With the new year comes new routines and resolutions. For health and wellness brands, this is a rare window of heightened intent. Fitness, nutrition, skincare, mental well-being, sleep, and supplementation consistently lead New Year priorities. At this time, consumers aren’t casually browsing. They’re in decision-making mode and ready to try something new.
To meet that energy, marketers need a channel that inspires action and proves its impact. That’s where Performance TV has become a standout. In fact, our upcoming 2026 State of Performance TV report, based on findings from 600+ marketers, revealed that Performance TV helped 67% of marketers achieve revenue and growth goals in 2025, and 90% expect it to play a key role in hitting those targets in 2026.
To help you capitalize on January motivation and turn early-year momentum into long-term growth, here’s the 2026 Performance TV playbook for health and wellness brands.
Why Performance TV matters more than ever for health-focused audiences
Streaming has become the backbone of modern content consumption, especially for wellness-minded consumers. People watch workout routines, cooking shows, mindfulness content, and creator-led health advice across multiple platforms, often on the daily.
What’s driving the health and wellness category to invest more heavily in Performance TV?
- Streaming is now integrated into everyday wellness habits. Viewers are turning to streaming not only for entertainment but for instruction, inspiration, and credible guidance. And between the first two weeks of December and the first two weeks of January, streaming hours for health and wellness channels see a 21% increase.
- Wellness content has gone mainstream. For instance, you can find follow-along strength sessions from Nike Training Club and wellness documentaries like The Mind, Explained, directly on Netflix, making it clear that health content is no longer niche.
- Nearly every US household is reachable. A whopping 91% of US households now subscribe to at least one streaming service, giving Performance TV unmatched scale with the ability to target precisely.
- Performance TV is becoming the #1 channel for media investment. Across all industries, 24% of marketers ranked Performance TV as their top channel for media spend (higher than both search and social). Budgets are shifting into Performance TV, where measurement and outcomes are clearer.
For health and wellness marketers, this means you can reach motivated consumers in the moments they’re actively thinking about improving their health and serve creative that encourages them to take action.
Performance TV best practices for health and wellness brands in 2026
1. Build nuanced audience segments around real wellness journeys.
January motivation varies by age, lifestyle, and wellness goals. The good news is that Performance TV’s advanced targeting lets you tailor your messaging to reflect those differences. You might segment by:
- Fitness level
- Household composition
- Wellness behaviors (meal planning, home workouts, mindfulness content)
- Life stage (new parents, students, active retirees)
Here are some examples of how health and wellness brands can segment their audience:
- Fitness and sports equipment brands: Show habit-building for beginners and performance-driven messaging for advanced audiences, helping each of your audiences to build fitness routines they can sustain.
- Nutrition and supplement brands: Promote different health supplements and vitamins to relevant audiences. For example, you can target avid gym go-ers with an ad about your protein powder, while you target millennial and Gen Z parents with ads about your all-natural baby formula.
- Dermatology brands: Younger audiences may be looking for acne solutions, while older audiences might focus on anti-aging. With CTV’s targeting, you can direct tailored ads to each demographic, addressing their unique skincare needs.
2. Craft creative that matches the “start strong” mindset
In January, people crave content that feels doable, motivating, and trustworthy. Performance TV is your storytelling engine and the right creative can spark real action.
We recommend crafting up creative using the following ideas to ensure your message gets across clearly:
- Before-and-after transformation: Health and wellness often revolve around achieving goals, and showing real transformations that your brand helped customers achieve can make a huge impact. Tell stories of customers who’ve accomplished meaningful changes, or better yet, show real results that past customers were able to reach.
- How-to and instructional videos: Fitness and wellness are action-oriented. How-to videos let viewers follow along and build familiarity with your brand. Create short segments on topics like yoga, HIIT workouts, or skincare routines to encourage viewers to try something new. Then, encourage them to join your full program to continue the journey.
- Educational content: Have an industry professional, such as a nutritionist, doctor, or certified fitness coach, explain the real benefits of your products or lifestyle choices. This can establish your brand as an authority in health, whether you're explaining the benefits of clean ingredients or demystifying nutrition labels.
3. Choose the right platforms and tools for your wellness CTV campaigns.
For health and wellness brands, choosing the right Performance TV platforms is essential. If you go the programmatic route with a platform like tvScientific, you can buy ads across various channels and platforms simultaneously, while still having access to precise audience targeting options. This means you can reach millions of wellness-focused viewers wherever they are. This expansive reach ensures that campaigns can be scaled effectively and target users across their preferred devices and platforms.
NOTE: If your wellness brand deals with health information and strict privacy standards, you will want to engage with HIPAA compliant data providers that have access to or can build HIPAA compliant audience segments. tvScientific can help you identify the right ones for your business. This can ensure safe data practices while still reaching engaged audiences, protecting customer information and strengthening your brand's reputation for trustworthiness.
4. Measure in real time and optimize throughout Q1.
January may be the kickoff, but the opportunity doesn’t end there. Performance TV gives you full-funnel measurement so you can refine campaigns continuously through the early months of the year.
With tvScientific, you have multiple ways to prove lift and understand exactly how your CTV campaigns drive outcomes. You can run four core tests to validate impact from every angle:
- Traffic spike: See how your Performance TV audience compares to your average site visitor and quantify the lift in traffic driven by your ads.
- Halo effect: Measure how Performance TV improves results across all your other paid channels, regardless of last-click attribution.
- Always-on incrementality: Compare exposed audiences to a lookalike control group to isolate incremental revenue driven by Performance TV.
- PSA test: Use a PSA control group to understand the true incremental lift of your ad creative and targeting.
Then, act on the data by rotating in fresh creative to avoid fatigue, shifting spend to high-performing audience segments, and serving habit-maintenance messaging as motivation naturally dips post-January. This approach will turn one month of heightened motivation into long-term, sustainable growth.
Start January strong with a Performance TV strategy built for outcomes
The new year brings consumers at their most inspired and most ready to invest in their health. With the power of Performance TV, wellness brands can deliver motivating, relevant stories at exactly the right moment, backed by measurement that proves impact.
If you’re planning for the January health surge, get in touch with us to see how we can help you launch smarter, optimize faster, and drive real outcomes across Q1 and beyond.
Or, if you want to learn more Performance TV trends, sign up here to get early access to our upcoming report, The State of Performance TV 2026.
2026 Performance TV FAQs for health & wellness brands
- What are the best ways to target high-intent audiences on streaming TV? Health and wellness brands can reach high-intent audiences on streaming TV by building segments around wellness behaviors, life stages, and routines such as home workouts, meal planning, or mindfulness viewing. Performance TV enables precise targeting based on household and viewing signals, helping brands connect with motivated consumers during moments of health-focused decision-making.
- How can performance marketers drive measurable outcomes with Connected TV campaigns? Performance marketers in health and wellness can drive measurable outcomes with Connected TV by measuring incrementality, conversion lift, and cross-channel impact tied to campaign exposure. Performance TV links ad views to real business results, helping brands understand how CTV drives sign-ups, purchases, and long-term growth.
- How can I buy CTV inventory across most major streaming apps? You can buy CTV inventory across major streaming apps by using a programmatic Performance TV platform like tvScientific that centralizes buying across publishers and devices. This approach makes it easier to scale campaigns and reach wellness-minded audiences wherever they stream content.
- How can I access premium ad-supported streaming inventory at scale? Premium ad-supported streaming inventory can be accessed at scale through programmatic buying platforms that aggregate inventory from top-tier publishers and streaming services. This gives brands the ability to run campaigns alongside trusted, high-quality content while maintaining precise targeting and measurement.
- What are the advantages of non-skippable inventory in streaming TV? Non-skippable streaming TV ads ensure full message delivery, making them especially effective for instructional, educational, and transformation-focused wellness content. This format drives higher completion rates and stronger engagement, helping brands communicate value and motivate action.
