QR Codes have become the not-so-secret weapon in connected TV (CTV) ad campaigns. While some smart TVs offer limited interactivity via remotes, QR Codes give viewers a faster, more universal way to take action—just point, scan, and go.
For media brands, QR Codes in CTV ads aren’t just about convenience. They unlock real-time engagement data that helps teams understand what’s working, when, and with whom. From measuring scan volume to optimizing creatives and timing, QR Code insights turn traditional TV campaigns into measurable, performance-driven strategies.
Here, we’ll break down what QR Code scans reveal about viewer behavior—and how Bitly gives marketers the tools to capture and act on CTV ad data.
Note: The brands and examples discussed below were found during our online research for this article.
Why QR Codes are taking over CTV campaigns
There are plenty of smart reasons to use QR Codes on CTV ads—and they go well beyond novelty or convenience. As more viewers stream content through smart TVs, brands are rethinking how to turn passive watching into measurable action. Here’s what’s driving QR Code adoption in CTV ad campaigns.
Viewers are watching but not clicking
In the past, TV advertising was all about building brand awareness and loyalty. Large-scale commercial campaigns could grab your target audience’s attention, but there was no clear way to track who took action—like making a purchase or visiting a website—or whether they did at all.
Even with today’s connected TV platforms, taking that next step isn’t always simple. While some CTV ads include clickable calls-to-action (CTAs), they’re often hard to navigate with a remote or easy to miss altogether.
That’s where QR Codes shine—offering viewers a fast, frictionless way to act in the moment. With just a scan using their smartphone camera, they’re instantly taken to a landing page, social media profile, or any other digital destination you choose.
This is especially effective because today’s viewers almost always have second screens within reach. In fact, 83% of Americans use mobile devices while watching TV—making it easy to scan a QR Code the moment it appears.
QR Codes make TV ads actionable and measurable
QR Codes bridge the gap between passive TV viewership and active engagement. Adding a QR Code to your CTV ad instantly makes it interactive. Viewers can scan the code to shop featured products, sign up for a newsletter, or download your app—turning interest into action in seconds. This simple interaction creates a richer and more memorable brand experience.
CTV ads with QR Codes deliver better campaign visibility
Traditional TV ads don’t offer much visibility into performance. It’s tough to know who’s watching, what’s resonating, or whether your message is actually driving conversions.
With Bitly Codes, every scan becomes a trackable data point you can analyze in real time. Instead of relying on assumptions, you get hard numbers showing how your audience interacts with your ad. Bitly Analytics can tell you:
- Total number of scans
- Top performing scans (which ad placements are performing best)
- Scans over time
- Location (by city and country)
- Device type and operating system
- Referrer (where the scan originated)
When paired with other analytics tools—like Google Analytics—these insights make it easier to calculate conversion rates, measure your return on investment (ROI), and fine-tune your digital advertising strategy. Plus, attribution gets simpler—you’ll know exactly where your engagement is coming from.
Dynamic QR Codes unlock flexible targeting
All Bitly Codes are dynamic, meaning you can change the destination URL at any time. This gives your digital advertising strategy room to evolve without reprinting or reshooting your CTV ads.
For example, you might update the destination to match a new product offer or personalize landing pages for different audience segments. Instead of starting from scratch, you simply redirect the existing QR Code to a new URL—keeping your campaign agile and relevant.
What insights marketers can learn from CTV QR Code scans
QR Codes on TV commercials offer more than just interactivity—they unlock valuable insights marketers can use to make smarter, data-driven decisions. By analyzing scan behavior, you can better understand your audience’s preferences and improve overall campaign performance. Here’s what you can learn by adding QR Codes to your CTV campaigns.
Scan volume shows real-time ad engagement
Scan volume is one of the most immediate metrics you can track. Spikes during a CTV ad spot suggest your messaging is landing well with viewers in the moment. Try using unique QR Codes across different ad versions or placements to compare engagement and identify your top performers.
Scans over time data reveals viewer intent
Bitly Analytics shows when your audience is engaging with ad experiences via scans over time (by day). This can reveal important viewing behavior, like whether your audience prefers live TV or streaming content on demand.
For example, if your scan volume spikes on Thursdays during a show’s original airtime, it’s a sign that viewers are watching live. But if scans steadily trickle in after the show has already aired, it’s a strong indicator that your audience prefers on-demand viewing.
You can also create identical ads, each with a unique QR Code, and run them across morning, afternoon, and evening slots, then measure which one receives the most scans. This helps you determine where your CTV ads are most effective and optimize ad spend accordingly.
Location insights help optimize regional targeting
With Bitly Analytics, you can also track scan activity by city and country. This reveals where your target audience is most engaged and shows which regions are responding to your campaign messaging.
You might run a nationwide holiday campaign for your retail brand and use scan data to determine which cities generated the most ad engagement. Those insights can inform future geo-specific campaigns or even help you choose where to host in-person events.
Scan device data offers mobile usage insight
Bitly also shows which device types your audience is using to scan—valuable information for optimizing the mobile experience. And since most viewers are scanning CTV QR Codes using their smartphones, mobile optimization is essential.
That’s where Bitly Pages come in. Bitly Pages are customizable, no-code landing pages designed specifically for mobile-first experiences. They help you deliver fast-loading, branded content that looks great on any screen. Whether you’re linking to a product, offer, or sign-up form, Bitly Pages ensure the user experience is smooth, responsive, and engaging.
Engagement patterns influence messaging and creatives
Over time, consistently using QR Codes in your CTV ads helps you identify which creative styles and messages connect best with your audience. You might discover that your target demographic responds more to playful, bold visuals than to sleek, minimalist ones or vice versa.
These insights let you fine-tune ad creatives, CTAs, and offers based on real-world behavior—not guesswork.
Tips for interpreting CTV scan behavior with Bitly
Want to get the most out of your QR Codes for advertisers and improve the viewer experience? These tips will help you turn scan behavior into meaningful insights you can act on.
Use UTMs to tie scans to conversions
UTM links—those short snippets of text added to the end of a URL—help you track where your web traffic is coming from. When you pair Bitly with Google Analytics, adding UTMs to your QR Code destinations makes it easy to see which CTV ads are actually driving results.
Say you’re running the same product ad in two different time slots: 8 AM and 10 PM. You’d create two QR Codes, each linking to the same landing page but with different UTM parameters:
Version 1: yourwebsite.com?utm_source=CTV&utm_medium=QRCode&utm_campaign=primetimeAM
Version 2: yourwebsite.com?utm_source=CTV&utm_medium=QRCode&utm_campaign=primetimePM.
Once the campaign goes live, you can use Google Analytics to see how each time slot performs based on key actions like sign-ups, purchases, or app downloads. It’s a simple way to connect individual scans to real business outcomes and calculate the ROI of your CTV ad QR Codes.
Track engagement across the funnel
While UTMs help attribute specific actions back to CTV ad scans, Bitly also gives you a broader view of how viewers engage beyond that first interaction. Measuring engagement across your Bitly Codes is a great way to gauge top-of-the-funnel buyer interest.
But don’t stop there. Incorporate UTM parameters and Google Analytics to look at what happens after the scan. Are viewers signing up for newsletters? Installing your app? Sharing your link on social media or completing a purchase?
These post-scan behaviors give you a more holistic view of viewer engagement to help you identify which parts of your campaign are working and where there’s room to improve.
Compare performance by placement or creative
Using the same QR Code across your entire campaign limits what you can learn. Instead, create a unique Bitly Code for each ad creative, time slot, or channel.
This allows you to compare how different versions perform and pinpoint which messaging, visuals, and timing combinations drive the most engagement.
Common mistakes to avoid with CTV QR Code ads
To improve the CTV ad QR Code experience, your codes need to be intuitive, trustworthy, and optimized for how viewers actually use them. Here are a few missteps to avoid when building your campaign.
Linking to non-mobile-optimized pages
Most people scan CTV QR Codes using smartphones or tablets. If the landing page isn’t mobile-friendly, it could load slowly, display awkwardly, or make content hard to interact with—leading to bounces and missed opportunities. In fact, according to Google, visitors are five times more likely to leave a site that isn’t optimized for mobile.
Before launch, test your destination URLs on both iOS and Android devices to ensure everything looks and works as intended. Bitly Pages makes this simple with a no-code builder for branded, mobile-friendly landing pages that deliver a seamless post-scan experience.
Not customizing or branding QR Codes
Generic black-and-white QR Codes can feel unpolished and are easy to overlook, especially on a TV screen. Customizing your codes with your brand colors, logo, and creative design elements can improve credibility and increase scan rates.
With Bitly Codes, you can easily brand your codes to match your campaign’s look and feel. Customize the colors, add your company logo, and use unique patterns and frames to make it stand out on screen. Viewers are more likely to scan something that looks official, secure, and on brand.
Using a single Static QR Code for all placements
Reusing the same QR Code across multiple ads or campaign placements makes it difficult—if not impossible—to track what’s working. Without unique codes, you can’t see which placements, creatives, or audiences drive results.
Instead, create a unique Dynamic QR Code for each version of your ad. If you’re running the same creative in multiple time slots, give each one its own code. This gives you more granular, accurate insights and helps you make more informed decisions for future campaigns.
Forgetting to set clear calls to action
Even the best-designed QR Code needs a clear CTA to drive engagement. Without one, viewers might not know what to do or why they should scan at all.
Swap vague prompts like “Scan me” or “Learn more” for action–oriented language that communicates value, like:
- “Scan to get 30% off”
- “Scan now to enter to win”
- “Scan to unlock early access”
- “Scan to start earning rewards”
The key? Make it obvious, immediate, and worth it.
How Bitly helps marketers turn scans into insights
The Bitly Connections platform is more than just a QR Code generator. It’s a full suite of tools built to turn scan and click behavior into data-driven marketing strategies. Here’s how Bitly helps you get the most out of every CTV QR Code campaign.
Centralized data across Bitly Links, Codes, and Pages
With Bitly, you can create branded short links, Dynamic QR Codes, and mobile-friendly landing pages—all from a single platform. Even better? You can view performance data for all of them in one centralized dashboard.
This makes comparing engagement levels across different campaigns, platforms, and content types easy. For example, if you’re running QR Codes in both connected TV ads and billboard placements, Bitly shows you which is driving more interest, so you can invest your budget more strategically.
Real-time analytics for campaign agility
Unlike some tools that delay data by hours (or even days), Bitly Analytics delivers real-time performance updates. That means you don’t have to wait until a campaign wraps up to make informed decisions—you can pivot while it’s still running.
This is especially useful for time-sensitive CTV campaigns, where ad slots may be limited or high-cost. If one placement underperforms, you can pause it before wasting additional budget. If another spot outperforms expectations, you can increase support, double down on similar messaging, or extend the placement if possible.
Bitly’s speed and flexibility empower you to stay nimble and make every ad dollar count, even during short campaign bursts or primetime launches.
Branded QR Codes that earn trust
Branded QR Codes don’t just look better—they work better. In digital video formats like CTV, visual credibility plays a big role in whether a viewer decides to scan.
Fortunately, Bitly makes it simple to create QR Codes that align with your brand identity. Whether you’re matching a campaign’s aesthetic or reinforcing your logo in every frame, Bitly’s design options help you build trust and recognition at a glance, boosting both brand awareness and engagement.
Flexible redirection and targeting
All Bitly Codes are dynamic by default, which means you’re never locked into a single destination. If your campaign evolves, your QR Code can evolve with it.
Need to redirect users to a new landing page mid-campaign? Switch up a CTA to reflect new messaging? Target different regions with localized experiences? No problem. This flexibility keeps your CTV campaigns agile, extends shelf life, and supports your retargeting strategies—without breaking your creative flow.
Use scan insights to shape future CTV campaigns
Once you’ve launched your first QR Code CTV campaign, the scan data you collect becomes a valuable guide for future creative decisions. Use it to refine your timing, messaging, and ad placements to drive stronger results the next time around.
Analyze which CTAs converted best
If your campaign included multiple CTAs, compare scan data to see which one drove the most scans, then use those insights to inform your messaging strategy going forward.
Maybe one message earned double the engagement simply because it created urgency or clearly communicated the benefits. Use those findings to shape the tone and focus of your next campaign’s CTAs.
Repurpose top-performing content
Get more value from your best-performing digital content by repurposing it in future campaigns. According to research, 46% of marketers say that reusing content across channels drives the best results, making it a smart, cost-effective way to extend your reach and impact.
So, once you’ve analyzed scan data and know what’s working, reuse it across other platforms. If a landing page consistently drives conversions, for example, consider repurposing its copy and visuals in social media ads, influencer partnerships, or email campaigns to engage a wider audience.
Align messaging with peak engagement moments
Scan patterns can reveal when your audience is most engaged, so use that timing to your advantage. If your combined Bitly Analytics and Google Analytics data shows that most scans happen within the first five seconds of your ad, make sure your QR Code and main message appear early. Front-loading key content helps you capture attention while it’s at its highest.
A/B test creatives based on scan trends
Testing different visuals, offers, or CTAs? Give each version its own QR Code. Bitly Analytics lets you track scan performance for each creative so you can clearly see what resonates. Use those insights to build on what’s working and fine-tune your messaging for future campaigns.
Unlock a smarter CTV strategy with Bitly
QR Codes have become a powerful asset in CTV advertising, helping marketers connect on-screen content with digital action. More importantly, they offer a direct window into consumer behavior, revealing when, where, and how viewers engage. With the right tools, every scan becomes an opportunity to sharpen your messaging, personalize your reach, and boost campaign performance.
With Bitly, you get more than just a QR Code generator. You get a full suite of tools built for CTV success. From real-time analytics and branded, screen-ready codes to mobile-optimized landing pages that drive action, Bitly makes it easy to turn CTV campaigns into measurable outcomes.
Whether you’re optimizing audience segments, adjusting creatives mid-campaign, or tracking viewer behavior across regions and devices, Bitly helps you turn scans into strategy.
Sign up for Bitly to turn every scan into a smarter campaign decision—and make your CTV strategy as dynamic as your audience.
