How to Advertise On Streaming Services
Brands can advertise on streaming services by buying video inventory across ad supported streaming platforms, broadcaster streaming services and connected TV environments. In the UK, opportunities can include Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, ITVX, Channel 4 Streaming and Sky.
So, how do you actually get your brand onto these platforms?
The process starts by defining who you want to reach and what you want the campaign to achieve. From there, you can identify suitable streaming services, choose the right audience targeting, establish your budget, prepare the video creative and plan how performance will be measured.
At Media Agency Group, we have planned TV advertising and VOD activity for brands including Fiverr. Our experience has shown us that the platform itself should not be the starting point. The audience and campaign objective should determine where the advertising budget goes.
1. Define Who You Want to Reach
Before asking which streaming service you should advertise on, establish who needs to see the campaign.
Your brief might include:
Age or demographic
UK location
Interests
Household characteristics
Customer profile
Relevant behaviours
Existing audience data where supported
For example, a business trying to reach a defined audience across London may require a very different streaming plan from a consumer brand seeking nationwide awareness.
Streaming and addressable TV environments can provide access to audience targeting based on factors including demographics, interests and viewing behaviour, although the options available vary by platform.
There is also a practical limit to targeting. Adding too many conditions can make the available audience unnecessarily small.
Start with the characteristics that genuinely matter to your campaign.
2. Choose the Right Streaming Services
Once you understand the audience, you can assess which platforms offer suitable advertising opportunities.
UK advertisers can consider services including:
Netflix
Amazon Prime Video
Disney+
ITVX
Channel 4 Streaming
Sky On Demand
Other eligible VOD and streaming environments
These services should not be treated as interchangeable.
Their audiences, content, targeting capabilities and advertising products can differ. Platform selection should therefore be based on how well each opportunity fits the brief.
For example, ITVX has continued to build substantial streaming audiences. The service recorded 383 million streams during January 2026, its highest monthly streaming total at the time.
For an advertiser, however, a large audience figure is only part of the decision. The more important question is whether the platform can help you reach your audience.
3. Decide How Your Streaming Ads Will Be Bought
You do not necessarily buy streaming advertising in the same way you would book a traditional television spot.
The buying route depends on the service and available inventory.
Streaming and VOD activity may be purchased directly through media owners or accessed through other media buying arrangements. Some addressable opportunities are bought at an impression level, meaning the advertiser pays for delivery to eligible audiences.
This allows campaigns to be structured around factors such as:
Audience
Location
Impressions
Campaign dates
Frequency
Available inventory
An experienced media buying team can assess the available routes rather than requiring the advertiser to approach each streaming platform separately.
4. Set a Realistic Streaming Advertising Budget
There is no universal price for advertising on streaming services.
The amount required depends on factors such as:
Platform
Audience size
Targeting
Geographic coverage
Campaign duration
Inventory
Number of impressions
Frequency
Time of year
A highly targeted regional campaign could have very different requirements from a national brand campaign.
This is why asking "How much does a Netflix advert cost?" does not always give you the information needed to plan a campaign.
A more useful question is:
What level of relevant audience reach can my budget achieve?
From there, different platforms and audience strategies can be assessed against the available investment.
5. Prepare Creative for Streaming
Once the media plan is taking shape, you need video creative that meets the requirements of the selected streaming environments.
Remember where people may see it.
Streaming content is often watched full-screen on a television. Creative originally designed for a small social feed may therefore need adapting before it is used for a streaming campaign.
Your advert should have:
Clear branding
A focused message
High quality video
Suitable audio
Recognisable brand assets
A clear product or service proposition
An appropriate call to action
Technical requirements can differ between platforms, so specifications should be confirmed before final assets are produced.
There are also emerging streaming formats that go beyond standard video breaks. ITVX, for example, has developed formats including Pause Ads, which display advertising when eligible content is paused.
6. Decide When and Where Your Campaign Should Run
Your campaign schedule should reflect what you are advertising.
A retailer might concentrate activity around a seasonal shopping period. An entertainment brand could plan around a release date. A travel company might want greater visibility during important booking periods.
Location can be equally important.
If your business operates in selected parts of the UK, audience and geographic targeting may allow the campaign to focus on relevant households rather than unnecessarily extending activity into areas outside the brief.
Give your media planner clear information about campaign dates, priority locations and any important commercial moments.
7. Plan How Often People Should See Your Advert
Reach tells you how many people or households have been exposed to the campaign. Frequency considers how often they have been exposed.
Both need attention.
Showing an advert too few times can limit the opportunity for the message to register. Excessive frequency can concentrate spend on people who have already seen the campaign several times.
The appropriate balance depends on your:
Audience size
Budget
Campaign duration
Objective
Creative
Longer campaigns can also use several creative executions rather than serving exactly the same video throughout.
8. Launch the Campaign and Monitor Delivery
Once the media has been booked and the creative approved, the campaign can go live across the selected streaming environments.
The work should continue after launch.
Depending on the platform and campaign setup, advertisers can monitor measures such as:
Impressions
Reach
Frequency
Video completions
Audience delivery
Geographic delivery
Where the buying arrangement allows it, these insights can help inform decisions during the campaign.
We have seen the value of active campaign management through our own work.
For Fiverr, we used VOD alongside a broad linear TV mix to engage harder to reach audiences and add incremental coverage. We monitored performance throughout the campaign and adjusted activity according to what was working, including shifting distribution towards daytime TV after identifying strong performance among the work-from-home audience.
That experience reinforces an important point. A media plan should provide a starting strategy, while campaign data can help determine what happens next.
9. Measure What Happened After the Advert Was Seen
Streaming campaign measurement should reflect the original objective.
If you want to increase awareness, useful measures may include reach, frequency, video completion and brand metrics.
If the campaign is expected to encourage an action, you might also consider:
Website visits
Branded searches
App downloads
Enquiries
Sales
Relevant conversions where measurable
Think about the viewing behaviour too.
Someone watching an advert on their television may not respond in the same way as someone seeing a clickable display advert on their phone. They may search for the brand on another device, visit the website later or recognise the campaign when they encounter it elsewhere.
Measurement needs to account for the role the streaming advert was intended to play.
What Do You Need to Start Advertising on Streaming Services?
A clear brief is the starting point for planning a streaming advertising campaign and identifying the platforms that best fit your requirements.
A useful streaming brief can start with six pieces of information:
Who you want to reach
What you want to promote
Where your target audience is located
When the campaign needs to run
How much you have available to invest
What you want the campaign to achieve
From there, the relevant platforms, audience options, media buying routes and creative requirements can be assessed.
At Media Agency Group, our broadcast team brings experience from planning and delivering TV and VOD campaigns for brands, including activity for Fiverr. We use that experience alongside audience insight to help determine where a streaming budget can work hardest.
If you want to advertise on streaming services in the UK, speak to our TV advertising team about the platforms and opportunities that fit your audience, budget and campaign objectives.