How Performance Marketing Is Changing

Retail marketers are under pressure to prove one thing above all else: that their marketing drives real customer growth.

That theme came through clearly at eTail West 2026 in Palm Springs, where JamLoop CEO Leif Welch spoke about how the best marketers make TV work like digital.

JamLoop’s team spent several days speaking with performance leaders from retail and ecommerce brands. One theme came up repeatedly in conversations with retail marketers: TV isn’t broken—but the way performance is measured around TV still needs to evolve.

The conversations revealed something important about where connected TV (CTV) stands today. Interest is high. Budgets are opening. But adoption maturity varies widely, and most retail marketers are asking the same fundamental questions:

• Does CTV actually drive new customers?
• Can we prove incremental impact?
• How does streaming TV fit into a performance marketing mix dominated by search and social?

Below are the most important insights our team heard from retail marketers at the event and what they signal about the future of performance-driven TV advertising.

What Is Connected TV Advertising?

Before diving into the insights, it’s worth clarifying the terminology.

Connected TV (CTV) refers to advertising delivered through internet-connected television environments such as streaming platforms, smart TVs, and OTT apps.

Examples include:

• Hulu
• Peacock
• Roku
• Samsung TV Plus
• FAST (Free Ad-Supported streaming TV) channels

Unlike traditional linear TV, CTV allows advertisers to target specific audiences and measure outcomes, bringing television closer to the accountability marketers expect from digital channels.

Search and social platforms trained marketers to expect performance data tied directly to business outcomes. Now retail marketers want the same level of accountability from streaming TV.

The 6 Biggest CTV Insights from eTail West 2026

We met with dozens of retail marketers across growth, media, and performance roles. Across those conversations, several themes appeared again and again.

Here’s what retail leaders are thinking about CTV right now.

1. Incrementality Is the Gatekeeper

Across nearly every conversation, incrementality came up first.

Retail marketers aren’t satisfied with impressions or exposure metrics. They want to know:

Did this channel drive customers we would not have gotten otherwise?

In other words: Did the ad actually change behavior? Or did it simply reach customers who would have purchased anyway?

Performance teams increasingly rely on incrementality testing to validate new channels before committing meaningful budget.

At eTail West, many brands said they were specifically looking for partners who could support:

• Geo-based lift tests
• Control vs exposed audience analysis
• Store visit measurement
• New customer attribution

Marketers are open to testing, but only if they can clearly measure lift.

2. Customer Acquisition Is the Dominant KPI

Another consistent theme: retail marketers want streaming TV to drive new customers.

While awareness still matters, most brands we spoke with framed their CTV goals around acquisition metrics such as:

• First-time purchasers
• Store visits from new audiences
• Net-new customer growth

Channels must now answer a simple question:

Does this grow the business?

Many marketers said they were exploring CTV because paid search and paid social are increasingly saturated. Customer acquisition costs have risen, and brands are looking for new scalable channels.

Streaming TV offers something different:

• Large-screen attention
• Premium video environments
• Broad reach across households

3. Retail + Geo Targeting Create a Major Opportunity

Retail marketers are particularly interested in geo-targeted CTV campaigns.

Why?

Geography often becomes the bridge between media exposure and real-world behavior.

Several brands we spoke with were exploring campaigns tied to:

• Store openings
• Regional promotions
• Market-by-market testing
• Franchise footprints

Geo-targeting enables controlled testing environments where marketers can measure outcomes like:

• Store visits
• Regional sales lift
• Market-level performance

This approach is especially valuable for retailers with physical locations, where foot traffic remains a core revenue driver.

EMARKETER reports that roughly 80% of U.S. retail purchases will still happen offline by 2027, even when influenced by digital marketing.

In other words, if CTV can’t measure offline impact, it misses most retail outcomes.

4. Retail Marketers Are Scrutinizing Measurement Claims

One theme that came up repeatedly at eTail West: retail marketers are asking tougher questions about measurement.

And the questions they’re asking are increasingly specific:

• How exactly are outcomes measured?
• What data sources are used?
• How do you prove incremental lift?
• What happens if results don’t appear immediately?

This reflects a broader shift in the industry. As CTV matures, marketers are becoming more disciplined about verifying how measurement actually works.

Several retail teams shared that they now:

• Compare attribution methodologies across vendors
• Ask for testing frameworks before launching campaigns
• Look closely at how outcomes like store visits or new customers are validated

The evaluation process for CTV is starting to resemble the scrutiny marketers already apply to search, social, and retail media networks.

5. CTV Maturity Levels Vary Widely

Retailers we spoke with at eTail West are at very different stages of connected TV adoption.

Some brands were already running sophisticated programs, including:

• Incrementality experiments designed to prove lift
• Multi-market CTV campaigns
• Creative optimized specifically for streaming environments

Others were much earlier in the journey and focused on foundational questions like:

• How does CTV targeting actually work?
• What budget is required to run a meaningful test?
• Can we repurpose social or YouTube creative for TV?

This gap in experience means that the right starting point looks different for every brand.

For teams just getting started with CTV, several marketers emphasized the importance of working with partners who specialize in helping first-time advertisers run structured tests, including guidance on campaign setup, creative adaptation, and measurement.

As one retail leader put it during the event:

“If it’s your first time running streaming TV, you want someone who will walk you through the process.”

More experienced teams, meanwhile, said their priorities shift quickly toward deeper measurement and performance analysis, including:

• Detailed attribution methodologies
• Incrementality testing frameworks
• Transparent reporting tied to real-world business outcomes

Retail marketers evaluating partners should look for platforms that can support both stages of the journey.

6. Many Retail Brands Are Already Planning Their CTV Strategy

While some retailers we spoke with at eTail West are launching CTV tests today, many others are already planning how streaming TV will fit into their marketing mix over the next 12–24 months.

Several marketers described roadmap discussions that extend well into 2026 and 2027, even if campaigns haven’t launched yet.

Those timelines are often shaped by factors like:

• Annual media planning cycles
• Internal measurement alignment
• Cross-team stakeholder approvals
• Leadership or budget transitions

Even brands that aren’t running campaigns yet are actively evaluating:

• How CTV fits alongside search, social, and retail media
• What budgets are required for meaningful tests
• What performance metrics should define success

For retail marketers who haven’t explored CTV yet, this is an important moment to begin the planning process.

Not because the industry says you should, but because many of your peers are already working through the same questions.

That typically starts with a partner who can help teams:

• Define realistic test budgets
• Establish clear performance goals
• Design campaigns structured to measure outcomes like customer acquisition or store visits

In other words, the first step for many brands isn’t scaling CTV immediately. It’s building a roadmap for how streaming TV can become a measurable growth channel over time.

What Retail Marketers Are Taking Back From eTail West

CTV is firmly on the radar for retail performance teams, but most marketers aren’t approaching it as a traditional awareness channel. Instead, they’re asking practical questions about how streaming TV fits into a modern performance marketing mix.

Some of the most common questions we heard included:

• Can CTV help us reach new customers we’re not finding in search and social?
• How should we structure a first test campaign?
• What signals actually indicate performance in a TV environment?
• Can we measure outcomes beyond clicks and website visits?

But the path forward usually starts the same way: with controlled tests designed to answer these questions.

That’s why many teams at eTail described starting with:

• Market-level experiments
• Customer acquisition pilots
• Incrementality-focused campaigns

The goal isn’t simply to add another media channel; it’s to determine whether streaming TV can contribute to measurable growth.

The Bigger Industry Shift Retail Marketers Are Watching

Another interesting theme from eTail West was how retail marketers are thinking about the broader role of television in performance marketing.

For decades, TV advertising was treated as an upper-funnel channel.

Marketers ran campaigns, measured reach, and hoped brand exposure translated into sales.

But many of the retail leaders we spoke with described a different expectation emerging, especially as streaming continues to replace traditional linear TV viewing.

They’re asking questions like:

• Can TV function more like a performance channel?
• Can we connect ad exposure to real-world business outcomes like in-store sales and foot traffic?
• How should we measure TV alongside search, social, and retail media?

These questions reflect a larger industry transition.

As more viewing shifts to streaming environments, retail marketers are increasingly exploring how TV can fit into data-driven growth strategies, not just brand campaigns.

The Future of Retail TV Advertising Is Performance

The conversations at eTail West made one thing clear: retail marketers are rethinking what television advertising should do.

For years, TV was measured in impressions, reach, and brand awareness. But today’s performance teams expect more. The standard set by search, social, and retail media has reshaped expectations across the entire marketing mix.

Retail marketers are now asking a different set of questions about streaming TV:

• Did this campaign drive new customers?

• Did it increase store visits?

• Did it generate real sales outcomes?

In other words, the conversation is shifting from “Did they see it?” to “Did they act?”

That shift is why so many retail marketers at eTail said they’re actively evaluating how connected TV fits into their future growth strategy. Some are launching tests now. Others are building plans for the next 12–24 months.

But nearly all of them are exploring the same opportunity: how to turn streaming TV from an awareness channel into a measurable driver of customers.

That’s exactly the problem JamLoop was built to solve.

JamLoop helps retailers connect streaming TV exposure with real-world outcomes, whether that’s store visits, bookings, phone calls, or purchases. By focusing on measurable business outcomes rather than impressions alone, retailers can finally see how TV contributes to growth.

If your team is starting to explore CTV, now is the right time to begin the conversation.

👉 Book a demo to see how JamLoop turns streaming TV ads into customers.