• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, April 26, 2023

B2B marketers are under increasing pressure to produce while working with fewer resources, according to The 2023 Marketing Data Impact Report, a study from Anteriad, conducted by Ascend2. 

Of the professionals surveyed, 41% say that the pressure is high. They rate it as follows:  

• Exists but is manageable — 54%
• Is getting overwhelming — 27% 
• Makes me want to pull my hair out — 14% 
• Doesn’t exist — 5%

But it depends on the type of company. 

The study divides B2B marketers into two groups: Data heroes and all others. The heroes are utilizing the right data to convert audiences. That would appear to be intent data. 

They are doing better: 43% of the data heroes say revenue at their firms increased significantly last year, compared to 13% of all others. And 37% of those leaders were given a major increase in their marketing budget, versus 9% of everyone else.  

Their secret? They use intent data — 52% of the heroes do so, compared to 34% of all companies. 

Of the data heroes, 52% use intent data to build audiences, compared to 34% of all others.  

And these leaders are better able to prove the value of their data-driven marketing programs to decision makers. They use:

• Lead quality — 61% (versus 37% of all other organizations) 
• More effective marketing programs and campaigns — 60% (versus 54%)
• Marketing-influenced pipeline and revenue — 48% (versus 34%)
• Refined target audience for marketing programs and campaigns — 44% (versus 28%)
• Refine target audience for marketing programs and campaigns — 44% (versus 28%)
• Marketing-driven pipeline and revenue — 39% (versus 30%)
• Content and campaign effectiveness — 38% (versus 25%)

Moreover, intent data users have seen several metrics improve in the past year: 

• Sales pipeline generated generated — 57% (versus 45% of non-users)
• Campaign conversion — 55% (versus 40%)
• Lead to customer conversion — 54% (versus 39%)
• Click-through rates — 51% (versus 34%)
• Lead velocity — 21% (versus 11%)
• Cost per lead — 19% (versus 16%)

B2B brands are also distinguished by whether they use buying groups as a scoring element—that is, tracking the collection of people involved instead of just one person.  

Those that use buying groups report that these metrics have improved in the last year:

• Sales pipeline generated — 62% (versus 42% for non-buying group users)
• Campaign conversion — 59% (versus 37%) 
• Lead to customer conversion — 53% (versus 40%) 
• Click-through rates — 52% (versus 34%)
• Lead velocity — 19% (versus 12%)
• Cost per lead — 18% (versus 16%)

Ascend2 surveyed 328 marketing decision-makers, senior management and above in the U.S. and UK in March 2023. They work at companies with the following number of employees:

• 250-500 — 20% 
• 501-1,000 — 23% 
• 1,001-5,000 — 26%
• 5,001-10,000 — 13% 
• 10,000-25,000 — 7%
• 25,001+ — 11%