Most retail media plans are built to capture demand that already exists. CTV is
By Melissaburdick · November 10, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
Most retail media plans are built to capture demand that already exists. CTV is how you create it, and it's the channel most likely to get cut because it's judged on the wrong metric.
That was my biggest takeaway from our CTV webinar with Walmart Connect. Thank you to Alexander Andu from Pacvue and Clara Lasher from Walmart Connect for walking through the data. Four things to call out heading into peak:
1. CTV finds shoppers the rest of your plan can't. Walmart's first-party data from Aug 2025 to Jul 2026 shows that for advertisers running CTV alongside Walmart DSP, Onsite Display and Sponsored Products, 70–92% of total unique reach came only from CTV, depending on category.
2. It makes the spend you already have work harder. In Walmart's FY26 data, shoppers exposed to CTV, Sponsored Products, Onsite Display and Walmart DSP drove 52% (Consumables) and 43% (Food) higher ad-attributed sales than Sponsored Products alone. Plan CTV as part of the holistic plan.
3. Judge every channel by the job it owns. Our POV at Pacvue: CTV, then Offsite Display, then Onsite Display, then Search. Across 133 CTV campaigns, Walmart saw add-to-cart up 30% and brand-term search up 28% after exposure. Last-click ROAS will always undersell CTV. Hold it accountable for reach and the lift that follows.
4. Give CTV a different job in each phase of the season. Reach before peak. Frequency through the peak window, not single-day spikes. Gifting and conversion in late holiday. Reset to baseline in Q1.
Decisions that matter happen before peak. Set your KPIs, your heavy-up and rollback dates, and your rules now, so the plan runs through the weeks you can't afford to second-guess it.