What should I include in a business case for video?

Why does video need a proper business case in B2B?

In most B2B companies, leadership isn’t short on ideas—they’re short on clear, prioritised investments that connect directly to growth. Video often gets dismissed as a “nice-to-have” because it arrives as a creative request rather than a structured business proposal. A business case reframes video as a commercial lever: something that can lift conversion on high-intent traffic, shorten sales cycles, and improve yield on existing marketing spend.

Multiple industry surveys show that buyers increasingly prefer to research products through digital channels and tend to favour vendors who explain clearly what they do and how they help. Reports from organisations like Gartner and McKinsey highlight that the bulk of the B2B buying journey happens before a prospect ever speaks to sales (Source: Gartner, McKinsey B2B buying research). That means your website and outbound content must do more of the heavy lifting that reps used to do live.

Video—especially short, focused, and interactive formats—can help your website do this job better by turning static pages into guided, human experiences. A business case is how you translate that potential into language your CEO and CFO care about: revenue, efficiency, and risk.

Which problems and outcomes should I highlight first?

Start by grounding your business case in problems leadership already recognises. For example: high bounce rates on key pages, low demo or trial conversion from existing traffic, sales teams repeating the same “what do you actually do?” pitch on every first call, or long cycles caused by misaligned stakeholders. These are costly issues, and video can directly address them.

Useful outcome themes include:

• Improved website conversion: More demo requests, trials, or qualified conversations from the same volume of traffic.
• Shorter sales cycles: Prospects arrive to calls better educated, so reps spend less time on basics and more on fit and next steps.
• Higher quality pipeline: Self-serve, video-based education filters out poor-fit leads early.
• Better internal consensus: Clear video explainers make it easier for champions to sell your solution internally.

Customer behaviour research from sources like Demand Gen Report shows buyers engage more deeply with content that helps them self-educate and validate decisions (Source: Demand Gen Report, Content Preferences). Position video as the format that makes that education faster and more effective.

How do I quantify the impact of video on revenue and pipeline?

Leadership will look for numbers, even if they’re directional. Your business case doesn’t need perfect attribution models, but it should estimate how video affects key conversion steps. Start with your current funnel metrics on key pages—homepage, product, pricing, and core campaigns—and model modest improvements rather than heroic assumptions.

For example, you might say: “Our pricing page currently converts X% of visitors to trial or demo. If a clear, 60–90 second pricing explainer lifts this by a few percentage points, that translates into Y additional opportunities per month.” Industry benchmarks from video and marketing platforms consistently show that well-implemented video can increase time on page and interaction rates compared to text alone (Source: Wistia, HubSpot, Vidyard benchmark reports).

Where possible, connect these improvements to revenue by estimating average deal value and close rates. Even small relative gains on high-intent pages can create a compelling ROI story. Frame your numbers as scenarios—conservative, expected, stretch—so leadership can see the range of possible outcomes.

What costs, risks, and options should I include for credibility?

A good business case doesn’t just sell upside; it also acknowledges costs and risks. This actually builds trust, because it shows you’ve thought beyond the happy path. Break your costs into categories: people time (planning, scripting, recording), tools or platforms (hosting, interactive video, editing), and any external help (e.g. contractors or studio work).

Then, outline risk areas and mitigations:

• Production risk: Mitigate by starting with simple, short videos and reusing existing messaging rather than complex shoots.
• Adoption risk: Mitigate by focusing on a few, high-traffic pages so impact is visible and easy to measure.
• Technical risk: Mitigate by using hosted or interactive platforms that minimise load-time and maintenance overhead.
• Messaging risk: Mitigate with quick A/B tests and tight feedback loops from sales and customer-facing teams.

Include options rather than a single all-or-nothing proposal—for example, a lean internal-only option, a blended internal + external support option, and a more ambitious “hero” option. This gives leadership room to choose a level of investment, rather than simply saying yes or no.

How can I design a pilot that leadership will feel comfortable approving?

The most persuasive business cases for video usually include a low-risk pilot. Instead of asking for a big budget to overhaul your whole content strategy, propose a short, focused experiment on one or two high-impact surfaces. For instance: an interactive explainer for your homepage and a pricing walkthrough for your pricing page, run over a period of 6–8 weeks.

Define the pilot clearly:

• Scope: Which pages and journeys will be affected.
• Metrics: Baseline and target lift for conversion, engagement, or pipeline contribution.
• Timeline: Planning, production, launch, and review phases.
• Decision gates: When you’ll review results and decide to scale up, adjust, or pause.

Leadership teams are much more likely to approve an experiment with clear boundaries, especially when it builds on traffic and campaigns you already have. Stress that the pilot is designed to generate learning, not just content—and that those learnings will inform future investments in both video and broader GTM strategy.

How does interactive video strengthen the business case compared to standard video?

Interactive video adds an extra layer to your business case by turning passive content into guided experiences that generate richer buyer data. Instead of only measuring views and completion rates, you can track which paths people choose, which topics they care about, and which calls-to-action they respond to. This makes it easier to connect video behaviour to outcomes like demo requests and opportunities.

Interactive experiences can also reduce your content overhead by using branching rather than separate videos for each persona. For example, a single flow can route CMOs, RevOps leaders, and founders into different branches with tailored messaging, all from one embed. This improves perceived personalisation without linear increases in production cost—something that appeals directly to CFOs and operations leaders.

As buyers increasingly demand self-serve, personalised journeys—documented in multiple B2B buying studies from firms like Forrester and McKinsey (Source: Forrester, McKinsey digital buying research)—interactive video positions your website to meet that expectation. In your business case, highlight this as both a performance and a strategic advantage over competitors who still rely on static pages or generic chatbots.

FAQ

How detailed should the financials be in a video business case?

They should be directional but grounded: use your real funnel metrics, modest uplift assumptions, and simple scenarios rather than complex models.

Do I need external benchmarks to support my case?

Benchmarks from trusted sources help, but your own baseline and projected improvements on key pages are often more persuasive to leadership.

What if leadership worries video will distract from other priorities?

Position video as a way to make existing spend and campaigns more effective, not as a new, unrelated initiative.

Should I propose interactive video or start with standard video?

If you can, frame interactive video as the scalable way to personalise and measure journeys over time.