The data bridge: Linking offline and online data for comprehensive B2B targeting

The B2B digital advertising industry is missing out on a huge data-related opportunity.

Some marketers think B2B advertising is fine the way it is. They think their ROI is as good as it can be. They think their data works well for them.

But they’re wrong.

They simply don’t know something better exists. Until better solutions become more widely practiced, marketers will have advertising myopia: They can only see the options in front of them. And if they continue in that way, they’ll be missing out forever..

Industry gap filled: The data bridge

A current gap in B2B digital advertising involves a difference in companies’ data approaches. Some companies are content using cookie data alone to target business accounts, but savvier advertisers know using inferred data alone is a flawed strategy. If you knew you weren’t using the best data, would you keep using it? If you learned about a stronger technology that could achieve more for your campaigns, would you switch? Now’s the time to act.

The “data bridge” refers to the connection between offline and online data. Those who aren’t linking this data are deploying campaigns with incomplete audience personas. Inferred data based on browser behavior is not accurate enough to support an entire strategy because it incorporates human variance and can expire. Your web searches last week may not apply to you this week; they may not reflect your behaviors accurately, leading to irrelevant future ads.

Online data also includes other digital interactions — website clicks, email clicks, apps used — as well as “unique digital identifiers,” including business IP address, location coordinates, and domain. These help advertisers categorize you and your business, but they are only part of the picture. Putting a light switch on or off won’t help you here — you need both online and offline data at full capacity for your advertising campaigns to yield the best results. In other words, you must bridge offline and online data for the most comprehensive targeting solution.

Offline data can be pulled from CRM datafiles that reflect individuals’ real-life behaviors, such as contact information, purchase histories and loyalty card data. Publicly available data provides additional business insights — census data, financial filings, government registries and more. Industry NAICS codes and firmographic data such as sales revenue and employee size further refine your targeting; layering job titles you wish to target will ensure specificity.

Clearly, many data points need to come from many different places. Not all companies have powerful enough technology and reliable enough data to target the right business influencers, let alone at scale. In order to succeed, businesses need a technology that can bridge online and offline data at scale, achieving precise targeting for B2B advertising campaigns by delivering ads to only the individuals at key business accounts that matter most strategically.

B2B advertising reimagined

To leverage this unmet data opportunity and lay the foundation for success, look for a B2B advertising technology provider whose value proposition aligns with the data bridge.

The most successful technology companies maintain partnerships with data providers that are constantly refining their offering to ensure the utmost validity and accuracy. As a result, technology built to provide B2B advertisers with powerful and reliable targeting can combine partners’ third-party data with clients’ first-party insights — a target list of accounts, CRM data, etc. — allowing advertisers to achieve specificity at scale.

To keep up with the ever-changing landscape, these technology companies must constantly enhance their products to continually achieve improved accuracy and efficiency for their clients’ advertising campaigns.

Additional value can be found in working with a company that employs an account-based marketing approach, which drives optimization so that each client’s ads are served not just to every business they aim to reach, but to the key influencers at those accounts. As a result of bridging offline and online data, the best technology offerings can deliver digital advertisements to the right people at the right businesses at the right time, maximizing ROI and reducing wasted spend.

Don’t let myopia stop you from reaching your goals. Reimagined B2B advertising experiences are out there and they’re ready for you to experience their power firsthand.

Goodbye, black box of advertising

The black box of digital advertising has been replaced with a customized, comprehensive solution that leverages powerful technology and validated offline and online data. It may be best-case scenario – but that doesn’t mean it’s unattainable. Companies like AdDaptive achieve impressive results for their clients every day. It’s time for you to experience this level of success first-hand. Why not schedule a free demo today and see for yourself?