Connected TV (CTV) is becoming an increasingly important opportunity for B2B advertisers, and LinkedIn is making it a clear priority. While most advertisers are familiar with reaching professional audiences through LinkedIn's feed, CTV offers another way to connect with the same target audience, including people who may not be active on the platform itself.

In a recent conversation, AJ Wilcox, founder of B2Linked and host of The LinkedIn Ads Show, sat down with Kevin to discuss why LinkedIn is investing in CTV, what early campaign results are showing, and how advertisers can use video to improve their overall advertising strategy.

The results Kevin shared are particularly interesting: advertisers using LinkedIn CTV have reached more of their target audience and seen stronger lead form completion rates, alongside lower costs per lead. Here's why those results matter and what they could mean for your LinkedIn Ads strategy.

What Is Connected TV, and Why Is LinkedIn Prioritizing It?

Connected TV refers to television content streamed over an internet-connected device, such as a smart TV or streaming device. For B2B advertisers, it creates an additional opportunity to reach professional audiences through video outside the traditional LinkedIn feed.

As Kevin explained in the conversation, LinkedIn sees CTV as a significant opportunity because B2B advertisers have historically had limited ways to reach a very specific professional audience across different media. LinkedIn's targeting capabilities help advertisers identify the people and companies they want to reach, but not every member is active on LinkedIn regularly.

CTV helps bridge that gap by creating another way to reach those same audiences while they're watching streaming content.

This is especially valuable for advertisers who want to build awareness among a defined group of decision-makers but struggle to reach everyone through feed-based campaigns alone. Rather than relying exclusively on the moments when their target audience is browsing LinkedIn, advertisers can use CTV to expand their reach across another viewing environment.

LinkedIn CTV Can Reach 24% More of Your Target Audience

One of the most compelling statistics Kevin shared was that advertisers using CTV on LinkedIn were reaching 24% more of their target audience through unique reach.

In other words, CTV helped advertisers connect with additional members of their target audience who might not otherwise have been reached through their existing LinkedIn campaigns.

For B2B marketers, that matters because reaching the right audience is often more challenging than simply generating impressions. Your ideal buyers may not spend much time on LinkedIn, even if they're active professionals who fit your targeting criteria perfectly. If your entire strategy depends on reaching them in the feed, you're potentially missing opportunities to introduce your brand to those people.

CTV gives advertisers another way to increase audience coverage without abandoning the professional targeting that makes LinkedIn valuable in the first place.

For campaigns focused on brand awareness and demand generation, this additional reach can help more of the buying committee become familiar with your company before they're actively evaluating solutions.

CTV Can Improve Lead Generation Performance, Too

CTV isn't only interesting as an awareness channel. According to the results Kevin discussed, advertisers who used CTV to reach the same audience as their LinkedIn Lead Gen Form campaigns saw:

• 82% higher Lead Gen Form completion rates
• 30% lower cost per lead

These results suggest that reaching an audience through CTV can support performance further down the funnel, rather than serving only as an awareness tactic.

The connection makes sense: when people have additional opportunities to encounter your brand and become familiar with what you offer, they may be more receptive when they later see an ad asking them to take a more direct action. By the time they encounter a Lead Gen Form campaign, they've potentially already had another touchpoint with your brand through video.

It's an important reminder that B2B advertising doesn't happen in isolated stages. A campaign designed to increase awareness can contribute to the effectiveness of a campaign designed to generate leads, even when the awareness campaign isn't directly responsible for the final conversion.

The figures Kevin shared are encouraging, although individual results will depend on factors such as the audience, creative, campaign setup, and offer. Advertisers should use these results as a reason to test CTV rather than assume every campaign will see the same improvements.

Why CTV Could Be Especially Valuable for Bottom-of-Funnel Campaigns

AJ highlighted another practical advantage of CTV: it could be particularly useful when you're trying to reach a smaller, highly qualified audience at the bottom of the funnel.

Bottom-of-funnel campaigns often target people who have already shown interest in your brand, visited your website, or engaged with earlier advertising. Because these audiences are much smaller than broad, cold audiences, advertisers can find it difficult to scale their spending while maintaining enough reach.

CTV offers another opportunity to reach those people through video, potentially helping advertisers get more out of an audience that would otherwise be difficult to scale.

As AJ pointed out during the discussion, this is one of the reasons he finds CTV so interesting for bottom-of-funnel campaigns. Instead of relying exclusively on feed inventory to reach a relatively small retargeting audience, advertisers have another channel through which to maintain visibility.

This doesn't mean CTV should replace your existing retargeting strategy. Rather, it can complement it by providing another way to reach valuable prospects and reinforce the message they're already seeing elsewhere.

Your LinkedIn Video Strategy Should Include CTV

Another key takeaway from the conversation is that advertisers should think about how their existing video creative can support CTV campaigns.

Many B2B marketers already recognize the value of incorporating video into their LinkedIn Ads strategy. Video can help explain complex products, communicate expertise, introduce a brand, and give potential buyers a better understanding of what makes a company different.

However, if you're creating video exclusively for the LinkedIn feed, you may be missing an opportunity to use that content across additional placements.

As Kevin explained, advertisers should consider whether their existing feed video can also be adapted for CTV. Doing so could help expand their reach and give their video creative a role across more stages of the marketing funnel.

That doesn't necessarily mean every video will work equally well in every placement. Advertisers should review the creative requirements and viewing experience for CTV, making adjustments where needed to ensure the message translates effectively.

The broader point is to think beyond individual campaigns and consider how video can support a more connected advertising strategy, from introducing your brand to new audiences through to reinforcing your message with prospects who are closer to converting.

How to Think About CTV in Your LinkedIn Ads Strategy

If you're considering testing CTV, start by identifying where it could complement your existing campaigns.

Here are a few opportunities worth exploring:

• Expand brand awareness: Use CTV to reach additional members of your target audience who may not be active on LinkedIn's feed.
• Support demand generation: Give potential buyers more opportunities to become familiar with your brand before they're ready to convert.
• Reinforce bottom-of-funnel campaigns: Test whether CTV can help you reach smaller, high-value audiences and support lead generation.
• Get more value from video creative: Review your existing video assets and identify which ones could be adapted for CTV.
• Measure the impact across the funnel: Evaluate not only direct conversions, but also whether CTV is helping improve lead generation performance when combined with other campaigns.

As with any new advertising opportunity, it's important to test your approach and evaluate the results against your campaign objectives. Look at reach and audience coverage, but also pay attention to how CTV fits into the broader customer journey and whether it contributes to more efficient lead generation.

The Bottom Line: CTV Adds Another Opportunity to Reach B2B Buyers

LinkedIn CTV is attracting attention because it offers B2B advertisers a way to expand their reach beyond the feed while continuing to focus on the professional audiences they care about. The early results Kevin shared, including 24% more unique audience reach, an 82% increase in Lead Gen Form completion rates, and a 30% reduction in cost per lead, make it an opportunity worth exploring.

More importantly, CTV reinforces a principle that applies to B2B advertising more broadly: your top-of-funnel and bottom-of-funnel campaigns shouldn't operate as completely separate efforts. Building familiarity with your brand can help make later conversion-focused campaigns more effective, and video provides another way to connect those stages.

If you're already investing in LinkedIn video, it may be time to consider whether CTV could help you reach more of your audience and strengthen your overall funnel strategy.

Watch the video above to hear AJ Wilcox and Kevin discuss why CTV is becoming a priority for LinkedIn and what B2B advertisers should consider when incorporating it into their campaigns.

Want more LinkedIn Ads tips, strategies, and practical advice? Subscribe to The LinkedIn Ads Show podcast, hosted by AJ Wilcox, or join the private LinkedIn Ads Fanatics community at fanatics.b2linked.com to learn alongside other LinkedIn Ads practitioners.

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