Demand Gen 2019: ABM, Lead Quality and Growing Budgets

Activate’s third State of Demand Gen survey delivers timely insights on how marketers are taking advantage of account-based marketing (ABM) and high-quality lead (HQL) programs, as well as encouraging news on demand-gen budgets.

Before I dive into survey highlights, I’ll share a bit of background. Since Activate’s inception in 2013, we have been laser-focused on developing and delivering leading-edge demand-gen services to B2B marketers. Our principals have been developing and executing ABM programs since before the term ABM was widely used. In addition to asserting ABM leadership, we developed programs that are unique to Activate, including those that deliver deep insights into leads and their purchasing plans, complete with multiple layers of qualification.

We feel compelled to capture the evolution in demand gen and lead the discussion of where our market is going. That’s why we poll marketers like you to find out what strategies and tactics prevail today; the key priorities of your demand-gen programs, from the perspectives of both marketing and sales; and the state of budgets in the year to come. The survey culminates in an authoritative snapshot of demand gen in 2019.

Survey highlights:

The highest percent of marketers, 57%, plan to increase their use of ABM programs in the year to come. The next highest percent, 41%, will increase use of HQL programs. ABM and HQLs were also at the top of the list of increases for the past 12 months, reflecting their staying power in B2B tech.

Marketers noted the many ways they use ABM, with a strong focus on reaching the right accounts. Nearly three quarters (73%) use it to reach target accounts, while 54% use it in display advertising to reach targets and 46% use ABM to build target account lists.

When asked to forecast budgets, there’s great news: 60% expect growth in their demand-gen resources in the year to come, up from 53% last year. This finding should help you make the case that your peers and rivals are spending aggressively to drive demand-gen results and your brand can’t afford to lose ground.

We also uncovered fascinating nuggets about campaign attribution priorities and models, which vary by company size. Smaller company (1,000 or less employees) respondents noted their main focus is accuracy of attribution and quantifying ROI from a big-picture perspective, whereas those with more than 1,000 employees said they are looking to data to give them visibility into every event in the purchase process.

We’d love the opportunity to share the full results directly with you, as well as our real-world insights from the many brands we engage with. Just contact me and I’d be happy to connect you with the best salesperson to discuss how we can keep your business in the demand-gen forefront.