TV Ads Are Missing the Mark by Billions, New Report Finds

Advertisers are wasting billions on TV campaigns that reach the wrong audience, according to Samba TV's new "H2 2025 State of Advertising" report. The firm attributes the inefficiency to a growing "consumer caution" and a fundamental disconnect between TV viewership and actual online buying behavior.

• More spend, less reach: The report's most jarring finding is that for 12 of the top 20 advertisers, bigger spending didn't translate to bigger reach. In fact, these brands connected with fewer unique households than they did the year before, despite increasing their TV investment.

• Speaking to the wrong crowd: Using car insurance as a prime example, the report details how TV ads are served to "aspirational" consumers interested in fitness and travel. But the value-conscious households actually searching for policies online showed interests centered on domestic life, like parenting and home décor—a world away from the TV ad's target, per analysis from tvTech.

Without fusing TV viewership data with online behavior signals, brands are flying blind. The data suggests that the traditional model of TV advertising is broken, rewarding a few outliers with explosive growth while legacy brands see their investments yield diminishing returns.