Advertising During a Pandemic: Must-​Know B2B Info

BY Rachel Cagle
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The pandemic isn’t letting up. It’s affecting everyone and many have lost hope that any relief will come before next year. However, there is good news for advertisers among all the negativity. Advertising during a pandemic may have been a scary notion back in the spring, but now we know that digital advertising is thriving, especially in the B2B sector.

According to a study by PathFactory, not only have more Americans been spending an increasing amount of time consuming digital content, the number of people binging content has increased. PathFactory says that the difference between bingers and non-​bingers is the amount of time they spend consuming media (1 minute and 40 seconds vs. about 5 minutes on average, to be exact). Over all, bingers have increased their content consumption by 18.4%. To be successful in advertising during the pandemic, your clients need to target these bingers.

PathFactory also warns that, even though binging rates are up, attention spans are dwindling. Five minutes seems like a lot, but it is down from pre-​pandemic numbers. So, how can your B2B clients hold their customer’s attention using advertising during a pandemic? They need to be mindful of their content choices.

Advertising During a Pandemic: Media that Saw an Increase in Consumption

  • Webinars: 128.1% increase
  • Brochures: 108.1%
  • Guides: 67%
  • Reports: 65.1%
  • Blogs: 39.4%
  • Videos: 27%
  • White Papers: 24.8%

B2B customers want new content and they want it now. “There was a 124% increase in new content assets during the COVID-​19 period compared with the period directly before stay at home orders were issued,” reports PathFactory. If your B2B clients want to be successful in advertising during a pandemic, their content needs to be part of these numbers. If they’re not releasing new content, their potential customers will get bored when visiting their websites and opt for a competitor’s instead. And this is growing more critical since the number of consumers revisiting websites to consume content four or more times between March and May this year shot up by 43.2%.

While ensuring visitors don’t bounce is important, what’s even more important is holding their attention so they spend more time consuming your content and actually consume multiple assets during each session,” reports PathFactory. The media types with the highest success rates when it comes to attracting and holding consumer’s attention are:

  • Brochures: 70.5% of consumers viewed this asset first (and then 17% binged its content)
  • Guides: 76.3% (13.6%)
  • Presentations: 75.8% (13.6%)
  • Infographics: 77.9% (13.4%)
  • Videos: 77.5% (13.3%)
  • Case Studies: 69.1% (11.5%)
  • Webinars: 79.7% (11.4%)

Digital media is definitely dominating the advertising scene this year, but it’s never a good idea to put all your eggs in one basket. After all, plenty of Americans are also binge watching TV to pass the time while social distancing. To succeed in advertising during a pandemic, it’s a good idea to invest in multichannel advertising campaigns. Not sure what other media to pair with digital? Check out your client’s target customer’s audience profile on AudienceSCAN on Admall by SalesFuel to find out the media types that inspired the most of these shoppers to take action.


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