Report: B2B Marketers Still Struggling with Account-Based Marketing

Although many B2B marketers have adopted account-based marketing (ABM) practices, new research indicates that they are struggling with messy data and measuring their strategy’s effectiveness.

DemandGen recently published the results of its “2022 Marketing Measurement & Attribution Survey,” and statistics suggested that at the moment, the majority of B2B marketers (58%) are struggling to tie anonymous account engagement to known stakeholders. Additionally, 52% admitted that they are struggling with “messy” customer relationship management (CRM) data, and 42% are struggling to integrate data across their platforms.

Most B2B marketers (55%) use their conversion of engaged account-to-opportunity rate to measure their ABM success. About 52% use individual campaign and channel metrics, while 42% use their overall number of engaged accounts.

“While marketers are making some strides in areas like attribution analysis and gathering deeper engagement metrics to power their ABM programs, many still struggle to connect siloed data and track activity across the entire buyer’s journey,” wrote the researchers behind the survey.

The Difficulty of Accessing Valuable Marketing Data

Even though there is now an abundance of data at marketers’ fingertips, previous research suggests that it has become more difficult than ever before for them to access this information.

Nielsen conducted its “Era of Alignment: Future-focused Strategies for Brand Building and Customer Acquisition” report, and statistics indicated that 36% of marketers still find data to be “extremely/very difficult” to access. Furthermore, 35% admitted that their data accuracy/quality is “extremely/very difficult.”

“To overcome these challenges, marketers need to prioritize their data strategies, complete with an investment in first party data — the data companies collect directly from users or people in a consent compliant way,” stated the researchers of the report.