Insights
November 03, 2025
Is TV advertising effective for local businesses? (Q4 2025)
Table of Contents
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$17.27B
US local TV advertising market 2025
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89%
US adults reached weekly by TV
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2.2x
Higher recall for TV ads vs mobile
Local TV advertising in the US is projected to reach $17.27 billion in 2025, demonstrating the continued confidence regional businesses place in television as a marketing channel. While national brands dominate headlines with Super Bowl spots and streaming service integrations, local businesses from restaurants to auto repair shops are quietly building substantial customer bases through targeted TV campaigns.
The effectiveness question deserves a direct answer: yes, TV advertising works for local businesses, and the evidence suggests it works particularly well when combined with modern targeting capabilities. Traditional broadcast television reaches approximately 89% of US adults weekly (Driftlead), providing the kind of broad local awareness that digital channels often struggle to achieve efficiently.
What's changed is how local businesses can access TV advertising and measure its impact. Connected TV has opened doors that were previously locked behind minimum spending requirements and agency relationships. Streaming platforms now represent one-third of all TV ad spend, and that share continues growing as more households complete their migration from cable to streaming services.
The transformation goes beyond mere accessibility. Modern targeting capabilities allow local businesses to focus their TV advertising on specific geographic areas, demographic profiles, and even behavioral characteristics. A local orthodontist can target families with children in specific school districts. A luxury home builder can focus on high-income households in premium neighborhoods. This precision was simply impossible in the broadcast era, where buying local TV meant reaching an entire media market regardless of how specific your ideal customer profile might be.
The measurement evolution has been equally transformative. Attribution tools now connect TV ad exposure to tangible business outcomes: website visits, phone calls, foot traffic, and actual purchases. Local businesses no longer need to take TV advertising effectiveness on faith; they can see precisely how many people visited their website after seeing a commercial and track those visitors through to conversion. This accountability makes TV advertising justify itself through the same metrics that digital channels have long provided.
Breaking down the numbers
The data supporting local TV advertising effectiveness spans multiple dimensions, from reach and recall to measurable business outcomes:
Market size: Local TV advertising in the US is forecast at $17.27 billion in 2025 (Amra and Elma)
Weekly reach: Traditional TV reaches approximately 89% of US adults weekly (Driftlead)
Recall advantage: TV ads yield 2.2x higher unaided recall than identical ads on mobile screens (StreamTV Insider)
Attention rates: Overall attention to CTV ads reached 51.5%, with premium CTV content at 56.1% (AI Digital)
ROI performance: When including long-term profit, TV has one of the highest ROIs of any media channel (Thinkbox)
Live sports dominance: 92 of the top 100 most-watched telecasts are live sports broadcasts (Tegna)
Addressable adoption: 80% of advertisers are using or planning to use addressable TV in 2025 (AI Digital)
Profit attribution: Linear TV alone accounts for 46.6% of full advertising-generated profit (Thinkbox)
These numbers tell a consistent story: TV advertising, whether traditional broadcast or streaming, delivers reach, attention, and recall at levels that make it particularly valuable for local businesses building brand awareness in their communities. The data supports treating TV as a core marketing channel rather than an experimental add-on.
The rise of connected TV for local advertisers
Connected TV has fundamentally changed the accessibility of TV advertising for local businesses. Previously, running TV ads meant negotiating with local stations, meeting minimum spending thresholds, and accepting broad demographic targeting. Now, businesses can launch campaigns on streaming platforms with budgets starting at $50 and targeting specific neighborhoods within their service area.
The technology democratization is remarkable. A local plumber in Austin can now run the same quality TV advertisement on the same streaming platforms as national brands, targeting only households within their service radius. This granular geographic targeting eliminates the waste inherent in traditional broadcast advertising, where local businesses paid to reach viewers who lived too far away to ever become customers.
CTV now represents one-third of all TV ad spend, with ad budgets in this segment increasing approximately 20% annually (International Advertising Solutions). This growth reflects advertiser satisfaction with results. Local businesses aren't increasing CTV spending out of curiosity; they're doing so because the campaigns are working and the measurement capabilities prove it.
The shift also brings measurability that traditional TV lacked. Modern streaming platforms can track whether someone who saw your TV ad later visited your website, used a promotional code, or took other measurable actions. This accountability transforms TV from a trust-based awareness channel into a performance marketing tool with demonstrable ROI.
The attention advantage compounds TV advertising's effectiveness. Premium CTV content garners 56.1% attention rates, substantially higher than the attention levels typical of social media feeds or display advertising where consumers have trained themselves to ignore promotional content. When viewers sit down to watch a show on their smart TV, they're in a receptive, lean-back mode that creates better conditions for message absorption.
Live sports and events remain particularly effective for local businesses targeting broad local audiences. With 92 of the top 100 most-watched telecasts being live sports broadcasts, local businesses can access engaged audiences during appointment viewing moments. A local auto dealer advertising during the big game reaches viewers who are present, paying attention, and often watching with others who reinforce the messaging exposure.
How local targeting changes the equation
Traditional broadcast TV forced local businesses into an uncomfortable position: paying to reach entire metropolitan areas when they only served specific neighborhoods or suburbs. A restaurant in suburban Denver would pay the same rates as one with three downtown locations, despite having a fraction of the relevant audience within their realistic customer radius.
Modern local TV advertising through streaming platforms eliminates this inefficiency. Businesses can define their target area down to specific zip codes, setting a radius around their location that matches their actual customer draw. A 10-mile radius for a dental practice, a 25-mile radius for a destination restaurant, or a metropolitan-wide approach for a regional brand with multiple locations.
This precision doesn't sacrifice reach within the target area. Within a defined 15-mile radius, a local business can achieve meaningful frequency with households that are genuinely reachable as customers. The advertising dollars concentrate where they matter rather than dispersing across an entire media market.
The geographic targeting combines with demographic and behavioral targeting that streaming platforms enable. A local gym doesn't just reach households within 10 miles; it reaches health-conscious adults within 10 miles who stream fitness content and have shown interest in wellness services. This layered targeting creates efficiency that traditional local TV never offered.
Budget efficiency follows directly from targeting precision. When a local business can define exactly which households see their ads, they eliminate the spending waste that made traditional TV feel expensive for local budgets. The CPM for streaming TV typically ranges from $15-35, averaging around $25 for small businesses. At that rate, a $500 monthly budget delivers approximately 20,000 targeted impressions to households within your service area. That same $500 on traditional broadcast might have delivered more total impressions but scattered across an entire media market with no geographic precision.
The timing flexibility of streaming platforms also benefits local businesses. Traditional TV advertising locked advertisers into specific dayparts and committed spending patterns. Streaming platforms allow real-time budget adjustments, campaign pauses, and tactical timing around business needs. A lawn care company can increase spending in spring and pause entirely in winter. A tax preparation service can concentrate budget in the weeks before April 15th. This flexibility makes TV advertising responsive to business reality in ways traditional approaches never allowed.
Why it matters for your business
Local businesses face a fundamental marketing challenge: building awareness within a geographic area where they compete against both local competitors and national chains with substantial marketing budgets. TV advertising addresses this challenge by placing local businesses on the same screens where consumers see national brand advertising, creating legitimacy and presence that other channels struggle to match.
The credibility factor is particularly important for local businesses. A consumer who sees a local law firm's commercial on their smart TV alongside advertisements from national brands perceives that firm differently than if they'd only seen Facebook ads or Google results. TV presence signals stability, success, and trustworthiness in ways that affect purchasing decisions.
For service-area businesses like HVAC contractors, plumbers, electricians, and landscapers, TV advertising builds the mental availability that influences decisions during moments of need. When the furnace breaks in January, homeowners call businesses they remember, and TV advertising creates the recall that gets local businesses on that mental shortlist.
Retailers and restaurants benefit from TV's ability to showcase atmosphere, food presentation, and shopping experiences in ways that static images and text descriptions cannot. A 30-second commercial can communicate brand personality, staff friendliness, and product quality through motion and sound, creating emotional connections that drive store visits.
The competitive dynamics favor local businesses that move early. Most local markets remain under-penetrated by streaming TV advertisers, meaning businesses that establish presence now face less competition for viewer attention than they will in coming years. As more local businesses discover the accessibility of streaming TV advertising, the advantage of early adoption will diminish. The time to build brand presence is before competitors saturate the channel.
Local businesses also benefit from the premium content environment where streaming ads appear. Unlike social media feeds where business content competes with cat videos and political arguments, streaming TV ads appear alongside professional content from major networks. This context creates positive associations and credibility that enhance the perceived quality of advertising businesses.
How to take advantage of this trend
Local businesses can access TV advertising's benefits without the traditional barriers of high minimums and agency relationships. Here's how to approach local TV advertising strategically:
Start with geographic precision: Define your realistic customer service area and target only those households. Resist the temptation to go broader; concentrated frequency beats dispersed reach.
Match creative to context: Develop video content that works in the streaming environment. Shorter attention spans and skippable formats reward clear messaging and immediate brand identification.
Layer targeting strategically: Combine geographic targeting with demographic and interest-based targeting to reach your ideal customers. A children's dentist targets families with young children within their service area.
Set realistic frequency goals: Plan for 3-7 exposures per household per week during campaign periods. Less than three creates insufficient recall; more than seven wastes budget on diminishing returns.
Measure what matters: Use attribution tools to connect TV ad exposure to website visits, phone calls, and in-store traffic. Modern platforms make this measurement accessible.
Time campaigns strategically: Align TV advertising with your business cycles. Seasonal businesses concentrate spending during peak demand periods; year-round businesses maintain consistent presence.
The accessibility of streaming TV advertising means local businesses can test the channel without committing to long-term contracts or substantial minimums. A $500-$1,000 initial test campaign provides enough data to evaluate effectiveness before scaling investment.
Creative production no longer represents the barrier it once did. Historically, local businesses avoided TV advertising partly because of production costs. Professional commercial production could cost $5,000-$50,000 or more, creating a significant investment before any advertising spend began. Modern AI-powered creative tools can generate professional TV commercials from business information and existing assets, often at no additional cost beyond the media spend itself.
The measurement infrastructure has also matured to serve local business needs. Advanced attribution connects TV ad exposure to website visits, phone calls, and foot traffic, providing the accountability that local businesses require before committing marketing dollars. This measurement capability transforms TV from a "trust me" awareness channel into a performance marketing tool with demonstrable returns.
The bigger picture
TV advertising effectiveness for local businesses exists within broader trends reshaping media consumption and advertising capabilities. The shift from cable to streaming continues accelerating, with streaming representing 43.8% of overall TV time in the US as of March 2025, an increase of 10 points in just two years (Nielsen). This migration brings more households into the addressable TV ecosystem where local targeting is possible.
The advertising industry's adoption of addressable TV reflects growing confidence in the approach. With 80% of advertisers now using or planning to use addressable TV, and 63% of advertisers confirming that addressable capabilities influenced their upfront deals during 2024-2025, the technology has moved from experimental to mainstream.
For local businesses, these trends create opportunity. The infrastructure, targeting capabilities, and measurement tools that major brands have used for years are now accessible at price points that work for local budgets. The question isn't whether TV advertising can work for local businesses; it's whether local businesses will take advantage of the window while their competitors haven't yet discovered it.
The brands that establish TV presence now build awareness advantages that compound over time. When a local business becomes the familiar name that consumers remember, that recognition persists and influences decisions long after individual ad campaigns conclude.
The intersection of local advertising growth and streaming TV adoption creates particular opportunity. Local advertising revenue in the US grew 9% in 2024, demonstrating continued investment in reaching consumers by geography. Simultaneously, streaming represents an increasing share of total TV viewing, meaning more local audiences are reachable through the precise targeting that streaming platforms enable. These trends reinforce each other, making local TV advertising increasingly effective as the targeting infrastructure and audience presence both mature.
Consumer behavior patterns also favor TV advertising for local businesses. Research consistently shows that TV ads create stronger recall than equivalent digital ads, with viewers 2.2x more likely to remember TV ads compared to mobile ads. For local businesses, this recall matters enormously. When someone needs an emergency plumber or decides to try a new restaurant, they call or visit the businesses they remember. TV advertising builds the mental presence that influences these decisions.
Frequently asked questions
What's the minimum budget for local TV advertising?
Traditional broadcast local TV often requires monthly commitments of $2,000-$5,000 or more, depending on the market. Streaming TV platforms have dramatically lower barriers, with CTV campaigns possible starting at $50. Most local businesses find $500-$2,000 monthly provides sufficient frequency to build meaningful awareness within their target areas.
How do I know if TV is working for my local business?
Modern streaming platforms provide attribution that connects ad exposure to measurable actions. Track website visits, phone calls, coupon redemptions, and in-store traffic during and after campaigns. Compare these metrics against baseline periods without TV advertising. Many businesses also notice increases in branded search queries and direct navigation to their websites.
Should I use traditional broadcast or streaming TV?
For most local businesses, streaming TV offers better targeting efficiency and lower minimums. Traditional broadcast still makes sense for businesses with broad appeal across an entire media market or those specifically targeting older demographics who over-index on traditional TV viewing. Many sophisticated advertisers use both channels in combination.
What types of local businesses benefit most from TV advertising?
Service-area businesses with strong lifetime customer value see excellent returns: medical practices, legal services, home services, and automotive repair. Restaurants and retailers benefit from TV's ability to showcase atmosphere and products. Any local business competing against national chains can use TV advertising to establish credibility and local presence.
Professional services with high transaction values, including law firms, financial advisors, and real estate agents, particularly benefit from TV's credibility-building effects. The trust required for high-stakes services makes TV's premium environment valuable for establishing authority. Healthcare providers including dental practices, chiropractors, and urgent care facilities use TV to build familiarity that reduces patient anxiety about trying new providers.
Is TV advertising more effective than digital for local businesses?
The comparison isn't quite either/or. TV and digital advertising serve different purposes and work best in combination. TV excels at building broad awareness and creating the mental availability that influences decisions when need arises. Digital advertising excels at capturing existing demand from people actively searching for solutions. Smart local businesses use TV to create demand and digital to capture it, recognizing that both channels contribute to business growth through different mechanisms.
How long should I run TV campaigns?
Meaningful results typically require 4-8 weeks of consistent presence. Shorter campaigns may not achieve sufficient frequency to build recall. Many local businesses adopt a flight pattern, running 6-8 week campaigns followed by breaks, then resuming. Year-round businesses often maintain consistent lower-level presence with periodic intensity increases around seasonal peaks.
The key principle is reaching adequate frequency before evaluating effectiveness. A campaign that runs for one week might reach your target households once or twice, which is insufficient to create lasting recall. The same budget spread over four weeks achieves the 3-7 exposure frequency that research shows optimizes awareness and recall. Patience in campaign duration often separates successful TV advertisers from those who give up too quickly after inadequate tests.
Supporting data
The evidence supporting local TV advertising effectiveness spans industry research, platform data, and advertiser surveys. Key supporting findings include:
Global TV ad market growth: The market is projected to rise from $101.6 billion in 2024 to $103.92 billion in 2025 (New York Interconnect)
CTV spending trajectory: Connected TV ad spend projected to reach $32.57 billion in 2025, up 16% year-over-year (SEO Design Chicago)
Local advertising growth: Local advertising revenue in the US grew 9% in 2024, surpassing $175 billion total (Statista)
New brand entry: Over 900 new brands have entered TV advertising since 2021, collectively spending more than $4 billion (Marketing Dive)
Viewing habits: Americans still watch around 5.5 hours of broadcast or cable TV daily (Tegna)
Full profit ROI: Linear TV delivers average full profit ROI of £5.94 per pound invested (Thinkbox)
These metrics demonstrate TV advertising's continued effectiveness while highlighting the shift toward measurable, targeted approaches that particularly benefit local businesses.
The advertising industry's continued investment in TV demonstrates collective confidence in the channel's effectiveness. Over 900 new brands have entered TV advertising since 2021, collectively spending more than $4 billion. This influx includes many local and regional businesses discovering that TV advertising has become accessible at their budget levels. The new advertiser entry rate suggests the channel's reputation for effectiveness is attracting businesses that previously considered TV beyond their reach.
The full-funnel capabilities of modern TV advertising amplify its effectiveness for local businesses. Rather than treating TV purely as an awareness channel, sophisticated advertisers use TV exposure to trigger cross-device retargeting, following up with display and social ads to viewers who saw TV commercials. This integration connects TV's awareness-building power with digital's conversion optimization, creating campaign performance that exceeds what either channel delivers independently.
Ready to get started?
TV advertising has never been more accessible for local businesses. The combination of streaming platform democratization, precise geographic targeting, and measurable results creates an opportunity that rewards early movers. Adwave makes it simple to create professional TV commercials and launch targeted campaigns on 100+ premium streaming channels, starting at just $50. See how TV advertising can work for your local business and start building the brand awareness that drives sustainable growth.