76% of B2B CMOs feel the pressure to deliver results; we’re introducing new products to help

B2B marketers are no stranger to adapting to economic ups and downs to keep delivering results. It’s recognized by the C-suite, 60% of B2B CFOs globally are optimistic in marketing’s ability to drive revenue in the next year, according to our new 2023 B2B Marketing Benchmark. And we’re here to help them to continue to meet the moment with the introduction of new GAI tools, ad formats and B2B services. 

New 2023 B2B Marketing Benchmark

We know that 76% of CMOs are feeling the pressure to prove ROI in the short-term. And, many marketers are having to make tough decisions and tradeoffs about where to invest given macro uncertainties, but in the eyes of the C-suite they’re rising to the occasion. We surveyed nearly 2,000 B2B marketing and finance leaders across the globe for our 2023 B2B Marketing Benchmark, and we found that not only is the CFO confident in marketing’s ability to drive revenue, but 86% of B2B marketers also feel optimistic or confident about their role.  

AI Copy Suggestions To Scale Impact

For us, part of our optimism comes from the freedom to dream big, to imagine the possibilities and impact that we can make on the business. As revealed in our research, 55% of B2B marketers across the globe hope to use generative artificial intelligence (GAI) to increase efficiency so they can focus on higher value work and 56% want to use it to generate more content in less time. 

Although artificial intelligence (AI) is nothing new – and certainly not new for us here at LinkedIn – the advancements in GAI are exciting because they can help all of us reduce the day-to-day minutia so we can think bigger, more strategically.  To help B2B marketers realize greater efficiencies and create space to think bigger, today we’re starting to test Al Copy Suggestions. Our new AI Copy Suggestions uses GAI to create text and headlines for ad creatives using data from your LinkedIn Page.

We’re rolling this out in a limited alpha in North America, and participating advertisers will see AI generated copy suggestions in Campaign Manager’s ad creation flow. In the process, participants will have the ability to select one of five copy options, make edits, and automatically apply it to campaigns. We plan to test and iterate so we can improve the experience as we roll it out to additional languages and regions in the coming months. 

Creating Connection with Future Buyers at the Right Time

We know when economic pressures are tight, brand budgets can get overshadowed by lead generation. But organizations and leaders are starting to think differently. Although lead generation is still important,  globally 64% of B2B CMOs report their C-suites are increasing the importance of brand building given economic conditions and 63% of B2B marketers report that their organization or client has increased spending on brand awareness. 

With only 5% of buyers in-market at any given time, and even fewer during an economic downturn, B2B marketers need to focus on reaching, and creating memory recognition, with future buyers. Across our community of more than 930M professionals, we want to make it as easy as possible for marketers to reach those future buyers and for those future buyers to connect with brands, so we are starting to roll out Pages Messaging. Pages Messaging will help power a two-way conversation, so when a member has questions about a product or company, they can reach out directly to the brand through their Page.

Reaching buyers at the right time – whether they are in-market now or future buyers – is critical, so we’re introducing multiple ad formats to help brands engage with those buyers at all points in their buying journey. To support a full-funnel experience, marketers can tap into In-Stream Video ads to scale their campaign reach and connect with professional audiences across our network of publishers. These ads, which will appear on mobile or desktop apps and sites, will play at the beginning (pre-roll) and middle (mid-roll) of long-form video content on trusted publisher sites across the LinkedIn Audience Network.

Whether brands want to jumpstart a conversation from their LinkedIn Inbox with Conversation Ads** or amplify employee content with Thought Leader Ads – both of which will be generally available in July – we’re offering various formats so marketers can reach their buyers at different stages of their buying journey. And, early performance indicators show that customers who participated in the Thought Leader Ad beta saw a 1.7x higher clickthrough rate (CTR) and 1.6x higher engagement rate compared to other single-image ads.

It’s not just about active buyers and future buyers – building long term relationships with customers is critical and that’s why we’re introducing Audience Insights. With this API, our agency partners will now be able to unlock unique LinkedIn insights so they can better understand the audiences they are helping their clients target with campaigns.

Speaking the Language of the Business

It’s no surprise that the investments B2B marketers have made in relationships – whether that’s with their c-suite, their customers or their partners – is helping them remain optimistic. As demonstrated in our research, 67% of CMOs believe their relationship with their CFO is stronger than ever and 80% shared that they’ve invested the time to learn the language of finance to help them secure more budgets. 

To help demonstrate how effective B2B branding drives business impact and recognize those brands that are excelling in their marketing efforts, we’re introducing the B2B Leaderboard. We analyzed data across LinkedIn and built a methodology, called the B2B Index, that measures the outcome of both paid and organic brand efforts on LinkedIn. The B2B Index takes into account Creative Quality, Effectiveness, Investment, and Outcomes to compare brand efforts across companies of similar industries and sizes. We’ll use this information to populate the leaderboard every six months so brands can consider how they might refine their marketing strategy for maximum impact.

For enterprise brands that work with our consultancy program, B2B Edge, we are also introducing a new measurement module called the CMO Scorecard, which zeros in on a company’s paid marketing efforts. Not only will this new Scorecard help brands demonstrate to their leaders how their current paid brand investments can drive impact for their  business, but the team will help marketers identify opportunities to develop more memorable, high impact campaigns. 

In the end, the expectations are high and driving results is critical regardless of whether the brand is small with limited resources or large with numerous stakeholders. 

The Future is Optimistic

Will the road ahead be easy? We wish we knew. What we can say is that there is so much to look forward to and the optimistic spirit of B2B marketers fuels us, our entire team, to consider how we help brands continue to show-up and show-off their incredible work. Together, we’ve transformed the role of the B2B marketer, we’ve grabbed a seat at the table and changed the ways leaders look to us to drive results, and this is only just the beginning. We’re looking forward to continuing to redefine B2B with brands around the world! 

*Methodology: LinkedIn commissioned Ipsos to survey 1,954 B2B CMOs, CFOs and senior-level B2B marketers at small, medium and large organizations across the globe (US, UK, Germany, France, India, Australia, Singapore and Brazil) to examine how they're faring amid uncertainty, what they're doing to drive growth at their companies and how their roles are evolving. The research was conducted online between March 24 and May 5 2023. 

LinkedIn data was also referenced highlighting the rise of creative skills added to LinkedIn marketer profiles in the past year, comparing it to the previous year.

**Conversation Ads are not available in the EU.