Embrace New Buying Patterns or Risk Being Left Behind

My most frequently-cited statistic when working with B2B CMOs is this whopper from Bain & Co.: 90% of B2B buyers will ultimately choose a vendor from their day-one shortlist. However, we also know that B2B buying patterns have been evolving rapidly. It’s long been discussed that decision committees are getting more diverse, include younger generations, and are increasingly cross-functional. If buyers look different than they did even just a few years ago, why do so many marketers still use the same tactics to get on the “day-one list” today? As part of a team of B2B specialists managing 9-figure digital media investments annually, I see the good, the bad, and the dirty across B2B and SaaS – the reality is that most brands are leaving incremental revenue on the table by not adapting fast enough.

Start by expanding your concept of your ICP

Some of these shifting buying patterns are visible in the CRM data that is (ideally) being used for targeting, fueling ad platforms to identify similar audiences – for example, we’ve seen positive results in the last few months with LinkedIn’s Predictive Audiences. Often marketers will try to grow their reach within their target accounts by hitting more rungs on the ladder within the end-user team; while this strategy has a place, it’s imperative that B2B marketers move beyond trying to reach the most senior person within one business function, and build awareness within cross-functional groups to improve lead-to-opportunity and opportunity-to-closed/won conversion rates.

Depending on your CRM’s complexity and data integrity (and your sales team’s thoroughness!), there could be huge gaps in your understanding of the committee that makes the purchase decision. We’ve found that vital influencers are often not captured on the Closed/Won Opportunity records, but instead can be found from conversations with cross-functional teams. Think: IT decision makers who participate in onboarding and turn out to have been part of the internal approvals before contracts were signed, or stakeholders from data, finance, or product who joined one of several sales meetings but not the main pitch. Since over 60% of B2B executives believe that the most critical focus for growth is sales/marketing alignment, regular conversations with sales and onboarding teams can uncover new aspects of your ideal customer profile (ICP).

We see the fastest-growing B2B brands flesh out their buyer group mapping by leaning into their relationships with sales and onboarding teams to get beyond historical personas and penetrate key accounts further. We recommend building a test matrix of influential job functions, and piloting test campaigns with appropriate titles from those groups. If target audiences are large enough to achieve data density, geo holdouts and paired market splits can be used for multi-cell testing–think the IT titles in one market, product in another, etc. This can speed up your ability to see which teams are engaging, and iterate more quickly from there. Layering in targeting tools from Bombora or LinkedIn Buyer Groups can also expand reach and accuracy for these tests.

Create relevance for cross-functional ad audiences

It’s not just targeting that needs to be adapted for the new buying committee, but the messaging and creative that are deployed in tandem. For most industries, the benefits and features that will resonate with these cross-functional users will likely be wholly different from your standard “winning” ad assets; for example, a “request a demo” CTA and landing page will be unlikely to be relevant to these users, or your new webinar could go right over their heads. Applying your evergreen top-performers to these audiences could tank your campaign performance before you can even get them off the ground. To effectively expand your ICP based on cross-functional buying behavior, all ad creative should convey tangible and specific value props for each function or title. With only a fraction of a second to cut through the noise as users scroll through an unending chain of “download an ebook” ads, the more immediate relevance we can create, the greater the chances of a “thumb stopping” moment. From there, the savviest advertisers will layer this with additional messaging frameworks by vertical and/or company size; the goal is to help every facet of your ICP immediately see themselves and their challenges in your messaging.

Of course, even some quick back-of-the-napkin math shows that just a handful of titles and functions, multiplied by the number of verticals, company sizes, and ad placements, could quickly become an untenable number of image assets to produce (and that’s not even counting video or motion variants!). For cutting-edge advertisers, generative AI can speed this along, making it possible to create thousands of variants with the right technology, templates, and guardrails. But even brands who haven’t leaned into AI content creation yet can achieve performance gains with a scaled-down version of this strategy–when done correctly. 

Many SaaS brands “tailor” ads quickly by just subbing out the headline copy, but imagery and the underlying concept behind the ad is generalized to all audiences: same ebook or webinar being promoted, same demo request landing page, same stock imagery. To avoid this, ad creative should be inherently connected to a test plan that’s split by persona or function. For example, last year, we helped a SaaS brand in the customer engagement space expand their awareness campaigns among more “influencer” functions; our goal was to go beyond their core decision makers (marketers) to include other specialist titles with focuses on data/analytics, tech integrations, sales, and more. To avoid a generic experience, we collaborate with the client on a unique learning agenda for each segment of the ICP. We isolate relevant value props and features for A/B testing, and bake those into the underlying ad concept, the landing pages we use, and the content we promote for each. As we’ve scaled this client’s brand media with this approach, we’ve generated record-breaking Opportunity volume for the brand in recent months.

In the fiercely competitive B2B landscape, it is imperative for marketers to forego old norms, transcend outdated tactics, and adapt to evolving buying patterns. By leveraging CRM data effectively, engaging cross-functional teams, tailoring ad creative, and measuring effectively, ambitious growth goals become more attainable. 

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