When it comes to paid media, search and retargeting tend to take centre stage. But there’s one tactic that often gets overlooked in B2B marketing—display advertising.
B2B display ads are a powerful way to build brand awareness, reinforce messaging and stay visible across longer sales cycles. They play a vital role in shaping perception, supporting retargeting efforts and guiding prospects through the funnel.
The key is doing them right.
The role of display ads in the B2B funnel
While search ads target buyers with immediate intent, B2B display advertising is about visibility, familiarity and influence. It keeps your brand present during the quieter moments in the buyer journey, helping to shape perceptions and move prospects forward over time.
Whether you’re generating awareness or reinforcing your proposition, B2B display marketing is a valuable layer that complements both search and retargeting — especially in longer, multi-touch sales cycles.
Awareness and reinforcement
Display is your digital billboard. It introduces your brand to new audiences and ensures you stay front-of-mind as they explore other options. With consistent visuals and messaging, B2B display advertising helps prospects connect the dots across different platforms and touchpoints. Even if they don’t click straight away, the impression lingers — building familiarity that pays off later in the funnel.
Supporting retargeting
Display really comes into its own when layered with retargeting. After someone visits your site, engages with content or views a product page, display ads can help pull them back — visually reinforcing what they saw and nudging them to re-engage. It’s particularly effective when paired with segmentation and personalised messaging.
Creating effective display ads
In B2B, design isn’t just about looking polished, it’s about communicating clearly and professionally to time-poor decision-makers. The most effective B2B display campaigns balance creativity with clarity, combining strong visuals, sharp messaging and clear next steps.
Done right, they stop the scroll, grab attention and support your wider marketing narrative.
Designing ads with B2B in mind
When designing for business audiences, less is more. The best B2B display ads use clean layouts, consistent brand colours and concise copy to get their message across quickly. There’s no room for fluff, just a focused value proposition and a clear CTA.
For example, a cyber security firm targeting CTOs might use a static banner with the headline:
“Still relying on outdated defences?”
Supported by a subhead like: See how top tech leaders are improving response times by 48%, with a CTA to view the report.
Another common B2B display ads example is the carousel or HTML5 format on LinkedIn or Google Display Network, showing product benefits or testimonials in sequence. These formats are ideal for breaking down complex solutions into digestible visual blocks.
Always consider where your ad will appear and how it will look in different placements, responsive design matters just as much in ads as it does on your website.
Messaging for decision-makers
B2B display ads must speak to the right problems, and the right people. Whether it’s a Head of Procurement looking to reduce supplier risk, or a Marketing Director trying to improve campaign ROI, your message should focus on pain points and outcomes, not just product features.
Use role-specific messaging that positions your offer as a solution to their priorities. Keep CTAs simple and relevant to where they are in the journey:
- Download guide (top of funnel)
- Compare solutions (mid-funnel)
- Book a demo (bottom of funnel)
The most impactful B2B ads aren’t trying to be flashy, they’re trying to be useful – and succeeding.
Targeting options that work
Reaching people is great, but you need to make sure you’re reaching the right people. Effective B2B display marketing hinges on precise targeting: industry, company size, job title, and even intent. Unlike traditional broad-based targeting, B2B display campaigns are most successful when they’re built around relevance and strategic intent, not just demographics.
Contextual vs behavioural
There are two main approaches to targeting: contextual and behavioural.
Contextual targeting places your ads next to content that’s relevant to your offering, for example, displaying your cyber security ad on an article about data breaches. This method ensures that your brand shows up in the right environment, even if the individual hasn’t previously interacted with your business.
Behavioural targeting, on the other hand, is based on what users have previously done online, pages visited, content consumed, products explored. This approach is ideal for re-engaging warm leads or reaching people who’ve demonstrated interest in similar solutions.
The best strategies often combine both: using context to build relevance and behaviour to signal readiness.
Account-based display
For businesses with high-value sales or specific target accounts, account-based display is a game changer. This approach uses firmographic data, like industry, headcount or tech stack, to serve ads directly to companies on your target list.
On your chosen B2B display advertising network, you can layer in job title or seniority filters to make sure your ads are being seen by actual decision-makers, not just anyone at the company.
ABM-style display targeting allows you to deliver role-relevant messaging to buying committees across channels, building familiarity long before your sales team makes contact.
Campaign optimisation tips
The success of B2B display advertising isn’t just down to setup, it’s shaped by what happens next. Whether you’re running programmatic placements or B2B Google Ads, the best campaigns are built on ongoing refinement. High-performers rarely start out perfect. Instead, they evolve through testing, analysis and continuous optimisation. With small, data-informed adjustments, you can steadily improve performance and maximise ROI over time.
A/B testing
One of the simplest ways to optimise your B2B display campaigns is through A/B testing. Test variations of headlines, CTAs, imagery, colours and even formats to see what resonates best with your audience.
For example:
- Does “Book a demo” convert better than “See it in action”?
- Do static banners outperform responsive HTML5 formats?
- Which message drives more clicks from marketing leaders: ROI-focused or speed-focused?
Even small changes can lead to big improvements. Run tests systematically and track not just CTRs but also what happens post-click, are those visitors converting or engaging with your content?
Measuring quality traffic
Don’t let vanity metrics fool you. High impressions or click-through rates mean little if they’re not bringing in the right people. Focus on quality metrics such as:
- Time on site
- Pages per session
- Bounce rate
- Assisted conversions
- Pipeline contribution
If your display campaigns are generating traffic that exits quickly or doesn’t engage, it’s a sign your creative or targeting may need refining.
Conclusion
B2B display ads might not always be the loudest part of your paid media strategy, but they’re one of the most versatile. From building brand awareness to reinforcing retargeting efforts, display helps you stay visible, consistent and relevant, even across long, complex sales journeys.
By focusing on smart targeting, tailored creative and continuous optimisation, you can turn display from a background tactic into a powerful driver of engagement and pipeline influence.
If your current campaigns aren’t delivering the visibility or results you expected, review your approach. Test new formats. Refine your targeting. Shift your messaging to speak directly to decision-makers.
And if you’re not using B2B display ads at all, there’s no better time to begin. Talk to us now to get started.
