Observed Signal · Jun 4, 2026 · Partnership · Source: VideoWeek · Impact: 3/5 · Sentiment: Positive
LinkedIn Goes All-In on Video for B2B
LinkedIn’s VP Marketing, Davang Shah, argues video is becoming the default format for B2B marketing because long purchase cycles require trust-building and sustained attention. Shah cites a typical B2B purchase journey of about 272 days, involving 22 people, with only 5% of buyers in-market at any time, and notes 71% of B2B buyers are Gen Z or Millennials—groups that consume large amounts of video. LinkedIn promotes video through products and partnerships: video has been on the platform since 2017 (ads from 2018), BrandLink (pre-roll placements with premium publishers and creators), and a CTV offering integrated with The Trade Desk and Amazon DSP. LinkedIn is also prioritising measurement (conversions API, company intelligence), expanded targeting, and simpler buying workflows for advertisers.
LinkedIn (a major social platform) is expanding video and CTV capabilities, offering premium pre-roll inventory and integrations with The Trade Desk and Amazon DSP — changes that affect B2B media planning, CTV targeting and measurement but are not industry-shifting on their own.
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Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- Davang Shah says the B2B purchase process averages about 272 days, involves 22 people, and only 5% of buyers are in-market at any given time.
- Video has been part of LinkedIn since 2017; video advertising arrived on the platform in 2018.
- LinkedIn’s BrandLink programme runs pre-roll ads in front of videos from premium publishers and creators, including BBC Studios, The Economist, Steven Bartlett, Allie K. Miller, and Gary Vaynerchuk.
- LinkedIn offers a Connected TV (CTV) product and has partnered with The Trade Desk and Amazon DSP to enable CTV buys.
- LinkedIn claims its CTV ads are 1.4x more cost-efficient at reaching a B2B target audience versus linear TV and 4.3x more effective when used in combination with LinkedIn.
Connected Companies & Entities
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Related Market Signals & Shifts
Recent verified developments and strategic activity across this market segment.
Céline Flores Willers urges B2B marketers to think like B2C
At DMEXCO 2026, Céline Flores Willers, founder of The People Branding Company, argued that B2B marketing often appears outdated due to fear of innovation (FOMU). She demonstrated creative tactics like using a robot sidekick 'Robi' and branded T-shirts to boost attention and branding. She highlighted LinkedIn as the central platform for B2B, citing a SAP Taulia case where employee-generated content, boosted via Thought Leader Ads, achieved 2.3x higher engagement and 70% higher click-through rates with a small budget. Willers also cited examples like Legora's campaign with Jude Law and Merz Lifecare's 25-post merger documentation as successful 'building in public' strategies. She concluded by urging B2B marketers to be more creative and learn from B2C approaches.
Olyzon Launches Agentic Orchestration Platform for Advertising
Olyzon, an agentic orchestration platform for advertising, has launched its technology live in market, optimizing real advertising campaigns. The platform enables agencies and brands to orchestrate media budgets across CTV, YouTube, social, digital audio, and DOOH from a single interface, integrating with existing DSPs, SSPs, and measurement partners. It is positioned as a working example of a Unified Media Platform (UMP), connecting systems that previously operated in silos. Key integrations include Amazon DSP, DV360, The Trade Desk, Yahoo DSP, Universal Ads, Vibe, Spotify, PubMatic, Swivel.ai, DoubleVerify, Xpln, Lucid, and Innovid. The launch was announced at Advertising Week New York.
LinkedIn says don't treat leads as finish in B2B
At LinkedIn's B2Believe event in its new Empire State Building space, executives and practitioners called for a shift from lead-centric B2B marketing to a 'full journey' approach that links signals, targeting, creative, full journey, and measurement. Jae Oh, senior director of product management, revealed that fewer than 10% of upper-funnel audiences make it into bottom-funnel campaigns, urging marketers to connect awareness with demand capture. Research from LinkedIn's B2B Institute with eMarketer showed 77% of marketers say they no longer target individuals, yet only 31% have a playbook for activating audiences down the funnel. Practitioners from Canva, SAP, Mastercard, and others shared examples of aligning marketing and sales on common signals. LinkedIn also outlined a product roadmap focused on cost-per-opportunity targeting, multi-format campaigns, agentic workflows, and incrementality forecasting.
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