In Florida’s most competitive markets, the gap between a well-known agent and an unknown one often comes down to visibility. And visibility on television has, until recently, been mostly the territory of large brokerages with production budgets to match.
That is starting to change. A growing number of independent agents and smaller brokerages across Florida are running TV commercials on channels like Hulu, NBC, and ESPN without agencies, without production crews, and without five-figure budgets. The shift is being enabled by connected television’s (CTV) lower entry costs and a new category of AI-powered tools that generate broadcast-ready ads in just a few minutes.
One platform operating in this space is Adwave, which creates a 30-second commercial from a business’s existing website content and can have it running on CTV streaming services within 24 hours. Campaigns start at $50, with the platform estimating CPMs in the $15–$35 range depending on audience and location; a meaningful departure from the linear television era, when local broadcast time required bulk purchases and agency relationships that most independent operators couldn’t justify.
The timing matters for Florida specifically. As out-of-state migration normalizes and inventory begins to creep back, agents who built their pipelines on referrals are now competing more directly on recognition. In that environment, being seen on television, even at a local or ZIP-code level, carries a different weight than a social media ad, which most users scroll past in a few seconds. TV advertising’s trust advantage over social media has been well-documented, with viewers consistently rating it higher for credibility.
The hyper-local targeting now available through CTV is worth noting for Florida agents. Campaigns can be scoped to a specific ZIP code, city, or county, so spend isn’t wasted on audiences outside a target market. The platform also allows agents to promote individual listings by pulling photos, pricing, and property details directly from a listing URL, then pausing the campaign once the property goes under contract.
David Naffis, CEO and co-founder of Adwave and a former Presidential Innovation Fellow, has noted that Florida’s year-round market activity makes it a natural environment for agents testing TV advertising.
Some agents have reported using TV advertising as a listing pitch differentiator, offering it as part of their marketing package to sellers in situations where multiple agents are competing for the same listing. Whether that becomes a standard part of the Florida agent toolkit remains to be seen, but the structural barriers that previously made it impractical for independents have largely come down.
For agents weighing where to allocate marketing budget in a market that rewards name recognition, connected TV is at least worth a closer look than it would have been three or four years ago.
Disclosure: Individuals or companies mentioned may have a commercial relationship with KeyCrew.