Why In-Housing Your CTV Ad Buying Could Cost You More Than You Think

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With platforms like MNTN, Vibe.co, StackAdapt, and Simpli.fi making Connected TV advertising more accessible, I'm seeing more middle-market brands consider bringing CTV ad buying in-house. The pitch sounds compelling: more control, direct data access, potential cost savings. But I feel that for brands investing at least $25,000 monthly in CTV, in-housing isn't the strategic win it appears to be.

The Siren Song of DIY CTV

I get it. The reasons for wanting to bring CTV in-house sound logical:

"We want to own our data." "We need more control over spend and creative." "We want faster iterations without agency approval delays." "Agencies charge 15-25% - we can do it cheaper ourselves."

These are reasonable concerns. And yes, I run an agency, so you might think I'm biased. Sure, maybe a bit.  😊  However, here's what I've learned: the reality of managing CTV internally rarely matches these expectations, especially when you're dealing with serious advertising budgets. This isn't about protecting agency revenue - it's about recognizing where complexity outweighs control.

You're Potentially Trading Symphony for Solo Performance

Consider this perspective - when you in-house CTV, you're essentially asking your violin player to perform a symphony alone. They might be incredibly talented (and many in-house teams are staffed with experienced programmatic buyers and ex-agency experts), but they're missing the institutional knowledge that comes from managing hundreds of campaigns across industries.

This isn't about capability - it's about optimization. CTV at scale performs better when it's connected to a larger cross-channel system with deep institutional knowledge. Agencies don't just execute your media buys - they bring valuable perspective from across industries, verticals, and budget levels. They've seen what works for automotive brands, what challenges retail faces, and what's emerging in healthcare.

When you go in-house, you may trade that cross-pollination for a single-brand view. You might gain more control and faster iteration speed, but you could be making decisions with limited perspective on what's working elsewhere in the market.

The Hidden Costs Add Up Fast

Here's what it actually costs to build an internal CTV capability:

Annual Team Costs (including benefits):

• CTV Media Buyer: ~$110,500

• Campaign Analyst: ~$91,000

• Video Producer: ~$117,000

• Attribution & Tech Stack: ~$60,000

Total: ~$378,500/year

Now, I know what you're thinking - "That assumes three full-time hires. We can use fractional talent or consultants." True, you might piece together a leaner team. But coordinating freelancers, managing multiple vendor relationships, and ensuring they all sync with your broader media strategy often creates hidden costs and delays that eat into those savings.

Compare that to a specialized digital ad agency managing a $1MM CTV campaign at 15-25% (roughly $150K-$250K). You're getting platform access, strategy, execution, optimization, AND avoiding all the fixed costs and HR overhead.

But here's the kicker - that $378K doesn't include the cost of mistakes. And in CTV, mistakes can be expensive.

The Risk Factor Nobody Talks About

When you're managing campaigns internally, you own all the risk. That junior trader who accidentally adds a zero to your $10,000 CTV buy and spends $100,000 overnight? That's coming out of your budget, not your agency's insurance policy.

Established agencies have built-in safeguards: approval workflows, spending alerts, and QA systems that prevent these disasters. It's like having safety nets in your marketing symphony - you hope you never need them, but you'll be grateful they're there.

Don't Fragment Your Marketing Orchestra

This might be the biggest issue I see with DIY CTV platforms - but it doesn't apply to every situation. When CTV is part of a full-funnel performance strategy, siloing it from your broader media ecosystem means you lose the ability to create that harmonious customer journey we talk about.

You can't retarget users who watched 100% of your CTV ad with strategic display or social follow-ups. You can't coordinate frequency capping across channels. You lose the ability to sync campaign timing with your search, social, and programmatic efforts.

That said, if you're running CTV for standalone branding efforts - product launches, regional awareness campaigns - this integration may be less critical. But for most middle-market brands using CTV as part of a broader performance strategy, it works best as part of your full-funnel symphony, not a solo performance.

The Platform Reality Check

Don't get me wrong - these DIY platforms absolutely have their place in the marketplace. For smaller brands testing CTV waters or those with limited monthly spend, they can be valuable entry points. But these are tools, not strategies. For brands investing $25K+ monthly in CTV, you need more than just platform access - you need strategic orchestration. These platforms don't think for you, and they certainly don't replace the human expertise required to manage substantial advertising investments.

The Traditional TV Team Trap

Here's another challenge we are starting to see more often: brands deciding to hand CTV responsibilities to their existing traditional TV media teams. "It's still television, right?" While understandable, this approach can create its own complications:

Different Buying Methodology: Traditional TV operates on dayparts and demo guarantees. CTV runs on programmatic auctions, audience data, and real-time optimization. It's like asking your orchestra's conductor to lead an electronic music festival - similar foundational skills, but quite different execution requirements.

Attribution Considerations: TV teams are typically accustomed to brand studies and broad reach metrics. CTV requires granular attribution modeling, cross-device tracking, and integration with digital conversion data. Without this expertise, you may miss important performance insights.

Technology Learning Curve: Traditional TV buyers often aren't familiar with DSPs, DMPs, identity resolution, or the programmatic ecosystem. The learning curve can be steep, and this education period sometimes comes with costly lessons.

Integration Opportunities: Perhaps most importantly, traditional TV teams often operate separately from digital marketing teams. This can create the same fragmentation challenges we discussed - CTV becomes isolated from your broader digital ecosystem instead of harmonizing with search, social, and programmatic efforts.

Hold Your Agency To Account

Not all agencies are created equal. If you're going to work with an agency partner, demand transparency. This means shared platform seats, clean room data access, and full visibility into your campaigns. Avoid black-box operators who gate access to log-level data or operate as principals (buying inventory and reselling it to you).

Modern agency teams should be structured for agility, not bureaucracy. If it takes a week to approve a flight change that you could make in an hour, that's a problem with the agency, not the model.

The best transparent CTV partners offer what I call "strategic orchestration":

• Cross-channel integration that connects CTV to your broader media symphony

• Platform expertise across multiple DSPs and ad tech solutions

• Full-funnel coordination and intelligent retargeting logic

• Risk mitigation and financial protection

• Complete data ownership and transparent reporting

For highly regulated brands in finance or pharma, for example, compliance and legal requirements may indeed favor keeping ad buying in-house. But for most middle-market brands, partnering with the right transparent agency reduces risk rather than adding to it.

What This Means For Your Brand

For middle-market brands especially, CTV represents a significant opportunity to compete with larger players. DIY platforms certainly have their place for brands getting started or testing the waters. But if you're investing $25K+ monthly in CTV, it's not a set-it-and-forget-it channel managed by whoever has bandwidth. It's a strategic instrument that performs best when it's integrated into a unified media plan by teams who understand both the technology and the broader digital ecosystem.

Don't trade strategic orchestration for operational headaches. Don't fragment your customer journey for the illusion of control. And don't assume cheaper upfront means better long-term ROI.

If you want to win in CTV, think like a conductor. Your marketing symphony - and your brand's bottom line - will thank you.