Category: B2B

CTV + Live Streaming – What You Need to Know

Posted on by Allie Haupt

With the rise of cord-cutting and the 2023 Hollywood strikes delaying content creation, tapping into live-streaming CTV inventory has piqued marketers’ interest with its ability to reach a highly engaged audience. Live-streaming offers brands a valuable space to programmatically connect with consumers at scale to drive awareness goals with the added benefit of flexibility that is not found in traditional linear TV buys. If you’ve been on the fence about testing live streaming in your marketing initiative, you likely have many questions regarding how to efficiently and effectively leverage this inventory.

For this Live Streaming Q&A article, we met with two CTV experts – Stephen Eidelman, Director of Inventory Development at The Trade Desk, and Joel Schaffner, Manager of Programmatic Operations at Coegi. They answered key questions to help inform your planning and activation of live streaming inventory to achieve your brand goals.

Why should advertisers incorporate live-streaming CTV into their strategic plan?

Joel: Incorporating live streaming CTV into a strategic plan is a great way to reach a new set of users at a slightly different angle. The live-streaming viewer is typically more engaged since they’re watching content in real-time, instead of having something on in the background that they can go back and watch later.

Stephen: Similar to the reason they have been historically coveted properties in linear TV advertising, live sports are highly sought after because they draw large audiences that are attentive and emotionally engaged – up through the very last second.  Not only does streaming account for more than 30% of live sports viewership, but we’ve also seen advertisers reach audiences that are completely unique compared to audiences in linear live sports and non-live sports streaming, meaning the only way to connect with that audience is by buying on live streaming sports. 

What has been a key driver of the increase in interest and investment in live streaming?

Stephen: Viewership patterns have shifted, so much so that the majority of Americans are expected to be watching live sports via digital channels by next year. At the same time, top-tier broadcasters like NBC and Disney have continued to shift more of their highly valued properties to be distributed exclusively on streaming apps (i.e. Peacock & ESPN+). Some of the most sought-after content is only available on streaming, and you saw that this year with NFL games exclusively on ESPN+ or Peacock. Fans are a more passionate audience than regular viewers, and they can’t miss a game!

Joel: I think a couple of things have been key drivers in the growing interest of live streaming. For one, the pandemic accelerated the trend of people cord-cutting and shifting to streaming services, making live streaming an avenue to reach a larger, more highly engaged audience.  Another thing is that live streaming inventory is much more accessible now, so marketers can seamlessly integrate it into their plans to test and compare performance with other streaming inventory.

How can marketers measure the impact of live-streaming CTV on brand goals?

Joel: Reach is a primary KPI for CTV in general, but especially for live streaming inventory since it is often seen as a mass reach play. With our partner, The Trade Desk, we can measure the quality of reach by comparing the users the CTV campaign reached to the seed audience, such as site visitors, sales data, and CRM lists. This measures the quality of our reach and helps us optimize media spending toward users that drive brand goals. We can also track offline actions, enabling conversion attribution to a user exposed to our brands’ live-streaming ads. 

Stephen: This is the beauty of live sports in streaming, you can achieve the same goals, and measure the same impact in live sports as you do in the rest of streaming. Whether it’s awareness, incremental reach, or outcome impact, all the targeting and measurement available in streaming is available in CTV. 

What is the impact on user engagement running in live streaming compared to standard CTV?

Joel: Standard CTV user engagement is valuable since media is reaching an entire household on the biggest screen, but live streaming takes this engagement to another level. The real-time factor of live-streaming content means that the audience is more engaged as they set time aside from their day to watch this specific event. 

Stephen: Live sports engagement is highly concentrated because the viewership patterns are usually in a set period of time, either a few minutes or several hours if they’re binging sports all day. The spikes in traffic are larger, so live sports can generate a larger audience reach much faster compared to other genres.

What are some best practices marketers should know for live streaming?

Stephen: Start broader and build your campaigns across all sports and leagues since there are live sports with big audiences all year round. You can also gain flexibility by getting into live sports programmatically without being tied to larger commitments or spending thresholds that are often required of traditional TV advertising. The growth of streaming allows for more and more types of sports to be aired, meaning more opportunities for advertisers as more diehard fans watch live sports via streaming. 

Joel: Some best practices marketers should consider when planning and executing campaigns on live streaming are to: 

  • Plan in advance
  • Plan for higher CPMs than standard CTV due to the high demand of live-streaming content, and 
  • Invest in high-quality and meaningful creatives since these ads will be seen on a big screen with highly engaged viewers

Are there any potential challenges to be aware of when leveraging live streaming?

Stephen: Live sports are unpredictable, and no two campaigns in live sports will be the same. That’s dependent on the sport, the teams involved, the time of day and so much more, so don’t expect that you can replicate the same recipe every live game. Aaron Rodgers getting injured in the first few minutes of the Jets season is a prime example of that – and also why advertisers need flexibility rather than being locked into deals for games that became far less appealing without start power. One thing to be conscious of is league sponsorships and other agreed upon contracts that may limit access to inventory. However, we see so much scale in live sports that advertisers should not be deterred – in fact, we’ve seen over one billion impressions of football-related content in a given weekend. Imagine all of the opportunities just in one weekend alone.

Joel: Of course, there are potential challenges to be aware of when leveraging live streaming but challenges is what makes the programmatic team at Coegi thrive! One obvious challenge can be the seasonality of live-streaming events which causes a high demand for the inventory. You can mitigate the shifts in demand by continuously monitoring the campaign’s bidding parameters and adjusting as needed in order to win in the ad auction.

What criteria should marketers consider when selecting live-streaming inventory?

Stephen: It’s important to approach live streaming with a balance of the marketing initiative’s overall goals (e.g. reach, frequency, outcomes) since regional and national live-streaming content are both available. By sticking to an audience strategy and testing across all live sports, for example, there is an opportunity for unconventional wisdom (sports co-viewing) and to find audiences when they are highly engaged and leaned in.

Joel: When selecting live streaming inventory, marketers should consider what type of event their ad will be viewed during – college sports, professional sports, awards shows, etc. It’s important to consider because each live event draws a different audience with various interests and purchase intents.  

What audience targeting strategies should marketers utilize to effectively reach their core audience?

Joel: Always consider the geotargeting parameters as some regions may align more with the marketing goal. Demographics, such as age, are also important to broadly refine the core audience media intends to reach. When thinking of data-driven audience strategies, try to keep this fairly broad as live streaming inventory is competitive, and efficiently scaling can be a challenge if too many variables are layered on.

Stephen: Advertisers need to understand who their audience is in live sports if they want to provide the best ad experience and use a strategy rooted in precisely reaching the core audience when and where they are watching live sports. Building your strategy around strong, authenticated data so you can see that the avid baseball viewer is also a loyal grocery store shopper requires a cross-channel identifier like UID2. This is especially important since much of the rise in live sports viewership is also taking place on non-traditional TV devices, such as tablets and mobile phones, so you want to connect the dots across viewers and devices for the best ad experience.

And finally, what piece of advice would you give to markets to run a successful live-streaming CTV campaign?

Stephen: Getting in programmatically provides cost efficiency by offering flexibility, control, and access that otherwise would only be available from larger networks or league sponsorships. If a game is a blow out by halftime, you don’t risk wasting budget on the second half that likely had significantly less viewership. Consolidating live sports within your CTV planning will also give marketers better decisioning and frequency management with the line of sight into the rest of the marketing objectives.

Joel: As most live events are scheduled at least a year in advance, it’s never too early to start planning. However, I recommend planning at least one month in advance of the campaign’s intended launch date. One of the first things to consider during the planning period is what kind of live events to incorporate in the strategy in order to reach the right audience. 

To learn more about broader CTV strategies, check out our other Q&A with The Trade Desk or take a deep dive with Connected TV Advertising Guide.

 

4 Digital Marketing Trends Sparking Strategic Growth in 2024

Posted on by Coegi

Welcome to the ever-evolving realm of digital marketing, where change is the only constant, and marketers sometimes feel like they’re surfing a wave that just won’t quit. As 2024 quickly approaches, it’s not enough to simply predict the next wave – marketing teams must master the art of riding it. Plan to seamlessly weave them into your strategies and create a digital ecosystem that resonates with your audience. 

The Digital Marketing Revolution of 2023: Strategic Imperatives for Growth and Connection

As we gear up to embrace the trends that will define the upcoming year, it’s equally crucial to cast a retrospective glance at the lessons learned and trends witnessed in the past year; exploring the currents that have propelled us to this point and laying the groundwork for the strategic surf ahead.

Content Grounded in Research and Careful Planning

In 2023, content ceased to just exist – it delivered purpose. Meticulously crafted, research-backed content seized consumer attention, proving quality and relevance outshine brevity. Consumers devoured content across various formats, from extended TikTok videos to long-form articles, reaffirming that quality and relevance surpass brevity. The results are clear – dedicate resources to content that educates, entertains and supports customers.

Consumer Insights Unlock Growth

In 2023, first-party data emerged as the primary driver of marketing success. As Coegi’s President emphasized, harnessing consumer insights from owned properties unlocks substantial value. He even threw in a friendly reminder – having first-party data without a strategy is like having a toolbox without a plan. The time is now to get strategic, tap into the goldmine of consumer insights to personalize experiences. The growth implications are immense.

Retail Media Reshapes Strategy

The emergence of retail media took center stage as a primary driver for digital marketing campaigns. Only gaining substantial emphasis in the past two or three years, its trajectory transformed. 2023 marked its seismic rise from the experimental budget line to the backbone of consumer packaged goods (CPG) marketing campaigns.

We are at a pivotal juncture where it’s essential for brands to adopt omnichannel strategies, placing retail media at the forefront and shifting social media into a more supportive role. The strategic imperative is clear – retail media first.

Breakthrough Digital Marketing Trends Poised to Captivate Customers in 2024

AI is Revolutionizing Digital Marketing

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has evolved beyond a buzzword; it stands as a transformative force elevating your marketing success. Like a strategic genie, AI delivers hyper-personalization, automates rote tasks, and unlocks data-fueled consumer insights on demand. 

With 80% of marketers witnessing a positive impact, it’s clear that AI has transitioned from being a nice-to-have to a must-have. It’s imperative to harness the power of AI immediately and integrate it deeply into your marketing strategies. With AI transforming the marketing field, it’s vital for marketing teams to focus on essential integration areas to maintain a competitive advantage in this dynamic market.

  • Sentiment Analysis for Personalized Experiences: Implement sentiment analysis powered by generative AI into your marketing strategy to craft personalized customer experiences. Employ advanced algorithms to customize content and recommendations based on individual preferences, thereby enriching user engagement and satisfaction.
  • Instant Service Bots: Embed smart AI chatbots to engage customers with responsive, personalized interactions, boosting satisfaction.
  • Strategic Insights Arsenal: Unlock actionable intelligence by unleashing algorithms on unused data to sharpen targeting and segmentation.
  • Automate Routine Tasks: Free up talent by using AI to eliminate repetitive tasks like email workflows and social media scheduling through automation. By automating these repetitive processes, your team can redirect their efforts toward high-impact, strategic initiatives, boosting overall productivity.

By activating AI across these four areas, you not only free your teams to focus on high-value strategies but also unlock the potential for more meaningful interactions with your audience. The result? Immediate opportunity to better serve customers and outpace the competition. 

The First-Party Imperative: Winning Customer Intelligence to Fuel Growth

With the looming threat of cookies getting the boot in 2024, your first-party lists are about to become the MVPs of your marketing strategy. Far beyond lifeless lists, rich first-party data fortifies marketing strategies by enabling immersive personalization and forging enduring consumer bonds.

With consumers increasingly expecting hyper-relevant brand experiences, first-party data serves as rocket fuel – when artfully collected through value-driven relationships. This inside track on customer truth unlocks a multi-faceted competitive advantage. First, intimately understand your customers. Then, engage them in a relationship – not a transaction. With consumer trust earned, responsive audiences readily share information and preferences. 

Activate a systematic first-party data blueprint using these five high-impact strategies to own your consumer connection: 

  • Optimized Website Forms: Ensure that your website features user-friendly forms that encourage visitors to willingly provide information. This could include newsletter sign-ups, account registrations, or surveys.
  • Omnichannel Data Integration: Break data silos by connecting data collected from various touch points – website, social media, email interactions – to build a comprehensive customer profile. This integrated approach provides a more holistic view of your audience.
  • Consistent Data Updates: Establish consistent triggers that encourage users to update their preferences regularly, keeping data current amid evolving consumer needs and preferences.
  • Interactive Content Experiences: Compel users to self-identify through polls, assessments, calculators, and other diagnostic tools woven into the consumer journey.
  • Incentivized Programs: Implement loyalty programs, discounts, or exclusive access in exchange for customers sharing their information. This not only encourages data collection but also fosters a sense of value for the customer.

The rewards are immense for brands centralizing first-party data – enhanced segmentation and targeting, future-proofed marketing strategies, and customer experiences driving satisfaction through relevance. Integrating first-party data into your digital marketing strategy is a strategic move that unlocks a wealth of insights and enhances your ability to connect with your audience on a personal level. Prioritize first-party data collection and usage. Your personalized approach will thank you later. 

Retail Media Reshapes the Digital Landscape

Retail media has solidified its status as a disruptive marketing powerhouse. By engaging shoppers at the point of purchase, retail media delivers hyper-targeted ads without relying on unstable third-party data.

As consumers increasingly discover and purchase products through retailers, these platforms will reshape strategies. Insider Intelligence predicts a noteworthy surge of 28.6% in retail media ad spend for the year 2024, reaching a substantial total of close to $60 million. For marketing teams mapping out 2024 plans, retail media can no longer be an afterthought. Its trajectory as marketing’s predominant disruptor means integration must become a strategic pillar to lift visibility and results.

The time is now for you to lean into retail media’s unmatched ability to connect with high-intent users through relevant ads and premium placement. Integrating retail media into your 2024 strategy is a pivotal step toward enhancing visibility, engagement, and, ultimately, the success of your marketing initiatives. Here’s a few things to consider when planning your strategy.

  • Strategic Platform Selection: Strategically identify and invest in dominant retail media platforms where your audiences are actively discovering and purchasing. Commit resources to owned properties with the most traction. 
  • Point-of-Purchase Activation: Engage shoppers with contextual messaging and offerings to breakthrough the clutter at that crucial instant at the digital shelf where decisions are made.
  • Acknowledge Consumer Behavior: Continually realign efforts to acknowledge where consumers are demonstrating shopping behavior shifts. Tailor your strategy to align with these preferences.
  • Strategic Adoption: Approach retail media as an urgent marketing imperative – not a tactical experiment – fusing it into the very fabric of 2024 plans to lift brand visibility and engagement.
  • Utilize Direct Engagement: Harness retail media’s unparalleled avenues to deliver tailored brand messaging that resonates at the individual level based on each platform’s unique consumer DNA.
  • Performance Optimization: Regularly measure and analyze the success of your retail media initiatives. Track metrics such as visibility, engagement, and conversion rates to gauge the effectiveness of your strategy.

In 2024, marketers are experiencing rapid growth and strengthening their brand’s distinct value by integrating retail media into their strategies.

The Social Commerce Boom

As consumers increasingly take to social platforms to discover and purchase products, social commerce has emerged as retail’s new normal..

With social media shopping revenue expected to surge to $1.2 billion by 2024, brands must prioritize integrated social commerce to effectively engage audiences. The numbers signal that the time has come for social platforms to transform from casual scrolling to frictionless buying destinations. Find several strategies below to embrace social commerce effectively in 2024:

  • Optimize for Shoppable Posts: Break down barriers between discovery and purchase by enabling integrated product exploration and payment functionality for platforms like Instagram and Facebook.
  • Influencer Commerce Alliances: Activate influential brand ambassadors to connect target consumers with products through embedded social commerce capabilities and exclusive offers. 
  • Exclusive Social Promotions: Drive urgency and action by giving social followers unique access to exclusive promotions and discounts available only on owned social properties. 
  • Performance Intelligence Infrastructure: Utilize analytics tools to track and analyze the performance of your social commerce efforts. Measure key metrics like conversion rates, click-through rates, and customer acquisition costs to refine and optimize your strategy.
  • Seamless Cross-Channel Integration: Ensure a seamless integration of social commerce with your overall multichannel strategy. Align your social media efforts with your website, email marketing, and other touchpoints for a cohesive customer experience.

By seamlessly intertwining social media and direct sales, marketers are not only streamlining the customer journey but also tapping into the rich tapestry of trust and engagement woven within social communities.

Key Takeaways for Your Marketing Strategy

The digital marketing landscape is undergoing a paradigm shift powered by disruptive technology and shifts in consumer behavior. As the course ahead is chartered, new frameworks must emerge across five pivotal domains – AI, first-party data, retail media, and social commerce.

Marketing leaders must be able to realign strategies, budgets and teams to activate these trends in order to gain a durable competitive advantage and build future-proofed growth models. Complacency poses grave risk. Effective leadership recognizes the need for bold and decisive action in response to changing circumstances, and with marketing currently experiencing a significant transformation, that moment is undeniably now.

The window of opportunity is immediate; build your vision and begin navigating uncharted waters armed with five navigational pillars able to elevate relevance, engagement and profitability in your decidedly digital future.

Navigating the Evolving Digital Video Landscape: 2024 Trends and Strategies for Marketers

Posted on by Coegi

In the digital realm, we’ve witnessed firsthand the transformative power of converging technologies and evolving consumer preferences. The intensifying battle for user attention, the ubiquity of smartphones, the proliferation of streaming services, and the growing appetite for immersive, personalized experiences have propelled video to the forefront of content consumption, surpassing text-based alternatives.

2023 saw video marketing become the cornerstone of engagement, revolutionizing business connections. This surge showcases diverse content and devices catering to personalization, authenticity, and educational value, making video king in marketing strategies.

Video & The Consumer Consumption Landscape 

Imagine captivating a global audience of 3.5 billion by 2023. That’s the video revolution unfolding before us, and the screen time speaks for itself: Americans spend over 7.5 hours glued to screens daily, devouring video content with unmatched fervor. Marketers are chanting in unison: video reigns supreme in social media marketing. Over half (54%) have named video as the sovereign ruler, with its unmatched ability to enthrall audiences, educate them, and spur them to act.

 

Smartphones have become the go-to device for digital video consumption, embraced by 69% of U.S. adults. This shift away from traditional television is fueled by the widespread adoption of 5G connectivity, with nearly one in four smartphone owners streaming videos on the go.

 

While mobile video remains significant, connected TVs (CTVs) are poised to take the lead with video accounting for 90% of CTV content. This trend will reshape the digital video landscape by 2025, with CTV video, social video, and YouTube taking center stage. Subcategories like SVOD and TikTok will further solidify the dominance of CTV video and social video.

The Impact For Marketers: Digital Video Advertising Spend & Strategy

The global video advertising landscape is experiencing a seismic shift, propelled by user consumption patterns. With an expected video ad spend reaching a staggering $180 billion by year-end 2023, it’s clear that video is king. The United States leads the charge, with a significant portion of that budget allocated to search and social video ads. Both channels exhibit a strong mobile bias, while their presence on CTV remains limited.

 

But this is changing. CMOs are discovering the undeniable power of video, with a 24.74% increase in brand lift and recall, 21.71% improved user experience, and a whopping 40% boost in brand perception. This translates to a more engaged and informed audience, ultimately driving brand awareness and loyalty. While video’s direct sales impact sits at 15.65%, its ability to nurture leads and build trust makes it a vital tool for marketing teams. This is evident in the fact that 68% of marketers track engagement, and 51% now measure lead generation and conversion rates, recognizing video’s true value beyond just views and likes.

 

2023 witnessed a critical development in this evolution: a wave of CTV adoption across diverse industries, with retail, health & wellness, and CPG leading the charge. By 2027, retail media spending on CTV is projected to reach $8.64 billion. Yet, a crucial challenge remains: our lagging migration to CTV. Despite consumers spending a whopping 25% of their time on the platform, advertisers are underinvesting, allocating a mere 9.5% of digital ad budgets.. Concerns about limited inventory and premium pricing are holding us back.

 

It’s time to overcome these hurdles and unleash CTV’s potential. By collaborating and harnessing its power, we can reach target audiences where they are and achieve unparalleled success in this transformative era. The video advertising landscape is ripe for innovation and growth. By embracing the full potential of video across platforms, we can unlock unprecedented opportunities to engage with audiences and build lasting brand connections.

Trending: AI-Powered Digital Video Creation & Personalization

In the competitive landscape of 2024, AI-powered personalization and audience insights can elevate your video marketing campaigns to new heights of engagement and effectiveness:

Key Takeaways for Marketing Professionals

  • Embrace AI-driven personalization while prioritizing authenticity: Audiences are craving real connections, not manufactured perfection. Refine your content to resonate on a deeper level, but steer clear of anything inauthentic. Micro and nano-influencers who spark genuine conversations are your secret weapon. And remember, transparency is key – be upfront about AI’s role in crafting your message. This authenticity is your golden ticket to engagement, trust, and brand loyalty.
  • Utilize AI for efficiency, not replacement: Automate tasks and gain insights, but don’t let it replace human creativity. High-quality creative content remains essential for impactful marketing campaigns.
  • Craft personalized video journeys with AI-powered insights: Analyze customer data and deliver hyper-personalized video content, tailored to individual interests through dynamic elements, interactive experiences, and customized recommendations. It allows you to lean into using an inclusive approach by going beyond surface-level metrics while driving engagement and fostering loyalty.

Unleashing Innovation through Experimentation

  • Streamline your video production process & elevate your marketing videos with AI-powered platforms, empowering you to easily create engaging videos. These platforms can be used to create videos from text, add AI-powered voiceovers and avatars, and craft captivating social media videos.
  • Harness the power of AI-powered creative effectiveness platforms to revolutionize your campaign planning, video testing, and media planning. These platforms utilize advanced technologies like facial coding, eye tracking, and computer vision to provide unparalleled insights into your target audience’s behavior and preferences.
  • Foster inclusivity by leveraging AI-powered dubbing tools to unlock global audiences, enhance accessibility, and expand your video’s reach by removing language barriers through dubbing, subtitles, and captions.

Trending: Cross-screen, Cross-channel Advertising Solutions

As audiences divide their attention across various devices and engage in multitasking, marketers must reimagine their video advertising strategies to win them over:

Key Takeaways For Marketing Professionals

  • The rise of Netflix and Prime Video’s ad-supported tier: As CTV advertising gains traction and linear TV struggles to find its footing, Amazon’s Prime Video ad-supported tier is set to fuel a surge in ad spending. This presents marketers with a wealth of new diversification opportunities using multi-platform video ad campaigns to engage with a broader audience.
  • Distinguish your brand and engage viewers with premium-produced video ads: UGC’s authenticity and relatability can be highly effective, but its production quality often falls short of premium video content’s polished and refined aesthetic. As streaming TV continues dominating viewing habits, marketers should prioritize premium video content to capture attention and drive results.
  • Fragmented media consumption necessitates a multi-screen marketing approach: With 5G technology enabling seamless video delivery, marketers can now craft engaging ad experiences that adapt to individual viewing habits. By leveraging an omnichannel approach, you can ensure your message reaches the right audience at the right time, maximizing the impact of your campaigns.

Unleashing Innovation Through Experimentation

  • Streamline the shopping journey by incorporating shoppable CTV video ads: Seamlessly integrate product information and purchase options within your video ads, enhancing engagement and driving immediate conversions.
  • Tap into the massive audience consuming live sports online: As digital platforms compete for your ad dollars, unlock premium inventory with NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube. Reach paying subscribers, traditionally targeted by major brands, with the precision of digital advertising. YouTube’s “multi-view” expands this inventory, offering even more targeted ad placements.
  • Long-form video investments drive exponential returns: Let performance, not production value, guide your video investments. Embrace a data-driven, multi-platform approach, and repurpose the content that truly connects.

Trending: Embracing Interactivity, Live Streaming, and Format Diversity

Marketers should strategically embrace the versatility of vertical and horizontal videos, strike a balance between short-form and long-form video content, and engage audiences in an interactive and immersive modern world:

Key Takeaways For Marketing Professionals

Unleashing Innovation Through Experimentation

  • Incorporate AR elements & VR experiences: Overlay virtual objects and graphics onto real-world scenes to create an interactive and immersive storytelling experience. Transport viewers into a virtual world where they can interact with your brand’s story and products in a fully immersive environment.
  • The Synergy of Branching Narratives and Gamification: By allowing viewers to choose their own path and incorporating engaging gameplay elements, you are enhancing viewer engagement, collecting valuable data, personalizing product recommendations, and fostering deeper connections. 
  • The powerful trifecta: Live shopping experiences, combined with horizontal and vertical video formats, and creator content, can create a powerful video advertising strategy that resonates across platforms and drives meaningful engagement with their target audience.

Digital video has emerged as a formidable force in the modern online world, offering marketers an unparalleled opportunity to captivate audiences and foster meaningful engagement. Marketers who fail to incorporate video into their strategies are forfeiting a valuable opportunity to connect with their target audience.

By embracing the evolving trends and unleashing innovation through experimentation, marketers can effectively navigate the ever-changing digital video landscape, establish deeper connections with their target audience, and achieve their marketing goals in 2024 and beyond.

Avoiding the BS in ABM

Posted on by Savannah Westbrock

Account-based marketing, or ABM (because what’s a marketing term without a corresponding acronym), is a B2B strategy that targets specific, high-value accounts to convert them to a sale. The key differentiator between a traditional B2B approach and ABM is that the strategic focus for ABM is building relationships with specific accounts’ key decision makers that require a personalized experience to generate qualified leads and incremental revenue. 

When initially evaluating how to implement an ABM strategy, you’ll likely be led to believe that you need to onboard specific ABM marketing platforms and measurement solutions in order to be effective. However, there’s a good chance that you already have the necessary tools to be successful – they just need to be reimagined with an ABM lens. Before opting to onboard new partners, read through our steps on how to implement an ABM strategy within your existing tech stack. 

Reaching the Right Audience

The foundation of any ABM initiative is an audience targeting strategy that enables media to accurately reach in-market accounts. The traditional approach to B2B audience targeting through digital channels is centered on driving users to the site to fill out leads forms, which are then the accounts that are manually qualified and followed up on by the sales team. The opposite happens with an ABM strategy, which starts with identifying the core accounts to engage with and nurture to simplify the process of fostering a relationship with the sales team. 

Developing an ABM strategy can feel overwhelming at first since it’s like trying to locate a needle in a haystack in order to reach key decision makers. However, it can be accomplished with strategic data partners that seamlessly plug-and-play within your key media buying platforms to maintain an integrated ecosystem. B2B data partners with ABM targeting solutions, such as Bombora and Dun & Bradstreet, can provide firmographic segments which use data to categorize organizations based on industry, location, technologies used, and more to identify and reach critical accounts. When evaluating data partners, it’s important to understand the methodology used to define audience segments to ensure the audiences are built to reach the intended users. Additionally, if your brand has existing CRM lists, ABM data partners can enrich the data to improve accuracy and scale. 

Scaling with Contextual Targeting

Given the nature of ABM audience targeting being more of a one-to-one approach to reach accounts and their respective key decision makers, campaigns may be susceptible to scaling issues. To mitigate low reach and high expenses, leverage contextual targeting as a complement to the data-driven audience targeting strategy to add scalability to the overall marketing initiative. Using contextual targeting, media is able to reach accounts while they are actively researching content that indicates interest or intent in a relevant product or service offering. Engaging users with relevant messaging while in the proper mindset can capture attention and drive key onsite actions. 

It’s important to note that contextual targeting has become far more intelligent than it was at its onset due to advancements in natural language processing and large language models. Contextual targeting is no longer a mass reach play, but rather an effective targeting strategy when executed with understanding of behavioral intent signals and corresponding keyword and top publishers research. 

Nurturing Leads with Sequential Messaging

Since a key differentiator between an overarching B2B strategy and ABM is a focus on the individual account, delivering a personalized experience from the initial touch point to the sale is critical. Sequential messaging can be leveraged as a lead nurturing strategy that provides the key decision maker with the information they need based on their intent signals and current stage in their buying journey. Utilizing previous ad engagement and onsite actions as data touchpoints, sequential messaging can provide a series of ads to potential customers that tell a continual, highly tailored story to drive users toward conversion. For example, if a user downloads a whitepaper, signaling interest in a product or service but have not yet converted into a qualified lead, targeting them with tailored messaging to drive them back to the site with a specific offer could result in the acquiring of a new account. 

Many programmatic buying platforms that are likely already part of your tech stack have sequential targeting logic incorporated into the audience builder, enabling re-engagement based on exposure to or interaction with a creative message or key actions taken on the brand’s site.

Determining Effectiveness with a Measurement Strategy

The first step to developing a measurement framework is implementing a pixel strategy that captures key onsite actions to both inform campaign performance and enable custom audience creation. It’s important that the pixel strategy complements the media strategy to ensure all intent signals are captured to monitor stages in the consumer journey. Intent signals should be used to better understand your audience and its current needs instead of pushing for leads straight away before they are properly primed. 

That being said, paid marketing alone is rarely enough to fully nurture a lead into an account. But with an effective ABM approach, you can avoid clogging up your Salesforce with people who just wanted a whitepaper. Below are the key stages of the ABM journey and the corresponding key metrics to measure along the way:

  • Educate: It’s important to establish the brand as a thought leader in the industry and showcase the product or service’s value to decision makers in order to break into their consideration set. The initial touchpoint with key accounts should be centered on the education of the unique business application of the brand’s offering, fueled by a carefully curated content strategy. In this stage, measuring metrics such as time on site and scroll depth will indicate that media is reaching a qualified audience and capturing attention with content that satisfies a current interest or business need. Also, measuring cost per unique reach will inform if media is efficiently scaling and introducing the brand to a breadth of key decision makers.
  • Engage: The proper cadence of engagement with accounts is critical to a successful ABM strategy. Utilize intent signals and firmographics to understand the right time to engage with key decision makers, understanding what relevant information they’ll be looking for as well as typical buying cycles. It’s important to remember that each engagement with an account should bring value to aid in the decision making process. In this stage, measuring engagement metrics, such as cost per whitepaper download and cost per completed video view, will indicate if the message is resonating with the core target accounts to drive meaningful user activity.
  • Qualify: The final stage of the ABM journey is focused on acquiring qualified leads that eventually lead to a high revenue sale. It’s important to identify the true value of a qualified lead prior to the marketing campaign launch to establish cost per lead goals that better inform the platform algorithms on the value of lead to prioritize media spend toward. This will ensure media is capturing qualified leads from key decision makers that are indicating intent to convert. In this stage, it’s also important to measure return on investment (ROI) since leads aren’t guaranteed revenue. 
  • Evaluate: While marketing is primarily responsible for marketing qualified leads rather than sales qualified leads, it can still be valuable to measure sales cycle efficiency. This metric determines the effectiveness of media touchpoints at driving key decision makers from the awareness of the brand to the point of sale. This can help inform if the messaging and audience targeting strategies are reaching the right users with the right message at the right time.

Planning and activating an account-based marketing initiative can feel overwhelming since it is presented under the guise of complexity and needing specialized tools in order to succeed. But if you peel back the layers of ABM, you’ll discover that its core components are not entirely different compared to a traditional B2B strategy. Before reinventing the wheel, consider your approach to digital media and how the existing tools within your tech stack can be repurposed to apply to an ABM approach before investing time and money in yet another platform.   

 

Breaking Down The Barriers Between B2B and B2C Marketing

Posted on by Coegi

Bringing Humanity to the Core of Your Marketing Strategy

Digital transformation has definitively blurred the lines differentiating the traditionally siloed B2B and B2C marketing practices. It doesn’t matter if you’re purchasing products or services, for a business or as consumers — we’re all human.  By focusing our attention on what matters most, the people, it becomes clear that the concerns we have aren’t unique to B2B or B2C marketing; they’re mutually shared. 

Understanding that these two worlds converge allows marketers to identify and evaluate emerging technologies and trends from a lens of humanity, creating space to innovate and avoid false limitations of what qualifies as a B2B marketing strategy and what is more “appropriate” for B2C. 

Deloitte’s 2023 Global Marketing Trends Report offers a perfect roadmap to reframe our mindset and humanize B2B marketing.

  1. Answering economic instability with marketing investments
  2. Driving growth through internal sustainability efforts
  3. Using creativity as a force for growth
  4. Adopting rising marketing technologies 

Here’s how marketers can apply these four trends to create a human-to-human (H2H) strategy and bridge the gap between B2B and B2C marketing.  

Weathering Economic Uncertainty With H2H Marketing

We’re faced with the challenge of trying to plan without fully knowing what lies ahead amidst uncertain economic times. Value becomes more important than ever when times are tough. We need to find new ways to add or communicate value and meet human needs through personalized experiences. This is where smart use of data becomes your secret weapon, and is actually expected by three-quarters of consumers, according to McKinsey.

“Data will lead us to the points of contact with advertising [that] are increasingly personalized and more relevant” In other words, how can we make each touchpoint in an omnichannel marketing ecosystem feel authentic and personal? Once we pinpoint what drives the biggest impact and makes people feel valued, we can tailor solutions based on those preferences. Put this into practice by strategically investing in conversational marketing. While customers appreciate personal, human interaction, they don’t want to give up the convenience of automation. We can offer the best of both worlds by pairing a human-centric strategy with innovative technologies like targeted marketing, live chat and AI.

Trust, Sustainability and a Human-Centric Culture

In the wake of 2020, B2B and B2C marketers alike were faced with some of the most disruptive crises in recent history. Fast forward to 2023, and “trust, values, and integrity are at the forefront of what customers expect from businesses they shop with. Customers expect brands to demonstrate rich and solid values in 2023, prioritizing ethical, social, and environmental responsibilities.” 

Marketing leaders from both disciplines have a lot more riding on their shoulders with 88% of consumers awarding trust as their top value during times of change. And out of that pool, 78% of their purchasing decisions are influenced by businesses’ environmental practices. It’s no longer simply about growing revenue; it’s about growing your business responsibly. Having a true Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) policy in place can not be an afterthought or a nice-to-have. It is pivotal for long-term growth.

Deloitte highlights three core strategies to build intentional ESG marketing practices:  

  • Implementing more sustainable internal marketing practices 
  • Making long-term commitments towards reducing the carbon footprint, and
  • Promoting more sustainable product and service offerings

The best way to take this on is to utilize one of the core tenets of the H2H approach: self-awareness. Taking the time to measure and evaluate your sustainability practices requires effort and forces you to take an honest look at your business practices as it relates to carbon output.   

Here are some great examples of eco-friendly practices that support this human-centric approach:

Driving future growth is dependent on a commitment to  sustainability— or at least, that’s what 55% of marketers are saying. Making a commitment to ESG programs opens the door for brands to mend broken relationships, form new connections, and nurture trust across audiences – both B2B and B2C. 

Creativity is the Main Character in Brands’ Growth Paths

49% of marketers believe the ability to integrate sophisticated analytical capabilities into marketing strategies is critical for long-term success. However, marketers must act on their analysis in a human way to maximize impact. 

Cristian Cabello, CMO of Derco, illustrated that ideology by saying, “Brands should blend data with human-centered methodologies to create a more complete picture of the customer, prevent mistakes an algorithm can’t always understand, and cultivate connections with the customer.” In other words, data is simply data if you fail to tell an emotionally compelling story with it. 

Research shows that people want to hear stories from brands and over half are more likely to buy products from brands whose stories they love. Messages built around a personal story are:

  • More memorable and easier to process 
  • Break away from corporate language and technical jargon 
  • Enable honesty and transparency with engaging analogies
  • Use authenticity to knock down barriers

As professional storytellers, B2B marketers should make content relatable and personable to build deeper connections with prospects and stakeholders. Consider using channels from the B2C playbook, like influencer marketing. Lean into this era of co-creation and explore new partnerships and platforms that will generate a stronger brand community. 

Adopting Rising Technologies with a Human Touch

We can’t help but pay attention to industry chatter around emerging trends and technologies. But, over-investing in something unproven can be unwise. Finding the balance between the hype and worthwhile investments could mean the difference between creating a competitive advantage or falling behind.

In the coming year, B2B marketers should consider:

  1. Taking advantage of AR/VR for experiential B2B marketing interactions: This strategy allows for data-driven decisioning and delivers on the growing expectations for more personalized and engaging consumer experiences. For example, Nestlé Purina Petcare has implemented 3D VR technology to assist retail partners with better in-store merchandising.
  2. Exploring the metaverse’s role in the customer experience: Data shows that those who fail to create a strategy to join the metaverse may lose the opportunity to become a leader in the space. 17% of US marketers are active participants, whereas 40% are laying the groundwork to expand engagement and experiences in the metaverse.
  3. Using blockchain technology to strengthen data privacy: Blockchain offers new possibilities to bolster privacy and give control back to consumers. For example, in the healthcare sector, blockchain technology can store, share and utilize data to communicate with patients without sharing data with a third party.

Customer expectations are shifting, and with them, the distinction between B2B and B2C marketing is collapsing. Taking this in stride by prioritizing a holistic human-to-human approach is a future-proof way to respond to the perpetual disruptions caused by digital transformation and technology. We can stop over-complicating things and opt to simplify our approach by bringing it back to what matters most: we’re all human. 

4 Steps to Scale Your Multiunit Enterprise Marketing Strategy in 2023

Posted on by Sean Cotton

Brand marketing advice is often over-simplified – directed towards growing one brand, one product or one service. Multiunit enterprise marketing requires more complex, yet streamlined, solutions to effectively scale and drive sustainable growth. 

Take a large pharmaceutical company, for example. They typically have multiple business units, each overseeing multiple brands. Not only that, but they often need to reach and persuade multiple audiences – healthcare providers, patients, key opinion leaders, sales reps, procurement managers and caregivers. Essentially, they’re having to consider everything, everywhere, all at once. 

Without an integrated marketing and measurement strategy to tie it all together, chaos may be the only thing to scale. 

The Solution: Plan an overarching brand ecosystem alongside business line campaigns

Building a holistic ecosystem is the foundational structure needed to establish a flexible multiunit marketing strategy. It creates cohesive messaging and creative alignment, appropriate governance for audience targeting, and allows business lines to cross-share learnings that break down silos and level up organizational goals.

How do you accomplish this balancing act? 

  • Set cascading goals for each business unit to establish unified commitment
  • Create sub-ecosystems surrounding each core audience for authentic engagement
  • Optimize the user experience, paying close attention to the B2B2C relationship (if relevant)
  • Build a unified measurement framework to clearly articulate KPIs and desired business outcomes

Let’s break down these four key components for scaling multiunit enterprise marketing in more detail. 

#1 – Plan holistically using cascading goals for each business unit

Each business line has a unique agenda. This is inevitable. But, when you plan overarching and business line campaigns simultaneously, you can feed each agenda into a cohesive brand strategy. This upfront rigor in strategic planning will allow long-term flexibility. 

Start by establishing clear roles and responsibilities to delineate how each business unit contributes to the primary business and marketing objectives. We’ve found the best way to accomplish this is by using the cascading pyramid method of goal setting. 

Cascading goals are “first established at the highest level of the organization. Then, supporting goals are created for every department and team.” Those supporting goals are broken down into KPIs and then specific tasks or initiatives, getting more granular as you move towards the bottom of the pyramid.

Cascading Goal Pyramid

From a media planning perspective, you can assign each business unit unique OKRs and KPIs that contribute to topline goals. This is particularly important to account for the element of real-time spend optimization. When you align on KPIs early in planning, you can select channels with both business objectives and AI-driven optimization in mind. 

Client Example: Coegi works with a regional bank client with multiple business units: consumer banking, commercial banking and home equity. We have a unique audience-targeting strategy for each line of business using behavior-based indicators to ensure we’re reaching a qualified audience. However, every unit shares one core goal: growing new customers. As such, all media KPIs ladder up to that goal and drive the business in a cohesive and clear direction. 

#2 – Create ecosystems surrounding each core audience group

Take an audience-centric approach to media planning by using data and research to gain a deep understanding of core audience behaviors and values. This foundation will inform media and messaging decisions that reduce wasted impressions and build more authentic relationships.  

Apply this knowledge to build and nurture a marketing ecosystem surrounding each unit’s unique audience(s). For example, Coegi worked with BODYARMOR to expand and differentiate the brand in the crowded sports drink marketplace. They were looking to identify and reach new audiences for three distinct product lines: BODYARMOR Original, Lyte (sugar-free) and Edge (caffeinated). 

We created microtargeted audiences for each line, including: Blue Collar Workers, Grocery Gatekeepers, Veterans, Teenage Athletes and Health-Focused Adults. For each audience, we built a custom media plan and recommended messaging strategy – creating an ecosystem of organic touchpoints in their day-to-day lives. Read the full BODYARMOR case study here for more details. 

#3 – Optimize the B2B2C experience

Oftentimes, multiunit enterprises need to reach both professional and consumer audiences – requiring marketers to take a B2B2C approach. These brands need a marketing strategy that facilitates a conversation between the business and the end consumer, meeting them where they are in their level of awareness and knowledge. 

The business customer typically requires more brand-building content. Focus on ways to drive brand recall, establish a unique value proposition (UVP), and communicate benefits to their lives. VP of Marketing at Notion, Kate Rojas, quotes, “In a true B2B2C business model, your partners must be viewed as a true business partner and not just a channel to sell more products…” 

In the spirit of partnership, create a mutually beneficial system. For instance, if you are a financial brand communicating with advisors, sell them the offering that provides the quickest conversion or highest value reward. Then, use that inertia to help them cross-sell using your entire portfolio. This will benefit their bottomline while helping you establish loyal consumers who are invested in multiple offerings. 

Consumers, on the other hand, typically require more basic education about the category itself and the value it offers. This is especially true for more complex and regulated industries, such as finance, IT and healthcare. 

Client Example: Coegi uses a B2B2C content marketing strategy focused on driving brand awareness for our client, Athene, a leading retirement services company. Their end customers often need general education on the importance of retirement annuities. Financial advisors need more technical content about the brand’s benefits. Knowing this, we tailor content to their unique needs within one intertwined strategy so that the B2B and B2C units work together in support of the brand’s goal.

#4 – Build a comprehensive, cross-unit measurement framework

Even with unique campaigns by brand, product, or division, it’s critical to share and apply key takeaways. Insight sharing across units helps avoid a siloed view and allows the business as a whole to optimize more efficiently. 

This is also imperative for flexible budget allocation. When all units are part of an integrated strategy, budget can be allocated to the strongest performing lines, as determined by a test-and-learn approach. 

For specifics on how to create a unified measurement framework, view our 5 Step Guide to Measuring Marketing ROI. 

Read our Measurement Guide here

Create Your Multiunit Enterprise Marketing Strategy

An HBR article states, “multiunit organizations must ensure some degree of customization even as they pursue standardization. They must respond to the distinctive features of local and regional markets to achieve the best results.” 

So, while a nuanced approach for each unit, market, or even location is necessary, brands need to maintain some level of standardization for efficiency and scalability. By planning business line campaigns within this holistic strategic framework, you can ensure appropriate top-line budget allocation for each effort and avoid evaluating any one line in a vacuum.

Driving 12K Leads for a Luxury Home Appliance Brand

Posted on by Coegi

Brief

A luxury home ice maker brand partnered with Coegi to create a B2B2C strategy that would establish relationships with custom builders, designers, and homeowners, driving in-store visits to authorized brand dealers and growing their sales pipeline.

Highlights

12,000
Leads Generated

68%
Lift in Dealer Visits

 

Challenge

Consumers who were in-market for home appliances were easy to reach and wanted the client’s products. However, they could not buy directly from the brand. We needed to reach kitchen designers and renovators to close the awareness gap between consumers and professionals. 

Our team had three key questions: 

  • How can we reach this niche audience beyond traditional B2B channels?
  • How do we evaluate if we effectively reached this audience?
  • How can Coegi set up the client for long-term success with this audience?

This home designer and builder audience had proven difficult to reach online. So, we needed to expand beyond traditional B2B channels, such as LinkedIn, to drive lead generation and build a long-term CRM growth strategy for the brand. 

Solution

Building Awareness With B2B Audiences

Digital media platforms offered limited reach to build awareness among our very niche group of trade professionals. Instead, we partnered with key trade publications to leverage their email syndication lists. 

Prior to activating any digital media, Coegi worked with three leading industry publications for a three week email-blast campaign prompting website visitation. This allowed us to build a fresh, highly-qualified audience list primed through sequential messaging. 

Driving Action From In-Market B2C Audiences

We took an audience-first approach focusing on consumers already in the consideration stage for relevant products, and drove three core audience segments to find the brand’s B2B dealers: 

  • Influencers: Custom builders and designers seeking a luxury ice maker producer for clients
  • Explorers: In-market consumer audiences already considering the brand 
  • Kitchen Buyers & Remodelers: In-market audiences with a history of purchasing luxury home goods but lacked brand awareness 

Coegi used Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest to reach users actively searching for home renovation ideas and products. This was accomplished using a blend of contextual, interest, lookalike and retargeting audiences. We also used display retargeting and a paid search strategy to own branded search terms and secure top-of-page placement at final stages of the consumer journey. 

Implementing a Full-Funnel Measurement Strategy

With email serving as the awareness driver, we were able to focus on measuring core actions, such as “Dealer Locator” button clicks and contact form submissions on their website. These actions helped us evaluate if we had reached the B2B audience and then implement sequential messaging and flighting to drive conversions.

The Results

By combining the audience quality of industry publications with digital reach and measurement, this B2B2C marketing campaign drove outstanding results. It generated 68% growth of in-person dealership visits and 12,000 B2B leads to establish a first-party CRM database. 

Key Learnings

  • Digital technology and tools that may not be top of mind for B2B marketers can be used creatively to solve problems
  • Understanding who your audience trusts up front leads to smart partnerships that take the guesswork out of your strategy

The B2B Digital Marketing Handbook

Posted on by Coegi

The digital marketing revolution is sweeping the world – and B2B advertising is no exception. Buyers and sellers are shifting to digital channels for conducting networking, brand building, product demos and training, and even transactions. 

Using this handbook, you can adapt your brand to the evolving marketplace by using the most effective channels, targeting methods and measurement strategies for reaching modern B2B buyers. In this guide you’ll learn the answers to key marketing questions, such as: 

How can you efficiently target B2B audiences?

B2B’s emphasis on precisely targeting niche audience groups will be affected by third-party cookie deprecation in 2023. Find a balance between leveraging non-cookie based second and third-party prospecting audiences and creating digital touch points with your CRM contacts to reach the buyers that matter most for your brand. 

What are the best channels for B2B brands to advertise on?

Some of the most effective and fastest growing digital channels we recommend for B2B marketers include social, display, search, connected TV and audio. Read the full guide or continue scrolling to learn how to activate each channel most effectively and achieve business results. 

How to measure the results of B2B digital marketing? 

Track the cross-channel customer journey via both sales and marketing touchpoints. Accurate measurement provides learnings to optimize the process, making the sales funnel shorter and ad spend more effective. A common misstep marketers make is focusing solely on attribution and sourcing metrics. This is an oversimplification that blinds true insights and efficiency. To more accurately track a complex buying cycle, we outline a five step measurement process to define omni-channel success.

Future-Proof Your B2B Digital Marketing Strategy

Digital-first marketing is the way forward for B2B brands. This handbook provides a deeper understanding of the high level trends you need to know to stay ahead of the competitive curve and capitalize on untapped marketing space.

Download the B2B Digital Marketing Handbook now to level up your strategy. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us to set up a discovery call.

Adapting to the Digital-First B2B Marketplace 

B2B digital ad spending is growing rapidly, and traditional spend is not expected to recover to pre-pandemic levels. Digital advertising will be pivotal for B2B brands moving forward as buyers become more accustomed to a digital-first marketplace. 

Here’s three simple shifts that can have a major impact:

Follow B2C’s Example

Leading consumer brands diversify and digitize their marketing mix to create robust omni-channel strategies. This is highly successful for meeting customers wherever they are online. Personalizing content is now an expectation for B2B digital marketing.

Lead with Data

Use CRM data to identify customers with the greatest lifetime value based on potential or historical spend to optimize your marketing expenditure. Then, create AI-based lookalike models to find new consumers who behave like your best customers.

Lean into Video 

B2B buyers engage heavily with video content across the consumer journey, perhaps to the surprise of the more traditional B2B marketers. Product demos, tutorials, webinars, and culture-based content all have an impact on engaging and informing buyers. 

Digital Account-Based Marketing (ABM)

Companies are placing the highest investment for their account based marketing (ABM)  strategies into digital. The majority of spend occurs on social media, paid search, and e-newsletters. However, other channels such as display, CTV and audio are gaining more share of wallet each year. 

A barrier to successful ABM is the ability to efficiently and effectively personalize marketing at scale. This is addressable by using AI technology to segment and serve account-based ads on a programmatic level. There are also various methods for account-based targeting on platforms such as LinkedIn. 

Targeting B2B Audiences with Digital Marketing 

Impact of the Cookieless Future

It is important to maintain a forward looking mentality for lead generation. The cookieless future will affect targeting niche audience groups, an emphasis of B2B marketers. Brands should explore emerging identity-solution technologies while also prioritizing first-party data collection. Finding a balance between leveraging third-party prospecting audiences and your CRM contacts can define your success. 

Know Your B2B Audience

Use consumer intelligence tools to create highly specific audience personas. Understand where their media consumption lies so you can reach them in both endemic and non-endemic environments. Focusing on intentionally targeting high quality leads will achieve a much higher return on investment than a mass market approach. 

Job Title Targeting

Reach industry professionals based on the NAICS listed industries in which they work. Target using ABM, job title, job function and seniority targeting, firmographic, and intent signals. Further refine targeting through Boolean logic to reach specific B2B audiences.

IP Targeting

IP targeting enables brands to identify qualified households and businesses based on IP address. You can also create look-alike models using audience lists to expand reach. This allows you to target specific business locations and reach employees while they are at work. 

Geo-Targeting

Geo-fencing powers hyper-local mobile targeting in specific locations of your target accounts. Geo-targeting industry conferences can be effective to reach a high concentration of relevant professionals with greater efficiency. 

Retargeting

Website retargeting allows you to reach warm leads who have recently visited your site with sequential messaging. Conversion pixels can be particularly useful for B2B brands to place on key actions, like PDF downloads or form submissions. However, the deprecation of third-party cookies will inevitably impact this – so avoid overreliance on this tactic.

Key Channels for B2B Digital Marketing 

Brands need to enable digital transaction and communication across all stages of the lead funnel. Here are some of the most effective and fastest growing digital channels we recommend for B2B marketers:

Social Media

While social media is extremely useful in personifying the brand, it also goes a long way in driving new prospects and increasing customer lifetime value. Advertising and engaging content initiates that process. The most commonly used and highly effective social media for B2B brands is LinkedIn. 

LinkedIn has millions of active professionals with detailed targeting capabilities for reaching a business-focused target audience. On LinkedIn, individuals are more likely to be engaged in business-related activities, which is a great fit for B2B initiatives. 

Connected TV

Brands are realizing the value of video in driving awareness through storytelling, which is just as important to B2B as it is to B2C. CTV ads provide maximum impact, reaching users on the largest screen in their home against premium content. With advanced audience targeting across CTV devices brands can re-engage existing customers and reach new audiences. 

Programmatic Audio 

Programmatic audio is a growing sector for B2B. Placements in relevant podcasts or streaming platforms can reach very specific audiences. B2B spend in this category is currently lagging, but we expect growth in the next several years. By capitalizing on this tactic now, your brand has the potential to capture attention ahead of more widespread adoption 

Digital-Out-of-Home

Digital Out of Home (DOOH) refers to the purchasing of digital screens in public. With DOOH, you can purchase inventory nearly in real-time versus traditional methods that take multiple weeks and contracts. Digital screens place ads in locations where you know key decision makers are likely to be.

Display

4 out of 10 US B2B marketers said they plan to increase their display budget in 2022. Use display to drive consideration and lead generation through specific CTAs. Segment audiences based on attributes and behaviors. Then, connect with them on relevant sites and apps using a combined approach of contextual and audience targeting. 

Native

Native ads match readers’ interests with curated content and generate higher brand engagement. This is especially useful for targeting B2B buyers when they are consuming contextually relevant content. Plus, it can position your content as an additional resource to the topic they are reading about without being intrusive.

Paid Search (PPC)

To show up in highly competitive search rankings, combine organic and paid search strategies for maximum impact and profitability. When B2B buyers begin searching for information, they will likely land on a top ranking site on Google. So, it is critical to bid against the most effective keywords to place your brand at the forefront of the consumer journey. 

Measuring B2B Digital Marketing Results 

Tracking the cross-channel journey across sales and digital marketing touchpoints is essential. Accurate measurement provides learnings to optimize the process, making the sales funnel shorter and ad spend more effective. 

Focusing on sourcing metrics is an oversimplification that blinds true insights and efficiency. To more accurately track a complex buying cycle, we recommend creating a custom measurement framework. 

Use this 5-step process to define omni-channel success for your B2B marketing: 

1) Align Sales and Marketing Teams

First, sales and marketing must have alignment. The following steps of identifying business OKRs should be collaborative to meet shared goals and understand the impact of one another’s efforts.

2) Identify Desired Business Outcomes

Secondly, establish and understand your core business goals. This creates a roadmap that empowers marketing and sales teams to make informed decisions. From there, you can begin to build a strategic marketing plan to move the needle for the brand

3) Determine KPIs to Indicate Success

Begin to identify the signals that trigger audience actions and bring you closer to your goals. Next, determine how each touchpoint leads the customer to the point of purchase and how you can track directional success. Move beyond typical metrics that simply measure media efficiency and see what is truly impacting your business results.

4) Evaluate Incrementality

As you nurture leads and drive new business, evaluate the incremental effects of your marketing strategy. To test different tactics or channels, establish a performance baseline and then adjust one variable at time to see the impact. This will give you more accurate insight than attribution or last-click models. 

5) Create a Cycle of Test and Learn

Now it is important to identify the key questions we can answer to improve upon results in the next campaign. Create a learning agenda to determine which components are driving the best outcomes so you can adjust and optimize in the future. 

Apply these core principles and watch your business transform. Using this approach will allow you to track and communicate meaningful data about your buyers, no matter how complex your channel strategy may be. 

Key Takeaways for B2B Marketers

Agility will be key in 2022 and B2B brands have an exciting opportunity to leverage the digital marketplace to their advantage. Using this guide, you should be able to better understand how to adapt your brand’s strategies for long-term success.

With a digital-first approach, audience personalization, and strategic targeting, you can reach your highest potential buyers with maximum efficiency. 


As you continue to navigate these challenges, Coegi is here to be your guide!

Reach out to us at info@coegipartners.com for a strategy consultation to enhance your customers’ digital journey.

Increase B2B Conversions Using Account Based Marketing

Posted on by Coegi

Account based marketing (ABM) is a focused strategy that blends sales and marketing efforts to reach high potential B2B customers. However, many brands struggle with achieving the level of personalization and automation needed for effective ABM at scale. Thankfully, there is a solution: programmatic ABM. Using automated buying tactics, brands can serve targeted ads to thousands of highly segmented B2B consumers within target organizations using technology and data for personalization. 

Why Account Based Marketing?

B2B marketing has historically emphasized quantity of leads generated first (Marketing Qualified Leads), with quality to follow (Sales Qualified Leads). Unfortunately, this method has led to 79% of leads never becoming customers, not to mention wasted media dollars. The account-based approach instead focuses on decision makers in target companies rather than mass outreach. By doing this prequalification, the sales funnel becomes shorter and every customer touchpoint is more intentional and personalized. This is why 77% of marketers believe ABM is their top driver of sales and marketing success. 

Zeroing In On the Target

Emarketer data shows that one key barrier to successful ABM is the inability to efficiently and effectively personalize marketing at scale.  We know this is a critical issue to solve as, “40% of company executives in e-commerce report that personalization directly affects their sales and company revenues.” Once you have your ideal customer profile nailed down, how can you make sure you are reaching these individuals?  Can you reach them at scale, with personalization and within your given budget? Here’s where programmatic activation comes in.

Programmatic Account Based Marketing: Powered By Technology

Programmatic advertising automates the ad buying process. Just because you are targeting individual business accounts, you don’t have to have massive teams calling or emailing accounts one by one to succeed. With proper campaign segmentation, you can tailor ads to feel highly specific and relevant to individuals within these companies.

AI-powered creative learning takes this one step further by determining which combination of imagery and copy will be most effective for different audience segments and adjusting in real time. Programmatic and AI also allow agility and flexibility across channels. You can take a social ad and run it on digital or test a top performing display video on CTV – all while being confident your media spend is serving ads to real, qualified decision makers. 

 

ABM Investment Across Digital Media Channels

Activation: First-Party First

When available, start by leveraging existing CRM data. Activate against this high value pool of leads who have already shared their information with you via content downloads, newsletter sign-ups, or other acquisition activities. Carefully segment these individuals so you can serve highly relevant and personalized ads based on their industry, level of seniority, interests, geography, etc.

  • Work with a programmatic agency to activate 1PD segments across various digital channels and media publishers.
  • Track user behavior and data trends
  • Use AI tools to create lookalike audiences to expand the targeting pool

Expand and Refine Your Ideal ABM Customer

To expand further, strategically incorporate third party data. Various data partners can be tapped to reach decision makers across digital channels. Keep in mind that with third party data in particular, it is important to have a smart targeting strategy. 

Start by refining your audience. Yes, you want to achieve scale and pack the lead funnel for your sales force, but the way to do that effectively and efficiently is by ensuring you understand what the ideal customer looks like. Your cost per lead may be higher when you narrow the targeting parameters, but you can expect a greater return by reaching audiences with the highest potential lifetime value and reducing wasted hours sifting through unqualified leads.

Layer your targeting with firmographic, job title, and seniority parameters that indicate a high potential account. Look at your best customers  – what do they have in common? Segment your target personas into specific buckets so you can tailor your creative and messaging accordingly – adding the personalization now expected by B2B buyers.

Some targeting tactics for B2B accounts to consider are: 

  • Intent targeting to identify individuals and organizations who are actively searching for a particular topic or solution
  • NAICS job title targeting to reach specific job titles or organizations 
  • IP/Geo-Targeting to target specific business locations or industry events
  • Social targeting by skill/title/industry/location across platforms

Using programmatic activation with a digital partner allows brands to reach these highly sought after audiences with efficiency of both budget and time. 

B2B Channel Strategy: Time To Diversify?

Companies are placing the highest investment for their ABM strategies into digital, with the majority of spend occurring on social media, paid search and e-newsletters. These are all key ways to reach buyers, however, other channels such as programmatic display, CTV and audio are gaining more share of wallet year over year. Consider some of these more untapped spaces to allow your brand voice to be heard without competing with the noise. 

When choosing your channel strategy, don’t put all your efforts into one high-performing channel, such as LinkedIn. Instead, activate ads across a variety of channels based on the media consumption habits of your target audience and other behavioral insights. Use data-informed programmatic placements to meet the audience wherever they are active online.

To determine the best channel mix, it’s critical to build a cycle of testing and learning into your measurement strategy. This enables ongoing learning and optimization to improve the lead nurturing process by identifying what is working and what isn’t. Ask questions and test various tactics to find answers so your brand avoids stagnancy and reduced efficiency in the sales cycle.

Key Takeaways

  • Account based marketing doesn’t have to be tedious. Taking a programmatic approach enables efficiency and scale for brands with large target account pools.
  • Refine targeting criteria and segment key audience groups to personalize creative accordingly. 
  • Capitalize on your first party data, then expand reach with high quality third party data to reach verified decision makers.
  • B2B brands can benefit from an omni-channel media approach and considering non-traditional B2B media placements

Start reaching hundreds to thousands of B2B leads today by working with Coegi to build a programmatic ABM strategy. Download our guide to B2B Marketing to learn more. 

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