

Paramount+

Another streaming service offered by a major network, Paramount+ began as CBS All Access. This service offers a variety of existing and original content with over 30,000 episodes of programming. Paramount+ also offers access to local CBS affiliate networks and live sports with a premium membership. Launched on June 7th, 2021, Paramount+ expanded their offerings to include a more budget-friendly, ad-supported option.

As streaming platforms go, Paramount+ offers one of the more robust advertising packages. In this platform, you can use 3rd Party VAST ads as long as they‘re in HD at a 16:9 ratio. The company requires certain items in each VAST tag, so run this sheet by your provider before sending files over.

Video Specs for CTV Advertising on Paramount+

  • Aspect ratio: 16:9 
  • Max file size: 10GB
  • Video length: 15, 30, 60, or 90 seconds 
  • Frame rate: 23.98 (23.976), 24, 25, 29.97, or 30 fps
  • Bitrate: 10 to 40 Mbps (constant)
  • File type: .mp4 is preferred 

CTV Advertising Creative Tips for Paramount+: Implement a Clear CTA

Even if your goal is purely awareness, you want to always ensure you’re paving a clear path for a consumer’s journey with your brand. Employing a straightforward CTA that gives the audience a next step encourages immediate action.

We’re all multitaskers today, and the majority of people watching streaming content do so with a digital device in hand or nearby. Consider keeping your logo and URL present throughout your video ad to tap into the channel’s direct-response capabilities.

A CTV-specific CTA can also help with attribution when it comes to measuring performance. Create a new landing page to pair with your creative and drive traffic with an easy-to-remember URL or coupon code.

YouTube

That’s right, your favorite social platform for chill lo-fi beats to study to now has hundreds of free movies and television series that are (you guessed it!) 100% ad supported. What does this mean? You can now say YouTube in the same breath as Tubi or any number of the other AVOD services out there in the market today.

Video Specs for CTV Advertising on YouTube

  • Aspect ratio: 16:9 (best quality for CTV, but they also support 4:3)
  • Video length: Skippable ads must be at least 12 seconds, but there is no maximum length. YouTube states video ads 3 minutes or less perform best. Non-skippable ads can be 15 or 20 seconds in length, depending on regional standards.
  • Frame rate: 60fps
  • File type: .mp4, .mov, .mpeg, .avi, or .asf

CTV Advertising Creative Tips for YouTube: Branding, Branding, Branding

When it comes to the presence of branding, the YouTube landscape is aligned with that of other social platforms like Facebook. To drive views, you’ll need to incorporate branding. According to a QuickFrame analysis, videos on YouTube with visible branding had an average view count that was 76% higher than videos without. 

Aim to show your product or brand logo within the first couple seconds of your video ad. Our analysis found that audio mentions of brands by on-screen talent also perform higher than mentions by off-screen talent.

Performance TV

We wanted to call out this opportunity for your brand because who doesn’t want to combine the power of performance marketing with the engaging reach of Connected TV? With Performance TV, you unlock complete control of the premier streaming platforms you want to air your ads on and the ability to make agile changes. This helps make sure your audience doesn’t develop the marketing world’s greatest scourge: ad fatigue (AKA getting mad sick over seeing your spots in literally every commercial break.)

Performance TV gives you the ability to prospect, retarget, attribute, measure, and define your audiences — all in one place. 

Video Specs for CTV Advertising on Performance TV

  • Aspect ratio: 16:9 (1920 x 1080)
  • Max file size: 4GB
  • Video length: 30 seconds max (15- and 30-second slots)
  • Frame rate: 23.98, 25, 29.97 FPS (must be constant and based on native frame rate)
  • File type: .mp4 or .mov

CTV Advertising Creative Tips for Performance TV: Explore Different Styles

The streaming environment can host a wide variety of video styles, including live-action, animation, stop-motion, and post-production repurposing. Speaking of, there are two paths you can take with your CTV creative:

  • Original Production
    • The live-action approach is a great way to create talent-centric video and bring your product or service to life. With animation, you can unlock any aesthetic that feels right for your brand.
  • Post-Production Repurposing
    • A post-production approach is often the most cost-effective way to generate CTV creative. Using motion graphics and editing techniques, you can animate and repurpose existing assets into a narrative with any message.

Whichever stylistic approach you adopt, be sure to captivate from the start, paint a clear narrative, and adopt a visual identity that feels aligned with your brand. 

Need help making videos? See how our video production platform can help your business.

Connected TV Video Ad Specs: What’s Next?

So that’s what’s happening right now. But what does the future of Connected TV advertising look like? 

As ad placements pop up in more places (hey, Amazon Prime Video), advertisers have more opportunities to reach their audiences. In addition, these ad-supported streaming options lower the financial barrier of entry for more audiences to experience their content. As the past has shown, AVOD content is on the rise, so these channels will be the ones to watch in the future.

But we’ve gotta live in the now. With options ranging from big names like Amazon to fan favorites like Tubi, the opportunities for you to get your ads in front of your target audience are simply, in a buzzword, limitless.

The next frontier is today. Let us introduce you to Creative Analytics, your new favorite data-driven solution to CTV advertising.

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