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Wednesday Wisdom: Seeing What We Expect to See (short read)
Hi all, In the piece I’m recommending today, Kerry opens with a discussion of predictive processing - something I often think about while hiking. I go to the same place almost every day and wonder how much of what I see, especially out of the corner of my eye, is real and how much is just my brain filling it in. It’s…
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Metric Monday: Hybrid ABM Measurement
Hey all, Here’s another one from our Marketing Measurement benchmark. In past Metric Mondays, we’ve discussed how around 80% of marketing organizations attempt to execute account-based practices but continue to rely heavily on legacy metrics (like leads) to measure success. Those metrics, however, don’t reflect ABM’s…
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Wednesday Wisdom: Software, Services, or Physical Goods - Do You Measure Marketing Like Your Peers?
Hey all, Last week I shared our Marketing Measurement Benchmark based on the cost of the solution you’re selling. We also have that benchmark by the type of solution you sell - software, services (business, financial, etc.), or physical goods. Across all groups, what reaches the boardroom skews heavily toward MQAs and…
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Metric Monday: Day 1 Shortlists & Participating in 2025's Buyer Experience Research
Hi all, We’re excited to be underway with our third year of buyer experience research! Over the past two years, this study has taught us so much about the buyer’s journey — and this year is no exception. We’re already noticing patterns in the data that are shifting in unexpected ways and some that are entirely new thanks…
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Wednesday Wisdom: How Measurement Priorities Shift with Solution Price
How does marketing measurement shift as solution prices go up? Attribution models, reporting priorities, and what gets tied to compensation evolves with deal size. In our latest benchmark, we report on what teams track (and what they don’t) across different price tiers—where measurement practices change, where they stay…
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Metric Monday: You Can’t Scale What You Don’t Report
Hi all, Here's another one from this year's Marketing Measurement Benchmark: Fewer than half of ABM teams report ABM performance indicators to the board. That’s a big red flag 🚩 If ABM is going to scale and become a core part of the revenue engine, it needs to make its way to the top. It’s yet another sign that while 80%…
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Wednesday Wisdom: Starbucks Efficiency Trap
Hi all, Hope you're all having a great Wednesday (Wisdom 😉💫). So many great reads out there, so little time - here’s a shorty but goodie! Our Head of Research, @Kerry, draws a sharp parallel between Starbucks’ shift to mobile ordering and how B2B marketing became overly industrialized. While Starbucks streamlined…
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Metric Monday: Attribution in 2025 — Still Missing the Mark
Hi all, Another metric from this year’s 2025 Marketing Measurement Benchmark: 87% of B2B marketing teams report using attribution models. That includes 92% of ABM teams and 68% of legacy teams. But most attribution practices fall short of capturing how buying decisions are actually made. Multi-touch is the most commonly…
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Wednesday Wisdom: The Emotions Behind B2B Buying (LinkedIn Article Rec)
Hi all, This new piece from LinkedIn puts language to something that doesn’t get talked about enough in B2B: the emotional stakes behind big buying decisions. Their concept of Buyability focuses on what gives buyers the confidence to move forward—not just that the solution will work, but that the decision can be defended…
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Metric Monday: Introducing the 2025 Marketing Measurement Benchmark — and a Familiar Problem
Hi all, This week’s #MetricMonday comes with a bit of a bonus — this year's Marketing Measurement Benchmark is officially live! And we didn’t stop there. We’ve also released three companion reports, each offering a different lens on how B2B marketers measure performance: by type of offering, by deal size, and more. All…
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Metric Monday: Previewing ABM Maturity from This Year’s Marketing Measurement Benchmark
Hi all, A few posts ago, we mentioned that our third annual Marketing Measurement Benchmark— how B2B marketers track and report performance—is nearly complete. We’re excited to share the full report with you very soon. In the lead-up, we'd like to share a finding from the benchmark that's been on our minds: we asked…
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Wednesday Wisdom: Brand Gravity
Hi all, In the latest episode of The Science of B2B podcast, our Head of Research, @Kerry Cunningham, introduces a concept developed with Lisa Cole, CMO of 2X: Brand Gravity. Brand Gravity is a framework for understanding and enhancing your brand’s long-term influence—especially among buyers who aren’t yet in market. It…
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Metric Monday: Brand to Demand Spend
When budgets shrink, brand is the first to go. Among the ~400 B2B marketers we heard from, those with increased or unchanged marketing budgets in 2025 allocate ~30% of their brand + demand spend to brand. But when budgets decrease, that share drops to 20%. It’s a predictable move—but not a strategic one. Cutting brand may…
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Wednesday Wisdom: Revisiting the Three Principles of Modern Marketing
Hi all, We’ve just wrapped our third annual Marketing Measurement study—our ongoing look at how B2B marketers track and report performance. Writing is underway, and we’re looking forward to sharing this new benchmark with you soon. We’re still seeing many of the same tensions that led us to outline the Three Principles of…
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Metric Monday: Tracking B2B Project Delays and Cancellations in 2024
It’s not unusual for planned initiatives to be delayed—priorities shift, budgets tighten, external conditions change, among much else. As part of our Marketing Spend report, we wanted to begin tracking how often organizations experience delays or cancellations. We asked nearly 400 B2B marketers whether their organization…
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Wednesday Wisdom: Nuancing the 95/5 Rule (New Research)
We know most buyers won’t talk to sales until late in the journey (around 70% of the way through). But how many even make it that far? In our latest analysis of behavioral data from 594 B2B companies, we found that around 40% of accounts are showing meaningful signs of buying behavior at any given time—far more than the…
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Metric Monday: Doing More with More - Marketing Budgets vs. Pipeline Goals in 2025
Hi all, “Do more with less” gets a lot of airtime, but when you ask marketers directly about whats happening at their organizations, most say they are actually "doing more with more". In our latest data (~400 B2B marketing orgs), 57% of organizations said their pipeline goals are increasing in 2025. And for nearly…
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Wednesday Wisdom: Half In, Half Out - AI Budgeting Report
There’s no shortage of talk about AI. And with the rise of generative tools, it’s moved quickly from “wouldn't it be cool if…” to functional reality—changing how teams produce, personalize, and scale. But as expectations rise, the picture around who’s budgeting for it is more measured. Our latest research shows that just…
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Metric Monday: Content Creation Tops the List for AI Budget Spend
We asked B2B marketers how they're thinking about AI spend this year. Of the 52% of marketers with dedicated AI spend, only 4% are setting aside budget for general experimentation. Most are investing in specific use cases, with content creation topping the list (55%), followed by predictive modeling to identify in-market…
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Wednesday Wisdom: Behind the Headlines - A Closer Look at B2B Marketing Budgets in 2025
Hi all, It’s easy to get swept up in headlines that focus on cuts and slowdowns. But when we asked B2B marketers about their own organizations, most painted a different picture—one marked by growth, rising budgets, and a focus on new priorities like AI. We wrote a report about it, and it's available to read now. Based on…