What's behind this? Search ads have historically been the favored format for B2B marketers because of the reliability of keyword targeting. Focusing on a small target audience to drive traffic to their websites allows marketers to keep cost per click low. But search ads are losing their dominance as investment in display ads is on the rise on platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, CTV, and audio increases.
As reported by eMarketer principal analyst at Insider Intelligence Jillian Ryan in our “US B2B Advertising Forecast 2021” report:
- Nearly 4 in 10 US B2B marketers said display advertising was an effective channel for which they planned to increase their budget in the next year, per May 2021 findings from Ascend2 and Wpromote.
- Roughly 3 in 4 B2B marketers worldwide expect to increase their marketing investments in online video and display advertising, according to November 2020 findings from WARC and Spotify.
Looking ahead: US B2B display ad spending share will continue to soar as spending in this category will surpass $7 billion by 2023.