Investments in B2B marketing are rising dramatically — and they show little signs of slowing.
· In a recent survey, 64.9% of B2B marketers reported their marketing budgets have risen in 2025.
· By 2026, it’s predicted that worldwide B2B digital ad spend will nearly triple its pre-pandemic level.
As a B2B marketer, it’s fantastic to see this level of industry investment. But it also means intense competition — more brands, more messages, all competing for a finite amount of audience attention.
How do you avoid getting drowned out by all that noise?
Marketing is getting easier. Good marketing is harder to come by.
B2Bs aren’t just spending more, but they can now make their budgets stretch further.
For instance, paired with some informed curation, GenAI tools (like ChatGPT and Midjourney) have made it easy (and inexpensive) to whip up a piece of content in no time. A simple prompt, a few minutes of time, and a bit of editing — that’s all that’s really needed to create a decent piece of content.
Added to that, take your pick from an array of accessible, low-cost media. Podcast and webinar platforms, Google Ads, Connected TV — no million-dollar budgets are required to get a message to the masses.
But…if you’re striving for good marketing, for effective marketing — it requires avoiding all the shortcuts your competitors are happy to take. For example, what about considering how AI can afford you extra research time, extra editing, extra precision? How can you be really smart about how you use your time and budget in this new marketing paradigm?
Beyond that, here are three things to focus on to improve your full-funnel B2B marketing strategy and ad spend.
1. Cutting through with creative
When you’re up against potentially dozens of competitors, thoughtful creative work is the way to stand out. In fact, B2B decision-makers are 40% more likely to consider buying from a brand whose ads are considered “creative”.
Now, the idea of what constitutes ‘creative’ work might be somewhat subjective, but it does bear certain hallmarks. It’s grounded in the audience’s world and empathises with their challenges. It makes rational arguments without neglecting the emotional context that underpins them. And it’s memorable — shunning cliches for distinctive, meaningful, relatable storytelling.
Crucially, great creative doesn’t just emerge from a vacuum. It’s built on detailed audience research, competitor analyses, and strategic insights — in short, it comes from a much deeper place than superficial, quick-fire brainstorming. How about using AI efficiencies to invest in building stronger strategies?
2. Targeting with intelligence
Great creative is the foundation of any effective B2B campaign. But all that work can be undone if the targeting isn’t right. And effective targeting is really about considering the complete buyer journey — the nuanced messaging that flexes across the funnel.
At the brand level, that means promoting relevant content to a broad audience — the 95% not in the market right now but who might be soon. Further down the funnel, effective targeting often requires reaching specific personas (with highly tailored messaging) at a time and place when they’re most receptive to your message.
Underpinning all of this is deep audience research. B2Bs need to understand their audience in granular detail — like their strategic priorities, internal pressures, and the problems keeping them up at night. By investing time in getting the right insights, it can lead to the kind of precision-targeted campaigns that stand out in a sea of sameness.
3. Measuring what matters
We’ve discussed the importance of producing stand-out creative and effective targeting. But there’s another vital part of the puzzle: how we measure success.
Too often, B2Bs focus on misleading metrics (like impressions, CTRs, and downloads), which can give a false impression of how a piece of content is performing. In reality, the most important thing your content can do is grab attention, because increasing attention means there’s more chance it’ll be remembered (vs superficially noticed), which can help boost ad effectiveness.
In addition to knowing what to measure, it’s essential to keep doing it. How is your campaign performing against your KPIs? Is it performing better on certain channels, or resonating with certain audience segments? Rather than periodic reviews, taking an ‘always on’ approach to measurement means you can continuously optimize campaign performance and maximize ROI for your ad spend.
Say something meaningful
There are only so many marketing messages your audience will see and remember. And in the constant fight for their attention, will your message be one of them? Quick-fix marketing hacks and shortcuts certainty won’t get you there. Instead, use AI tools to make time to go the extra mile to find out what will really land.
To make sure your intended messages resonate with your ideal prospects, get in touch with us today.