By the Numbers: B2B social video benchmarks
Including some brands that are doing it right.
The rise of short-form social video can leave B2B marketers feeling left out. There just aren’t that many cute, quirky trends that lend themselves to SaaS or enterprise accounting services. And the need to foster trust and credibility in these high-stakes, high-cost deals can result in content that feels stale and lawyered to death.
It’s a struggle.
But there are still B2B brands that are making a splash even on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.
A new report from social analytics company Dash Hudson dives into social media benchmarks for 13 business focuses, ranging from CPG and media and beauty to B2B. They examined thousands of companies across those social video platforms for a period of six months to better understand their posting and performance. All accounts examined had at least 1,000 followers.
Here’s what they found.
TikTok
It’s likely no surprise that B2B organizations have among the lowest average followers on the clock app. With an average follower count of 193,000, the industry outranked only wellness, home and travel among the categories Dash Hudson followed.
But the industry ranked solidly in the middle of the industries for video views, with a respectable 125,000. Where things fell apart was in the engagement category, which was calculated by adding likes, comments and shares and dividing by video views.
B2B videos received the lowest engagement of any category, and by a sizable margin: B2B videos averaged 2.4% engagement rate, while the next-lowest category, fashion, notched 3.2%.
So, in other words, people are watching B2B content, but generally not taking action based on it. This might play into the longer sales cycle for many B2B purchases. Or it might just be that people are less excited to like their software vendor than their favorite sports team.
One other notable statistic: B2B brands posted more TikTok content than any other category, with an average of 8 posts per week. So, the lack of engagement isn’t due to lack of effort.
The top-performing brands included Intel, which despite good numbers has not posted a new video since June; Procreate, which shares tips for using its software as well as a candid video where its CEO confessed he “really f*cking hate(s) generative AI”; and Cisco, which leans into memes for cybersecurity professionals.
Instagram is a struggle for B2B organizations. It placed dead last in the number of followers averaging just 418,000. That may be more than TikTok, but it’s relatively worse – and the engagement rate is a paltry 0.2%, which isn’t the worst of the surveyed categories (that would be retail, with a brutal 0.1%).
B2B marketers are, on average, posting two Reels each week and two carousels or images.
So why are these numbers so low?
Simply put, people aren’t looking for B2B information on Instagram.
Instagram has retained many of its roots as a way of sharing content with family and friends – 70% of Instagram users say they use the platform to post content, compared to just 42% on TikTok. It lacks TikTok’s utility as a search engine.
As a result, many people simply aren’t in the work mindset when they’re scrolling Instagram. And so, companies don’t post as much on the platform about B2B and the cycle continues.
Social media marketing is all about knowing your audience and where they hang out – and for B2B marketers, Instagram’s just not it.
YouTube
YouTube sees slightly better luck for business-focused oriented marketers. These brands average 192,000 followers – middle of the road among categories. Views, however, are at the bottom of the barrel, averaging just under 34,000 views and behind every other category save travel. In general, brands are posting a couple videos each week.
Takeaways
The posting cadence on Instagram and YouTube versus TikTok shows that marketers might be missing opportunities to cross-post shortform content on Reels and YouTube Shorts. If B2B marketers are already averaging 8 videos on TikTok, that’s content that could be recycled, perhaps with a few tweaks, across platforms.
But above all, this research shows the importance of picking your battles in B2B marketing. Not every platform is right for every audience, no matter how flashy or buzzy they might be.
Dash Hudson offers these additional tips:
- Foster a supportive community.
- Highlight versatility and real-life use cases.
- Provide educational content.
What have you found that works in B2B social?
See the full Dash Hudson report here.
Allison Carter is editor-in-chief of PR Daily. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.
