• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, September 3, 2021

B2B brands plan to spend more on marketing over the next 12 months, according to the Q2 2021 Marketing Trends Report from MeritB2B.  

Of the firms polled, 27.8% plan to allocate 50% more to marketing. Another 5.6% say the budget will be more than 50% larger, and 40.7% say it will be the same. In addition, 13% predict it will be lower, and 13% are not sure.  

Digital is the hot spending area, with 38% adding channels such as video, CTV and mobile.

Tied for second in wish-list spending is campaign attribution. 

In fact, 50% believe attribution is the most important measurement to invest in, versus 40% who cite customer lifetime value. Over 30% already have attribution tools in place. 

Social media appears to be the channel that most want to invest more in — roughly tied with in-person events. Next are mobile and search. 

Social also wins in terms of future channel usage, with video a distant second.  

Data and targeting tools are also in widespread use, with almost 40% saying they have data to market to the right prospects, and almost 50% claiming targeting options to reach the right prospects.  

“Targeting your ICPs across email, CTV and social with a relevant message is a winning strategy in 2021, observes Ben Goldman, senior vice president, digital revenue and partnerships for Merit. 

Many firms plan to invest in those capabilities.  

The most influential factors as they plan for the future are managing targeting across all their marketing channels, and the need to focus more on first-party data. 

Also driving decisions are attribution across marketing channels, the need to identify prospects with pent-up demand as we enter a growth economy and to achieve more accountability in marketing. 

Strangely, Apple’s decision to make use of IDFA (mobile IDs) opt-in is near the bottom of the list.

Google’s (delayed) decision to block third-party cookies on Chrome is also down there on the list.