Roku and Smartly partner to bring social ad tactics to CTV
Advertisers have spent years perfecting targeting and measurement on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. Getting that same level of precision on connected TV has been harder. Roku and Smartly want to close that gap.
On June 17, Roku and AI advertising technology platform Smartly announced a partnership designed to bring the speed, precision, and measurability of social advertising to CTV. The integration connects Smartly directly to Roku Ads Manager via the Roku Ads API.
What the Partnership Does
Smartly is an AI-powered ad platform that advertisers already use to run campaigns across social channels. The Roku deal means those same advertisers can now extend their social strategies into CTV without rebuilding their workflow from scratch. The goal is to let CTV perform closer to how a brand’s best social channels perform.
“Advertisers want CTV to work as hard as their best-performing channels,” said Patrick Harris, SVP of global advertising sales and partnerships at Roku.
Laura Desmond, CEO of Smartly, is attached to the announcement, signaling this is a leadership-level priority for both companies rather than a quiet API integration.
The Operator Angle
If you run paid social for a client or your own brand, this is worth watching. The pitch is that your existing Smartly workflows and creative can now flow into Roku inventory. Whether the measurement holds up to what social channels deliver is the question advertisers will answer in practice. The announcement is clear on the intent. The results will come from the data.
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