The power of B2B display advertising and tips for effective campaigns

Business-to-business (B2B) display advertising is a powerful way for businesses to increase brand awareness among professional audiences. With a range of formats available, including website banner ads, video ads and Digital Out of Home ads, you can reach your target audience wherever they are.

In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about using B2B display advertising to enhance your marketing efforts and generate valuable leads.

What is B2B Display Advertising?

B2B display advertising is when businesses use visual advertising formats to market their products and services to other businesses. 

By advertising your brand through display mediums strategically placed in the right environments, you can build awareness and engagement among potential customers. 

Display Ads in the B2B Context

B2B display advertising has some similarities to business-to-consumer (B2C) display advertising – mostly that it utilises a lot of the same formats. However, in the B2B context, display advertising means targeting business decision-makers and professionals rather than individual consumers.

B2B audiences have different motivations than B2C audiences. They’re more interested in how your business can address their pain points and meet their needs. This means that B2B display advertising is usually more solution-focused and aims to highlight brand expertise.

Types of Display Ads

There are various types of display ads used in B2B advertising. Some of the most popular include:

• Digital OOH ads – billboards and other outdoor digital displays 

• Banner ads – visual ads displayed along the top, bottom or sides of a website

• Video ads – short video content promoted using online platforms

• Native ads – visual ads that seamlessly blend into their online environment

The Role of Programmatic Display Ads

Programmatic B2B advertising refers to the automated buying and selling of advertising space by B2B businesses. Programmatic platforms work by using algorithms to match advertising space to specific buyer requirements, including audience targeting and budgeting criteria. 

Programmatic display ads enable more precise targeting and cost-efficiency within B2B advertising displays, allowing you to maximise campaign impact while minimising wasted spend.

Why B2B Display Advertising is Powerful for Business Growth

B2B display advertising is a powerful tool for driving business growth. Here are the key benefits it offers to help you increase visibility and generate leads.

Building Brand Awareness

Display ads are one of the most effective ways to build brand awareness. As a visual medium, they allow you to incorporate elements of your branding that other advertising formats can’t, such as your brand colours and logo. 

Visual ads are also more digestible and memorable, especially when displayed on attention-grabbing digital billboards. The unmissable nature of large-format OOH, combined with strategic placement in high-traffic areas, allows you to increase brand visibility among relevant audiences.

Precise Targeting Capabilities

Display advertising offers B2B businesses a way to connect with specific audiences using precision targeting. Depending on the channel and platform used, you might be able to target audiences based on:

• Industry

• Job role

• Company size 

• Location 

• Interests 

• Behaviour 

• Time of day 

Clear Channel Radar, a mobile data and campaign planning platform, allows you to leverage 500+ audience segments. By combining multiple criteria, you can create precise audience targeting strategies and reach relevant decision-makers with personalised display ads.

Multi-Channel Integration

Integrating display ads with other marketing channels will create a cohesive experience for audiences. Multi-channel strategies increase overall visibility and help build trust, which is a vital element of lead generation.

Here are some examples of how B2B display advertising can be effectively integrated with other channels to create synergy:

1. Banner ads & email marketing – you can reinforce your marketing messages by sending targeted emails while simultaneously running banner ads across industry-specific websites.

2. Video ads & search engine marketing – capture engagement from audiences actively researching solutions by targeting search users with relevant keywords, while also video ads at the start of informational YouTube videos.

3. OOH ads & social media marketing – include a QR code linking to your social media in your OOH ads to drive traffic online and encourage audiences to find out more about your brand. 

Tips for Creating Effective B2B Display Advertising Campaigns

The components of a successful B2B display advertising campaign vary from brand to brand. However, there are some basic best practices to follow to get you started. Here are our top tips for creating B2B display ads that capture attention and drive engagement.

Crafting Targeted Messaging

B2B audiences respond to messaging that addresses their needs. Targeted messaging that resonates with business decision-makers will often:

• highlight benefits for specific use cases

• focus on one common pain point 

• speak directly to different stakeholders

• use customer satisfaction stories and data

Designing Ads for Business Professionals

For your display ads to engage B2B audiences, they need to be visually appealing with a professional look and feel. Consider the following tips:

• Simple, minimalist designs evoke a sense of efficiency and ease, which are key for business audiences.

• Use contrasting colours for high legibility, while ensuring that branding remains strong and consistent.

• Including imagery of the product or service can create a greater connection by removing confusion or uncertainty around niche products.

A/B Testing and Optimisation

You might think you understand your audience, but without testing, there’s no way of knowing for certain what resonates. A/B testing different creatives and formats will allow you to make data-driven decisions that continually drive performance improvements, optimising your B2B display ads over time.  

Leveraging DOOH for Maximum Impact in B2B Display Advertising

Digital Out of Home (DOOH) formats allow you to promote your brand to professional audiences by advertising in strategic locations. Here’s how you can use digital billboards to enhance your B2B display advertising campaigns.

Targeting Business Districts with Digital Billboards

Placing digital billboards in key business districts can significantly boost brand awareness and activation among business decision-makers. As well as targeting areas near corporate headquarters, it can also be a good idea to position OOH displays near popular coworking and shared offices where you can target startups and entrepreneurs. 

Flexibility and Real-Time Updates

Digital billboards offer a high level of flexibility to advertisers. Because digital displays can be controlled remotely, you can update your ads in real-time to ensure they’re always optimised for the current moment. 

You might adapt your messaging to reflect changes in market conditions or audience behaviour. Ads can also be triggered to update automatically based on external factors such as time of day, day of week or even the weather.

Measuring Performance with Digital Out of Home

DOOH platforms provide valuable data and audience analysis that you can use to measure ad performance. Engagement metrics including reach, impressions, dwell time and frequency of exposure all provide valuable insights into how audiences are interacting with your ads, helping to optimise future campaigns.

Measuring The Success of Your B2B Display Advertising Campaign

The performance of your B2B display advertising campaign can be split into three stages – how audiences engage with your ad, whether engagement leads to action and what tangible impact this has on business success.

Here’s an overview of the metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) you should be tracking to measure success at each stage.

Impressions, Click-Through Rates and Engagement

To understand how well your B2B display ads are performing in terms of visibility and audience engagement, it’s important to monitor:

• Impressions – the number of times your ad has been displayed

• Reach – how any individual people have seen your bilboard campaign

• Click-through rate – the percentage of impressions that resulted in clicks on your ad

• Unique URL visits or scanned QR codes – how many people have essentially ‘clicked’ on physical display ads, such as on a digital billboard 

Conversion Rates and Lead Generation

After audiences have engaged with your display ads, the next step is to get them to take action. You can monitor this using:

• Conversion rates – the percentage of users who complete a desired action

• Leads generated – the number of leads generated for sales teams to follow up on 

ROI and Long-Term Impact

B2B display advertising is primarily a brand-building strategy used to generate top-of-funnel interest. Its benefits are often clearest when looking at performance over the long term, especially its influence on:

• Brand awareness and perception – how well-known your brand is and how it’s perceived among its target audience

• Pipeline – the length of sales cycles and quality of leads generated

• Return on investment (ROI) – how much revenue can be wholly or partially attributed to display advertising efforts

Common Pitfalls to Avoid in B2B Display Advertising

There are some common mistakes that businesses make when utilising B2B display advertising, especially when doing so for the first time. Here are the pitfalls you should be trying to avoid.

Overcomplicating Your Message

Using industry jargon or overly complex language can obscure rather than enhance the meaning behind your message. Instead, keep your messaging clear and concise to maximise impact and appeal to all potential buyers.

Wasted Reach

Placing display ads in the wrong locations, whether online or in the real world via OOH, can gain you lots of impressions - but they won’t be worth anything. Rather than focusing on delivering as broad a reach as possible, use highly-targeted placements to drive genuine leads.

Failing to Use Retargeting

A proper retargeting strategy can significantly enhance the long-term ROI of your display ads. By re-engaging audiences who have already shown interest in your products or services, you can strengthen brand connection and increase your conversion rates.

For more information on creating effective B2B display advertising campaigns using outdoor media, get in touch with Clear Channel’s expert team. Our network of 30,000 outdoor display advertising sites reaches 91% of UK adults fortnightly, providing endless opportunities to connect with professionals and key business decision-makers.