Connected TV (CTV): Repurposing Influencer and UGC Content as Streaming Ads

What is Connected TV (CTV), and why does it matter for influencer and UGC content?

Connected TV (CTV) means a television connected to the internet, showing streaming apps — Roku, Hulu, YouTube TV, Amazon Fire TV and similar — instead of traditional broadcast or cable TV. When a viewer watches an ad-supported show or film in one of those apps, the ads shown are usually bought programmatically through a demand-side platform (DSP) such as The Trade Desk or Amazon DSP, or directly through a platform's own self-serve tool, such as Roku Ads Manager. CTV is therefore neither browser-window online video nor a mobile in-app ad — it's a TV screen, bought digitally.

For a brand that has already produced influencer or UGC content for Meta Ads or other social placements, CTV is interesting because the same creative starting point — a creator's recommendation, a product demo, a genuine customer voice — can in principle be reused there too. But that requires understanding just how different the format requirements actually are, before deciding whether it's worth the effort.

The core problem: creator content is vertical; CTV is horizontal

Short-form creator content — Reels, TikToks, Stories — is shot almost universally in 9:16 for a phone screen a viewer holds vertically. CTV is the opposite: a 16:9 screen, typically 40-75 inches, watched from a distance, often by more than one person at once. That's not just an aesthetic difference — it's a hard technical limit on almost every CTV platform, as described below.

What Roku's own creative guidelines require

Per Roku's own advertiser Help Center, only MOV or MP4 files are accepted — "the platform does not accept YouTube links or videos pulled from other online sources." The key requirements, straight from Roku itself:

There's no exception for vertical or square content — Roku accepts 16:9 landscape video exclusively.

What The Trade Desk requires for programmatic CTV inventory

The Trade Desk, one of the largest DSPs for buying CTV inventory programmatically across apps and devices, is explicit in its own documentation about file format: "you should only be uploading VAST files to take advantage of most CTV opportunities" — VPAID's interactive elements generally aren't supported on CTV, only VAST. The Trade Desk's own guidance on avoiding creative rejection points to two leading causes: by its own figures, around 55% of all creative rejections happen because the file doesn't meet resolution or file-size criteria, and a further 25% or so come from low frame rate or audio bit rate. Its recommendation is to deliver mezzanine files — the highest-quality master, which is then transcoded down to each individual publisher's specific requirements — rather than trying to hit every publisher's spec upfront.

YouTube on the TV screen

YouTube ads shown on a TV screen via YouTube TV or YouTube Select support, per several independent ad-tech references, 16:9, 9:16 and 1:1 depending on the placement — but the point that recurs across those sources is that a format built for one placement (e.g. 9:16 for Shorts) doesn't automatically work on another (e.g. 16:9 for the TV screen itself). Since this couldn't be confirmed directly on Google's own support pages at the time of writing, a brand should always check the current specification directly inside its Google Ads or DV360 account before building a campaign.

How brands actually convert influencer or UGC video into a CTV-ready ad

Manual reformatting

The most basic step is cropping or rebuilding the vertical clip into 16:9 — either by zooming out and adding background around the original frame, or by re-cutting the scene so the central subject sits inside a wider frame. Common practice across ad-tech guides is also to keep the subject and any text away from the edges of the frame, and to let each shot hold slightly longer than it would on a phone screen, because a TV viewer typically sits further away and has less time to react to fast cuts. None of this is a fixed rule from a named platform — it's general creative-adaptation practice, not a published specification. The opening seconds still matter most, whichever screen the ad ends up on — see UGC hooks for ecommerce ads for how to build a hook that survives the move to a slower, TV-paced cut.

Automated conversion: Roku's partnership with Spaceback

Roku announced a partnership with Spaceback in December 2024, under which Roku itself covered the cost of using Spaceback's conversion platform for advertisers running campaigns through Roku Ads Manager — independently covered by, among others, Marketing Dive, GlobeNewswire and eMarketer. The tool converts existing social content from Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok and Twitter into Roku's 16:9 format with no new production required. The offer was originally announced as running through Q1 2025; whether it's still free, or on what terms, should be confirmed directly with Roku or Spaceback at the time of a specific campaign, not assumed from this article.

Rights still apply — and need to name CTV specifically

As covered in UGC usage rights explained, a creator's organic post is not automatically available as paid ad material. The same principle that applies to Meta Ads applies to CTV: the usage-rights agreement needs to explicitly name the channels the content may run on. A brief or contract that only mentions "social media" or "paid social" doesn't, under ordinary contract logic, automatically cover a TV screen — name Connected TV or streaming ads specifically if that's a real possibility for the campaign. This mirrors the separate permission a creator has to grant before their content can run as a paid social ad from their own handle — see creator whitelisting, Spark Ads and Partnership Ads explained for how that works on social.

Comparison: short-form social video vs CTV

Worked example (hypothetical)

The numbers below are hypothetical and illustrate only the decision logic — this is not a real Make Influence customer case, and none of the figures are benchmarks.

A brand already has 8 UGC clips from a completed campaign, all shot in 9:16, and is considering repurposing three of them for a CTV test.

The point of the maths isn't the specific kroner — it's that reformatting is typically a small fraction of the total test budget once the media budget itself is set. That shifts the decision from "can we afford to re-cut" to "do we have the right raw material to re-cut from" — which is why shooting headroom (above) matters more than the editing cost itself.

Decision framework

• IF you already have raw UGC or influencer footage with good headroom around the subject → reformatting to 16:9 is typically a minor task, not a new production project.
• IF your existing material only exists as finished 9:16 exports with no headroom → plan for either reshooting or accepting a more aggressive crop that may cost part of the frame.
• IF you're planning the campaign through Roku Ads Manager → check whether Roku's partnership with Spaceback (or an equivalent tool) is still available before budgeting separately for conversion.
• IF the usage-rights agreement with the creator only mentions "social media" → get it explicitly extended to name Connected TV/streaming before the content goes to a CTV media buyer.
• IF the goal is direct, trackable sales rather than awareness → be aware CTV has no click in the traditional sense; see the FAQ below for how tracking is typically handled in practice.

Common mistakes

• Sending the finished 9:16 export straight to a CTV media buyer. It gets rejected by almost every platform — CTV requires 16:9, not a cropped or letterboxed version of a vertical clip.
• Assuming "paid social" rights in the contract cover CTV. They don't automatically — name the channel explicitly.
• Underestimating the need for headroom in the original shoot. Without it, reformatting becomes significantly more expensive or requires an entirely new shoot.
• Expecting a clickable link directly in the ad. A remote control can't click — tracking requires a different solution.

Make Influence's operational perspective

Our experience is that what actually determines whether a brand can move quickly into CTV is rarely the media buy itself — it's whether the original creator footage was shot with enough headroom to be reformatted, and whether the usage-rights agreement explicitly names Connected TV as a channel. Both are cheap to secure upfront and expensive to fix afterwards. Whichever DSP or self-serve platform you end up using, the recommendation is the same discipline that already applies to Meta Ads: agree the channels explicitly before the shoot happens, not after. If the same content is also running as a Meta ad, you can build a retargeting audience from anyone who watched it there — see building Meta custom audiences from influencer content engagement.

FAQ

Can I just use my TikTok or Reels video directly as a CTV ad?

No. Almost every CTV platform, including Roku, requires horizontal 16:9 video in specific file and audio formats — a vertical 9:16 clip needs to be reformatted first.

How do you track sales from a CTV ad when there's nothing to click?

CTV ads typically aren't measured through a direct click, since a remote control doesn't function like a mouse or a finger on a screen. Common industry practice is instead to measure lift in search, direct traffic or sales during the period the ad ran, or to show a QR code inside the ad itself that the viewer can scan with their phone.

Is Roku's partnership with Spaceback still free?

It was announced in December 2024 as running through Q1 2025. This article can't confirm the current terms — check directly with Roku or Spaceback before budgeting a campaign around it.

Does our existing UGC usage-rights agreement automatically cover Connected TV?

Only if the agreement explicitly names it. An agreement that only mentions "social media" or "paid social" doesn't, under ordinary contract logic, automatically cover a TV screen.

Does the content need to be reshot, or can it always just be cropped?

It depends on how much headroom exists around the subject in the original footage. With good headroom, cropping is often enough; without it, the result is either heavily cropped or requires a new shoot.

Can we use the same clip on Roku, The Trade Desk and YouTube TV?

Often yes for the 16:9 aspect ratio itself, but the technical requirements for file, codec and tag type (e.g. VAST on The Trade Desk) differ enough that each platform's own specification should be checked before sending the same file to all three.