For years, streaming TV has promised accountability. But too often, measurement stopped short of action. Advertisers could measure reach, frequency, and even outcomes—but turning those signals into real-time action was another story. With a new expansion of our partnership, Roku and iSpot are aiming to close that gap by bringing outcome-based optimization directly into the streaming workflow.
In this Q&A, TVREV’s Jon Lafayette sits down with Stu Schwartzapfel, EVP of Media Partnerships at iSpot, and Miles Fisher, Senior Director of Strategic Advertising Partnerships at Roku. Together, they unpack how outcome-based optimization works in practice, what early results are showing, and why outcomes—not impressions—are becoming the real currency of streaming TV.
Jon Lafayette: Tell me about the partnership between Roku and iSpot.
Miles Fisher: We’re really excited about the announcement this week. This is a continuation of a deep partnership we’ve had with iSpot for a number of years. We announced the initial integration at CES last year and spent much of this year building and testing it.
At a high level, Roku is now the first major streaming publisher leveraging iSpot’s Outcomes at Scale product specifically to optimize inventory in real time based on outcomes. Historically, as a publisher, we were largely dependent on DSP-level optimizations and post-campaign reports from brands or agencies. Now, we can use iSpot-attributed outcomes to track ROI, adjust creative strategies, throttle inventory, and optimize toward real business outcomes while campaigns are in flight.
In early testing, we saw a 23% increase in leads and a 31% lift in website visits, which gives us a lot of confidence as we roll this out to more joint Roku–iSpot customers.
Stu Schwartzapfel: To add some context, Jon—Roku isn’t the first publisher to use our Outcomes at Scale offering, but they are the first to use it specifically for outcome-based optimization.
When we launched Outcomes at Scale about a year ago with Paramount and other traditional networks, it was largely focused on aggregate campaign-level insights—how a campaign was trending against certain outcomes. What we’re doing with Roku and the SimpliSafe test goes much deeper.
We’re taking in-flight signals and using them not just for reporting, but to actively improve campaign performance while it’s running. That’s the next evolution of Outcomes at Scale—moving from insight to action.
Jon Lafayette: When you talk about optimizing campaigns, are you looking at the totality of a brand’s media spend, or just what they’re buying on Roku?
Stu Schwartzapfel: It depends. In many cases, Roku and iSpot share clients—SimpliSafe is a good example. Roku has visibility into performance tied specifically to their inventory, while advertisers have a broader view across all publishers they’re buying.
What makes this partnership unique is the level of access and integration. Because of our relationship with Roku and access to their identity signals, we’re able to tune performance in ways advertisers couldn’t easily replicate elsewhere.
Miles Fisher: This fits into Roku’s broader interoperability and performance strategy. Advertisers already choose to work with iSpot and Roku, and they’re typically buying across multiple publishers. They can decide how much data to share back with Roku, but the more they share, the more effectively we can optimize.
In the SimpliSafe example, we were able to create customer cohorts and hold out certain inventory—something we hadn’t done before. Because Roku is the largest TV operating system in North America, with a massive amount of inventory and deterministic identity, we can throttle and reallocate supply in ways that benefit everyone in the ecosystem.
Jon Lafayette: So when you throttle inventory, that means shifting spend away from underperforming inventory toward what’s working better?
Miles Fisher: Exactly. Not all inventory performs equally, and different advertisers have different outcomes they’re trying to drive. What we’re doing is finding the right inventory for the right user—something programmatic has always promised, but rarely delivered at the publisher level.
With iSpot’s outcome signals, we can optimize campaigns in real time, more like traditional digital advertising, rather than waiting until after the quarter ends to make adjustments.
Jon Lafayette: In the SimpliSafe campaign, they were buying from other publishers like Paramount. Were they able to see how that inventory compared?
Stu Schwartzapfel: When a brand deploys our pixel for unified measurement, they get a full cross-platform view—linear and CTV—including reach, frequency, incrementality, and outcomes. I can’t speak to how Paramount performed specifically, but I can say that for Roku we ran a true test-and-control.
We compared a cohort optimized using outcome signals against a non-optimized cohort and saw meaningful lifts in both leads and website visits. The key difference is granularity—we’re not just optimizing based on channels or shows, but on behavioral cohorts with specific characteristics.
Jon Lafayette: FAST measurement is notoriously complicated. Where is this data coming from?
Stu Schwartzapfel: From an ACR standpoint, our base detection is primarily powered by VIZIO, but we layer in many other data sets to enhance and contextualize that signal—demographics, co-viewing, geography, and more.
In this case, Roku is also contributing deterministic, ID-based signals as part of the measurement. VIZIO is a core ACR partner, but Roku adds a significant layer of precision.
Miles Fisher: To be clear, what we’re doing with iSpot is completely independent of Walmart or VIZIO. Roku’s advantage is that we have deterministic identity at the operating-system level. FAST services like Pluto or Tubi don’t have that login layer—we do.
That allows us to understand who the user is, build cohorts, and optimize inventory, while iSpot provides the outcome signal that makes the flywheel work.
Jon Lafayette: How important are outcomes to Roku’s sales process overall?
Miles Fisher: Outcomes are incredibly important, but they need to be applied thoughtfully. We believe the future of media buying is automated and performance-driven—but TV is still a unique medium.
Not every advertiser wants to optimize for bottom-funnel outcomes. Some care most about reach and frequency, others about mid-funnel engagement. iSpot is a strong partner because they take a full-funnel view, which allows us to fit into whatever framework the advertiser is using.
Stu Schwartzapfel: If you rewind even a year or two, outcomes were largely a post-campaign exercise. What’s powerful here is bringing outcomes upstream—into the live campaign experience.
We’re feeding Roku outcome signals twice a day across active campaigns. That gives them an always-on pulse not just on reach and frequency, but on the KPIs advertisers actually care about. And now, those insights can be used to optimize at a granular level, not just report at the end.
Jon Lafayette: You’ve worked together for a while. What led you to go deeper?
Stu Schwartzapfel: Our relationship started about five years ago when Roku licensed iSpot’s ad catalog for linear TV as a source of truth for what aired. That expanded last year into audience and outcomes measurement.
What I’ve learned working with Roku is their willingness to actually act on data—not just talk about innovation. They’re using their data assets and allowing partners like iSpot to apply independent measurement to improve advertiser outcomes.
Miles Fisher: We’re both technology-first companies. Roku isn’t content-led—we win on scale, identity, and data. Partners like iSpot help us turn those advantages into measurable performance for advertisers.
And I’ll add—Stu is also an incredible tennis player. He hustled me pretty badly.
Jon Lafayette: We’ll save that for another story. Anything else I missed?
Miles Fisher: Just that this has been a successful beta. We’re opening it up to more advertisers across Roku and iSpot, and we see it as a way to bring new advertisers into the ecosystem as we head toward the upfronts.
Jon Lafayette: Is this opt-in?
Stu Schwartzapfel: Right now, it’s still in beta. It’s not broadly available yet, but it will be offered more widely in 2026. We’re validating performance with advertisers like SimpliSafe before scaling.