B2B marketing is often considered boring or dry compared to B2C marketing, but it doesn’t have to be that way. If you aren’t seeing results from your B2B ads, you should take a hard look at whether your content is falling into that stereotype. In our latest webinar, we spoke with Kyle Weber and Kirsten van Rooyen from Superside. Superside is a subscription-based service that helps 450+ in-house creative teams turbocharge their productivity. In our discussion, we tapped into their expertise on how to produce and test B2B videos that perform.
In this post, we’ll highlight some of the topics they mentioned and a few key takeaways. If you want to hear all of their valuable tips and insights, watch the full webinar here.
#1 – Forgetting where your ad is being seen
Hard truth incoming: Nobody goes on social media for the ads. As Superside’s associate creative director Kyle Weber artfully puts it, “Ads being on social media is like a person crashing a party they weren’t invited to.” Don’t let your B2B ads become unwanted party guests. Instead, consider what people are looking for and expecting from the platforms where your ad lives and make sure it aligns. Extending the party metaphor, Kyle adds, “I can’t bring a karaoke machine to a quiet dinner and expect results.”
Your ads should fit in with the overall tone and atmosphere of your target platforms. Audiences spend time on various social platforms for different reasons. Teams who are savvy enough to understand those reasons will be more successful in creating ads that resonate with each platform’s users.
Take TikTok, for example. Most content on TikTok has a lo-fi, DIY sort of feel to it. TikTok videos often make liberal use of humor, are shot with a smartphone, and employ simple visual effects like text boxes over video. People visit TikTok specifically to view and share that kind of content. Take cues from what a platform’s users want and expect to create ads that are both entertaining and informative.
TikTok is also where many viral internet trends originate. By putting your own unique spin on these trends, your content can go from unwanted guest to the life of the party. TikTok content is meant to be shareable, so your ad should be too!
#2 – Trying to connect with the employee instead of the person
Part of the reason for B2B marketing’s less-than-thrilling reputation stems from the idea that it’s all one business talking to another. In reality, B2B is all about a business talking with a living, breathing person. B2B audiences are more than a list of job titles, and they’re certainly not an unfeeling monolith. They clock out at the end of each day like the rest of us.
When marketing to B2B audiences, you have to consider not just who they are at work, but also who they are after business hours. What are their day-to-day pain points? Their biggest hopes? Their wildest dreams? Your B2B video ads should tap into those things, approaching them like a trusted colleague during an after-work venting session at the bar.
#3 – Not digging into data to learn valuable insights
At a bare minimum, marketers should always be leveraging their data to learn more about how their videos perform. But it’s key that all of your data connects back to your goals and objectives in a measurable way. Avoid over-indexing by trying to focus on too many metrics, and instead home in on the ones that really move the needle. You should also know what you’re actually measuring, and how KPIs shift depending where in the sales funnel your video will play. Consider things like engagement metrics, technical performance, and established benchmarks when measuring the success of B2B ads. When you measure what actually matters, your data becomes actionable insights which will drive meaningful improvements.
The best B2B marketers are naturally curious about their data. Because they know that searching for patterns can unearth all kinds of insights about what’s working and not working. As Superside’s head of video strategy Kirsten van Rooyen said on the webinar, “It’s about seeing the opportunities in the data, and transforming those observations into strategies where they’re going to make an impact.”
#4 – Not going beyond grabbing your audience’s attention
Grabbing people’s attention for one second is easy. Holding it long enough to deliver your message is the real challenge. When something isn’t gripping your audience, the idea just might be a dud. But that’s ok! Better for a bad idea to flame out early than invest in something that’s doomed to fail. Testing is a big part of knowing when to tap out with a B2B marketing concept. If you aren’t seeing engagement in the first few seconds of your ads, go back to the drawing board and try again.
That said, if a concept becomes a hit, take note of what made it a success and leverage that for your next B2B video ad. Remember, you have a tiny window to convince your B2B audience to keep watching. So make it short, to the point, and show that you know your audience and are on their side.
Final thoughts
At the end of the day, B2B ads aren’t all that different from any other kind of video marketing. They’re all about knowing your audience, testing ideas, and making the most out of your brief opportunity to seize their attention. So get creative and start breaking the stereotype that B2B marketing is boring. To see the ads that Superside has found notable success with, watch the full on-demand webinar.
