Since 2019, total B2B ad spend within the U.S. has almost tripled, with 2024 spend projected at more than $20 million. This unprecedented growth, fueled largely by industry shifts toward E-commerce, is still growing: Nearly 900 B2B marketing decision-makers have indicated they expect an overall marketing budget increase.
However, these budget increases are accompanied by expectations regarding B2B marketing effectiveness. Any marketer that’s attempted to reach a B2B audience understands that finding and reaching the right decision-makers — generally a buying committee with multiple stakeholders across different interest groups and markets — is easier said than done.
By leaning on a Connected TV (CTV) and interactive digital video approach, marketers can quickly gain the attention of key stakeholders. New solutions in the marketplace — such as “pre-qualifier” messaging to B2B audiences and lead generation in the targeting stage — have also proven to drive high engagement with in-target audiences. Here are three ways that B2B marketers can best reach qualified audiences:
1. Rely On CTV & Digital Video For A Unified Video Approach
When it comes to targeting smaller, more niche audiences, marketers need to have a strong understanding of where and how to reach these prospects — and one of the most cost-effective platforms is across the digital video and CTV space.
As digital formats, both CTV and digital video allow marketers to serve ads across multiple channels in a cohesive, more personalized and targeted manner than traditional mediums, such as linear TV and print. When marketers utilize CTV in conjunction with digital video, they can re-target the same viewers with consistent messaging. CTV’s digital nature also allows for incredibly accurate targeting, meaning marketers can feel confident that they’re able to reach the right B2B decision-makers.
Just look at the numbers surrounding CTV: 90% of American households own a CTV device and average a daily watch time of more than 2 hours, while 78% of financial advisors — a similar audience to B2B decision makers — watch an average of 2.5 hours of CTV content per day.
2. Lean On The Power Of Interactive Video
Both digital video and CTV offer interactive creative experiences that enable audiences to connect with brand messaging at a personalized level previously unimaginable: For example, a QR code on a CTV ad can drive B2B decision makers to a mobile experience with relevant brand information or to an interactive tab on a digital, multi-tab video ad unit.
The relevancy of interactive ads lies behind the attention that the format draws to itself. According to eye-tracking research, utilizing interactive CTV ads in conjunction with mobile digital display targeting resulted in a 56% increase in attention from viewers, as well as a 23% increase in emotional association with the product when compared to non-interactive creatives.
3. Utilize ABM & Leverage Prospect Targeting Lists To Create Effective Pre-Qualifiers
Knowing what platforms to run across and best practices to keep decision-makers engaged is only part of the difficulty of effective B2B marketing: The other challenge is knowing how to reach this audience. Hitting decision-makers at B2B companies requires significantly more specific targeting tactics than standard B2C audiences, because B2B decision-makers are an incredibly small part of the population, tend to be relatively geographically spread out and have a unique set of interests and preferences.
Marketers need to utilize all the tools they have at their disposal to qualify their target audience before serving them with ads, because it’s significantly more cost effective to specifically target a smaller group of common traits and interests that B2B decision-makers share than it is to cast a wide net.
When marketers use an account-based marketing (ABM) strategy to target their audience and cross-reference it with a custom prospect list, they can have confidence that they are not wasting time, energy and resources into running a B2B ad targeting the wrong audience. Additionally, leveraging a pre-qualifier in the ad creative, such as ‘Are you a C-level Executive looking for new financial software solutions for your organization?’, draws in hand-raisers who are highly valuable prospects. The pre-qualifier in tandem with ABM guarantees a level of audience-targeting quality assurance, corresponding to increased likelihood of campaign success.
Knowing how to reach and penetrate the B2B market is likely to become even more important as the industry continues to grow. Luckily for marketers, the tools needed to produce effective content targeting these groups already exist. Running interactive videos with multiple touchpoints across CTV and digital — and utilizing well-planned pre-qualifiers — is a proven formula to mastering the B2B marketing space.
Zachary Johnson is a Specialist, Campaign Execution & Strategy at VDX.tv, an omnichannel digital video advertising platform.
