How CTV Makes Every Day “Small Business Saturday”

by Stephen Graveman - November 25, 2025

Every year, Small Business Saturday drives billions of dollars to local shops and smaller organizations around the country. Started in 2010 as a response to the Great Recession, the event has grown into a large annual reminder to support small businesses and plays a key part in “The Big Five” holiday sales events (Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday, and Super Saturday — the last Saturday before Christmas).

The U.S. Small Business Administration reports that there are over 36.2 million small businesses in 2025. The American Express Shop Small Impact Study found that 84% of small businesses report that Small Business Saturday is essential to their holiday revenue; meanwhile, 61% of consumers say the excitement of the day motivates them to continue shopping and dining locally throughout the holiday season.

Unfortunately, this year comes with an extra wrinkle in the wake of economic uncertainty and rising prices. Both the National Retail Federation and Deloitte conducted independent studies that found consumer spending will be lower this year, with US holiday sales set for the slowest growth since 2018.

For small business owners already feeling the crunch, the pressure is on. Thankfully, savvy small business owners have turned to a secret weapon in Connected TV (CTV) —ensuring every ad dollar is spent on the customers most likely to convert, giving them the tech to compete with bigger brands, and using Q4’s momentum to crush their goals in the new year.

Why CTV Powers Today’s Small Businesses

For decades, TV advertising was reserved for only the biggest brands with the biggest budgets. For smaller to mid-sized organizations, it was too expensive. Too complex. Too risky. Connected TV has changed all of that, democratizing the TV ad platform and breaking down the walls that kept small to mid-sized businesses out for far too long. Today, savvy small businesses use CTV to level the playing field against their mega-billion-dollar counterparts, deploying ads and keeping their brand top-of-mind for a fraction of the cost of a traditional TV advertisement.

Thanks to its digital DNA, CTV operates in a manner not unlike social media—small business owners can easily upload creative, set their budget and target audiences, and deploy ads within hours (don’t have creative? Even that’s not a barrier anymore). In the weeks leading up to Small Business Saturday, smaller brands and local shop owners use CTV platforms like JamLoop to reach their audiences, showcase sales and promos, and move them down the sales funnel via retargeting efforts. Thanks to technology that targets key audiences on a granular level, small businesses can not just be finally seen on TV—they can have full control over their screen presence, monitoring performance in real-time, optimizing campaigns, and ensuring they’re seen by customers likely to convert based on purchasing behavior, lifestyle, or zip code.

JamLoop has incredible customer service, excellent and very timely communication, and friendly staff. I loved the flexibility with where we placed ads (zip codes) and easy billing. It was truly a risk-free investment.

– Suzanne Amato, Office Manager, Hank & Frank Bicyles

New Year, New Opportunities

Of course, the marketplace is more competitive than ever for small businesses; today, it’s not enough to pin all of your financial hopes on one sales event. Thankfully, CTV lets you extend your holiday momentum well into Q1 and beyond. The calendar may reset, but your sales funnel doesn’t. Even if you didn’t activate CTV for this year’s Small Business Saturday, it’s not too late. As the saying goes, the best time to start was yesterday; the next best time is now.

Target Gift Card Shoppers

Gift cards represent a huge, often overlooked opportunity:

Average gift card value: $48
43% of Americans have unused gift cards
Total unspent value on gift cards in the U.S: $23 billion

Why it matters: Consumers rarely buy something that matches the exact amount on their card. They often upgrade, splurge, or add extra items—producing massive incremental revenue potential for Q1.

CTV best practices:

Use first-party data collected during gift card purchases (emails, names, purchase info).
Feed the data into your CRM to activate
- Post-purchase and reminder flows
- Upsell campaigns
- Paid media custom audiences across search, social, and CTV
Reach both gift card purchases and recipients—many of whom may be new to your brand

Tap Into “The New Year, New You” Mindset

For small businesses in the health and wellness categories, Q1 is a busy season—and CTV’s precise targeting helps you reach audiences who are actively working on their goal and resolutions. A well-targeted campaign with a message that motivates could do wonders for conversions.

CTV Best Practices:

Creative that speaks to personal ambition and self-growth
Offers or programs tailored to “fresh start” behavior
Testing different versions of your TV creative to optimize for conversion
Audience retargeting to prevent churn and drive membership renewals

Refresh Your Ads and Targeting For Q1

It’s not just your customers looking to turn over a new leaf in 2026; your targeting and creative will need a refresh, too. Your audiences are shifting after their holidays, so your advertising should shift with them.

CTV Best Practices:

Move from gift-giver targeting to bargain hunters and deal-seekers
Swap your holiday creative for seasonally relevant messaging
Promote New Year’s specials, gift-card-friendly offers, or introductory offers
Redirect your budget back to prospecting so you replenish your post-holiday sales funnel

Holiday momentum doesn’t end in December. By refreshing your creative, retargeting gift card audiences, and leaning into seasonal behaviors, you can turn Q1 into one of your strongest growth periods of the year.

JamLoop geo-targeted our audience in select markets. Our campaign reached 725K new households, with 5.2 average frequency and 2.1 ROAS in just one month. Working with JamLoop has been an absolute pleasure. They are truly an extension of our team!

– Lisa Lopuck, CMO, Jacked Up Fitness

Not All CTV Solutions Are Created Equal

The state of streaming TV has changed dramatically over the last few years, both for viewers and advertisers. Unfortunately, not every CTV ad platform is built with the features small businesses need. At JamLoop, we feel that advertising on TV should be as easy as watching it—and we built the platform from the ground up with small businesses in mind.

Reach your next lifelong customer: Easily use real-time targeting and optimization to find the right audience, at the right place, at the right time—as they watch their favorite shows.
Self-serve, managed, or white-label: We believe that you know your ad strategies and needs best, which is why we give you the keys to pick the right path for your business.
No contracts or hidden fees: We don’t require minimums or contracts to run ads on JamLoop, and we’re transparent with our pricing. Setup is fast and easy.
Full transparency: Get real-time feedback on campaign performance, and use always-on attribution and incrementality measurement to prove impact. Unlike other platforms that rent third-party tech like Beeswax, we own our DSP—which means there are no black boxes or hidden metrics.
The best channels, for the best prices: Get access to local stations, plus 500+ premium streaming channels. The result = better control, pricing, and outcomes.