Closing the visibility gap: realizing the promise of B2B measurement– finally
The world of B2B marketing and advertising is complex and fundamentally different from its B2C cousin. Unlike most consumer goods, B2B sales cycles span months and require consensus from a dozen or more stakeholders. The B2B path to conversion is long and non-linear. While Account-Based Marketing (ABM) as a discipline, and data providers’ ability to translate ABM strategies into precise digital audiences, has revolutionized B2B advertisers’ ability to target high-value audiences, B2B campaign measurement frameworks haven’t kept pace.
Advertisers have been forced to rely on consumer-oriented metrics like individual clicks (without any visibility into whether they map to accounts or their buying groups) or late-stage lead forms submitted after the decision is made as a proxy for campaign effectiveness. Advertisers I have spoken with describe “crossing their fingers” and hoping they get enough clicks or lead forms to simply confirm that the right audiences were actually reached. The real kicker? This lack of visibility is seriously holding B2B advertisers back. You can’t optimize what you can’t see. On top of that, it makes defending your advertising budget feel like a losing battle
Advertising measurement traps: data drop-offs and siloed views
In an effort to address the visibility challenge, B2B brands have turned to platform-specific tools –tag-based tools from Account Based marketing platforms, or custom, siloed views provided directly by advertising platforms. Unfortunately these come with serious limitations. For example tag based measurement employed by ABM platforms is plagued by serious data drop off (upwards of 30%). This means that for every thousand impressions served an advertiser can only validate 700 of them. Better, but is this the best we can expect? And let’s face it, ABM platforms are a heavy lift, both in price tag and implementation time. Advertising budgets aren’t set in stone—they’re flexible. Advertisers seeking B2B-specific measurement should be cautious about locking up precious dollars for a capability whose use may ebb and flow dramatically. And finally, siloed views provided by specific advertising platforms like Meta or LinkedIn present a single data vantage point in a multi-channel buyer journey. As more and more advertisers invest in programmatic channels the demand for comprehensive, cross channels views is growing.
B2beaconTM delivers advertising campaign measurement made for B2B
At Bombora we’ve built something different. B2beacon™ is a B2B digital campaign measurement solution that measures the metrics that matter, when advertisers need measurement. B2beacon™ delivers precise account and buying group–level measurement and quick, flexible activation. (No subscriptions or lengthy integrations necessary.). Advertisers can activate measurement on any digital campaign using a Bombora custom digital audience across all major DSPs and SSPs. The combination of Bombora’s integrations with leading DSPs and SSPs and our proprietary B2B identity graph power a 90%+match rate and resolve the identity of almost every impression served to the account and B2B persona. For the first time, B2B digital campaign measurement is available on platforms that represent 75% of programmatic advertising spend.1 (And you better believe we are going to be expanding B2beacon™ reach soon.)
So now that you don’t have to cross your fingers…
So let’s say goodbye to the era of ‘crossing your fingers’ and hoping advertisers’ media spend connects with target stakeholders. With a clear, detailed view of how a campaign is penetrating the buying group, the guesswork disappears. Advertisers gain the confidence and intelligence needed to scale spend, optimize channel mix, and call the ‘next best action’ to convert an account with certainty. To find out more about B2Beacon, get in touch.