About 50% of B2B Companies Say Their LinkedIn Marketing Strategy is a Success

As B2B companies turn to LinkedIn for additional marketing opportunities, a new survey indicates that their efforts are paying off.

The “2016 LinkedIn Ads Benchmark Report” from Bizible has discovered that the majority of B2B software and business services companies (approximately 50 percent) considers their LinkedIn marketing strategy to be a success.

About 70 percent of B2B software and business services enterprises claim that the primary purpose of their LinkedIn marketing ad campaigns is demand generation. B2B software companies claimed that their LinkedIn Ads’ revenue per lead was almost $600, while B2B business services said it was nearly $500.

In terms of LinkedIn’s contribution to business, B2B marketers said that they could attribute about five percent of their leads to ads placed on the social network.

“While [marketers] are using LinkedIn more, they are still only generating a little over five percent of total leads from LinkedIn, which is relatively little compared to more established channels like AdWords,” wrote the authors of the report.

Variations in B2B Marketing Success with AdWords

Some B2B industries are finding more success with AdWords than others. The “2016 AdWords Industry Benchmarks Report” released by Bizible in July 2016 found that AdWords’ contribution to revenue is the highest in the financial services (34 percent) industry. This was followed by the business services industry (27 percent) at the time of the report.

The average ROI of Adwords use between December 2015 and May 2016 was also highest for the financial services sector (364 percent). The business services industry saw an average ROI of 332 percent during the same period. The authors of the report believe that the industry differences may be related to larger enterprise deal sizes, which require more sales and marketing investment.