Business professionals watch TV too, right? Yes, yes they do. And as B2B marketers battle fragmented media environments and prolonged sales cycles, a new formula is emerging on TV: precise targeting, measurable outcomes, and verified reach.

For decades, TV advertising has been dominated by auto, QSR, retail, and pharma, while B2B marketers lacked the tools to align the emotional impact of television with the specificity and accountability required to reach professional audiences. Now, as viewers move to streaming, LinkedIn and iSpot are helping B2B marketers harness the power of Connected TV (CTV).

At a topline, LinkedIn allows advertisers to reach verified business decision-makers on streaming platforms, bringing professional-grade targeting to the biggest screen in the house. And with iSpot’s real-time, cross-screen measurement, marketers can access the data they need to prove impact and optimize spend.

Together, the two platforms are transforming CTV from an awareness tool into a performance channel for B2B. 

Targeting Without the Guesswork

LinkedIn’s CTV solution is powered by more than 1 billion members and unmatched first-party data—who people are, what they do, where they work, and what they care about. For B2B marketers, it’s like using Polk in auto, only now, it’s applied to verified business decision-makers.

Advertisers can target by job title, seniority, company size, industry, and more—delivering sight, sound, and motion across premium streaming environments. The result: full-screen storytelling tailored to business audiences, with none of the waste that typically comes with traditional TV buys.

Proof Over Promises

On the measurement front, traditional TV relied on broad metrics like GRPs, which are fine for mass reach, but useless when your entire target list is 500 people. For B2B marketers, measuring success by how many 25–54-year-olds watched CNBC just doesn’t cut it.

But with the rise of CTV, platforms like iSpot are bringing digital-style accountability to the TV screen, tracking impressions, reach, frequency, and audience overlap in real time. More importantly, iSpot answers the question at the heart of B2B TV skepticism: “How can we be sure our TV campaigns are actually reaching the right people—and what impact are they having?”

That’s why LinkedIn integrated with iSpot to provide B2B marketers with unified, actionable insights, including:

• On-target reach percentage

• Incremental impressions beyond linear

• Cross-platform frequency

• Publisher-level performance reporting

Case in Point: Salesforce

For years, Salesforce had invested in linear TV to build brand awareness, but the results raised questions about relevance and efficiency. Their campaigns reached broad audiences, but with little visibility into whether they were engaging actual decision-makers.

By shifting to LinkedIn’s audience-first CTV strategy and tapping into iSpot’s performance tracking, Salesforce gained a clearer view of both reach and resonance. They were able to target professionals directly, validate incremental exposure, and optimize spend without increasing their budget.

Key outcomes:

• 70% of viewers reached via LinkedIn CTV had not been reached through linear TV

• 4x more on-target impressions

• 11x more cost-effective at engaging core B2B audiences

"At Salesforce, we historically approached CTV buying with a channel-first mindset, relying on assumptions about where our audience might be,” said Lauren Firebaugh, Sr. Director, Global Brand & Campaign Insights, Salesforce. LinkedIn’s integration with iSpot enabled us to measure on-target reach across partners, eliminate guesswork, and adopt an audience-first approach. This shift allowed us to reduce waste, enhance on-target reach, and make smarter, more efficient CTV investments – placing our audience at the heart of our strategy."

Want to follow the playbook?

Download TVREV’s latest report for best practices and insights on how B2B brands are turning CTV into a measurable growth engine.