Connected TV
Should brands move their CTV budget until after Election Day?
Should you delay CTV advertising until after the election? Compare inventory, quoted CPMs, campaign deadlines, and the cost of waiting.
Fall campaigns can be difficult to reschedule. A retailer has a sale to promote, a new location has an opening date, and the marketing team has already built its plans around reaching customers before those events. An election adds another consideration: whether the streaming TV inventory in the plan is still worth its price.
The 2026 midterm election is November 3. If your campaign is already running, focus on changes that can take effect before your offer ends.
In June, AdImpact raised its forecast for the 2026 political advertising cycle to $11.6 billion, including $2.7 billion for connected TV. Those are spending projections, not evidence that your CTV rates have risen. Check comparable quotes and campaign delivery before attributing a price or pacing problem to election demand.
Delaying CTV can make sense when your dates are flexible and a comparable later quote buys more useful reach. If your sale ends before Election Day, you need to reach shoppers while they can still act.
Start with the deadline that matters to your customer
Take a furniture retailer whose sale ends October 27. Moving the ads into November would miss the sale. A retailer promoting a new showroom opening in December has more room to wait. In this example, the sale has a fixed deadline while the opening leaves room to adjust the schedule.
If your offer has a fixed deadline, consider whether a smaller buy or a different inventory mix can keep it on schedule. If you have room to wait, check that a November flight still gives customers time to plan a visit.
If your commercial or landing page is unfinished, solve that first. Changing the schedule around the election will not make your campaign ready.
Check how your inventory is bought
In an auction buy, the price and available supply can change as advertisers compete for eligible impressions. Ask which markets and publishers are seeing a change, and whether your campaign is actually affected. A national political spending forecast cannot answer that for you.
If you have already secured a fixed volume at an agreed price, the election does not automatically change that rate. Review the delivery commitment and cancellation terms before considering a move. A fixed-price deal without guaranteed volume is different: the rate may hold while the available supply changes. Confirm what the seller has committed to deliver.
Compare the same audience and inventory
Compare flights with the same service area, audience, device environment and video length. Publisher mix and fees belong beside the rate; otherwise, a lower November CPM may come from loosening the buy rather than waiting out political demand.
Avoid comparing a tightly defined local streaming TV buy with a broad video package and treating the cheaper quote as proof that the first seller is overpriced. The products may reach different audiences in different settings.
A buying partner can price your original dates against a later flight and separate reserved inventory from forecast availability. A cheap forecast is less valuable if the required placements cannot be secured.
The extra impressions arrive later
For an illustrative $15,000 buy, a $30 all-in CPM buys 500,000 impressions. A $25 all-in CPM buys 600,000. At those quoted rates, the same budget would buy 100,000 more impressions in the later flight. These are hypothetical prices, not a prediction of post-election rates. More impressions could mean reaching additional households or showing the ad more often to the same households. Compare expected reach and frequency as well as CPM.
The extra 100,000 impressions arrive too late for the October sale. They could help the December opening, provided the later flight still gives customers time to plan a visit. November also brings holiday advertisers into the market, so the rate needs a current quote.
Here are the choices those deadlines leave open:
| Situation | Reasonable next step |
|---|---|
| The offer expires before Election Day | Keep useful dates and reassess the inventory mix |
| The campaign is flexible and current quotes are unattractive | Price a later window before moving the budget |
| A few markets are difficult to buy | Adjust those markets rather than delaying the entire campaign |
| Reach is acceptable but repetition is rising | Review frequency and audience size before increasing bids |
| The November quote uses different inventory | Resolve the difference before comparing CPMs |
Make changes that can take effect before November 3
Changes to committed deals, targeting or creative may take time or incur obligations. A proposed fix that arrives near the end of the flight saves little of the October sale. A lower price helps only if the revised campaign can start in time.
In the live report, find the markets and inventory sources that are missing pace or getting expensive. Compare them with the planned rate and delivery, using the same targeting and reporting definitions. Ask the seller or buying platform what is limiting delivery; a narrow audience, a frequency cap or rejected creative can also be responsible.
Consider a hypothetical showroom campaign buying CTV through auctions in three markets. Two are delivering near plan; one is behind pace and its comparable current quote is higher. If the buying platform shows that eligible opportunities are being lost on price, test an affordable bid adjustment or another suitable inventory source in that market. Keep the other two running. If neither option delivers useful reach within budget, a later flight is worth considering for that market, provided it still supports the opening. A guaranteed buy delivering at its agreed rate would give the retailer no equivalent pricing reason to move.
Consider a partial move
If only part of your campaign can wait, keep the activity you need now and price a later flight for the flexible portion. Look at the delivery each budget can buy before choosing a split.
Another option is to replace a difficult inventory source while preserving the campaign dates. Check that the replacement still serves the original purpose. Streaming audio, for example, requires a message that works without a visual demonstration. A different channel also needs its own measurement plan.
Spreading a small remaining budget among several replacement channels can make the results harder to interpret. Decide what you can measure before splitting it. Delivery reports can show whether the ads ran as planned; attributed visits or purchases do not, by themselves, prove the ads caused additional sales. A short sale campaign may not provide enough data for a reliable comparison between channels.
A higher bid cannot fix every delivery problem
Review your spend against schedule, impressions, unique reach where available, frequency, and results that matter to the business. A campaign with slow delivery and a narrow audience needs a different fix from one that is spending normally but failing to attract qualified interest.
Slow spending needs a diagnosis. A narrow audience may need a different reach plan; rejected creative needs an approval fix; an uncompetitive bid needs a price decision. Raise a bid when price is limiting access to suitable inventory and the added cost still makes sense. It will not resolve rejected creative or remove a targeting restriction.
Record the change and its effective date. At the next review, compare delivery on the same definitions. If demand rises in November, do not automatically credit the media change for every additional sale.
For more background, read Floodlight’s political advertising guide. Use it alongside current quotes and campaign data, because a broad election forecast cannot price an individual buy.
Frequently asked questions
Will CTV advertising automatically get cheaper after the election?
Do not assume it will. Removing political demand does not remove every other advertiser or make all inventory interchangeable. Request comparable quotes and review actual delivery before making a budget commitment.
Should a small business stop advertising during election season?
Only if your business case for stopping is stronger than the case for continuing. Start with your offer deadline, service area, and available inventory. Election timing alone is not enough to decide.
Can I reserve a later campaign while keeping some activity now?
Ask the seller about availability, reservation terms, cancellation provisions, and minimum commitments. Confirm those details before treating a later flight as secured.
Work with Floodlight
Floodlight helps brands build and manage campaigns across connected TV, streaming audio and podcasts, digital out-of-home, display advertising, and ChatGPT advertising. We also provide AI research and visibility and programmatic media planning and buying. Talk with us about adjusting a campaign around your offer, audience and available inventory.