B2B Marketers Like Gusto, Relay, and Otter are Turning to TV to Reach Buyers

For decades, TV advertising was assumed to be the domain of consumer brands — beer, cars, fast food — brands built on pizzazz and pop. B2B software? Not so much.

But that’s starting to change.

From HR solutions to AI-powered meeting tools, a growing number of B2B companies are turning to TV and finding real results. 

Why More B2B Brands are Making TV a Fundamental Part of Their Strategy

Most B2B marketing lives inside small niches - email, search, LinkedIn. These channels still drive demand, but they’re not always great storytelling environments. B2B marketers are realizing something simple: the people making business decisions are the same people watching TV. The difference now is that TV allows brands to reach those buyers directly while also telling a story, building credibility, and influencing them long before they’re ready to fill out a demo form. We spoke with three B2B marketing leaders to hear how TV is changing their marketing playbook.

You Can Target Your Preferred Buyer

The oldest knock on TV was that it was a blunt instrument — you reached everyone and hoped for the best. That's no longer true. For many B2B brands, CTV - or streaming - has become a natural entry point. With the ability to target and segment audiences just like digital, it offers a familiarity most B2B marketers are used to. 

That’s exactly how the fintech platform Relay approached the channel. They started with CTV precisely because it offered "tighter targeting, faster feedback loops, and clearer measurement through geo tests, frequency controls, and survey attribution." For a company selling to small business owners, the ability to reach that audience at scale rather than paying to reach millions of consumers who would never sign up was the deciding factor.

“We wanted a channel that could deliver high reach at efficient costs,” said Neil Laborce, Manager of Performance Marketing at Relay. “TV presented a low-CPM opportunity, and early signals showed that more people were going directly to our site or searching for Relay.”

For Otter, which offers AI-powered transcription and meeting intelligence, TV’s targeting capabilities made it a channel worth protecting even during budget cuts.

“Instead of eliminating TV, the strategy shifted to selecting networks that reach the right audience at scale with lower CPMs,” said their Head of Growth Acquisition and Demand, Zaw Lin Hteik.

It Helps Build Brand Awareness

There's a temptation in B2B marketing to go narrow — to chase only buyers who are already searching. But the companies winning with TV have learned you can’t just fish where the fish already are. Sometimes you have to make sure the fish know the pond exists. 

Gusto, the payroll and HR platform, builds its TV strategy around this insight. Their team deliberately targets "tentpole moments" (The World Series, The Super Bowl, the Winter Olympics, etc.) because live events tend to capture the attention of viewers at the right moment.

“We align these brand moments to when our customers are in need of Gusto the most,” explained Gusto’s Head of Paid Acquisition, David De Rosa. “Our customers are actively in-market and highly engaged during these types of live events.” It's awareness-building timed to purchase intent, a combination that pure digital targeting can't replicate.

Relay took a similar approach, using TV to announce the launch of Becoming Self Made, their new video podcast that unearths the unfiltered stories of small businesses, and to drive broad awareness. The results were hard to argue with: "More people went directly to our site or searched for Relay, validating TV as a demand-generating lever,” said Laborce.  That kind of top-of-funnel lift is what TV does better than almost any other medium.

TV Turns Complexity Into Clarity

For B2B brands selling complex products, thirty seconds might seem short, but that time matters. It allows marketers to explain a problem, introduce a solution, and build credibility in ways a search ad never could. "We have seen customer testimonials drive authentic storytelling that aligns to our brand values," said De Rosa.

Relay echoes this thinking. On streaming, where they can target more precisely, they "lean into more product-led and testimonial-driven creative to build trust and reinforce our value proposition with higher-intent viewers," explained Laborce. The richness of video isn't just a nice-to-have; it's what allows a complex product to land.

And for Otter, well-crafted TV spots tend to drive immediate engagement, even for a complex multi-platform product. “TV ads often drive consumers—especially mobile users—to check out the product immediately,” said Hteik.

We Don’t Just Sell TV. We Use it Too.

If you’ve visited our site before, you may have seen our ad featuring our fearless leader, Philip Inghelbrecht, telling the story behind Tatari. Thank you, CTV retargeting.

Like many B2B marketers, we use TV to introduce our brand to buyers long before they’re actively searching for us. When our sales team asks prospects how they heard about Tatari, “we’ve seen you on TV” comes up more often than you might expect.

One tactic we rely on is CTV retargeting. Instead of only serving banner or social ads to website visitors, we also reach those audiences with TV ads in their living rooms. The environment is more immersive, and the message carries more weight than another digital ad in a crowded feed.

Creatively, our approach is simple. Some of our most effective TV ads are repurposed customer case study videos. Credibility tends to outperform polish.

And like most B2B marketers, we don’t measure success by traffic spikes alone. Instead, we look at signals that matter — inbound hand-raisers, pipeline influence, and revenue impact across the broader media mix.

Consistency over time matters more than one-off campaigns.

TV is a Vital Part of the B2B Marketing Funnel

The brands seeing the biggest results understand one simple truth: the people making business decisions still watch TV.

Ready to put your B2B brand on TV? Let's talk!