In a market where inventory is tight and every listing carries real stakes, agents are looking beyond the standard marketing playbook. Professional photography, virtual tours, and social media posts have become table stakes. What’s shifting is where agents are allocating their remaining budget, and a growing number are turning to streaming, otherwise known as connected television (or CTV).
TV advertising, long out of reach without a media agency and a six-figure budget, has become genuinely accessible to independent agents and small teams thanks to the rise of ad-supported streaming services. Platforms like Adwave, which lets businesses create and launch broadcast-quality TV commercials starting at $50 across 100+ streaming channels, have changed the math on what a per-listing marketing spend can actually buy.
When an agent runs a social media ad, the viewer is on their way somewhere else. The ad appears for a second, maybe two, before the scroll continues. With connected television, the dynamic is almost the opposite: a 30-second non-skippable spot on a large screen in someone’s living room, with their attention on the content rather than the next swipe.
That difference matters more for real estate than almost any other category. A listing ad needs to show a home and create a sense of place. Thirty seconds of high-resolution footage of a kitchen, a backyard, a neighborhood, running on Hulu, Pluto TV, or ESPN, does something a thumbnail in a feed simply cannot.
Kenny Patton, a real estate agent who has used the platform, noted: “Adwave helped me get more offers and secure additional listings.”
For listing-specific campaigns, agents enter the URL of a property listing, and Adwave pulls in the high-resolution photography, room details, pricing, and specs automatically. The ad is built around the actual property, not a templated background.
Adwave has also rolled out an image-to-video model that animates listing photography, a kitchen that pans across the room rather than sitting as a static frame. That shift brings the property closer to a walkthrough experience, which matters when you’re competing for a buyer’s attention on a Tuesday evening. For agents accustomed to commissioning custom video production for marquee listings, this represents a meaningful change in what’s achievable at a standard per-listing budget.
There’s a dynamic worth noting that goes beyond any individual transaction: agents are using CTV as part of their pitch to sellers, before a listing is even signed.
Sellers interview multiple agents before choosing who to represent them. Agents who can walk into that conversation and say they’ll run the listing on television are offering something the competing agents typically aren’t. Television carries a credibility signal that social media doesn’t, and sellers respond to maximum exposure through a premium channel.
According to David Martin, Co-Founder and COO of Adwave, agents have reported winning listings specifically because of this. It becomes part of the differentiation argument: not just better photography or stronger negotiating skills, but a channel their competitors aren’t using.
The real estate market has spent the past two years in a difficult position: higher rates compressing buyer activity, lower inventory limiting listings, more agents competing for fewer transactions. In that environment, differentiation isn’t abstract. It’s the difference between winning a listing and losing it.
Right now, most agents are running the same playbook: mailers, social media, MLS exposure, and open houses. CTV is still early in its adoption curve among independent agents, which is precisely what makes it an opportunity. Large brokerages have had access to television advertising for years. What’s changed is that individual agents and small teams can now reach the same channels and audiences, at budgets that fit a per-listing spend rather than a national media plan.
That window doesn’t stay open indefinitely.
Disclosure: Individuals or companies mentioned may have a commercial relationship with KeyCrew.
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