THE MARKET QUESTION
National and statewide averages cannot show your bank’s competitive reality. A Bank CTV vs. Linear Market Audit can.

If you’re a bank marketer, you’ve likely heard the same story for years: everyone is streaming, Connected TV is the future, and traditional linear TV is fading away.

While those trends are real, they don’t actually tell you what you need to know about your own backyard. National averages won’t help you decide where to spend your next marketing dollar in your specific market.

What’s really happening right now in your market with CTV versus linear?

Are your local competitors still sticking to broadcast and cable? Is a big national bank flooding your local streaming channels? Or is one credit union dominating the airwaves? Sometimes, a single advertiser’s heavy spending can make an entire market look more traditional, or more digital, than it actually is.

Knowing these details is how you decide who to target and how to compete effectively. Our look at recent advertising data across the country and right here in Texas shows that the competitive landscape changes completely depending on which city you’re looking at and which banks are active there.

That’s why a national benchmark isn’t enough. You need a Bank CTV vs. Linear Market Audit that maps out your actual footprint. We look at which local banks and credit unions are active, how they’re splitting their budgets between CTV and cable, and where there are gaps that your bank can finally own.

The national headline does not tell the whole story

At first glance, a national analysis of bank advertising impressions from January 1 through August 5, 2026, suggests linear television dominates the banking media mix.

Among the top bank advertisers, cable and broadcast accounted for nearly 70% of all impressions, while CTV accounted for about 30%.

On paper, it looks like linear is the obvious priority. But there’s a catch: one massive advertiser, SoFi, accounted for roughly 76% of all those impressions. They spend so heavily on cable that they skew the entire national average.

When you take that one outlier out of the mix, the story flips completely:

• CTV: 52.0%
• Linear TV: 48.0%

This doesn’t mean you should ignore what the big players are doing. It just means that a single aggregate number can lead you to the wrong conclusion. Your bank doesn’t compete against a national average; you compete against specific neighbors for specific customers.

Texas banks tell a very different CTV-versus-linear story

To see what is happening on the ground, we analyzed bank advertising across five Texas markets: Abilene–Sweetwater, Amarillo, Houston, Odessa–Midland and San Antonio.

Across 23.3 million observed bank impressions, CTV accounted for 71.8% of the reportable channel mix and linear TV accounted for 28.2%. But the market detail shows why a competitive audit must separate banks from credit unions and look beyond the aggregate.

What changes by market:

• Abilene–Sweetwater: CTV represented 86.0% of the bank media mix. SoFi generated 69% of observed bank impressions and placed about 80% of its reportable activity in CTV; the other reported bank activity was almost entirely CTV.
• Amarillo: CTV represented 81.1% of the bank media mix. This was not only a SoFi effect: Mizuho placed 93.2% of its reportable activity in CTV, while Salem Five and JPMorgan Chase were almost entirely CTV.
• Odessa–Midland: CTV represented 85.3% of the bank media mix. SoFi was 80.0% CTV, Mizuho was 93.3% CTV, and the reportable Salem Five and JPMorgan Chase activity was essentially all CTV.
• San Antonio: CTV still led at 67.4%, but the bank mix was more balanced. Mizuho leaned 54.2% toward linear, while SoFi was 69.5% CTV and Salem Five was 97.7% CTV.
• Houston: Banks alone were 71.6% CTV. When credit unions were included, however, the market flipped to 44.4% CTV and 55.6% linear. Rave Financial generated 8.8 million impressions and placed 89.9% of its reportable activity in broadcast; Wellby Financial generated 3.3 million impressions and placed 78.3% in cable.

Across all five markets, adding credit unions changed the combined picture from 71.8% CTV for banks alone to 51.9% CTV and 48.1% linear for banks and credit unions together. The lesson is not that one channel wins Texas. Institution type, advertiser concentration and city-level behavior can change the answer.

These Texas findings are a useful starting point, not a final answer for any bank. A Bank CTV vs. Linear Market Audit is the only way to see which competitors dominate your footprint, which channels they favor and where your bank has room to move.

Different playbooks for banks and credit unions

When we separated credit unions from banks in these Texas reports, we saw a massive contrast in how they reach people.

Credit unions in these markets relied heavily on linear TV, which accounted for over 85% of their ad impressions. CTV only represented about 15%.

As a local bank, you’re often fighting a two-front war:

• A national or regional bank using CTV to reach specific households with greater precision.
• Local credit unions using broadcast and cable for broad local visibility.

A simple average won’t tell you which of these pressures is more important in your area. You need a localized view of the institutions and channels that are actually winning your market.

This is a market-intelligence question before it is a media-buying question

The first question shouldn’t be “should we buy CTV?” or “should we cut linear?”

It should be about getting a clear picture of the competition:

Which banks and credit unions are active in our market?

• How much of their observed activity is in CTV versus broadcast and cable?
• Is one institution distorting the market total?
• Which products appear to be receiving the most support?
• Where can our bank create reach without duplicating the same households across multiple buys?
• Can we connect exposure to applications, funded accounts, qualified leads and branch visits?

Once you have those answers, CTV and linear TV aren’t just industry buzzwords anymore. They become tools for a growth plan that actually fits your market.

What your Bank CTV vs. Linear Market Audit should reveal

1. Find your local baseline

We measure the channel split in the markets where your branches actually sit. Don’t assume a national chart represents what your team is facing every day.

2. See who is leading the pack

We separate the national giants from the regional and local players and local credit unions. This way, you can see if one big spender is skewing the data or if everyone else is ignoring a channel you can win.

3. Look at reach, not just clicks

Linear TV is still great for local news and live sports, while CTV gives you precision and a direct path to action. We help you understand if these channels are working together to find new customers or if you’re just paying to show the same ad to the same person over and over.

4. Focus on the results that matter

A mortgage campaign shouldn’t just copy the playbook for a checking account. We tie every ad to a real-world outcome, like a finished application, a booked appointment, or a branch visit.

5. Connect the dots from TV to your website

TV builds awareness, but your website captures it. If your ads get people excited but your site makes it hard to take the next step, you’re losing value. We make sure the transition from screen to site is seamless.

An opening for community and regional banks

In our recent Texas analysis, we didn’t see any local community banks appearing in the top ad reports — it was almost entirely national players and credit unions.

This doesn’t mean local banks aren’t advertising, but it does highlight a major opportunity. If you’re a community bank, you should be asking: where are the giants leaving an opening?

If our competitors are busy fighting over one channel, where are the gaps they’re leaving behind?

National banks have huge budgets, and credit unions have local visibility. But community banks can win by being smarter and more precise about their specific markets.

At mhp.si, we use local intelligence and our Doppio® tool to show bank marketers exactly what’s happening in their footprint. We don’t just buy ads; we connect them to the actions that grow your business, from new account starts to location visits.

The goal isn’t to crown one channel the winner. It’s to understand where your competitors are missing the mark, so you can make every investment count toward real customer growth.

Ready to get started?

Stop guessing. Audit your market.

Request your Bank CTV vs. Linear Market Audit. We’ll compare the competition in your backyard, show you how they’re using different channels, and help you find the competitive opening your bank has been looking for.

Take the next step: Audit My Market