B2Bs are sleeping on effective demand generation models once again (where DTC shines).
🎯 Cristiano Ronaldo earns $3.23M per Instagram post. You think that his contributions can be measured with affiliate links or coupon codes?
🎯 A 30-second ad during the Super Bowl cost $7M this year. People tapping on their smart TVs perhaps?
Data attribution is broken on so many different levels:
1. Dark social accounts for recommendations and endorsements and reviews outside of public channels.
2. Website leads attributed to MQLs are rarely tied to marketing campaigns (sales, CEOs, CX involved as much)
3. BDRs calling everyone who downloaded a whitepaper vs. tracking down signals.
Chris Walker has been discussing the attribution disconnect for years.
His review of Metadata’s report analyzing $42M in ad spend reported:
Average PDF download cost from a lead magnet campaign: $126. At 0.3% closing rate, that’s $41,958 CAC.
CPL ranking at $172 across all campaigns. Advertising CAC still ending up at $57K to close a sale – without all opex and sales resources in the mix.
Limited brand attribution had been bashed for years with performance marketing becoming the norm around 2018-2019. In a booming market scaling hard during 2020 and 2021, companies have been tripling down on spend YoY.
One sudden economic pullback and SDR and marketing teams get slashed at large due to failing to deliver on performance.
6sense reports that buyers take 8 months to research opportunities before contacting a vendor. 84% of the deals are sealed before you even know they exist.
Smart B2Bs are slashing 90% of their ad spends and attributing portions back to:
1. Brand campaigns
2. Brand ambassadors
3. Paid partnerships (not merely “hey let’s add logos on our partner pages”)
4. Key Opinion Leaders – industry experts vouching for a company
Relocating $20K to $50K of monthly spend on a small army of B2B influencers has a level of impact on the brand in 6 months that no amount of PPC can match.
And don’t expect “future attribution” to pay for their booths at tradeshows or speaking opportunities abroad. Every big brand sponsors keynote speakers and reps for travel, pays for private dinners, and secures future deals.
✅ I have facilitated over a dozen conversations, sales meetings, transactions, and partnership meetings for clients resulting in seven figures in LTV each.
✅ Our DevriX ambassadors have made multiple 6-figure introductions.
✅ Our two leading channel partners have contributed to over $5M in agency business.
Most of these conversations occurred during events, at Slack communities, an outcome of webinars, follow-on referrals (investors or VCs passing on opportunities to their portfolios). Nothing that a Facebook pixel or an affiliate link can ever track.
LinkedIn, Google, Meta ads and cold calling have an important role to play here. But their efficiency is highly relevant to authority and trust – built through brand campaigns, ambassadors, and strategic partners.
