marketingtechnology
Bombora CMO on Contextual Targeting & B2B Intent Data
1. In what ways do you see contextual targeting evolving your digital advertising strategy, particularly for complex or niche B2B industries?
We believe contextual advertising is a big opportunity for ourselves and also the brands and agencies that we serve with our Digital Audiences. Often, contextual advertising is thought of as a strong ‘plan B’ to hedge against changes in privacy regulations or the deprecation of 3rd party cookies, or as a programmatic ‘safe haven’ to protect against brand safety issues. We think this massively under sells the contextual opportunity. Contextual advertising, especially now given AI’s sophisticated ability to understand nuanced content across all mediums (digital print, CTV, digital audio), is an opportunity to achieve more relevant ad placement and channel integrations. More relevant placements are a foundation for better audience experiences which lead to higher engagement rates and elevated behavioral outcomes. Today’s contextual advertising takes the old adage of ‘meet your audience where they are’ to a whole new level.
2. What steps is your team taking to ensure that your ad campaigns are not only reaching the right audience, but also aligning with moments of high purchase intent?
We use our own Company SurgeⓇ Intent data to ensure that we are reaching our target audience at the right moments across the buyer journey. Our Intent data, derived from our one-of-a-kind B2B Data Cooperative, is an incredible asset because it gives us predictive insight into a huge set of “right moments”: when a prospect account is in early research phases, comparing specific solutions, and ready to make a purchase decision. We also have insights into customer behavior occurring on and (more importantly) off our digital properties. These differentiated insights allow us to customize our messaging and tactics to meet the account where they are. We also apply our Intent data to fuel strategies to mitigate our own customer churn and take advantage of opportunities with companies using alternative, “non-Bombora” data solutions. For example, right now we are running a “competitive take-out” campaign fueled by insights from our Data Cooperative.
3. What challenges have you encountered in transforming raw intent signals into actionable, revenue-driving campaigns across digital platforms?
When I look across the B2B ecosystem I see a multitude of high potential signals that could empower marketers to create highly relevant experiences that would benefit their target audience. The challenge is that these signal “owners” do not have the ability to turn them into addressable account-based audiences. Audiences that can be reached in an efficient and repeatable way through digital marketing channels.
4. How do you approach vendor selection when considering solutions that combine data intelligence with programmatic precision?
Here at Bombora, we live by the advice we give our customers and partners: bear in mind “not all B2B data solutions are created equal”. To this end:
i. It is extremely important to understand the source, scale and durability of any data you are using to drive your business. It is risky to build strategies on data from unconsented sources, from black box models without transparency, or that may be locked into specific platforms limiting your ability to create unified prospect and customer experiences.
ii. Prioritize solutions that allow you to activate unified audience experiences across platforms, aligned to the true buyer journey. We all know that the B2B buyer journey is a nonlinear experience with a multitude of touchpoints across tactics. Knowing is one thing, delivering against this is another.
5. With over 500 unique audience segments now available, how do you prioritize which segments to target in your industry-specific campaigns?
I believe that audience configuration should be defined by the campaign objective. To me, the campaign objective is a dual focus on the who (the messaging target which in B2B is typically a “buying group” or set of influential stakeholders) and the what (the intended shift in behavior within this group (e.g., enhancing awareness or encouraging evaluation). These two elements allow us to precisely select the best account segments (account lists with attribute, behavioral, or signal overlays) and the most effective mix of channels and creative formats for delivering the message which ultimately dictates the necessary mix of addressable identifiers. Of course, realistically scale and efficiency is an important consideration but these need to be secondary to the campaign objective.
6. As B2B buyers engage more digitally, how is your organization ensuring that marketing efforts are tailored to individual buyer behavior and contextual relevance across channels?
Tailored marketing is only as good as the granularity and accuracy of the insights that fuel it. We are rolling out solution enhancements that will empower marketers to be more tailored. Three different examples bring this to life:
i. We are rolling out B2B persona level enhancements to Company SurgeⓇ Intent data which give marketers predictive insight into the functions, seniority levels and geographic location of members of an account’s buying group. We also offer buying stage analytics which allow marketers to map accounts to their position in the buyer journey and customize content, messaging and tactics to meet these accounts where they are.
ii. Our Visitor Insights identity and enrichment tool allows marketers to identify anonymous website visitors providing not just the account/ domain identity but also insights into the content that this visitor has been researching most recently. In real time our solution empowers marketers to customize the content of their site or retargeting campaigns based on these insights.
iii. In April we announced a new partnership with Simpli.fi. Through this integration, Bombora data is powering 76 contextual topic clusters (including topics like Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence and Marketing Technology) that B2B advertisers can use for targeting to ensure that their digital ads and content experiences are placed in as relevant destinations as possible. This groundbreaking solution was recently recognized with Just Global’s Dick Reed Award for Channel Advancements & Innovations.
