B2B Buyer Study & Its Implications To Paid Media

Wynter recently published a study based on a survey of 100 B2B SaaS marketing executives from companies with 200+ employees to understand how this demographic conducts research whenever they make a business purchase.

While the study has many implications to how B2B marketing teams operate, below are some relevant insights and how they relate to some paid media opportunities:

• Study Insight - 54% of buyers begin their journey with a category search on Google to identify possible vendors.

• Paid Media Opportunity - Since this search is the beginning of a buyer’s journey, they aren’t ready to submit a form yet. In order to measure the impact of nonbrand paid search in the modern buyer journey, it can be helpful to look at attribution methods outside of last-touch.

• Study Insight - 42% of buyers start by looking into specific vendors right away.

• Paid Media Opportunity - This means it’s important to market to companies who aren’t currently in-market yet, and might not be for some time. This often means expanding channel selection outside of search.

• Study Insight - Third party reviews ranked as the second most impactful type of brand touchpoint when it came to decision making for B2B buyers.

• Paid Media Opportunity - Using testimonials within ads can be a powerful way to build trust with the brand. LinkedIn thought leader ads from customers can be a great way to promote these testimonials.

• Study Insight - Brand fame ranked as the third most impactful type of touchpoint for B2B buyers, but supplier ads ranked in 6th place here (out of 7).

• Paid Media Opportunity - This doesn’t necessarily mean that supplier ads are ineffective because oftentimes “brand fame” can be achieved through paid media efforts. The takeaway here is that ads that look and feel like ads might not work well, but interesting creative assets can capture attention and engagement more effectively.

• Study Insight - 33% of buyers interact with digital ads “implying that well-targeted and contextually relevant advertising can enhance brand recall - bolstering mental availability.”

• Paid Media Opportunity - A relevant follow up question would be: “what percent of buyers saw our ads, but didn’t interact?” Using some sort of company level tracking and/or incrementality testing can help understand the impact of those impressions.

These are all opportunities that I’m pursuing with my clients, and studies like these can provide helpful context around how the average B2B buyer/buying team actually shops.

Have questions, considerations, or critiques? I’d love to hear them! If you’re reading this via email, just hit respond. Otherwise, you can find me on LinkedIn.