A B2B case study that sales teams and AI engines can both use names the client, states the problem, says what was done, and gives every result with its period, plus a quote from a named person who approved it. Publish the full text on a web page first. We publish 12 case-study pages and use three here as examples.
- Structure: a headline that states the result, who the client is, the challenge, what was done, the results, a named quote and a next step
- Numbers: every result with its size, period and baseline, "only where they are accurate and verifiable" (Priority Pixels)
- Approval: "Marketing communications must not feature a testimonial without permission" (CAP Code rule 3.50, ASA)
- Format: the full story in text on a web page, with a one-page PDF and a film made from the same figures
- Google's AI answers: "There are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary." (Google)
Disclosure: ORRJO writes case studies for clients inside its Brand & Content service and publishes this guide. The UK advertising rules below are quoted from the ASA and the CAP Code. They are not legal advice, and CAP's own AdviceOnline guidance carries the same note: "It does not constitute legal advice."
What should a B2B case study include?
A B2B case study should include seven parts: a result-led headline, a client snapshot, the challenge, what was done, the results, a named quote and a next step. Each part answers a question a buyer has:
| Part | The buyer's question it answers | What the guides say |
|---|---|---|
| Headline | What happened? | "case study headline should always focus on a specific result" (Econsultancy) |
| Client snapshot | Is this company like mine? | Readers ask: "Is this company relevant to my situation? (industry, company size, use case)" (Zoomforth) |
| Challenge | Did they have my problem? | "Describe the challenge in the client's language, not yours." (Zoomforth) |
| What was done | Why you, and how? | "An account of why/how your solution was selected and implemented" (Blend) |
| Results | Did it work, and by how much? | "Use solid numbers where possible and try to present the results in an easily digestible format such as a bulleted list." (Econsultancy). Altitude puts the quantitative results first, then the qualitative ones. |
| Named quote | Would they say it themselves? | "attributed to a named person and role" (Zoomforth) |
| Next step | What do I do now? | "End every case study with a single, clear next step." (Zoomforth) |
Two writing rules sit over the whole thing. Blend: "Approach every case study from the perspective that you are writing about the success of a customer, not of your own." Vocal Video argues for one story per point, rather than one long case study that tries to cover four features at once (Vocal Video).
How our own case-study pages are built
Three of ours show the structure. We describe how they are put together, not their stories:
- Descartes: a label naming the services used (Lead Generation and Demand Generation), the client's name as the headline, then three labelled parts: The Situation, The Challenge and What ORRJO Built. Two result tiles follow, and the first gives its window: £5M+ pipeline "Generated in the first six months, from 120+ qualified meetings". Then a pull quote with the speaker's name, and a closing line that names the services behind the result with their prices.
- Nezasa: a short company introduction instead of a situation section, then The Challenge and What ORRJO Built. The result tiles each carry a period or a time, such as 369 meetings booked in 12 months and 9 days to book the first meeting. The quote is credited with the speaker's full name, job title and company.
- myBasePay: the same three labelled parts and three result tiles, then a client testimonial film, with a panel beside it that repeats the written story's three figures.
Our own pages do not yet follow every rule in this guide. Each headline is the client's name rather than a result. On the myBasePay page the two percentage figures give no baseline, and two of its three figures give no period. None of the figures on these three pages links to a written definition.
Which numbers should you collect for a B2B case study?
Every result needs four things: the figure, the period it covers, the baseline it is measured against, and a definition of what counted. Priority Pixels puts it as three questions: "If website traffic increased, by how much? Over what period? Compared to what baseline?" (Priority Pixels).
| Record for each result | Why |
|---|---|
| The figure | "Include specific numbers wherever possible, but only where they are accurate and verifiable" (Priority Pixels) |
| The period | "by how much? Over what period?" A figure with no window cannot be compared or checked. |
| The baseline | "Compared to what baseline?" A percentage means nothing without its starting point. |
| How it was measured | Ask the client: "How have you measured success or business results?" (Windmill) |
| Whether the effect can be isolated | "Were you able to isolate this project's effect on revenue growth, market share increase, increase in leads or other important metric?" (Windmill) |
| Written approval for the number | "Get written approval before publishing any specific numbers." (Zoomforth) |
| The evidence, on file | CAP Code rule 3.7: marketers "must hold documentary evidence to prove claims that consumers are likely to regard as objective" before publishing (ASA) |
Write the definitions down once and use them everywhere. Our methodology page does this for our headline numbers:
- Meeting booked: "a confirmed calendar invite accepted by the prospect, with company name, contact name, and meeting time logged."
- Pipeline generated: "the value of opportunities that progressed past first qualification stage in the client's CRM, irrespective of whether they ultimately closed." The page adds: "The number describes pipeline created, not revenue closed."
- Meeting attendance: "Calculated as (meetings actually held) ÷ (meetings booked) across rolling 90-day windows for ORRJO Lead Generation programmes."
Then keep one number with one period everywhere it appears: the page, the PDF, the film, the proposal and the sales deck. If the period changes, change it in every place at once.
How do you get client approval for a case study?
Ask before you start, agree how the client will be named, record the interview with permission, and send the finished draft for written sign-off. Altitude warns that "The case study approval process is lengthier and more complex than the review of other types of content." (Altitude). In order:
- Agree attribution first. Blend: "Always try to obtain a full and firm attribution agreement with your customer." (Blend).
- Run two interviews. Altitude suggests "one with a subject matter expert at your company and another with the client."
- Record the client interview, with permission. "The recording also protects you if there is any later disagreement about what was said." (Priority Pixels).
- Send the finished draft. Priority Pixels: "Always send the finished draft to the client for review and give them the opportunity to request changes." It also says to expect edits: "Some clients will want to remove specific figures, adjust how their challenge is described or soften certain language."
- Get the sign-off in writing and file it. Priority Pixels: "you should always get written approval from the client before publishing a case study that names them or their organisation."
Those steps are good practice. The UK rules on testimonials themselves sit in the CAP Code, which the ASA applies:
| CAP Code rule | What it says |
|---|---|
| 3.47 | "Marketers must hold documentary evidence that a testimonial or endorsement used in a marketing communication is genuine, unless it is obviously fictitious, and hold contact details for the person who, or organisation that, gives it." |
| 3.48 | "Testimonials must relate to the advertised product." |
| 3.49 | "Claims that are likely to be interpreted as factual and appear in a testimonial must not mislead or be likely to mislead the consumer." |
| 3.50 | "Marketing communications must not feature a testimonial without permission; exceptions are normally made for accurate statements taken from a published source, quotations from a publication or references to a test, trial, professional endorsement, research facility or professional journal, which may be acceptable without express permission." |
Three points from the Code and from CAP's AdviceOnline guidance help B2B teams. The Code's "consumer" covers business readers: "a consumer is anyone who is likely to see a given marketing communication, whether in the course of business or not" (CAP Code scope). The Code has covered companies' own websites "Since 2011". Whether a page counts is judged on "both the content and the context", including whether it is "directly connected with the supply or transfer of goods, services, opportunities and gifts", and "Efficacy claims for a product or service are very likely to be considered 'directly connected'." (CAP AdviceOnline). And the evidence does not have to be a signed form: "Signed and dated proof is not the only form of evidence that the ASA will likely consider acceptable." (CAP AdviceOnline).
Separately, the Business Protection from Misleading Marketing Regulations 2008 state: "Advertising which is misleading is prohibited." (legislation.gov.uk).
How should you handle named quotes?
Put a real name and role on every quote, quote what the person actually said, and get their approval for any edit. Zoomforth: "A direct quote from your client, attributed to a named person and role, adds credibility that no amount of copy can match." (Zoomforth). Of our three examples, only the Nezasa quote carries a job title; the Descartes and myBasePay quotes give a name and company.
- Genuine means two things. CAP's advice: "Showing that a testimonial is genuine has two elements; showing that the quote is from a real person and that it reflects what they said." (CAP AdviceOnline).
- Edit with care. The same advice: "Testimonials should not be taken out of context or edited in a way which is misleading." (CAP AdviceOnline). If you draft a quote for the client to approve, as Zoomforth suggests, build it from what they told you in the recorded interview and keep their approval.
- Facts inside a quote still need proof. If the quote contains a figure, rule 3.49 applies to it, so hold the evidence for it like any other number.
- Make the quote carry a benefit. Econsultancy: "Preferably the quote should summarise the specific benefit that came out of the work rather than just giving generic praise." It puts one "right beneath the headline".
- Name the client if you can. Altitude: "You should always try to name the client." Priority Pixels: "Named clients with direct quotes carry far more weight." If you cannot, Blend's warning applies: "Your prospects are unlikely to fully trust anonymous accounts of your success."
Use approved quotes again elsewhere. Blend: "Use the best quotes as testimonials on the web, in collateral, and in proposals". Before each new use, check that the client's permission covers it.
Should a case study be a PDF, a web page or a film?
All three, made from one approved version, with the web page as the master copy. Each format suits a different moment in the sale:
| Format | Best for | What to watch |
|---|---|---|
| Web page | "Best for SEO and inbound discovery." (Zoomforth) | Do not gate it. An ungated page "will allow Google to crawl the entire article" (Windmill), and Google asks that "important content is available in textual form" (Google). |
| One-page PDF | "Best for leave-behinds at events, proposal appendices, and email attachments." (Zoomforth). Priority Pixels: "Create a one-page PDF version for sales teams to attach to proposals". | Design creates more edits: "you should expect additional content edits to come up during the design process." (Altitude). Re-check every figure against the page before it goes out. |
| Film | "Best for mid-funnel nurture and social." (Zoomforth). Windmill: "Video testimonials are a great addition to provide credibility." | Google's advice is to support "your textual content with high-quality images and videos", so put the story and the figures in text on the page beside the film. |
Altitude's simple version of this: "Upload the content to your website and include a link to download the PDF". Our myBasePay case study shows the film approach, with the film set beside a panel that repeats the written story's three figures.
What does Google's AI search do with a case study?
For Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, a case study is like any other page. Google says there are "no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode", that to be shown as a supporting link a page must be "indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet", and that "There's also no special schema.org structured data that you need to add." (Google). Google's own guidance on what helps:
- First-hand, original information. One of Google's own questions for judging content: "Does the content provide original information, reporting, research, or analysis?" (Google). A case study is first-hand by nature.
- Clear sourcing and an author. Google asks whether content shows "clear sourcing, evidence of the expertise involved, background about the author", and says: "We strongly encourage adding accurate authorship information, such as bylines to content where readers might expect it."
- No errors. Google asks: "Does the content have any easily-verified factual errors?" (Google). A figure that differs between your page and your PDF is exactly that kind of error.
- Markup that matches the page. If you add structured data, make sure it "matches the visible text on the page" (Google). For Article markup, "There are no required properties", and Google suggests adding "the dateModified property if you want to provide more accurate date information to Google." (Google).
Outside Google's guidance, one peer-reviewed study tested what makes pages more visible in AI-generated answers. In that GEO study, the top-performing methods for visibility in AI-generated answers were adding relevant statistics, credible quotes and citations from reliable sources to a page (Aggarwal et al., KDD 2024). The study did not test case studies, and its "Cite Sources" method means adding citations to outside sources.
Our own case-study pages do not yet show a byline, and only one shows a date. Our guide to getting cited by ChatGPT and other AI answers covers the rest of the steps, from crawler access to measurement.
Is your case study ready to publish? A checklist
It is ready when every line below is true:
- The headline states a specific result
- A buyer can tell in one line who the client is: sector, size and use case
- Every figure has its period and baseline, and a written definition
- The evidence for every figure is on file
- The client approved the finished draft, including every number, in writing
- Every quote has a real name and role, reflects what the person said, and was approved
- Permission and the person's contact details are on file
- The full story is in text on an ungated web page
- The PDF, the film and the sales deck use the same figures and periods as the page
- Any structured data matches the visible text
- A date for the next review is set (Priority Pixels: "Review your case studies at least once a year.")
Ask your sales team which stories they use. Priority Pixels: "Ask your business development team which case studies they share most often, which ones get positive responses from prospects and which ones seem to fall flat." If you want help with the writing, our sales collateral work includes case studies "written to survive procurement", and customer advocacy covers case studies, customer films and reference programmes. Our published client stories are on our case studies page.
Questions buyers ask
What should a B2B case study include?
A named client and who they are, the problem in their terms, what you did and why they chose you, the results with the period each one covers, a quote from a named person with their role, and a next step. Econsultancy's template adds one rule for the headline: lead with a specific result.
How long should a B2B case study be?
The guides disagree. Priority Pixels says most B2B case studies perform well between 800 and 1,500 words. Zoomforth says a written case study used as sales collateral should be 500 to 800 words. Write as long as the story needs, and put the result where a buyer finds it in seconds.
Do I need the client's permission to publish a case study?
For a quote, the CAP Code expects it: rule 3.50 says marketing communications must not feature a testimonial without permission, with exceptions for some published sources, and rule 3.47 asks you to hold evidence that it is genuine and contact details for the person who gave it. For naming a client, written approval is best practice: Priority Pixels says always get it before publishing a case study that names them. This is not legal advice.
Can I edit a client's quote?
Only with their sign-off, and never in a way that changes the meaning. CAP's advice says a genuine testimonial is from a real person and reflects what they said, and that testimonials should not be taken out of context or edited in a way which is misleading. Send the edited quote back and keep the approval.
What if the client will not be named?
Altitude calls this a blind case study, and says red tape and non-disclosure agreements sometimes get in the way. Blend warns that prospects are unlikely to fully trust anonymous accounts of your success. If you publish one anyway, every figure in it still needs evidence on file.
Should a case study be a PDF or a web page?
Both, with the web page as the master. Windmill says an ungated page lets Google crawl the whole story, and Google asks that important content is available in textual form. Make the PDF a one-page version for proposals, with the same figures as the page.
Do AI engines like ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews use case studies?
Google's guidance covers its own AI Overviews and AI Mode: there are no additional requirements, and to be shown as a supporting link a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet. Its best-practice list includes keeping important content in text. In the GEO study, adding statistics, quotations and source citations made pages more visible in AI-generated answers, but it did not test case studies.
Sources
- Altitude Marketing, How to Write a B2B Case Study: 4 Steps, Claire Brucher, 12 April 2021, checked 13 October 2026.
- Blend, How to write a B2B case study - 7 golden rules, Phil Vallender, 20 June 2013, checked 13 October 2026.
- Priority Pixels, How to Write B2B Case Studies That Win New Business, Nathan Yendle, 22 January 2026, checked 13 October 2026.
- Zoomforth, B2B case study template: how to write one that actually sells, 19 June 2026 (Zoomforth sells a microsite platform), checked 13 October 2026.
- Windmill Strategy, How to Write A Better Case Study for B2B, Kathy Kassera Mrozek, 2 October 2024, checked 13 October 2026.
- Econsultancy, The only online B2B case study template you'll ever need, Jack Simpson, 19 October 2015, checked 13 October 2026.
- Vocal Video, How to Write a B2B Case Study: Templates and Examples to Use Today, Steve Norall, published 23 February 2024, updated 11 July 2024 (Vocal Video sells a video testimonial tool), checked 13 October 2026.
- CAP Executive, Testimonials and endorsements, AdviceOnline on asa.org.uk, 21 September 2026. Advice, not legal advice, and not binding on CAP or the ASA, checked 13 October 2026.
- ASA and CAP, CAP Code section 03: Misleading advertising, rules 3.7 and 3.47 to 3.50, checked 13 October 2026.
- ASA and CAP, CAP Code: Scope of the Code, checked 13 October 2026.
- CAP Executive, Remit: Own websites, AdviceOnline on asa.org.uk, 26 February 2026, checked 13 October 2026.
- legislation.gov.uk, The Business Protection from Misleading Marketing Regulations 2008, regulation 3, checked 13 October 2026.
- Google Search Central, Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content, last updated 5 October 2026, checked 13 October 2026.
- Google Search Central, AI features and your website, last updated 10 December 2025, checked 13 October 2026.
- Google Search Central, Article (Article, NewsArticle, BlogPosting) structured data, last updated 8 September 2026, checked 13 October 2026.
- Aggarwal, Murahari, Rajpurohit, Kalyan, Narasimhan and Deshpande, GEO: Generative Engine Optimization, arXiv, accepted to KDD 2024, checked 13 October 2026.