Financial Services, Manufacturing and Software & Technology Fastest Growing Verticals in B2B Advertising

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Jan. 9, 2014 — 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.

B2B Web Traffic Breakdown

“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 our Industry Solutions page.