Survey Outlines ABM Challenges and Opportunities for B2B Marketers

Stirista, the leader in data-driven performance marketing solutions, released new research showing that 70 percent of B2B digital marketing leaders plan to invest in Account Based Marketing (ABM) technology in 2023. Stirista’s ABM survey of marketing executives from 200+ U.S. B2B businesses also revealed the expected continued growth of ABM technologies, the importance of identity data and building the right consumer profile, and the need for a multichannel platform that streamlines the advertising process.

“Stirista conducted this survey to dive deep into the current state of account based marketing, and the findings reaffirmed that while the space is experiencing unprecedented growth, full adoption of advanced technology solutions is still lagging as platforms are often overly complex with a myriad of features that go un-utilized,” said Vincent Pietrafesa, Vice President B2B Products, AccessB2B Stirista. “As we look ahead to 2023, B2B marketers seek modern, easy-to-use solutions that embrace the importance of identity data and fully optimize ABM best practices, including the ability to run advertising campaigns.”

ABM Growing Rapidly in B2B
Over half (63%) of businesses surveyed use ABM methods and practices and nearly 50% of businesses are looking to invest $100,000 to $300,000 on solutions in the coming year. Of those who use ABM, the majority consider themselves as having a somewhat mature or highly mature program (67%), with one-third citing limited experience with ABM. This signals more growth potential as businesses will look to adopt new technologies to improve their ABM processes. The main channels being utilized in B2B ABM include display/native advertising (75%), search (67%), social media (67%), and email marketing (44%). CTV is also an emerging channel, used by more than one-third of businesses’ ABM practices and that number is expected to continue to grow in the coming years, particularly as Work-from-Home remains steady and CTV is a proven channel to effectively reach that audience.

Marketing Technology News: 8 Reasons Out-of-Home Advertising Can Help Fight Inflation

Identity Data Crucial Part of ABM Strategy
According to over 90% of businesses surveyed, determining the perfect consumer profile is the most crucial technology feature for their ABM program. Nearly 70% indicated that identity data (labeled persona data in the survey) is critical when building target account lists. Many of the solutions available for ABM today are driven by intent, however the survey reiterates that B2B marketers are most interested in persona/identity data to ensure that the right messages can be delivered to the target customer profile. Email addresses (business 47%, customer 44%) are the number one audience identifier for ABM marketers, followed by 3rd party cookies (36%) and mobile IDs (33%). Other important elements of ABM technology for B2B marketers include executing and measuring advertising programs (54%) and measuring account engagement metrics (50%).

B2B Marketers Are Seeking a Streamlined, Multichannel Platform
The majority of businesses planning on using ABM practices and methods (75%) haven’t decided on a platform provider, often due to lack of a comprehensive multichannel solution available today. Currently, less than 40% of businesses use a single platform technology for ABM practices, with the majority (44%) using manual efforts or a combination of multiple platforms. Additionally, 82% of businesses surveyed believe multichannel campaign execution is somewhat or very important to the success of an ABM program, adding that activation of audiences (48%) and execution and measurement (44%) would be the most important factors in choosing a solution/solutions.

Marketing Technology News: Mobiquity Technologies Files Form 8-K