By: Brook Schuler
Director, Media
In the fast-paced world of B2B marketing, connecting with the right buyers at the right time is crucial. Traditional marketing strategies, while still useful, have their limits when it comes to the unique and complex nature of B2B buyer journeys. By 2025, Gartner anticipates that 80% of B2B sales interactions between suppliers and buyers will take place through digital channels, highlighting the growing importance and value of programmatic solutions in today's business landscape. If programmatic media isn't part of your media strategy, you're already behind.
Breaking the Mold: The B2B Buyer Journey
Unlike B2C consumers, B2B buyers don’t follow a typical funnel journey. Their path to purchase is more like a winding road, with multiple touchpoints, extended research periods, and many decision-makers involved. This makes it challenging to predict and influence their buying behavior using old-school methods.
The Programmatic Advantage
Programmatic media uses automated, data-driven techniques to buy and place ads in real-time. Here’s why it’s perfect for the B2B world:
Precision Targeting: Programmatic media taps into vast amounts of data to zero in on specific audiences with remarkable accuracy and cost efficiency. By analyzing details like interests, job titles, industries, location and company size, marketers can ensure their ads reach the right decision-makers at the right companies.
Dynamic Adaptability: The B2B buying journey is fluid, with prospects moving back and forth between different stages. Programmatic media allows for dynamic ad placements that can adapt to the buyer’s current stage, offering relevant content whether they are in the awareness, consideration, or decision phase.
Scalability and Efficiency: Programmatic media automates the process, reducing time and letting marketers scale their campaigns quickly and efficiently. This ensures ads are delivered to the right audience segments without manual effort.
Real-Time Insights and Optimization: One of the biggest perks of programmatic media is the ability to gather real-time insights. Marketers can continuously monitor their campaign performance and make data-driven adjustments on the fly, ensuring that marketing dollars are spent wisely and maximizing ROI.
Personalized Engagement: With programmatic media, personalization goes beyond just using a prospect’s name. By leveraging data (especially first party data), marketers can deliver highly personalized content that directly addresses the prospect’s pain points and needs. This builds trust and fosters stronger connections.
Embrace the Future Now
Programmatic media isn’t just a passing trend; it’s a necessary component of a B2B marketing strategy. It will continue to evolve, offering even more sophisticated ways to connect with B2B buyers. By embracing programmatic media now, you can navigate the complexities of the buyer journey, deliver personalized and timely content, and ultimately drive better business outcomes.
Don’t let your competitors leave you in the dust. Make programmatic media a key part of your strategy and lead the way in B2B marketing innovation.
Celtic develops and deploys programmatic media strategies for clients such as Central Life Sciences, Daubert Chemical, US Tsubaki and many other partners. If you want to learn more about how to build an effective programmatic strategy, let’s talk.
