With publisher revenue under pressure, events supported by Bombora’s Data Cooperative are thriving
Throughout my career in media, I’ve rarely seen a time when publishers felt under so much pressure to address revenue concerns. Many of my media colleagues tell me and my team that AI overviews (AIO) in search are impacting the volume of their website visitors. In fact, a recent report estimates site visits are down by as much as 25%, leading to a $2 billion loss in annual ad revenue.1
Thankfully, we’re seeing more and more publishers make up for lost ad revenue by sponsoring events. The trend has legs – according to Digiday, 23% of publishers say they got a “large or very large portion of revenue from events” in Q1 of 2025. That’s nearly triple since the same time last year.
But with this growth opportunity, comes new challenges.
More events means greater competition
Of course the audiences your sponsors need to get in front of can’t possibly attend every event. So attracting your sponsors’ ideal audience — the right mix of decision-makers who are in-market for products they sell —is more important than ever.
When it comes to sponsors, they can’t support every event. With more events vying for sponsorship dollars, potential sponsors will demand proof that events deliver the ROI they need. Without a compelling, data-driven story, get ready to hear a lot of “What you’re selling sounds okay, but we’re looking at other options.”
The three characteristics of successful publisher events
Successful publisher events have three characteristics:
- Compelling content geared to what attendees care about now
- An audience of in-market executives that sponsors need to reach
- Sponsors who can show provable, documented results to CFOs and leaders
Bombora is uniquely able to help publishers with all three, thanks to our Data Cooperative.
The Bombora Data Cooperative
Leading B2B publishers, B2B brand websites, and premium data providers contribute research behavior and events that reflect the full spectrum of B2B consumption to Bombora’s Data Co-operative.
Leveraging thousands of publishers, websites, and data providers across tens of thousands of topics and billions of monthly consumption events, the Data Co-op’s scale allows us to provide insights across the full buyer’s journey at a depth and granularity no other source can provide. And the fact that we have direct relationships with Co-op members means the data we collect is consent-driven and privacy aligned.
How to use Bombora’s Data Co-op to win more sponsors
- Develop a must-attend agenda. Bombora’s Data Co-op can help you shape an agenda that uniquely appeals to the audience your sponsors seek. We provide insights into content consumption of ideal audience members at the account level, seniority level, and geographic level that enable you to get strategic about developing the right content for each event.
- Attract the right in-market executives your sponsors need. Some sponsors sell enterprise software, while others sell to smaller companies. Bombora’s Data Co-op can tell you which companies have signaled intent to buy and provides those companies’ firmographic and demographic attributes including size, location, and more. We’ll help you find the right mix of in-market attendees based on company size.
- Deliver hard ROI, and sponsors will come back for more. Even sophisticated sponsors often aren’t good at understanding the true value of their sponsorships efforts. In 2025, 70% of B2B event professionals reported difficulty demonstrating ROI for in-person conferences, summits, and conventions.2 Bombora’s Data Co-op can help your sponsors prioritize leads based on intent data and rank leads based on which buyers are in market.
In fact, Bombora’s Data Co-op can measure target audience interest before, during, and after the event, to give you the data that tells the full story of sponsorship impact. For example, it can tell your sponsors how many attending businesses demonstrated intent for agenda topics for following the event.
Get Started Now
If you’re a publisher, events are more vital than ever – and having the right partner can help you maximize event success. Bombora created the B2B Intent data category, and we have more than a decade experience helping businesses leverage B2B data. Our committed team of experts includes publishing industry veterans, data scientists, digital marketing and ad tech experts, GTM specialists, and solution engineers who work closely with you to unlock value quickly across your entire GTM system.
Ready to win more sponsors and register a high quality, targeted audience for your events? Get Bombora on your side. To learn more about how joining Bombora’s Data Co-op can help your team make the most of your events, please reach out to us.