How to plan a CTV campaign in India: a step-by-step guide

Planning a CTV campaign in India is not the same as planning a digital video campaign and shifting it to the big screen. The platforms are walled gardens. The buying routes are mostly direct. The measurement infrastructure is different from open web. And the India-specific context — IPL premiums, AVOD dominance, SSAI tracking limitations — changes the inputs at every step. This guide walks through each step in order, with the decisions you actually need to make.

Step 1 Define campaign objective and audience

Start with objective. CTV is a brand and reach medium in India — it is not a performance channel in the same sense as search or social. You cannot buy last-click conversions directly from a JioCinema pre-roll. The objectives CTV is well suited for:

• Brand awareness and reach — high-reach, high-completion video in a lean-back, high-attention environment
• Consideration and intent — contextual targeting around relevant content genres, IPL audience, premium entertainment viewers
• TV extension — reaching cord-cutters and light linear TV viewers no longer reachable through GRP buying
• App installs and direct response — possible via QR codes, second-screen triggers, and YouTube CTV direct response formats

If your objective is last-click conversion, rethink the role of CTV in the plan. CTV builds intent; performance channels capture it. The two work best together.

Audience definition

Define your target audience with enough specificity to make platform and targeting decisions. You need at minimum:

• Demographics: age, gender, household income tier. SEC A/B is practical for India CTV — the AVOD audience skews urban, 25–44.
• Geography: metros only, top 8 cities, or broader India? CTV reach thins outside tier 1 cities. Smart TV penetration in tier 2–3 is growing but still minority.
• Language: Hindi, English, or regional? Platform content libraries determine language reach — JioCinema has strong regional sports; Zee5 and SonyLIV have regional content depth.
• Content affinity: sports viewers (IPL, Star Sports)? Entertainment? News? This drives both platform selection and contextual targeting options.

Step 2 Select platforms

India CTV is a walled garden ecosystem. There is no single buy that reaches all of it. You select platforms and negotiate each separately (or via agency).

Where to start: for most India CTV campaigns, lead with JioCinema + YouTube CTV. JioCinema delivers non-skippable reach at scale (especially during IPL). YouTube CTV delivers programmatic targeting flexibility and lower CPMs. Together they cover the two dominant buying models in India. Add Hotstar for cricket adjacency or premium content. Add SonyLIV or Zee5 for regional language depth.

→ JioCinema CTV advertising: full guide

Step 3 Choose deal type and buying route

For JioCinema, Hotstar, SonyLIV, and Zee5 the buying route is a direct deal with the platform's ad sales team or through a registered agency partner. You negotiate CPM, flight dates, targeting parameters, and creative specs upfront. There is no programmatic self-serve.

For YouTube CTV: buy via DV360 (for agency or enterprise) or Google Ads (for self-serve). TrueView in-stream is the primary format. You can layer in Google audience segments, custom intent audiences, and YouTube channel targeting. This is the only fully programmatic CTV route in India.

For Samsung Ads: direct deal with the Samsung Ads India team. ACR (automatic content recognition) targeting is available — you can target viewers based on what linear TV content they have recently been watching, which is uniquely powerful for TV-extension campaigns.

Minimum spends (2025–26):

• JioCinema standard: Rs 5–10 lakh minimum per campaign
• JioCinema IPL packages: Rs 25 lakh+
• Hotstar standard: Rs 5–10 lakh minimum
• YouTube CTV: no minimum via Google Ads; DV360 agency minimums set by the agency
• Samsung Ads: Rs 5 lakh+ for direct deals

Step 4 Select ad format

Format follows objective and platform. The key options:

• Non-skippable pre-roll (15s or 30s) — the India CTV default. Use for awareness and reach. 88–95% completion on JioHotstar. → Pre-roll guide
• Skippable TrueView (YouTube CTV) — use when you want self-selection. Viewers who watch past 5 seconds have self-identified interest. Lower CPM, lower raw completion, higher intent quality. → Skippable vs non-skippable
• Mid-roll — available on JioHotstar (especially during IPL over breaks and Star Sports cricket). Higher CPM than pre-roll, strong completion because the viewer is already invested in the content. → Mid-roll guide
• Bumper (6s) — use for frequency reinforcement alongside a longer hero creative. Near-100% completion. YouTube CTV only. → Bumper FAQ
• L-banner / pause ad / lower third — for live sports co-viewing context. Brand presence during content, not between it. → L-banner guide
• QR code overlay — add a scannable code to a pre-roll creative to enable second-screen response. Scan rates 1–4% on CTV. → QR code ads guide

If this is your first India CTV buy: use 15-second non-skippable pre-roll on JioHotstar + YouTube TrueView. That combination covers guaranteed reach and interest-qualified engagement in one plan.

Step 5 Set budget and CPM targets

India CTV CPMs vary by platform, deal type, content context, and audience segment. Reference ranges for 2025–26:

Budget sizing: a meaningful India CTV test — enough to measure brand lift and build frequency — needs at minimum Rs 15–25 lakh across 4–6 weeks. Below Rs 10 lakh, you are spread too thin to build frequency or gather statistically significant measurement data. If budget is under Rs 10 lakh, concentrate entirely on YouTube CTV: no minimum, fully programmatic, fully measurable.

Step 6 Set up measurement

Measurement setup must happen before the campaign goes live. You cannot retrofit third-party tags after the fact on SSAI platforms.

What you can measure on India CTV

• Impressions and completion rates — platform-reported on all platforms. JioHotstar uses SSAI so these come from server-side logs, not client-side pixels. Treat as directionally accurate.
• Reach and frequency — platform-reported for direct buys. YouTube CTV reports unique reach natively via Google Ads or DV360.
• Brand lift — available on YouTube CTV via Google Brand Lift surveys. JioHotstar offers proprietary brand lift studies as paid add-ons with minimum spend thresholds.
• Third-party viewability (IAS, DoubleVerify, MOAT) — limited on JioHotstar due to SSAI. Client-side pixel firing is not available. YouTube CTV does support third-party verification tags.
• Post-campaign attribution — search lift, app installs, site visits measurable via Google tools on YouTube CTV. On direct-deal platforms, relies on self-reported data or panel-based analysis.

Measurement setup steps:

1. Confirm with each platform which third-party tags they accept and at which point in the VAST chain they fire
2. For YouTube CTV: enable Brand Lift in DV360 or Google Ads before launch (requires minimum ~1M impressions)
3. Set up a UTM-tagged landing page URL as click-through on all creatives — captures the small but real percentage of CTV viewers who do interact
4. Request platform-side quartile breakdown, completion rate, and unique reach in the IO before signing
5. For cross-platform reach de-duplication: not available natively in India — use panel-based estimates or accept that reach figures are not de-duplicated across JioCinema and YouTube

→ VAST and tracking on India CTV

Step 7 Prepare creative and trafficking specs

CTV creative is not the same as digital video. The screen is large (55–65 inches typical), audio is on by default, and the viewer sits 3–4 metres away. Three non-negotiable creative principles:

• Brand presence in the first 3 seconds. Even on non-skippable CTV, brand recall is highest when the logo appears early. Don't save the reveal for the end.
• Design for audio-on. CTV auto-plays with sound. The audio track should carry the message independently of visuals.
• Large text only. At 3-metre viewing distance, small text is unreadable. If you can't read it from across a room, it won't land on a TV.

India CTV technical specs

→ Full CTV creative specifications for India

Trafficking checklist

• VAST tag URL (for programmatic) or video file (for direct upload) — confirm which the platform requires
• Click-through URL (UTM-tagged)
• Impression tracking pixel — confirm platform accepts third-party pixels before adding
• Companion banner if required (300×250 or 728×90)
• Campaign name, flight dates, geo, targeting parameters clearly stated in the IO

Step 8 Brief the campaign

A well-structured India CTV brief contains exactly these ten items:

1. Campaign objective — one sentence. What does success look like in 4 weeks?
2. Target audience — demographic, SEC tier, geography, content affinity
3. Platforms and deal type — which platforms, direct vs programmatic, any exclusions or adjacency requirements
4. Ad format and duration — 15s non-skippable pre-roll / 30s mid-roll / TrueView skippable
5. Budget and CPM — total budget, per-platform allocation, CPM targets and ceilings
6. Flight dates — start, end, any day-parting or content adjacency
7. Frequency cap — 3–5 impressions per household per week is recommended. Set separately per platform; YouTube CTV frequency is managed in campaign settings.
8. Measurement requirements — reporting cadence, third-party tags accepted, brand lift study required
9. Creative assets — file format, language versions, 15s and 30s versions if needed
10. Contacts — who approves creative, who resolves trafficking issues

Pre-launch checklist