Understanding your client’s audience plays a major role in designing your creatives. When targeting consumers, brands tend to keep the message simple, clear, and jargon free.
But what type of messaging should you use when targeting C-level executives or business owners in the B2B niche?
Here’s what you can learn from three of the biggest IT tech firms in the world when creating your next B2B banner ad.
1. IBM
Here are various ad sets of IBM’s banner ad promoting their QRadar platform:
There are two key takeaways from this advert.
The first is that their entire advert set is uniformed. The color, background, and bold letterings are consistent throughout. Their advert gives off a scent of professionalism and authority which ties in with their product and brand philosophy.
The second is the professional terms they use.
Further compounding their authority and expertise, IBM use the acronym SIEM (security information and event management), which the average person will not know much about.
This word also acts as a filter because it will only receive clicks from people who are aware of the term (reducing wasted click spend on untargeted users).
2. Cisco
Cisco do a great job of stamping down their authority and knowledge with the following advert:
Just like IBM, they use authority through words such as next generation, hyperconverged, and innovate to position their new product at the top of the marketplace. They also follow the same principles as IBM and keep the color, fonts, and text same throughout each animation series.
3. Microsoft
Last up is Microsoft, which created a set of banner ads for their Exchange service:
Unlike Cisco and IBM who are targeting larger enterprises with their products, Microsoft is trying to reach small business owners through their service which starts at $4.00 per month.
If you mention words such as SIEM or hyperconverged to the average business owner, they will look at you with the following expression:
That’s why they have kept the text simple in their advert by using words that most business owners who have an online presence will understand (IT costs, servers).
Understand your audience
Truly understanding your client’s audience allows you to create highly personalized banners.
There’s a good probability that your client will have different buyer personas who each require unique messaging, and this is why it’s incredibly important to communicate with them in order to create the best banners possible.
Communication during the ad creation process is made simple with Adpiler.
Jorrit
Founder Adpiler
