API companies have squeezed every keyword and retargeting pixel they can. Connected TV reaches the engineers and the budget-holders above them where attribution-resistant audiences actually spend their attention – and done right, you can still tie that spend to signups and pipeline.
The Problem
Your paid acquisition has hit a ceiling on the channels developers ignore
Developers run ad blockers, skip the sponsored result, and have seen your retargeting banner so many times it is invisible. As you scale paid search and social, you are buying the same finite pool of high-intent clicks at a rising cost per signup, and the marginal developer gets more expensive every quarter. There is no headroom left on the channels you have maxed out. To grow acquisition you need a channel that reaches the audience when they are not actively dodging ads, and the couch is one of the last places they are not.
The person who approves the API spend never sees your developer-targeted ads
In the API economy a developer evaluates and advocates, but a manager, director, or VP signs off on the contract and the budget. Your entire paid program targets the builder and never touches the budget-holder, so the deal stalls at approval because the decision-maker has never heard of you. Connected TV is one of the few channels that reaches both – the engineer and the executive who funds them – in the same household, building the broad familiarity that makes an internal champion's pitch land. Without it, you are asking developers to sell an unknown vendor upward with no air cover.
You assume CTV is a brand black hole with no path to attribution
Most API marketers write off streaming TV because they cannot put a click on it, and a developer-led growth team lives and dies by attribution. So they keep pouring budget into channels they can measure even after those channels stop scaling. But CTV is addressable and measurable in ways linear TV never was – you can target by company, role, and behavior, and you can connect exposure to site visits, branded search lifts, and signups. Treating CTV as unmeasurable brand spend is exactly why technical companies leave a scalable, targetable channel on the table.
Generic creative wastes the buy because it does not speak to a technical audience
A polished thirty-second spot that could be for any SaaS product is dead on arrival with engineers, who are allergic to vague enterprise messaging and tune out the moment a stock-footage office appears. CTV reach is expensive, so creative that fails to register the specific problem you solve burns the buy without moving anyone. API companies need creative that respects a technical audience – a sharp, credible articulation of the problem and the product, not a feel-good montage. Most agencies bring TV-brand instincts to a developer audience and produce exactly the spot that gets ignored.
How We Help
We start by deciding whether CTV even belongs in your mix and at what altitude. In the first 30 days we audit your current acquisition – where it has plateaued, what a marginal signup costs on your maxed channels, and which audiences you cannot reach today. We define who CTV is actually for in your motion: the developer you want to make familiar before they ever search, the budget-holder you need to warm for the approval conversation, or both.
Strategy builds the targeting and measurement plan together, because for a technical audience one is useless without the other. We use addressable CTV to target by company, role, and behavior so the buy reaches engineering and platform teams at the accounts you want rather than spraying a mass audience.
Execution runs the creative and the buy, embedded with your team. We develop creative built for a technical audience – credible, specific about the problem you solve, and free of the stock-footage gloss engineers reject – and we coordinate with whoever owns your creative so the spot matches the rest of your brand.
Measurement is where we earn the budget. We run the holdouts and lift studies we designed up front, match exposed audiences to site visits and signups, and report incremental signups and pipeline rather than impressions and reach. We compare CTV's true incremental cost per signup against your maxed-out channels so the question is always whether the next dollar does more here or there.
We treat the whole thing as an experiment until the numbers say otherwise. We start with a contained test budget, prove or disprove incrementality, and scale only what the measurement supports – never the other way around.
What we deliver
- Acquisition audit identifying where your paid channels plateaued and the gap CTV would fill
- Addressable targeting plan reaching specific developer and budget-holder roles at named accounts
- Measurement design with geo holdouts, branded-search lift, and signup matching built in from day one
- Technical-audience creative that states the problem credibly without the enterprise-stock-footage gloss
- Incrementality reporting comparing CTV's true cost per signup against your existing maxed channels
Connected TV is the only channel that reaches the developer who chooses your API and the executive who funds it in the same living room. The mistake API companies make is buying it like brand TV instead of running it like a measured acquisition experiment.
Our Methodology
Our CTV work runs as a 90-day sprint built around proving incrementality, not buying reach on faith. Phase one audits your acquisition to find where existing channels have plateaued and defines the specific gap CTV should fill and the roles it should reach – the developer, the budget-holder, or both.
Phase two designs the targeting and the measurement together. We build an addressable plan that reaches engineering and platform roles at named accounts, and we design the holdouts, branded-search lift studies, and signup matching that will hold the channel accountable from the first dollar. We develop creative for a technical audience in parallel, because a great buy behind a generic spot wastes the money.
Phase three runs a contained test, measures incrementality, and scales only what the data supports. Weekly optimization of targeting, frequency, and creative; monthly review of incremental signups and pipeline against the holdout; and a clear read on CTV's true cost per signup versus your maxed channels. Unlike a media agency that sells reach and impressions, we run CTV as a measured acquisition channel and walk away from it if it does not beat the alternative on the next dollar.
How We Work
Initial engagements run 3 to 6 months because proving CTV incrementality requires a test, a clean holdout, and enough flight time for branded-search and signup lift to register. The first 30 days are the acquisition audit, the targeting and measurement design, and creative development. Days 31 to 60 launch a contained test buy with the holdout in place and begin optimizing targeting and frequency. Days 61 to 90 read incrementality, compare cost per signup against your existing channels, and scale or stop based on what the measurement shows.
Our team includes a paid-media strategist who owns the channel plan, a measurement lead who designs and runs the holdouts and lift analysis, and a creative lead who can produce a spot that lands with engineers. From your side we need access to your analytics and signup data so we can match exposure to outcomes, your brand and creative assets so the spot fits the rest of your presence, and a marketing owner who can act on the incrementality read and reallocate budget accordingly.
Weekly reviews optimize targeting, frequency, and creative against early signals. Monthly business reviews report incremental signups and pipeline against the holdout and CTV's true cost per signup versus your other channels. Most API companies get a clean read on whether CTV is incremental within the first 60 to 90 days, which is the point of the test – to know with evidence whether the channel deserves a permanent line in the budget rather than scaling on faith.
- Incremental developer signups beyond what maxed search and social produce
- Budget-holders warmed ahead of the approval conversation
- A measured cost per signup for CTV comparable against existing channels
- A clear keep-or-kill verdict backed by holdout and lift evidence
If your api & platform companies company needs connected tv advertising leadership, we should talk.
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Frequently asked questions
How much does connected TV advertising cost for an API or platform company?
A serious CTV test for an API company generally needs $40K to $100K in media over the flight to reach a meaningful audience and produce a readable incrementality result, plus a management and measurement fee that typically runs $10K to $25K per month. Going much lighter on media usually fails to register the lift you need to judge the channel, so a contained but real test budget is the right starting point.
How long before connected TV advertising shows results?
Branded-search and site-visit lift often appear within the first few weeks of a flight once frequency builds in the targeted accounts. A clean read on whether CTV is genuinely incremental to your other channels typically takes 60 to 90 days, because you need enough flight time and a stable holdout for signup lift to separate from noise.
How does the CTV team integrate with our marketing and analytics staff?
We embed with the people who own your acquisition and data rather than running the buy in a silo. Your analytics owner gives us the signup and site data we need to match exposure to outcomes, your creative or brand owner keeps the spot consistent with the rest of your presence, and your marketing lead acts on the incrementality read to reallocate budget.
What makes Winston Francois different from a traditional CTV media agency?
A traditional media agency sells reach and impressions and is happy to scale a buy whether or not it is incremental. We run CTV as a measured acquisition channel with holdouts and lift studies designed in from day one, and we will tell you to stop spending if the channel does not beat your existing options on the next dollar.
How do you measure ROI from a connected TV advertising engagement?
We measure incrementality, not impressions. Using geo holdouts, branded-search lift, and exposed-audience matching to site visits and signups, we report the incremental signups and pipeline CTV produced and its true cost per signup against your other channels.
What type of API or platform company is the right fit for connected TV advertising?
Companies that have already scaled search and social to a plateau, have a defined target account and role profile, and have the analytics in place to measure lift. It fits best when there is a budget-holder above the developer who needs warming for the approval conversation, since CTV reaches both.
