LinkedIn: 53 per cent of B2B marketers plan to spend at least half of budget on brand, though most pulling back total investments; pitching, events may take hit

News Plus 17 Oct 2022 - 2 min read

LinkedIn: 53 per cent of B2B marketers plan to spend at least half of budget on brand, though most pulling back total investments; pitching, events may take hit

By Brendan Coyne - Editor

Prue Cox: Brand building remains key focus despite budget pressures - but B2B marketers need to make more emotional ads that land with all parties in the buying chain.

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Tags: LinkedIn

Six in ten B2B marketers are planning to cut spend over the next six months according to a poll of 100 local decision-makers by LinkedIn. Investing in finding new agency partners as well as sponsorships and events are likely to be deprioritised. But more than half of marketers surveyed say they plan to invest at leas half of remaining budgets in brand building.

What you need to know:

59 per cent of Australian B2B brands plan to cut brand spend over next six months.
September survey by LinkedIn finds events, partnerships and sponsorships as well as finding and onboarding new agencies most likely to feel squeeze.
But 53 per cent of 100 decision-makers polled said they will invest at least half of remaining budgets on brand.

More than half of Australia’s B2B marketers say they will spend at least 50 per cent of their budget on brand over the next six months, according to LinkedIn. However, the overall quantum of brand spend looks set to reduce, with 59 per cent of marketers stating they plan to cut brand spend over the same period.

The firm polled 100 B2B marketers in September. Events, partnership and sponsorships, as well as keeping and finding new agency and services partners, were highlighted as the main investment areas now looking less certain.

The platform has funded broader research via Ehrenberg Bass Institute that suggests B2B brands should weight 95 per cent of their budget towards brand building activity and only 5 per cent on demand generation. The 95:5 rule states because most B2B customers are out of market, they will not respond to lower funnel marketing, because they are simply not ready to buy.

The B2B Institute, a LinkedIn-funded think tank, has also worked with advertising effectiveness expert Peter Field on how marketers can navigate advertising through downturns and recessions. (In short, while firms have to pull marketing spend if is essential for survival, they should otherwise keep advertising and try to pick up cheaper growth opportunities while rivals are also struggling and publishers are under pressure to offer bargain rates.)

The Institute recently published extensive research to show how brands can make more effective B2B advertising. Via a study of 600 ads, it found 71 per cent were highly unlikely to deliver any growth – because they follow a similar “boring” template of voiceovers, heavy use of text and logo at the end, per B2B Institute partnerships lead, Derek Yueh.

LinkedIn’s enterprise marketing solutions boss Prue Cox said B2B brands should prioritise emotional advertising over staid, rational ads – because B2B buyers are humans, not robots. She said ad campaigns should also consider the number of different decision-makers in a buying cycle – which can take months if not years for major investments – and tailor creative messages for each link in the chain.

Cox added that LinkedIn is developing deeper metrics to better quantify ROI from brand investment, while the platform is also planning updates that will better align B2B decision-makers and subject matter experts within specific categories and niches.