Best OTT Advertising Platforms: 7 Options Compared

How we chose

The filter for this list was the minimum, because that is what decides whether a platform is even reachable for a given advertiser. Every platform below was checked for its published entry point, its pricing model and its inventory on 13 November 2026, using vendor pages and published comparisons where vendors publish no price. No hands-on testing was done; the ranking is based on published pricing and documentation, checked on 13 November 2026. Where sources disagree on a minimum, this post says so and follows the vendor's own site.

1. Vibe.co: best for small budgets running a first test

Vibe.co is a self-serve streaming TV platform built for performance marketers. You sign up, define an audience by CRM upload, behaviour or ZIP code, upload a 15- or 30-second video, set a daily budget and your ad runs the same day across 500-plus premium streaming channels, including Hulu, Disney+, Paramount+ and Peacock. Campaigns are measured against return on ad spend and customer acquisition cost, with built-in holdout testing.

The entry point is the lowest in the category: a $50 a day minimum, with no annual contract, no term commitment and no seat licence. Vibe charges on a CPM basis of $15 to $35, with no platform or subscription fees. The trade is scope: campaigns run in the US only, and the self-serve model assumes you can plan and optimise yourself. Skip Vibe.co if you need international campaigns or a managed service that runs the buying for you.

2. MNTN: best for performance brands measuring visits

MNTN, formerly Mountain, is a performance TV platform that puts brand commercials on streaming TV and judges them the way search ads are judged: on site visits, purchases and return on ad spend. Its Verified Visits feature matches site visits to exposed households, and an incrementality dashboard compares exposed and holdout households for eligible campaigns. It holds direct deals with more than 150 streaming TV networks, and its AI can create an on-brand TV ad from your website at no extra cost.

MNTN's own site states there are no upfront commitments and no minimums, with a self-serve platform and full-funnel reporting. Older roundups quote a $5,000 monthly minimum, which no longer matches the vendor's own site, so treat the vendor's current wording as the figure and confirm it before planning a budget. Skip MNTN if you want a fixed CPM you control, because MNTN charges a dynamic CPM with its margin inside the media cost.

3. Roku Ads Manager: best for advertisers wanting Roku audiences

Roku Ads Manager is the self-serve route into the Roku platform, covering The Roku Channel, the Roku Audience Network and partner inventory. It suits advertisers who know their audience watches on Roku devices and want to buy that audience directly rather than through an aggregator.

Self-serve campaigns start from $500 per campaign. That is a low cash commitment, but a $500 test buys limited reach at premium CPMs, so treat it as a way to learn the platform rather than a full campaign. Roku's own audience data is the advantage here: targeting is built on what people actually watch on Roku. Skip Roku Ads Manager if your audience is spread across many streaming services, because a single-publisher buy will miss them.

4. Disney Campaign Manager: best for advertisers wanting Disney and Hulu

Disney Campaign Manager is the self-serve platform for Disney's streaming inventory, including Disney+ and Hulu. It suits brands that want premium, brand-safe inventory in one place and are happy to buy inside one publisher's walls.

Campaigns start from $500 per campaign, the same entry point as Roku. The inventory is the draw: Hulu and Disney+ audiences that are hard to reach elsewhere, with the targeting and measurement Disney provides. The limit is the same as Roku's: one publisher's audience, not the whole streaming market. Skip Disney Campaign Manager if you need to reach viewers across many services from a single campaign.

5. Amazon Ads: best for brands already selling on Amazon

Amazon Ads lets advertisers buy streaming TV inventory through Amazon's self-service platform, including Freevee and Twitch alongside Amazon's own properties. It states no minimum spend, while recommending $10,000 per self-service campaign, which tells you the honest shape of the product: accessible in principle, built for serious budgets in practice.

The advantage for sellers is measurement: ad exposure can be tied to shopping behaviour on Amazon, which few other platforms can match. The drawback is the same as any walled garden: your reporting lives inside Amazon's system, and the recommendation of $10,000 per campaign means small tests will struggle to produce a readable result. Skip Amazon Ads if you do not sell on Amazon, because the measurement advantage will not apply to you.

6. StackAdapt: best for CTV inside a multi-channel plan

StackAdapt is a self-serve demand-side platform that buys connected TV alongside display, native, audio, digital out-of-home, email and direct mail from one interface. It suits teams that run streaming TV as one line in a wider programmatic plan and want unified frequency management and reporting across channels.

StackAdapt's pricing page states there is no minimum spend requirement to get started, adding that most teams hit their stride around $5,000 a month. Its five plan tiers carry no published prices, and the entry Basic tier is self-serve with credit card payment, subject to an application and approval process, while higher tiers start with a demo. Fees sit inside quoted CPMs rather than as a separate platform fee. Skip StackAdapt if you only want streaming TV, because a single-channel platform will be simpler and cheaper to run.

7. The Trade Desk: best for enterprise teams with a trading desk

The Trade Desk is the largest independent demand-side platform, buying across the open internet including connected TV, display, audio, digital out-of-home and mobile. It owns no media of its own, so it never bids your budget toward inventory it profits from selling, and its Kokai AI bidding platform is the core of its pitch.

The Trade Desk does not publish a standard minimum spend for direct access, and reported entry points vary widely, from around $20,000 a month to much larger quarterly minimums, depending on account structure. Agency fees of 15 to 20 percent typically sit on top of media spend. Average time to launch runs around five weeks, and roughly one in four users needs outside implementation support. Skip The Trade Desk unless you have a trained trader or an agency, and a budget large enough for the platform's optimisation to work with.

What a first test really costs

A $50 a day minimum is not a $50 test. Work the numbers on Vibe.co's published CPM range of $15 to $35:

• $50 a day for 30 days is $1,500. At a $15 CPM that buys about 100,000 impressions; at $35 it buys about 43,000.
• Creative costs sit on top. If you have no video ad, budget for production or use the platform's AI creative tools, and check the result before it runs.
• A readable test needs time. A few days of spend produces noise, not signal. Budget at least $1,500 to $2,000 for a 30-day test before judging the channel.
• Premium inventory costs more. Direct premium inventory runs $25 to $65 CPM, so the same $1,500 buys far fewer impressions on premium placements.

The same arithmetic applies up the list: a $500 Roku or Disney campaign is a toe in the water, and a Trade Desk test needs a budget in the tens of thousands to produce anything worth reading.

How to choose

Common mistakes with OTT advertising

• Judging the channel on a $500 test. Small budgets produce small samples. A test that cannot reach statistical sense proves nothing about the channel.
• Trusting a return-on-ad-spend number with no holdout. Every platform reports attribution in its own favour. Insist on an incrementality test before you scale.
• Running one creative everywhere. A 30-second brand film and a 15-second direct response ad do different jobs. Test both.
• Forgetting frequency. The same household seeing your ad twelve times is waste, not reach. Set frequency caps from the start.
• No landing page to match the ad. A viewer who searches for you after seeing the ad should land on a page that continues the message, not your homepage.

OTT advertising glossary

• OTT (over-the-top): video delivered over the internet to streaming services, on any device.
• CTV (connected TV): streaming video watched on a television set through a smart TV app or connected device.
• CPM: cost per thousand impressions, the standard way streaming TV inventory is priced.
• DSP (demand-side platform): software that buys ad inventory programmatically across many publishers.
• Holdout test: a measurement method that compares households shown the ad with similar households that were not, to prove the ad caused the result.

For the wider paid media picture, Adziq's best retail advertising platforms and best programmatic advertising platforms lists cover the neighbouring categories, the best digital billboard advertising companies list covers out-of-home, and the Google Ads vs Meta Ads guide helps you weigh streaming TV against the channels you already run. Adziq's Google Ads services and Meta Ads services pages explain what managed buying covers.

Common questions

Sources

• Vibe.co llms.txt (vendor)
• Vibe.co OTT advertising platforms guide (vendor)
• MNTN homepage (vendor)
• 10 best self-serve CTV advertising platforms (Starti)
• Vibe vs StackAdapt (Vibe.co)
• 10 best self-serve ad platforms (Sevio)
• Best Trade Desk alternatives for in-house CTV teams (Vibe.co)

Adziq sells marketing services and does not accept payment for placement in its articles. See our editorial policy.