Microsoft Advertising now lets B2B advertisers target CTV inventory using LinkedIn profile attributes through Amazon DSP and The Trade Desk. Job title, company size and industry targeting on the big screen.
B2B advertising on television has always been about hoping the right person sees the ad. LinkedIn targeting on CTV replaces hope with data.
Microsoft Advertising has expanded LinkedIn audience targeting to connected television inventory, available through Amazon DSP and The Trade Desk. B2B advertisers can now reach CTV audiences segmented by job title, company size, industry and seniority level using LinkedIn's professional graph.
This is the kind of update that looks incremental but changes how B2B media plans work. CTV has been a consumer advertising channel because the targeting available was demographic and behavioural, not professional. You could target "adults 25-54 who watch cooking shows" but you could not target "CFOs at companies with 500-plus employees in financial services". Now you can.
LinkedIn professional profiles now available for CTV audience targeting
The mechanics work through Microsoft's identity graph, which links LinkedIn profiles to device identifiers through probabilistic matching. The match rates will not be perfect, but for B2B categories where the target audience is narrow and the cost of a qualified impression is high, even a 60 to 70 per cent match rate represents a step change from broad demographic targeting.
The availability through Amazon DSP and The Trade Desk matters because those are the two largest independent programmatic CTV buying platforms. Advertisers do not need to use a separate Microsoft-specific buying tool. The LinkedIn segments sit alongside existing audience options in the platforms B2B media teams already use.
For Australian B2B marketers, this opens a channel that was previously impractical. Running a CTV campaign to reach procurement managers at mid-market manufacturing companies was not possible six months ago without wasteful broad targeting. Now it is a segment you can buy directly.
The CPMs will be higher than standard CTV, likely 2 to 3x, because the audience is narrow and the data layer adds cost. But the economics work if your deal size justifies the investment. A SaaS company with a $50,000 average contract value can afford $80 CPMs if the audience is genuinely decision-makers in their target vertical.
Why it matters
CTV was the last major ad channel where B2B targeting was essentially broken. LinkedIn data on CTV closes that gap. For B2B companies that have maxed out LinkedIn's owned inventory (feed ads, Sponsored Content, InMail), this creates a new surface to reach the same audience in a different context.
What to do about it
If you run B2B campaigns on LinkedIn already, test extending those audiences to CTV through Amazon DSP or The Trade Desk. Start with a brand awareness objective rather than direct response. CTV is a top-of-funnel format. Measure it on reach and frequency against your LinkedIn audience, not on clicks. Run for at least 30 days to build enough frequency for the brand lift to show.