Target Practice: Understanding B2B Audiences on Connected TV

4 Min Read

Almost everyone is a TV fan, including B2B audiences. With the rise of streaming, not only are more people cutting the cord to start streaming, but these audiences are now highly targetable through the digital roots of the new TV environment. Eric Hatzenbuhler, Senior Digital Marketing Manager at MNTN, joined MarTech to discuss why selecting the right target audience is so important, some key data providers of those audiences, and how to successfully launch a campaign.

Why Audiences are Essential for B2B Advertisers

Audiences are the lifeblood of any effective advertising campaign. Hatzenbuhler pointed out during his talk with MarTech that “your message won’t matter if it doesn’t reach the right people.” In the days of linear TV, audience targeting was limited to selecting programming such as golf and hoping that your target audience was watching. This was an expensive way to reach B2B targets and resulted in wasted impressions, which meant linear TV wasn’t the best option for B2B advertisers.

Unlike linear TV, “with CTV, audiences are decided by you. It’s audience-based,” Hatzenbuhler said. “It really makes it viable to target users and individuals based on things like job title or company size, and in-market for certain services or products. All of those audiences are available to you much in the same way they are in paid social, paid search, display, and other programmatic channels.” To take full advantage of the targeting available within Connected TV advertising, it’s essential that brands know their audiences. Hatzenbuhler went on to share some key data providers as well as other segments to help B2B advertisers make the most of these features.

Essential Data Providers and Target Audiences for B2B Advertisers on CTV

Hatzenbuhler shared some key data providers that would be a helpful jumping-off point for B2B advertisers:

• Dun & Bradstreet
  • 90% of the Fortune 500 companies have trusted their targeting to them
• Bombora
  • They offer B2B predictive intent and demographic data. In fact, they boast the largest predictive online B2B data pool.
• AnalyticsIQ
  • “Businesses don’t make decisions–people do. AnalyticsIQ has the rare ability to link together B2B and B2C data to provide a true 360-degree view of individuals–at home and at the office.”
• Netwise
  • High-quality, multi-sourced, business & person data

In addition to knowing the providers, Hatzenbuhler highlighted that it’s essential to know what types of audiences to target. For B2B businesses, you most likely want to reach someone who is in-market and/or has the ability to make the decision to purchase. Hatzenbuhler shared some audiences to consider when setting up your campaign:

• B2B Decision Makers: Who is able to make the final choice as to whether to purchase your product or service?
• B2B Purchase Intent: Reach viewers who are interested in purchasing.
• B2B Spending Power: Get even more specific and look for those that are spending within your given category.
• Trade Show Attendees: Target attendees from industry trade shows that match yours
• Job Titles: If you’re looking to expand your reach into decision-makers and beyond, add more job titles to your audience strategy.

“All of these are really great starting points and springboards if you’re looking to venture into CTV,” Hatzenbuhler said. “If you’re already on the MNTN platform, think about what audiences you can test and introduce to existing campaigns.”

“Of course, there is one more audience for B2B advertisers and that’s your own. It might be the most important B2B audience for your business.” He recommends launching a retargeting campaign to help keep new users you’re bringing to your site engaged and moving through the sales funnel. These campaigns can be targeted by how long someone spends on site or how many web pages they visit to ensure you are reaching those that show the most interest.

After Selecting Your Audience, You’re (Almost) Ready For Launch

“Alright, so now you’ve got these audiences,” Hatzenbuhler continued. “What do you do now? Get ready to launch–and much like search and social, I would even say CTV on the MNTN platform is easier to launch than those channels. Campaign set-up is just a couple of clicks.” After you’ve selected your audience, you’ll need to enter your campaign details. Determine your budget, as well as your campaign goals. CTV platforms such as MNTN auto-optimize towards this goal thousands of times per day so it’s important to define what’s the most important to your brand and campaign.

Finally, upload your video creative. This can be video creative that is either created specifically for CTV or repurposed from your social campaigns. Set the creative rotation weighting or set up an A/B test and you’re all set to go live.

Once live, CTV’s comprehensive reporting can help you determine whether your audience targets are working for you. For example, audience segment reporting shows performance by audience, even if they are within one campaign, so you can see which audiences are getting you closer to your business goals. CTV also makes it easy to test and shift budgets as needed to make the most of your ad budgets.

Watch the Full Webinar

Connected TV has opened up a whole realm of TV targeting that linear TV wasn’t able to provide. To learn more about B2B audiences and how to launch your own campaign, be sure to watch the full webinar here.