Breaking the digital ceiling: Why streaming TV is the high-growth engine online retailers are missing

At the Online Retailer Conference in Sydney, Todd Fisher, Director of Nine Ad Manager, tackled a problem almost every e-commerce brand hits eventually: the digital ceiling. As performance marketing costs continue to climb, customer acquisition gets tougher. Todd broke down how forward-thinking brands are breaking through that growth wall by combining Connected TV (CTV) with self-serve digital speed.

If your marketing targets increase every year but sales growth has flattened, you're not alone.

Most online retailers fall into the same trap, spending 100% of their budget on Search and Social.

"Search costs spike as you hit the ceiling of available ready-to-buy users," Fisher explained. "When you only hunt for existing demand, you end up fighting over the exact same limited pool of intent."

That pure "harvesting" strategy eventually runs out of road.

To keep growing, brands need to balance Planting with Harvesting. CTV acts as the top-of-funnel engine, planting trust and brand familiarity at scale on the big screen while feeding fresh, high-intent audiences into performance channels.

The 9Now advantage: Co-viewing, scale and trust

TV has always had unmatched emotional impact, but streaming adds digital precision.

Fisher pointed to three key advantages 9Now brings to growing retailers:

• Doubling sales impact: Brands integrating BVOD into their media mix achieve twice the sales ROI compared with pairing TV and social video alone. Unlike muted, fast-scrolling social feeds, CTV delivers non-skippable, full-screen engagement. Fisher also highlighted the power of co-viewing, with families and friends gathered around the main household screen for cultural moments such as Married at First Sight and the NRL.
• Massive incremental reach: 9Now reaches more than 5.3 million Australians each month, delivering 19% incremental reach beyond traditional linear TV while capturing streaming-first audiences.

• Unmatched credibility: Television remains Australia's most trusted advertising medium (49%). Appearing on the big screen instantly boosts perceived credibility, helping brands stand out from crowded, unmoderated social feeds.

   

  Visualising the CTV halo effect: The 72-hour consumer journey

  "The path to purchase can be messy and complicated," Fisher said. "What we find with advertisers using Nine Ad Manager is that a lot of branded search will increase, and your retargeting pools will increase across social."

  To demonstrate how streaming TV supercharges performance marketing, Fisher walked the audience through a typical 72-hour consumer journey:

  • Day 1: The initial spark. A user watches The Block on 9Now. Your brand is introduced in a premium, highly trusted environment with full-screen attention.
  • Day 2: Trusted recall. The following day, the same user sees your ad on Instagram. Having already seen the brand on TV, it carries greater credibility. They recognise it, pause and engage rather than scrolling past.
  • Day 3: Branded intent. Ready to purchase, the user searches Google. Instead of using a generic, highly competitive category term, they search specifically for your brand, reducing acquisition costs and increasing the likelihood of conversion.

  

  Take control of growth with Nine Ad Manager

  Historically, TV advertising has felt out of reach for growing e-commerce brands because of high budgets, agency-buying models, and expensive production.

  Nine Ad Manager removes those barriers, giving businesses direct, self-serve access to Australia's No. 1 network and its most popular programs.

  Fisher highlighted four core features:

  • Hyper-targeted data: Because 9Now viewers are logged in, brands can target audiences using rich first-party data, including postcode, age, gender, and Nine masthead reading habits, combined with third-party behavioural segments such as active online shoppers, renovators, car buyers, and fashion enthusiasts.
  • AI-powered creative generator: Don't have a TV commercial? The platform can scan an existing website, extract visual assets, generate a script, create a professional voiceover and allow users to customise colours and fonts. Existing social video assets can also be uploaded directly.
  • Flexible budgets and tentpole campaigns: Campaigns start from $500 plus GST, with no lock-in contracts. Retailers can run always-on campaigns or buy around major moments such as The Block premiere or the NRL Grand Final.
  • Cross-device pixel attribution: A dedicated tracking pixel measures on-site conversions by matching IP addresses between connected TVs and secondary devices such as phones and laptops. Advertisers receive real-time reporting on page views, add-to-cart activity and sales attributed to TV exposure.

  Fisher closed with a live demonstration of the platform, showing how campaigns can be built, targeted and submitted for review in under five minutes. Campaigns are manually reviewed by Nine's Sydney-based support team before launch to help ensure targeting accuracy and budget efficiency.

  The takeaway for online retailers was clear: streaming TV is no longer reserved for major brands.

  By combining the authority of the big screen with the flexibility of self-serve advertising, Nine Ad Manager offers retailers a practical way to break through the digital ceiling and create new demand.

  Sources

  • ThinkTV Australia (2023) – Pay TV & BVOD Effectiveness / Sales Impact Study 2023. Metric: BVOD delivers 2x sales ROI compared with social video.
  • Nine Entertainment (2024) – Nine Audience Report 2024. Metrics: 5.3 million+ monthly audience, 19% incremental reach beyond linear TV and 36% year-on-year growth.
  • PwC Australia (2023) – Australian Entertainment & Media Outlook / Advertising Trust Study 2023. Metric: Television/BVOD ranked Australia's most trusted advertising medium (49%).