• by Felicia Greiff , November 11, 2015

Demandbase, a retargeting platform for B2B marketers, has launched a B2B data cloud and "Job Function Targeting," the ability to target jobs within specific accounts. 

Peter Isaacson, Demandbase CMO, said the company’s secret sauce has been mapping IP addresses to companies in an account-centric way.

The new cloud tech, he said, is an aggregation of data and technology that takes what Demandbase has always offered and combines it with the more individual or user-centric data from WhoToo, the Big Data firm that Demandbase acquired in September.

Since he joined the company a year and a half ago, Isaacson said the company has told the story of how to target accurately at the account level. “I’ve given the pitch time after time. Everyone said, ‘That’s really cool. By the way, can I reach specific job functions?’”

Until now, the answer has been “not really.”

Now, with the data cloud, the company is introducing “Job Function Targeting,” a new feature that helps customers advertise to buyers and influencers within accounts of their choosing. For instance, Isaacson said, a customer could target HR and legal functions within a particular account. The feature leverages information from WhoToo, whose Web site says it has 250 million audience profiles and 1.5 billion targetable attributes. 

Isaacson added that it will lay the groundwork for extra layers of targeting. “We really see this having an impact as we roll out new products across the funnel,” he added.

The cloud combines IP addresses, behavioral intelligence and third-party data with customers' first-party information. It uses an open data model that connects into hundreds of ad exchanges, marketing technologies and customer relationship management systems (CRM). The system touts a holistic view of targeting and measuring by sales activity, instead of click, impression or cookie-based techniques.

In July, Demandbase announced that it had raised $30 million in equity financing, which it planned to spend on expansion in the U.S. and abroad and exploring acquisition opportunities, per a release. Past funding came from Salesforce Ventures, Salesforce’s corporate investment group.