IAB has released The Role of Conversion API in Closing the Outcome Gap for CTV, a first-of-its-kind guide showing how Conversion APIs (CAPI) can unlock the full performance potential of Connected TV (CTV). Designed for brands, agencies, publishers, and ad tech partners, the guide explains how CAPI can standardize measurement, enable privacy-safe data collaboration, and help CTV deliver the same performance outcomes marketers expect from channels like search and social.
The report marks a turning point for the industry as advertisers increasingly demand proof of outcomes. IAB warns that without standardized, scalable adoption of CAPI, CTV risks losing performance budgets to more measurable channels. CAPI offers a path forward by enabling direct, server-to-server data flows that securely connect ad exposure to business results—bringing greater transparency, accountability, and comparability across platforms.
While CTV continues to grow as a vital part of the media mix, it remains one of the most challenging channels to measure due to fragmentation, limited identifiers, and technical barriers. Implementing CAPI helps overcome these hurdles by enabling accurate, privacy-safe measurement, unlocking faster optimization, and establishing true cross-channel parity.
The guide serves as both a call to action and a practical roadmap, showing how collaboration and standardization can make CTV measurable, scalable, and outcome driven.
Explore five key steps to start implementing CAPI and accelerate measurable growth in CTV.
Download the IAB Standardized CAPI Decision Tree, which will help your organization assess readiness for server-side data integrations, simplifying decisions across data, technology, and operations. By standardizing event taxonomy and data flows, it reduces complexity and enables teams to focus on performance and insights.