TV Ads Fail for B2B, Research Finds

Three-quarters of TV ads for business-to-business companies drive no long-term growth and scored only one star on a five-star scale, according to a study by The B2B Institute.

The reason, the research found, is that the messaging achieves minimal emotional response from the audience.

B2B advertising often relies on rational communications, which are assumed to be well-suited to high-priced purchases made on a long cycle. These presumptions, however, do not take into account the powerful emotions underlying purchases or that shape responses to advertising, the research found.

"This is really a massive opportunity … to turn your one-star ads into five-star ads ,or, if you have five-star ads already, it's [an opportunity] to run them for a long period of time," advises Jon Lombardo, global lead of the B2B Institute.

With TV ads increasingly failing to deliver for B2B, it's imperative that B2B marketers leverage the more effective person-based digital advertising approach to reach decision makers. This method goes beyond title and lead forms to find everyone within an organization who is responding to advertising online.

One recent convert, Amplitude uncovered several new leads by turning to this technique, contributing to a 5.6 times program return on investmant  and 54 percent contact-match rate.