ctv for b2b: slide into the living room

Connected Television is finding its groove with B2B marketers. And not in a "throw some budget at it and hope for the best" kind of way. Real, measurable, performance-driving kind of working. Let’s talk about why.

Decision-makers are real humans with real lives

B2B marketers and sales reps are starting to shake off the myth that buyers are only reachable during work hours, sitting behind a desk, typing “best enterprise SaaS” into Google.

Decision-makers are real life humans. They binge Netflix. They watch the news. They stream YouTube with their kids. 

CTV isn’t just brand-building fluff. According to eMarketer, nearly half of CTV viewers took action after seeing a B2B ad. That means we’ve entered a new era of intent—not based on search terms, but on attention.

Improved 1st-party tools allow you to reach the real buyers

As with any B2B campaign, getting in front of the right—often very niche—set of buyers is the key. Over the past decade plus, data aggregators have made a killing selling audience data back to advertisers and their DSPs. The latest, slightly tech-ier version of buying email lists. But this data is still average at best. Some audiences are up to 80% effective … some are as low as 35% … which means a whole lot of waste from your media buy.

Building a sustainable programmatic program REQUIRES effective use of your own 1st-party data. Luckily, activating this data in a useful way is getting easier for brands. LiveRamp leads the charge with integration hooks across most major DSPs (i.e. Connecting your CRM directly into your campaign builds.) In addition, legit players like StackAdapt and MNTN continue to add what I call “squishy in the middle” tools for building audiences similar to how you would on LinkedIN—at the industry, firmographic, title, seniority levels. This helps advertisers fill in the gaps and get campaigns started in the right direction.

Programmatic gives reach. CTV gives resonance.

B2B marketers have been using programmatic channels for a while now, but primarily for bottom-of-the-funnel retargeting or lead-gen banner ads with all the charm of a fax machine. CTV, though, allows

We’re talking about a full-screen, sound-on, immersive brand experience. Delivered directly to a curated audience. On their favorite shows. During their off-hours. With the kind of creative storytelling that would never fit in a sidebar.

Thanks to platforms like StackAdapt and others, targeting is now shockingly precise. You can serve a mid-funnel explainer video to enterprise finance execs in New York who recently visited your pricing page. That’s not just targeted—that’s orchestrated.

B2B sales cycles are long. CTV keeps you in the room.

One of the biggest lies in B2B is that decisions are purely rational. We love to talk about logic, ROI, and “driving efficiencies.” Snooze. But we know emotion drives momentum, and momentum drives action. 

CTV builds that emotional edge. It reminds your audience that your brand is legit, modern, and in the mix—even when they’re not in-market yet. It's the digital version of running into your vendor rep at a conference three times in one day (the one that you don’t hate). You don’t close a deal on the spot—but it helps. A lot.

Programmatic CTV keeps your brand circulating in the messy middle, where prospects are researching, comparing, ghosting your SDRs, checking with procurement, and half-committing 10 times before finally signing.

The creative bar is being raised—let’s get weird.

A lot of B2B creative is still stuck in the land of generic stock footage and buzzwords. The big living room screen gives you a flexible canvas to get out of your own way.

Smart brands are embracing cinematic storytelling, spokespeople, and humor to stand out. You know, things that are human at their core. And you don’t need a Super Bowl budget to be effective. You need clarity, a core message, and just enough polish to earn the viewer’s attention.

Building CTV creative can serve as an anchor for a larger campaign—often repurposable across other channels. Turn your anchor media into shorter clips for LinkedIn, campaign landing pages, messaging for emails, and even booth content.

Sure. Sounds good, but we don’t have Salesforce money

Living room media is no longer reserved for the big gorillas only. Thanks to all of the progress in targeting and tool availability we laid out above, an effective B2B campaign is more attainable than you might think. We’ve run highly-effective programmatic campaigns for tight $25k quarterly media budgets. As a rule of thumb, we recommend clients get close to a minimum $12k/mo range (depending on industry, audience, conversion, etc). The key to a successful campaign with a tight budget is focused audience building—ensuring that the right folks are being reached with a high enough frequency to make an impact. 

Industry forecasts predict CTV ad spending to surpass linear TV within the next decade. The impact is real. B2B marketers have an opportunity to capture attention, and eventually market share, by harnessing the power of good ‘ol fashioned storytelling through CTV. 

Plus, it’s sexy. What marketer doesn’t want to branch out from their tedious paid search campaigns and annual conference schedule to build a campaign that can scale.

Reach out to the Mutiny team for case studies and more.