• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, Yesterday

There is one key attribute that points to success in B2B marketing: data confidence, judging by the 2025 B2B Marketing Edge, a study from Anteriad, conducted by Ascend2. 

Marketers who have this faith are 3x more likely to see revenue growth, the study states. But the belief must be based on facts.  

The study divides B2B marketers into two categories: Data Heroes (44% of the total) and others.

The differences between them start with intent data. Only 39% of marketers now use intent data. But there is a wide gap between the Heroes and the non-Heroes in intent data usage—50% to 30%. 

Data Heroes are also more likely to use firmographic data (36% to 24%), technographic data (59% to 42%) and psychographic data (40% to 21%).  

But non-heroes are much more likely to use demographic data — 70% to 58%. And they have an edge when it comes to content and campaign data — 58% to 46%.

At the same time, 39% of Data Heroes use zero-party data, while 70% first-party data, 42% use second-party data and 36% use third-party data, far outpacing other marketers. In fairness, 61% of the others also utilize first-party data. 

The study also divides B2B marketers into Growth Gurus and all others. According to this analysis, 52% of Growth Gurus use intent data, versus 32% of all others. And 42% field email marketing campaigns, compared to 36% of everyone else.  

How is intent data used? Among Growth Gurus, 47% apply it to email marketing campaigns, compared to 39% of the others.

Even more, at 55%, use it for website and landing page personalization, versus 44% of non-Gurus. And 52% of Gurus depend on intent data for search engine marketing, whereas 47% of all others do so. 

The Gurus are more likely to leverage website personalization (51%). In contrast, 39% of non-gurus do so.

But marketers in the “other” also have an edge in two areas: content marketing (38% to 34%) and sales outreach or enablement tools (23% to 18%). 

In general, B2B marketers tend to outsource these functions:

• Search engine marketing — 45%
• Social media (organic or paid posts) — 38%
• Email marketing campaigns — 33%
• Programmatic advertising — 30%
• Account-based marketing (ABM) campaigns — 27%
• Event marketing (virtual or in-person) — 25%
• Content marketing — 22%
• Sales outreach or enable tools — 14%

The study also looks at the shifting roles of B2B marketers. 

Specialists are doing better — 51% saw significant revenue growth last year, and 60% are confident in their data, while 85% have taken on new responsibilities, above the average of 79%.  

Only 21% of generalists saw significant growth and 28% are confident in their data. And 48% are confident in their efforts. As the study points out, this group is spread thin. 

And AI? “From personalizing campaigns at scale, to delivering custom nurture emails based on intent, to analyzing large amounts of performance data and suggesting optimizations to improve, the applications for AI in marketing are endless.”

Anteriad partnered with Ascend2 to survey 466 marketing decision makers in February 2025. 

The full report can be found here.