Connected TV

From Power Suit to Sweat Suit

Reaching the B2B Audience in a Hybrid World

From Power Suit to Sweat Suit

5 Min Read

The way that B2B audiences watch TV and engage with media is changing. As this audience has been thrust into the world of hybrid work, they are spending more time at home. And while many B2B advertisers make the mistake of thinking of their B2B prospects wearing a suit behind the desk at an office, they are people just like us, who watch TV just like us.

Jon Zucker, Senior Product Marketing Manager at MNTN, joined Demand Gen Report to discuss how Connected TV can reach B2B audiences. He walked through a week in the modern life of a B2B prospect and how Connected TV can actually elevate advertisers’ other initiatives.

Connected TV Is the Third Pillar of a Performance Strategy

Zucker started by highlighting that TV hasn’t always been top-of-mind for B2B advertisers since it was missing some key features. From precision targeting that allowed advertisers to reach their specific prospects to detailed measurement, linear TV fell short for B2B advertisers. Connected TV not only solved these problems but also gave B2B brands, usually limited in their available platforms, another space to reach these key audiences.

“Not all CTV platforms are built to accomplish the same goals,” Zucker explained, however. “With the right platform, Connected TV can really become that third pillar of your demand gen strategy.” A CTV platform needs to be oriented to performance-based outcomes to help B2B brands drive those key deliverables. “Now a big piece of that is attribution,” Zucker continued. “Not all platforms are built to accurately attribute the site traffic and conversion that CTV generates. While attribution is easy for traditional, clickable channels like paid search and social, TV isn’t clickable. However, that doesn’t mean it’s not attributable.”

Attribution Is a Key Feature of CTV

MNTN has developed a proprietary attribution model called Cross Device Verified Visits to help brands understand the true impact of their CTV ad buys. “Let’s just define Verified Visits really quick,” Zucker said. “A Verified Visit is a site visit directly driven by your MNTN ad that occurs within an attribution window of time that you define.”

He then walked through the process of how Verified Visits are measured:

  1. A user views a MNTN ad.
  2. The user visits the brand’s site organically or directly on any device in their household, within the predefined attribution window.
  3. When a Verified Visit is confirmed and a user converts, this is counted as a conversion.

“Now it’s really important that we talk about visiting your site organically or directly because we validate the source of the site traffic to make sure that CTV is only taking credit for actions that it actually drove,” Zucker explained. “If someone watches your TV ad and then visits your site directly, that’s a Verified Visit. But if they watch your TV ad, then see your Facebook ad, click it, and then visit your site, MNTN wouldn’t take credit for that visit because CTV didn’t actually drive it.”

While measuring site traffic is always important, there is one key reason it’s especially important for B2B advertisers to get in front of their prospects early. The Harvard Business Review found that 90% of B2B decision-makers purchase from companies they already knew at the start of the buying process. This is why top B2B marketers use Connected TV to educate their prospects with non-skippable messaging on TV and drive site visits early so they secure their placement in those initial consideration sets.

A Week in the Life of a B2B Prospect

When it comes to those B2B decision-makers, Zucker reminded attendees of who they are actually trying to reach. “A lot of B2B advertisers still think of their targets as wearing suits every day and going to the office every day. However, B2B buyers are just like anyone else. They may be working from home or in a hybrid situation, but they are probably watching a lot of TV, just like we all do.” He then proceeded to give an example of a week in the life of a B2B prospect:

  • On Monday, our B2B prospect, let’s call him Tim, is working from home with no suit in sight. He has the TV on while he’s working and he sees a commercial for MNTN that piques his interest before he gets back to work.
  • On Tuesday, Tim’s still at home. He opens up his work laptop to see an ad for MNTN on CNBC’s website. It reminds him that he was interested in checking out what MNTN can offer. He makes a note to look into it.
  • The next day, Tim’s in the office. He spends some time researching how MNTN can help him achieve his business initiatives.
  • On Thursday, he has his weekly team meeting; he heads into the office to meet with his coworkers in person. During the meeting, he presents his findings on MNTN’s capabilities. He is able to talk about it live with his coworkers and they decide to reach out to book a demo.
  • It’s finally Friday and he’s back in his sweatpants. Working from home, he logs off early and turns on the TV where he may be targeted with another B2B ad that will help him succeed in his role.

For those ready to get started reaching their prospects on the TV screen, it’s an easy leap to CTV. Zucker explains that brands can repurpose their social video for the TV screen. Or “if you don’t have video creative available, there are a lot of high-quality, low-cost solutions that don’t break the bank and don’t require engaging a full creative agency, such as Quickframe, which is the leading platform marketers use to efficiently build video creatives.”

A Rising Tide Lifts All Performance Channels

Zucker had one more tidbit to share. Adding CTV to a B2B marketing campaign doesn’t just drive performance in its own right. It also has effects on other paid efforts, including paid search, social, and email. CTV creates a halo effect for these channels so they also show better results. “We’ve looked at our own first-party data and we’ve seen that as advertisers add Connected TV to their marketing mix, all of their other paid channels benefit and more effectively drive demand.” Conversion rates began to rise just 30 days after CTV was added and continued to show improvements 90 days after adding.

Watch the Full Webinar

Connected TV is a modern way to reach the modern B2B prospect. It not only acts as the third pillar of a performance strategy but also positively impacts the results of these other channels that B2B brands use regularly. To learn more about reaching B2B prospects, be sure to watch the full webinar here.