Home electrification purchases – including solar, battery storage, heat pumps, and EV chargers – have long consideration cycles and skew toward higher-income households. That makes CTV a channel for building consideration, not driving direct response. Companies that treat it like performance search waste money and misread the outcomes.
The Challenge
Attributing offline, installation-based conversions is legitimately difficult
A homeowner who sees a CTV ad might not request a quote for weeks and won't complete an install for months, and the eventual conversion happens through a contractor visit, not a trackable web checkout. Most CTV buys get evaluated against last-click web conversion data that structurally can't capture this delayed, offline path, leading teams to either overfund channels that happen to be trackable or defund CTV because its real impact is invisible in the dashboard.
Homeownership and household income targeting is squandered on renters and viewers with low intent
Solar, battery, and heat pump purchases require homeownership and a minimum income or financing profile, but generic CTV buys optimized for reach frequently serve impressions to renters, apartment dwellers, and households with no realistic path to purchase. Without deliberate household-level targeting layered onto the buy, a meaningful share of impressions are structurally wasted regardless of how good the creative is.
The format must quickly overcome skepticism around savings and incentive claims
Viewers have seen enough "solar panels for $0 down" ads from low-quality lead-gen operators that the category carries baseline skepticism, and a 15 or 30-second format has almost no time to establish credibility before making a claim. An ad that leads with an aggressive savings number without quickly establishing a credible source reads as the same scam pattern viewers have learned to distrust, undermining the exact trust the ad needs to build.
Urgency windows driven by seasons and incentives are brief and easily missed
Tax credit deadlines, utility rebate program windows, and seasonal demand patterns (spring and fall for HVAC and solar) create real urgency windows that most CTV buys, planned and booked on quarterly cycles, aren't structured to capture. A campaign that launches after an incentive deadline has passed, or misses the seasonal window entirely, spends the same budget for meaningfully less impact.
How We Support You
We begin by clarifying what CTV should actually accomplish in your funnel – creating household awareness and consideration before a search or contractor-led conversion, rather than producing direct clicks – then align expectations and measurement before purchasing any media.
Strategy development creates household-level targeting by layering homeownership, estimated income, and property data onto the standard demographic and geographic targeting that most CTV platforms use by default. This concentrates impressions among households with a credible path to purchase. Rather than planning a generic, always-on quarterly buy, we build the media calendar around genuine urgency windows – tax credit deadlines, utility rebate cycles, and seasonal HVAC and solar demand.
Execution develops creative designed to establish credibility quickly within the format's limited runtime. We lead with a specific, supported claim instead of a broad savings figure and feature authentic product or installation footage rather than stock imagery that feels generic to skeptical viewers. We also implement incrementality testing – using geo holdouts or matched-market comparisons – to measure lift in search volume, site traffic, and quote requests across CTV markets versus control markets. That is the honest way to evaluate a channel that last-click attribution cannot track.
Measurement focuses on search and site lift in exposed markets compared with holdout markets, shifts in brand search volume, and downstream quote request or contractor lead volume, with an appropriate lag included in the analysis. CTV advertising for climate tech works when exposed markets demonstrate measurably greater consideration and conversion activity than unexposed markets, not when a dashboard reports a click that did not occur.
What we deliver
- Household-level targeting layering homeownership and income data onto standard CTV demographic targeting
- Media calendar planned around real urgency windows – tax credit deadlines, rebate cycles, seasonal demand
- Creative built to establish credibility fast with substantiated claims and real installation footage
- Geo holdout or matched-market incrementality testing structure
- Lift reporting on search volume, site traffic, and quote requests in exposed versus control markets
CTV for home electrification doesn't produce a click – it prompts the Google search for your brand three weeks later, followed by the contractor visit. Evaluate it on that basis, not through last-click attribution, or you'll cut funding from a channel that is genuinely working.
Our Methodology
Our climate tech CTV build is structured as a 90-day launch and measurement-calibration sprint. Phase one establishes the channel's true role in the funnel, then develops the household-level targeting layer and media calendar around genuine urgency windows instead of a generic always-on purchase.
Phase two creates ads designed to build credibility quickly within the format's short runtime, relying on authentic installation footage and substantiated claims rather than generic stock visuals and broad savings figures.
Phase three implements incrementality testing through geo holdouts or matched markets and launches the campaign with lift-based measurement rather than last-click attribution. Last-click fundamentally cannot capture a channel that produces delayed, offline conversions. Unlike media buyers who approach CTV as a performance channel, we design the full program – targeting, creative, and measurement – around what CTV genuinely does well in this category.
Our Working Process
Initial engagements last 3 to 4 months because incrementality testing needs sufficient flight time across exposed and holdout markets to deliver a statistically meaningful result, usually 8 to 12 weeks of active flight. During weeks 1 to 3, we develop the targeting layer, media calendar, and test-market structure. Weeks 4 to 6 focus on creative production. Starting in week 7, the campaign runs with continuous lift measurement.
Our team consists of a media strategist responsible for targeting, the calendar, and market structure, plus a creative producer who develops ad assets using real installation footage. On your side, we require access to search and site analytics for lift measurement, along with coordination around any incentive or rebate program deadlines that affect the media calendar.
Monthly reviews cover lift across search volume, site traffic, and quote requests in exposed markets versus control markets. Most campaigns require a complete flight cycle, generally 90 days, before the incrementality data becomes reliable enough to inform budget decisions.
- Measurable lift in branded search and site traffic in exposed markets versus holdouts
- Higher-quality impression delivery concentrated on realistic-purchase households
- Creative that establishes credibility faster with a skeptical audience
- Media spend aligned to real incentive and seasonal urgency windows
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Frequently asked questions
What does CTV advertising cost for a climate tech company?
Media investment for a meaningful test generally begins at roughly $30K to $60K monthly, providing enough exposed-market volume for dependable incrementality results. Management and creative production add another $8K to $15K per month. Total cost varies based on the number of test markets and the amount of creative variation required for the urgency-window calendar.
When will a climate tech company begin seeing results from CTV advertising?
Since CTV produces delayed conversions that often happen offline, obtaining a dependable incrementality result generally requires a minimum full flight cycle of 90 days. Early directional indications of search and site lift may emerge within 30 to 45 days, but because earlier data contains substantial noise, we advise completing the full flight before making budget reallocation decisions.
How does your CTV team work with our sales and analytics teams?
We require access to search and site analytics for lift measurement, plus coordination with the person responsible for tracking incentive and rebate deadlines so the media calendar reflects genuine urgency windows. Our team independently manages targeting, creative production, and campaign execution, with lift results reported monthly.
How is Winston Francois different from a conventional media buying agency?
Most media buying agencies approach CTV as a performance channel, reporting last-click conversions that inherently undercount results in a category with delayed, offline conversions. We design the program around incrementality testing from the outset and establish accurate expectations – CTV creates consideration rather than a trackable click – so budget choices reflect real lift, not an attribution model unable to capture what CTV truly does.
How is ROI measured for a CTV advertising engagement?
We evaluate lift in branded search volume, site traffic, and quote requests or contractor leads across exposed markets against matched control markets, using geo holdouts to separate CTV's true incremental effect. This incrementality-led method is the only honest way to assess a channel where conversion eventually occurs weeks later during a contractor visit rather than through an online checkout.
What kind of climate tech company is best suited to this service?
Home electrification businesses with an established installer or sales network – across solar, battery storage, heat pumps, and EV chargers – are the right fit when they sell high-ticket products with multi-week consideration cycles and have enough scale for a meaningful incrementality test spanning multiple markets, typically at Series B or growth stage. We start with a free assessment to determine whether your current scale can support a reliable CTV test.
