SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--2013 was the year business marketers got savvy around online advertising, according to targeting and personalization platform, Demandbase, with audience segmentation and personalization moving to the top of their marketing strategies this year. For the first time, B2B online marketing growth was driven by established industries such as financial services and manufacturing, known for more traditional marketing and sales tactics. Yet with the adoption of account-based marketing and online technologies made available specifically for B2B marketers, these industries were able to incorporate levels of marketing innovation and precision targeting that consumer marketing has relied on to effectively reach individuals.
Demandbase analyzed 2013 campaign strategies and spend from its customer base of B2B marketers spanning over 20 vertical industries, finding that the financial services, manufacturing and software & technology verticals saw the greatest growth in both spending and target customer engagement levels in 2013. This growth was in large part due to stronger adoption of account-based marketing and the increasing sophistication of tools that enable B2B marketers to hyper-target ads and increase the level of personalization on B2B websites. Analysis was conducted from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2013.
“All advertisers, whether targeting businesses or consumers, have increasing pressure to demonstrate the ROI around every marketing dollar spent. But, it’s not uncommon to see only 10-15 percent of the traffic to a B2B web property from a target audience,” said Chris Golec, founder and CEO of Demandbase. “New advances in audience identification, targeting, real-time bidding (RTB) and personalization have enabled B2B companies to laser target and engage their customers with customized messages across the web and through to their corporate web site effectively eliminating the waste that existed in B2B advertising.”
Not surprising, software and technology companies – often early adopters of new marketing and web technologies – took advantage of new segmentation and targeting tools to better reach their prospects and customers in 2013. Last year also saw a large spike in activity and results from advertisers in more traditional industries such as financial services and manufacturing, keeping pace with software and technology marketers to incorporate display advertising as part of their integrated marketing campaigns.
Additional findings include:
Hyper-Segmentation to Increase Engagement
Across all
industries, marketers became more sophisticated in identifying and
targeting existing customers online. The three most common attributes
used to segment and target audiences included: 1) industry, 2) revenue,
and/or 3) a specific list of businesses from the customer’s first-party
CRM data. By using data to laser target companies throughout their
purchase cycles, Demandbase customers saw a 27 percent average
engagement lift of target accounts on their websites.
Financial Services – Growth with Revenue Segmentation
The
financial services industry saw the most significant growth rate in B2B
advertising, with a 144 percent increase in 2013 over 2012. Financial
services companies were also the most likely to target audiences by
revenue (82 percent) more than any other attribute.
Manufacturing – Industry Vital though Personalization Weak
Marketers
from manufacturing companies were most likely to target companies based
on the industry (91 percent). However, this sector was the least likely
to personalize the creative of their ad and carry that personalization
through to the website.
Software & Technology – Focusing on the Customer Lifecycle
More
than any industry, software and technology companies have been early
adopters of account-based marketing. As a result, they have holistically
incorporated their marketing to a specific set of pre-identified
companies throughout the entire lifecycle from acquisition, retention
and growth. More than one-half (57 percent) of software and technology
companies provided Demandbase with multiple audience segments or lists
(preferred customers, target accounts, upcoming renewals, etc) from
their first-party CRM data used to target personalized ad creative,
campaign messages and promotions based on their relationship to
prospects and customers. In addition, this sector has the highest use of
targeting based on the other technologies deployed (43 percent) than any
other vertical. This industry is also more likely than any other sector
to target business buyers on Facebook.
Demandbase’s marketing platform is connected to all the leading marketing technologies including advertising exchanges, content management systems (CMS), marketing automation, web analytics and customer relationship management (CRM) enabling customers to create their own marketing cloud using best of breed solutions. Customers also benefit with a holistic view of any key account or business audience, from first touch to close, and throughout the customer lifecycle. In 2013, Demandbase’s platform handled more than 10 billion web interactions from B2B web sites and filters more than 5 billion ad impressions on behalf its customers every day. The company’s revenue from its advertising solutions increased 453 percent in 2013 alone, helping to propel the company’s revenue growth by 94 percent.
To learn more about Demandbase, visit http://www.demandbase.com/what-we-do-and-why/demandbase-company-targeted-advertising/.
About Demandbase
Demandbase
is the first targeting and personalization platform for B2B,
transforming the effectiveness of marketing programs and marketing’s
ability to impact revenue. While personalization tools have long existed
for B2C, until now, none were geared specifically to enable B2B
marketers to make online interactions more effective, delivering the
right message at the right time. Without the use of cookies,
Demandbase’s patented identification technology bridges the gap between
known and anonymous web visitors by identifying and segmenting the
companies visiting a website, and providing detailed, targetable
business attributes in real-time. Demandbase integrates with other sales
and marketing technologies to deliver unique intelligence about web
visitors, and better attract, convert and retain the right customers.
Enterprise leaders and high-growth companies alike use Demandbase to
drive better marketing performance. For more information, visit http://www.demandbase.com.