After a challenging year, with tighter budgets and increased pressure to demonstrate return on investment, B2B marketers around the world are beginning to show greater optimism as confidence returns to the sector. Nearly 9 in 10 are confident in their team’s ability to generate revenue over the next yearwhile 72% expect their budgets to increase, according to the new study by LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional social network and leading B2B advertising platform.
The B2B Marketing Benchmark 2024 study, carried out by LinkedIn to almost 2,000 B2B marketing managers from companies around the world on the eve of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, reveals that, although 72% of marketing managers at B2B companies have found difficulties in reaching buyers due to the large number of tasks and obligations where they have to focus their efforts, the majority (88%) believe that building relationships is key to success. Thus, building “collective trust” among those responsible for making purchasing decisions will be crucial this year.
Brand building, key to boosting “collective trust”
B2B buying cycles are typically long, emotionally driven, and involve six to ten points of interest within buying groups. So much so that, on average, it takes at least 17 meaningful interactions with a company before completing a purchase. Therefore, to be successful in this area, it is essential to generate “collective trust” both in these groups and in the brand advocates who influence the purchase decision in some way.
With this goal in mind, 73% of B2B marketers have focused on developing bolder creative this year. Something that has given them great results: 61% agree that these types of campaigns are helping them improve brand engagement and boost conversions.
Marketers lead in global AI insights
Marketing experts around the world are leading the adoption of AI and skill development in this field to improve return on investment: 2 out of 3 are already using Generative AI tools in their marketing activities, which has helped them improve productivity (40%), accelerate content creation (39%) and generate cost efficiencies (30%).
This data is reflected on LinkedIn: the number of members who have added artificial intelligence-related skills to their profiles has increased 142 times, with marketing professionals topping this list. So much so that ‘Artificial Intelligence’ is the fastest growing digital skill for marketing directors globally, according to the skills they have incorporated into their LinkedIn profiles in the last year.
“This year we have seen a shift in the mindset of B2B marketing leaders, who have demonstrated greater financial fluidity and an unprecedented willingness to take their brand building to the next level. That’s why we talk about “collective trust” and from LinkedIn we encourage and help our marketing professionals create campaigns that authentically connect with a much more segmented audience. Only in this way can we reach new horizons in a more precise way, improve memorability and, ultimately, boost the success and performance of our campaigns,” he says. Kennet Malmcrona de la Ciervahead of LinkedIn Marketing Solutions in Spain.
To help B2B marketers reach and engage all members of the buying group and build collective trust, LinkedIn is introducing:
- Wire Program: With a 45% year-over-year increase in video uploads to LinkedIn, the platform is testing the Wire Program, a new initiative that allows brands to promote streaming video ads alongside content from trusted media on LinkedIn. It is being tested with a limited number of publications, including Barron’s, Bloomberg, Business Insider, Forbes, MarketWatch, NBC Universal, Reuters, The Wall Street Journal and Yahoo Finance, to help sellers reach increasingly consuming buyers. digital videos. The Wire Program is available in all languages for global advertisers wishing to establish content sponsorships with this select group of media. However, at the moment, it will not offer the ability to target by EU members.
- New AI-powered features in Accelerate: Advertisers already using Accelerate are creating campaigns by 15% 1 more efficient and achieving a 52% lower cost per action 2 than with Classic campaigns. That’s why LinkedIn is now expanding the AI features in Accelerate, including:
- Tell brand stories in new ways with AI: LinkedIn has integrated Microsoft Designer into the Accelerate campaign experience to help marketers create and personalize creatives. Marketers can describe what they would like to see or even upload their own image, and from there, Designer will allow them to choose from several options with various images and text overlays, which they can then customize with their own logos and images.
- Help companies enter their data into Accelerate to improve segmentation: Accelerate uses AI to help brands combine their data, such as customer lists or conversions, with LinkedIn data to find the people who are most likely to engage with their ad campaign. To further refine campaign targeting, marketers can also add targeting exclusions, such as company and third-party lists.
- Build the best campaigns with conversational assistance: Through the AI marketing assistant, professionals can ask different questions such as “How can I create better advertising creatives?” to obtain information on the best way to improve your campaigns. The wizard will also offer recommendations, such as adding a data source to improve segmentation, as well as perform other tasks such as adjusting the budget.
Accelerate campaigns are gradually being introduced to customers around the world and will be available to everyone in the coming months. Likewise, Accelerate can be used in all languages in Campaign Manager, but AI-generated creatives can only be found in English at the moment.
The B2B Marketing Benchmark 2024 study will be presented at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity on June 17 at 16:45 CEST. You can follow the live broadcast of the roundtable “The New Gold Rush: Exploring the B2B Frontier” with Tusar Barik, Senior Director of Marketing at LinkedIn, Vida M. Cornelious, Senior Vice President of Creativity and Strategy at NYT Advertising, and Nicholas Mercurio, client director at Ipsos.
