After a challenging year of tighter budgets and heightened pressure to prove ROI, B2B marketing leaders globally are optimistic about the future with 9 in 10 feeling confident in their ability to drive revenue in the year ahead, according to our 2024 B2B Marketing Benchmark.
To succeed, they’ll need to focus on building relationships and “collective confidence” among the buyer group, including decision makers and brand advocates, who influence purchase decisions. B2B buying cycles are long, emotion-driven and typically involve six to 10 stakeholders, so getting everyone on board is essential.
Our findings reveal that:
- Relationships will be key to success: The majority (88%) of B2B CMOs globally agree that relationship building is key to success in the year ahead.
- Brand building is crucial to driving “collective confidence”: Nearly three-quarters (73%) of B2B marketing leaders globally have focused on developing bolder creative, and 61% say it improves engagement and conversions.
- Marketers are using AI to improve ROI: 2 in 3 B2B marketing leaders globally are already using Generative AI applications in their marketing activities, and they say it has helped improve productivity (40%), accelerate content creation (39%), and create cost efficiencies (30%).
To help B2B marketers reach and engage all members of the buying group and build “collective confidence,” we’re introducing:
- The Wire Program: With video uploads on LinkedIn increasing 45% year-over-year, we’re testing the Wire Program – a new initiative that allows brands to promote in-stream video ads alongside trusted publisher content on LinkedIn. The Wire Program is being tested with a limited number of publishers, like Barron’s, Bloomberg, Business Insider, Forbes, LinkedIn News, MarketWatch, NBCUniversal, Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, and Yahoo! Finance to help brands reach buyers who are consuming more-and-more digital video.
- Expanded AI capabilities in Accelerate: We’re bringing new functionality into Accelerate – our AI campaign creation and optimization offering. Now in Accelerate, marketers can draft engaging creatives with Microsoft Designer and refine their targeting by allowing marketers to exclude companies and third-party lists. They can also get guidance on their campaign creation from our new AI marketing assistant. Advertisers already using Accelerate are creating campaigns 15%* more efficiently and driving a 52% lower cost per action** than with Classic campaigns.
Learn more about the Wire Program and expanded AI capabilities in Accelerate here. The 2024 B2B Marketing Benchmark report will officially launch at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity on Monday, June 17 at 4.45pm CEST. Tune in to the live stream panel discussion, ‘The New Gold Rush: Exploring the B2B Frontier’, with Tusar Barik, Senior Director of Marketing at LinkedIn, Vida M. Cornelious, SVP, Creative & Strategy, NYT Advertising, and Nicholas Mercurio, Chief Client Officer, Ipsos.
B2B Marketing Benchmark methodology: LinkedIn commissioned Ipsos to survey 2,000+ global B2B marketing leaders, including 448 CMOs, in the US, UK, Germany, France, India, Australia, Singapore, and Brazil to examine the state of B2B, budgets and outlook, priorities and challenges, and how their roles are evolving. The research was conducted online between March 1 and March 29, 2024.
Accelerate Data Sources:
*LinkedIn observational analysis, October 2023 and March 2024;
**LinkedIn analysis of 29 A/B tests, October 2023 to March 2024.
Global availability:
- The Wire Program is available in all languages to global advertisers that want to set up content sponsorships with the select group of publishers. At launch, the Wire Program will not offer EU member targeting.
- Accelerate campaigns are gradually ramping to customers globally, and will be available to all customers in the coming months. Accelerate is available in all languages in Campaign Manager, but AI-generated creatives are currently available in English only.
(Source: LinkedIn)
