For the first time, established industries such as financial services and manufacturing are fueling the growth in real-time bidding in the B2B sector.
While software and technology companies have been on the leading edge of adopting new marketing and advertising technologies, the financial services and manufacturing industries caught up last year. That’s according to new research from DemandBase, an automation and targeting platform for B2B companies, that looked at activity from B2B marketers in over 20 verticals using the platform in 2013.
Traffic Mix On B2B Sites, DemandBase
The growth seen in financial services, manufacturing and software and technology was in large part due to stronger adoption of account-based marketing and the increasing sophistication of tools that enable B2B marketers to hyper-target ads and increase the level of personalization on B2B websites, according to the study.
The financial service sector saw the most significant increase in online advertising, with investments growing 144 percent year-over-year in 2013.
According to the report, B2B advertisers saw a 27 percent average lift in engagement among their target accounts on their websites when using account targeting and personalization tools available through the platform.
DemandBase CEO, Chris Golec says when you look at the traffic mix on B2B sites (shown above), it’s clear why companies that have adopted RTB and account targeting are seeing better engagement rates from their display advertising efforts. “If you are only targeting mid-market companies, for example, that audience only makes up 3 percent of the entire traffic to the site. It illustrates how important it is for companies personalize all communications on their site, and advertising, when possible,” he says.
Manufacturing Sector Lags In Personalization
Though manufacturing investment in RTB skyrocketed in 2013, this sector was the least likely to personalize ad creatives and carry personalization through to company websites. Golec expects this to change, however. “We do expect this trend to reverse itself in the coming year as more and more companies realize buyers are used to Amazon-like, consumer experiences everywhere on the web, no matter if they are buying a CD for themselves or machinery for their factory floor,” he told Marketing Land by email.
For the impact analysis, the company looked at ad targeting techniques used by advertisers and followed engagement through web activity and advertisers’ CRM systems when applicable.
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