ctv · buying · 2026-07-18
Questions to ask before you spend on CTV
A practical list of questions for any CTV vendor: inventory, measurement, minimums, data ownership, and whether connected TV shares a seat with the rest of your media.
Before you commit six figures to connected TV, get answers in writing. These questions work for any vendor: they are about control and transparency, not brand names.
If a salesperson cannot answer without a follow-up deck, treat that as data. Opaque answers usually become opaque invoices.
Access and economics
What are the spend minimums and contract terms? Is pricing a published take rate or a negotiated black box? Can you start small and scale without re-papering?
Ask for all-in fee as a percent of gross media, including data, seat, and managed adders. Compare that number to a published schedule at your spend level.
- Spend minimums and notice periods
- Published take rate vs negotiated spread
- Seat fees, data fees, and managed adders itemized
- Ability to pause without penalty theater
- Path from pilot budget to scaled book without a new MSA
Delivery and measurement
Can you see which apps and networks actually served? Is frequency capped at the household level? Do you get first-party pixels or only platform-attested conversions?
Who owns the data if you leave? If the answer is "you can export a summary," push for log-level or event export.
Operations
Is CTV on the same seat as display and audio? Can your team traffic without a managed desk? If automation exists, can you turn it off and audit every change?
Ask who can create deals, who can launch, and how creative QA works for VAST. Ambiguous roles create late Friday emergencies.
Creative and formats
Which creative types are live-fire verified today? Can you traffic standard VAST without a custom publisher build? If you need audio-led living-room reach, ask how rendered video creatives are handled.
On Waveband, Soundframe covers the audio-into-video path; Waveforms cover in-slot display attention. Neither should be required to buy basic CTV.
How to use the answers
Score vendors on control, not vibes. A cheaper CPM with no delivery detail is not cheaper. A higher take rate with exportable measurement and no minimums can still win on trust and margin you can defend.
Waveband's answers: no minimums to start, published take rate, CTV on the same seat, Signal for first-party measurement, optional Autopilot with an audit log.
Bring the written answers to your next internal media meeting. If engineering, finance, and account leads disagree on what "household frequency" meant on the call, you caught the ambiguity before spend started. That is the whole point of the list.