How CTV Takes B2B Video From Lackluster to Blockbuster
A better video platform paves the way for engaging B2B campaigns
by Isabel Greenfield
Video is a key touchpoint for many businesses and B2B brands shouldn't exclude themselves from the group. Connected TV has made it possible for B2B brands to target their audiences within the TV content they are watching. For those that have yet to invest in a video strategy, it's easier to get started than you may think. Ali Haeri, MNTN's Vice President of Marketing, joined Demand Gen Report to discuss the importance of Connected TV and solutions for brands looking to make their first foray into video advertising.
Connected TV Made TV Advertising Accessible to B2B Advertisers
"TV is the next performance channel–we really mean that," Haeri began. "[Linear] really missed the mark for the things that are important to B2B advertisers. Targeting is essential for B2B advertising. We want to laser-target our audience to make sure there is no wasted spend, reaching people who are irrelevant to our target market." He also highlighted that linear TV didn't offer the measurement tools B2B businesses need to track the impact of a TV spend. As such, many did not make a TV advertising spot or use video at all.
Connected TV, however, addresses these concerns, combining the sight, sound, and motion of linear TV with the digital roots of other performance channels. With CTV, B2B advertisers have access to precision targeting and can get as specific as job function, title, company size, and more. Advertisers are able to measure the success of each campaign with cross-platform, deduplicated measurement that tracks everything from site visits to conversions. CTV also allows advertisers to repurpose their social video. If they don't have video on hand, Haeri mentions that there are now options available to get video creative that doesn't break the bank.
Haeri goes on to outline that not only does CTV address some of the shortcomings of its predecessors, but it's also less expensive than traditional TV advertising and a great place to stand out from competitors who have yet to make the leap to this platform. He highlights that CTV is an important piece of the ad-channel mix as it is a demand-generation tool. While paid search and social are great at existing demand, CTV advertising can reach those who are not yet actively looking for a product or service and create a wider audience that can later be captured by the other performance channels.
How MNTN, a B2B Brand, Uses CTV
"An important point to make here is that B2B doesn't need to be boring," Haeri said. "Most of my career has been in B2B marketing and one thing that I've sort of observed is that a lot of B2B marketers just go into their jobs assuming that there is a level of professionalism and seriousness that's requisite with B2B marketing. That never quite made sense to me." He then shared a recent MNTN product demo that adds a level of heat to the standard demo. You can view that full demo video here.
Haeri highlighted that video is a key component of MNTN's strategy. While his team makes CTV ads to run using the MNTN platform, they then repurpose those videos on other platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook.
Video is Easier to Find Than You May Think
"You may be telling yourself 'yeah, but I just don't have a TV commercial.' And the point is that there's a lot of different things that you can do to be resourceful in this case," Haeri said. First, he recommends checking with your social team to see if they have video that can be repurposed. If that's not available to you, there are other, non-agency solutions that make it feasible to add CTV to your ad mix.
Haeri shared two examples of solutions that MNTN offers for those looking for video creative:
Creative-as-a-Subscription (CaaS): CaaS includes creative with an advertiser's media spend at no extra cost. This allows advertisers to launch quickly and regularly refresh their creative.
QuickFrame for B2B Businesses: QuickFrame's marketplace pairs your brand with an expert creative team to help capture the message and voice of your brand, without the agency premiums.
Creative Management and Measurement are Easy with CTV
"If you're in a position where you have multiple creatives, that's fantastic and a CTV platform like MNTN is really conducive to maintaining a library of different creative that you can activate depending on what the campaign is, what the season may be. It's good to have a single source to manage all of your different options," Haeri said. Easy creative management also makes it easy to regularly refresh creative and swap in new assets as you receive them.
Not only is asset management easier, but Connected TV's digital roots also provide near real-time results that allow B2B advertisers to make informed decisions about their creative. Feedback is received with enough time to make adjustments to creative strategy before the next round of creative development. B2B brands can also run true A/B tests with their creatives to better understand what works for their brand. Those results can also be used across other channels with the ad mix that may not provide the same level of reporting insights. Top performing creative can then be added to other social channels.
Connected TV is a valuable resource for B2B advertisers, even those that don't yet have video assets. To learn more about how to make the most of video advertising (or even how to make video ads without the overhead), tune into the full webinar here.