So your last campaign got 0.8% engagement. We've all been there. And the one before that was "above industry average," which is just another way of saying it sucked slightly less than everyone else's.
Your sales team keeps asking why leads suck. Your CEO keeps asking why nobody knows who you are. And you keep staring at the same tired playbook wondering why nothing works anymore.
I spent way too much time this week going down a rabbit hole of campaigns that actually worked. Found five that made me stop scrolling and think "wait, what just happened?" They all did the same thing, made people feel something weird before explaining anything logical.
Here’s what I learned about increasing engagement rates in B2B:
Lead with emotion, then earn the logic.
Make the problem visible before you pitch the solution.
Replace clichés with concrete, visual moments people remember
You know that nightmare of managing people across different countries? All the systems, time zones, paperwork that makes no sense? Most companies would show you a dashboard with little flags on it.
Rippling showed someone walking through an office door and suddenly they're on a London street. She gets on a bus, ends up in some upside-down bar in Sydney. None of it makes sense, but somehow it makes perfect sense.
They took "global workforce management" (ugh) and turned it into "what if geography didn't exist?" Much better.
The thing to steal: Don't explain your benefit. Show the world where your benefit already exists.
What this looks like for you: Stop saying "integrated platform." Show someone moving between their kitchen, office, and garage without any doors between them. Same house, no barriers.
Tool overload is killing everyone, but how do you show something invisible? ClickUp made it visible by turning it into your worst digital nightmare.
Imagine demonic voices whispering "notifications" while your screen fills with pop-ups that won't close. Your spreadsheet starts glitching like it's possessed. It's genuinely disturbing to watch.
Then boom! A clean, simple dashboard. Suddenly their product doesn't feel like another app. It feels like an exorcism.
The thing to steal: Turn invisible problems into visible monsters.
What this looks like for you: That "workflow inefficiency" you keep talking about? What if it was actually chasing your customer through their office, growing bigger every time they opened another app?
Every agency says they won't "hand-hold" clients. It's meaningless now. So KlientBoost showed what hand-holding actually looks like.
A woman literally dragging her account manager everywhere. Board meetings, coffee runs, the bathroom. He's got a juice box and can't do anything himself. It's uncomfortable and hilarious because we've all been there.
The best part? They proved they understand the real fear without being preachy about it.
The thing to steal: Take your industry's dumbest cliché and make it painfully real.
What this looks like for you: "White-glove service"? Show someone in actual white gloves trying to use your software, spilling coffee on the keyboard, asking where the mouse went.
Global hiring is scary because of all the legal stuff, not because there's no talent. But instead of listing compliance features, RemoFirst made fear of global hiring look medieval.
A king trying to hire a data analyst by making people pull swords from stones. The perfect candidate gets rejected because he's from Vancouver and the king freaks out about "paperwork" and "foreign laws."
Suddenly your hiring fears don't feel rational. They feel like you're stuck in the past.
The thing to steal: Make the old way look ancient and ridiculous.
What this looks like for you: Show someone doing expense reports with an abacus and paper ledger while their competitor uses your app on their phone. Don't say "legacy system." Show the medieval counting house.
Smart people mess up passwords not because they're dumb, but because they're using terrible tools. So 1Password showed a professional golfer trying to putt with a hockey stick, then a broom, then a baguette.
He's obviously skilled. The tools are obviously wrong. Just like using your Notes app for passwords.
The thing to steal: Show competent people failing because their tools suck.
What this looks like for you: World-class chef trying to prepare a meal with plastic spoons. Award-winning architect drawing blueprints with crayons. The person isn't the problem.
Why Any of This Matters
Your customers aren't wandering around thinking "I need enterprise software." They're trying to get stuff done and running into the same stupid obstacles every day.
These campaigns worked because they showed they understood the obstacle before pitching the solution. They made frustration visible, gave it a face, made people nod and say "yes, exactly that."
Nobody buys software. They buy the feeling of not having that problem anymore.
Try This Next Week
Pick one and mess around with it:
What impossible thing would exist if your problem was already solved?
What would your customer's biggest headache look like if it was hunting them?
What tired industry phrase can you turn into a ridiculous scene?
How can you make their current method look like the stone age?
What expert would fail if they used the wrong tools for your customer's job?
The Pattern I Keep Seeing
Every campaign that actually works lately does this: they prove they get the problem better than you do. Not by listing features or showing testimonials, but by making you feel understood in a way that's impossible to fake.
They earn attention first, trust second, consideration third. Everything else is just noise.
Ready to Stop Playing It Safe?
Look, you can keep running the same "industry-leading solution" campaigns and wonder why nobody cares. Or you can dig into what actually makes people stop scrolling.
We post daily breakdowns in the B2B Video Ad Library - full formulas you can use on any budget, humor breakdowns that actually work, and the specific tips that turn boring into memorable.
Because your clients deserve better than safe. And so do you.
Black Camel Agency
Regan George | [email protected]
P.S. Found a B2B campaign that made you think "damn, I wish we'd made that"? Send it over. The ones that make me jealous get the full breakdown treatment.
