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Now more than ever, the ability to reach customers in the digital world has become key to driving the growth of a business. When thinking about B2B advertising, the first option that comes to mind is LinkedIn, which makes total sense. LinkedIn has been the platform providing more targeting options based on decision-making; however, Meta wants this to change.
With over 200M businesses and 2.9 billion people using the apps daily, marketers want to take advantage of this network and increase connections for businesses.
As you might know, Meta has been updating some targeting options across the board regarding audiences. With the mission to support B2B marketers and give the power of building community by offering attractive opportunities to drive business-to-business engagement, Meta has launched a new set of B2B audience segments for targeting.
The New Options
Since August 2022, Meta’s B2B targeting options have been available to target four distinct segments. They can be found in the detailed targeting section once you set up your ad.
Let’s take a look at each of them!
IT Decision-Makers
A B2B audience segment that targets ads to people who are IT decision-makers based on their job titles.
Out of the four options, this is the most narrowed option in targeting. Here you’ll focus on executives and managers in IT fields only. This means that Facebook will use job titles instead of selecting interests to build this audience.
The audience size for this one is 803,864 – 945,345 but keep in mind this will vary based on the location you’re targeting. On another note, you’re targeting IT professionals, which means this can work for those who are advertising software, cloud storage services, apps, and others.
Business Decision-Maker Titles and Interests
A B2B audience segment that targets ads to people who are business decision-makers based on their job titles and interests.
This one is the broader of the four options. Since Meta doesn’t specify industries, you can reach a broader range of fields. Here you’ll find job titles related to decision-making across all sectors combined with interests in B2B markets.
Audience size: 1,181,386 – 1,389,310
Business Decision-Makers
A B2B audience segment that targets ads to people who are business decision-makers in engineering/IT, operations, HR, strategy, or marketing, based on their job titles.
In simple words, if you want to target executives, managers, and other decision-makers from different industries, this will be the best option to start. Here you can find key people in fields like operations, human resources, marketing, engineering, and information technology (IT).
The audience size for this one is 1,154,104 – 1,357,227. Meta doesn’t provide a specific list of job titles; however, it’s assumed that C-suite executives, directors, and managers are included in this category.
New Active Business
This one targets those administrators who play a role in businesses that have been set up recently. Here you can select a time frame of 6, 12, and 24 months. We could assume this comes from Facebook activity (the users that set up new business pages).
This is perfect for targeting businesses that are starting with new processes or with new tools.
The audience size for this is:
In less than 6 months: 9,660,452 – 11,360,692
In less than 12 months: 14,940,893 – 17,570,491
In less than 24 months: 24,519,642 – 28,835,099
Ready to Give It a Try?
After evaluating the four options, the business decision-makers group is the most valuable and complete option to go after high-level business people. However, you can be limited since this one has the smallest audience.
On the other hand, you can also consider the business decision-makers and interests group, which has a broader audience. This can be very useful if your service/product can help businesses regardless of the industry.
Additionally, based on what you offer, you could also consider the IT decision-makers group and the new business creation, which have much larger audiences, and focus on new businesses and what they need.
Final Thoughts
B2B advertisers have struggled with high costs using LinkedIn. If Meta can provide higher quality in B2B audiences at lower prices, this might represent significant competition to LinkedIn since Facebook & Instagram contain higher user activity. With the launch of these segments, there is no doubt that Meta will become more viable for advertisers who need to target B2B markets.
If you are already running ads on LinkedIn to reach a B2B audience, you could also try running ads also on Facebook, so you can compare results and get valuable data to create and optimize future strategies.
Lastly, be mindful that if you find yourself needing more insights regarding social media advertising, you can reach out to an expert in the field.
