May 5 2025
B2B Buyer Behavior Has Changed: Proven Strategies For Sustainable Relationships via @sejournal, @alexanderkesler

The reality of working in B2B today is that tried-and-tested tactics are no longer as effective for engaging buyers.

Buyers are independent, defensive, and prefer independent research before reaching out to sales, only when they are absolutely ready to do so.

Part of the reason for this is due to the increase in size of buying groups, the average of which now spans approximately 11 individuals.

These buying groups have their own complex purchasing processes – 70% of which take place in the dark and often anonymously before they reach out to sales.

When these buyers are ready, 84% of the deals go to the vendor on their day-one list.

This new buying behavior, where self-discovery predominates, highlights the urgency of evolving old tactics and embracing buyer-led strategies that meet buyers on their own terms, where they are.

This includes moving away from traditional lead generation in favor of evergreen, always-on buyer enablement practices based on buyer intelligence.

In this article, I will share five buyer enablement strategies based on successful demand programs that elevated our clients’ engagement metrics and resulted in sustainable buyer relationships.

5 Proven Demand Strategies To Enable Buyers

1. Identify Your Buyers Precisely

Identifying your buyer starts with recognizing that most B2B buying groups are made up of multiple stakeholders – as many as 15 individuals or more – each with distinct concerns and decision-making power, according to our own Q4 2024 market research.

To effectively engage these groups, you need detailed buying group personas that define key revenue leaders and influencers.

Referencing existing buyer personas at large accounts is a helpful starting point, while first-party data and other sources like client relationship management (CRM) insights, client interviews, website behavior analytics, and industry reports will provide you with a more comprehensive view of their needs, goals, and preferences.

Identifying intent signals is equally important for modern account-based marketing (ABM) strategies. These behavioral cues suggest when a prospect or buying group is actively researching solutions and may be in-market to buy.

Key buying group intent signals include:

  • Multiple website visitors from the same organization.
  • Consumption of solution-specific content.
  • Engagement across multiple channels.
  • Webinar or event attendance.
  • And many more.

Predictive tools, competitive research, and technographic data can further enrich these insights.

By integrating real-time intent signals into your ABM programs, you can dynamically adjust campaigns to align with the evolving needs of buying groups and their individual members.

Rather than relying solely on static personas, dynamic ABM leverages intent data to better understand each persona’s immediate pain points, preferred channels, and buying triggers.

This approach ensures that you reach the right personas, within the right accounts, with the right message at the right moment, ultimately driving greater engagement, pipeline velocity, and revenue impact.

2. Be A Partner To Your Buyers

We are seeing a trend of more and more buyers (as many as 58% according to our Q4 2024 market research) seeking the proven expertise of consultants and subject matter experts to inform and de-risk their decisions. This trend is closely associated with the increase in the length of buying cycles.

To compete effectively, marketers ought to adjust their engagement to offer integration and consultation, effectively establishing their brand as a committed partner that supports its buyers and meets their needs. This, in turn, translates to demand.

This brand-to-demand-to-revenue strategy relies on early engagement to establish trust and build a brand presence before buyers are actively looking.

The brand experience you present should carry across multiple touchpoints to engage all stakeholders within the buying group, emphasising your position as a trusted source.

Examples of early brand-to-demand tactics include:

  • Identifying the most suitable channels for generating awareness of your unique value proposition (UVP).
  • Sponsoring events to engage qualified prospects with just-in-time information.
  • Adopting a multithreaded nurturing approach.
  • Promoting curated content hubs to facilitate buyer research and self-discovery, customized per persona.
  • Offering webinars, workshops, or roundtables.
  • Providing buying group influencers with data to make an internal case, such as product specification sheets, decks, and guides.

Establishing a vendor-partner relationship is critically important when nurturing defensive buyers because it reduces risk, builds trust, and enhances buyer confidence – all of which are top priorities for today’s cautious, efficiency-driven buying groups.

This also helps buyers feel reassured that they are investing in solutions that are well-supported, credible, and aligned with other trusted vendors in their partner ecosystem​.

3. Focus On Buyer-Led Content

Nurturing and enabling buying groups calls for buyer-led content strategies that speak directly to active buyers, buying groups, and accounts.

Creating content hubs to enable buyer research is one of the most powerful moves you can make today, especially for large buying groups in complex industries.

Content hubs designed to support in-depth research empower buyers to make informed decisions with more confidence.

These content libraries also establish your brand as a reputable, expert source of information.

It is important to align content hubs to individual buying journey stages so buyers can self-serve information.

Below is an example of what that looks like:

  • Awareness stage: industry reports, tactical guides, thought leadership focused on how-tos.
  • Consideration stage: product overviews, case studies, webcasts.
  • Decision stage: demo request, pricing sheet, product implementation roadmap.

Additionally, content can be personalized by role:

  • CMO: trend reports.
  • Procurement: service-level agreement (SLA) terms.
  • Finance: return on investment (ROI) guide.
  • IT: security threat insights, compliance checklist.

Micro-targeting buyers with relevant, behavior-driven content is great for creating seamless, value-added experiences that drive preference and loyalty, ultimately enabling buying groups to confidently choose your solution.

To achieve competitive displacement, ensure your content is visible and discoverable throughout the buyer’s journey.

This can be achieved through SEO, AI/Generative Engine Optimization (AEO/GEO), and by leveraging omnichannel engagement tied to real-time behavior to deliver personalized messaging that resonates at every touchpoint.

You can also use intent-driven targeting to engage accounts already researching similar topics​.

4. Continuously Optimize With Demand Intelligence

Nurturing and enabling buying groups is not a one-time effort, but an ongoing optimization process.

Success depends on continuously updating intelligence across buyers, buying groups, and accounts to stay aligned with evolving needs and behaviors.

Measuring the impact of your buyer enablement tactics can be done in several ways:

  • Content engagement metrics, such as views, downloads, and time on page.
  • Buying group activation metrics, such as the number of roles and stakeholders engaged.
  • Deal acceleration metrics, such as sales cycle length and conversion rate.
  • Feedback loops with both buyers and sales teams.

By measuring and optimizing at every stage, organizations can identify what is working, adjust strategies in real time, and eliminate inefficiencies.

Essentially, they can successfully self-educate without talking to sales, which aligns with modern B2B buyer expectations.

Continuous optimization also turns good programs into great ones, driving stronger results and building lasting buyer trust.

This approach not only strengthens engagement, but also ensures that every marketing dollar is working harder, helping you maximize the impact of your spend.

5. Enable Sales Teams For Success

To truly nurture and enable buying groups, organizations must equip their sales teams with the right strategies, including the tools, insights, and approaches that support more informed and impactful outreach to buyers.

This starts with personalized messaging tailored to each account and buying group, and continues with follow-up that reflects the needs and behaviors of individual buying group members.

A key part of this approach is helping sales teams engage buyers at the right pace.

Acting as trusted consultants, sales teams can guide buyers through their journey with a buyer-centric mindset that clearly communicates the unique value of your organization.

Achieving this requires strong alignment and collaboration across marketing, sales, and the broader organization – everyone must rally behind a shared North Star focused on enabling the buyer first and foremost.

Best practices for achieving organizational alignment include:

  • Collaborating to define the ideal buying experience.
  • Setting joint revenue and buyer engagement targets.
  • Regularly refreshing sales outreach strategies.
  • Detailed mapping of each buying group and member, including pain points and interests.
  • Activating multi-threaded account strategies.

By prioritizing buyer enablement and supporting sales teams with the right approach, organizations create a seamless experience that builds trust, accelerates deal cycles, and drives better long-term outcomes.

The Importance Of Evolving Alongside Your Buyers

Buyer purchasing behavior has changed unequivocally. Buying groups are expected to remain cautious, with buyer journeys expected to lengthen even more.

To thrive in this environment, organizations must prioritize brand-to-demand and value-focused solutions, using their expertise to solve buying group challenges – all the while enabling self-service options whenever possible.

It is time to meet buyers where they are, which means evolving the playbook and closing the door to old ways of thinking.

Key Takeaways

  • Buying groups and long sales cycles are the new reality: Today’s buyers prefer to self-educate, making it essential to shift toward buyer-led strategies that meet them where they are – on their terms. This requires moving beyond traditional lead generation and embracing buyer enablement approaches powered by real intent signals.
  • Buyers and how they buy have changed: B2B purchases now involve up to 15 stakeholders or more, each with their own priorities and influence. To engage them effectively, build detailed buying group personas and identify intent signals that reveal when prospects are actively exploring solutions.
  • Buyer enablement does not end; it evolves: By optimizing at every stage, organizations can fine-tune strategies in real time, enabling better and consistent outcomes.

More Resources:

Featured Image: Alphavector/Shutterstock

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
May 1 2025
How CMOs Can Tell Stories To Manage Change [Case Study With Mondelēz International] via @sejournal, @gregjarboe

Chief marketing officers should evaluate and synthesize success stories to learn from past marketing efforts, identify repeatable strategies, and demonstrate the return on investment (ROI) of their work to stakeholders.

Ultimately, this can help to drive better future campaigns and business outcomes.

As Steve Jobs once observed, “The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller. The storyteller sets the vision, values, and agenda of an entire generation that is to come.”

Telling Stories To Manage Change And Uncertainty

Storytelling is important because it’s a fundamental way that humans connect, share experiences, and learn.

It fosters empathy, creativity, and emotional intelligence while also helping to build relationships, convey complex ideas, and inspire action.

Mondelēz International, a Fortune 500 company in over 150 countries, generated around $36 billion in net revenue in 2024.

Its well-known international and local brands include Oreo, Ritz, and Tate’s Bake Shop cookies and baked goods, along with chocolate favorites like Cadbury Dairy Milk and Toblerone.

(Disclosure: I was a member of a team of subject matter experts who taught a bespoke digital marketing training program for hundreds of marketers at Mondelēz International. I can share its story now without violating my non-disclosure agreement because it has since made this information public.)

Mondelēz International’s Journey To Customer-Centric Growth

The challenge for any Fortune 500 CMO is navigating the ever-evolving consumer behavior and technological advancements.

Mondelēz International, a global snack giant, offers a compelling blueprint for not only reacting to change, but also proactively shaping it.

Its journey, spanning several years, highlights the critical elements of foresight, collaboration, and a deep commitment to understanding the customer.

Embracing Empathy At Scale

Back in 2019, Mondelēz recognized a fundamental shift in consumer expectations. The desire for generic brand messaging was waning, replaced by a craving for familiarity and personalization.

This insight spurred a strategic pivot, moving the company from a margin-focused approach to one centered on growth, fueled by increased marketing investment and a concept it termed “empathy at scale.”

This wasn’t just about collecting data; it was about establishing the right connection with the right customer at the right time.

The early days of the pandemic underscored the wisdom of this shift.

While consumer behavior was in flux, Mondelēz’s prior investment in digital maturity and flexibility provided the agility needed to adapt.

The bedrock of this strategy was a profound understanding of its consumers, allowing it to create genuine value, a principle that remains timeless in the face of uncertainty.

Mondelez India’s Automation-Driven Success

Mondelez India has achieved remarkable success through automation, particularly in the diverse Indian market.

Its innovative approach to ad personalization has demonstrated the transformative power of marketing automation and machine learning in creating deep customer connections and driving significant sales.

During the Diwali festive season, Mondelez India recognized the immense value of local relevance for its Cadbury Celebrations gift boxes.

It ingeniously leveraged voice AI and ML to create ads featuring megastar Shah Rukh Khan, in which he personally named local stores selling their products.

This technology enabled the efficient generation of a staggering 130,000 videos, each tailored to a specific store.

Using YouTube’s advanced contextual targeting, the campaign matched ad versions with the right audience based on their proximity to local stores.

This hyper-local approach resonated strongly, resulting in a 60% increase in YouTube engagement, 42% growth in sales at local stores, and 33 million gift boxes sold during the festive season. The campaign underscored the power of making consumers feel directly seen and acknowledged within their local context.

Mondelez India further pushed the boundaries of ad personalization with its campaign for Perk, a chocolate brand popular among youth.

Recognizing the cultural phenomenon of “cancel culture,” the brand aimed to inject humor and encourage levity.

Using AI to identify 2.5 million of the most searched videos, it created custom disclaimers that playfully warned viewers of potential “triggers” within the content, such as a carrot being aggressively chopped in a cooking video.

These short, pre-roll ads were seamlessly integrated into each of the millions of trending videos using Google’s custom-built API and Director Mix technology.

The campaign’s clever and highly contextualized approach resonated with viewers, bringing in an impressive 84 million views, 635 million impressions, and a 20% spike in sales.

It demonstrated how injecting timely cultural relevance, powered by automation, can capture attention and drive business results.

Bridging The Art And Science Of Marketing

The execution of “empathy at scale” demanded a fundamental transformation in how Mondelēz operated. It wasn’t enough to have insightful data; the brand needed to activate it effectively.

This required a powerful synergy between the “art” of marketing and the “science” of data.

A pivotal element was the strong partnership between the chief marketing and sales officer and the architect of their data infrastructure. This collaboration was the engine driving their digital transformation.

Recognizing the need for robust data management, Mondelēz partnered with Google Cloud to build regional data hubs for first-party data.

Critically, it also invested in training its teams to leverage these new capabilities. This wasn’t just about technology adoption; it was about empowering its people to harness the power of data.

This strategic overhaul yielded impressive results. By integrating previously siloed data, Mondelēz gained a holistic view of its consumers, enabling it to deliver personalized content that cut through the noise.

This human-driven strategic shift, augmented by technology, resulted in significant ROI increases globally and in the U.S., laying a solid foundation for sustained growth.

Leveraging AI To Scale Personalization And Reach New Audiences

The marketing landscape continues to evolve, with audience fragmentation across media platforms becoming a significant challenge.

For brands with deep heritage, like Cadbury, the added complexity lies in extending their reach beyond traditional channels to engage new generations.

The story of Cadbury’s Creme Egg offers a powerful illustration of how to navigate this challenge.

Faced with increased competition and cost-of-living pressures impacting consumer spending, Cadbury recognized the need to connect with Gen Z and Millennials, who were less engaged with traditional TV advertising.

Building on its existing digital presence, particularly on YouTube, the brand explored the potential of AI-powered video advertising. Initially, adapting its existing TV ad for digital seemed like the most cost-effective approach.

However, it discovered that YouTube’s AI ad formats, specifically Video Reach Campaigns, required a diverse range of creative assets built from the ground up. This realization highlighted the importance of platform-specific creative strategies.

Through a collaboration with Google’s Creative Works team and its creative agency VCCP, Cadbury embraced this challenge. It developed a series of assets for an AI-driven campaign centered around its iconic “How do you eat yours?” slogan.

Leveraging consumer research, it highlighted different eating styles, creating quirky and engaging video statements in various formats, from six-second bumpers to longer ads with compelling story arcs.

By providing a diverse content ecosystem, Cadbury empowered YouTube’s AI to effectively match the right Creme Egg message with the right viewer at the right time.

This approach, managed through a single campaign, allowed the AI to optimize ad delivery based on business goals and audience signals far more effectively than manual adjustments.

Despite economic pressures, the success of this AI-powered campaign, which focused on maximizing unique reach, led to increased investment in both production and media, demonstrating the power of AI to enhance campaigns while underscoring the enduring importance of human creativity.

Key Takeaways For CMOs

This series of Mondelēz International case studies offers valuable insights for CMOs seeking to navigate the complexities of modern marketing and foster customer-centric growth.

Several key takeaways emerge from these examples.

1. Customer Empathy Serves As The Foundational Element For Sustainable Growth

Mondelēz’s early recognition of the necessity to prioritize understanding its customers over solely focusing on margin proved pivotal.

This “empathy at scale” approach became the cornerstone of its subsequent achievements.

This goes beyond mere data collection; true empathy involves utilizing those insights to generate genuine value for the customer by deeply understanding their needs and desires.

The resilience of this customer-centric strategy was particularly evident during the pandemic, enabling Mondelēz to adapt swiftly due to its preexisting strong understanding of its consumers.

2. Hyper-Personalization Implemented At Scale Drives Significant Results

The success of Mondelez India with campaigns for Cadbury Celebrations and Perk illustrates the transformative potential of marketing automation and machine learning in delivering personalized experiences on a large scale.

The Cadbury Celebrations campaign brilliantly demonstrated the impact of hyper-local personalization, making consumers feel directly seen and acknowledged within their own communities.

Furthermore, the Perk campaign highlighted the effectiveness of incorporating timely cultural relevance, powered by AI, to cut through the noise and resonate effectively with audiences.

3. Bridging The Gap Between The Art And Science Of Marketing Is Essential For Success

Effective marketing in today’s landscape demands a strong synergy between the creative aspects of marketing and the analytical power of data.

Achieving this requires critical cross-functional collaboration, particularly a strong working relationship between the CMO/CSO and the data infrastructure architect to drive digital transformation.

Investing in robust data infrastructure is only part of the equation; CMOs must also prioritize training their teams to effectively utilize these new capabilities.

Ultimately, integrating siloed data to gain a holistic view of the customer enables more effective personalization and improves overall return on investment.

Summary

While AI is a powerful tool for scaling personalization and reaching new audiences, it necessitates a strategic approach.

AI can assist brands in overcoming the challenge of reaching increasingly fragmented audiences across numerous platforms.

However, it’s crucial to recognize that platform-specific creative is often necessary, as simply repurposing traditional creative for digital platforms may not be optimal.

AI-powered ad formats often require tailored creative strategies developed from the outset.

Despite the capabilities of AI, human creativity remains essential. Compelling and engaging creative, driven by human insights, is still fundamental to campaign success.

Even during periods of economic pressure, investing in AI-powered campaigns focused on maximizing unique reach can yield significant results and justify further investment in this technology.

The Mondelēz journey underscores the importance of a fundamental shift towards customer-centricity, enabled by strategic investments in technology, data, and talent.

By embracing these principles, CMOs can equip their Fortune 500 companies to not only weather the storms of change and uncertainty, but also to emerge stronger and more connected with their customers.

More Resources:

Featured Image: StockLite/Shutterstock

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Apr 10 2025
To Navigate AI Turbulence, CMOs Can Apply The Flywheel Model via @sejournal, @gregjarboe

Right now, as technology changes daily, chief marketing officers face exceptional levels of change and uncertainty. But it’s not for the first time (or the last).

During the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly two-thirds of CMOs in Fortune 500 companies overcame the extraordinary challenge of navigating change and uncertainty.

This resulted in 65% of CMOs who exited their roles after an average tenure of 4.3 years  “being promoted to more senior roles” or “making lateral moves to other attractive CMO positions.”

However, what was a pandemic obstacle course has been followed by an AI Olympic steeplechase.

To navigate these turbulent times, CMOs should consider analyzing marketing research and applying digital trends to:

  • Discover consumer insights for effective marketing in a dynamic market.
  • Unlock exceptional marketing results and increase return on investment (ROI) with the power of AI.
  • Reach customers across search, video, social, and shopping platforms.
  • Drive progress in marketing by championing the latest innovations and ideas.
  • Transform their data into a tool for building a lasting business advantage.

To lead their teams, CMOs could also apply the flywheel model, a customer-centric approach to business growth.

Adding AI To The Traditional Flywheel

Recently, based on a survey of 2,000 global marketers, Think With Google wrote:

“The traditional flywheel has always existed in marketing. Now, leaders are adding AI to multiply its momentum.”

Screenshot from Think With Google, April 2025

The article provides CMOs with a framework, built on four interconnected pillars:

  1. Measurement and insights.
  2. Media and personalization.
  3. Creativity and content.
  4. People and process.

This framework outlines how AI is amplifying the traditional marketing flywheel.

Measurement And Insights

The first pillar, stresses the importance of aligning key performance indicators (KPIs) with business performance metrics like profit and ROI.

Implementing modern, AI-powered measurement tools is crucial for accurate data and insights while respecting privacy.

A foundation of well-defined KPIs, historical data, and first-party data enables outcome-based planning, where AI predicts and improves campaign performance, optimizing budget allocation.

The future involves an AI-powered Marketing Engine for continuous, real-time optimization.

Media And Personalization

The second pillar, focuses on AI’s role in delivering the right ad to the right person at the right time.

Leading marketers scale successful AI-powered campaigns, shifting budgets for maximum ROI and flexibility.

AI identifies engaged, high-value audiences across channels, revealing valuable consumer behavior insights.

The ultimate stage is AI-powered media transformation, where an AI engine autonomously creates and refines media plans in real time based on continuous measurement.

Creativity And Content

The third pillar, explores how generative AI aids in brainstorming impactful ideas to help develop innovative content.

AI identifies and amplifies top-performing assets, and AI-powered “creative studios” accelerate time-to-market.

AI also enables pre-launch testing and optimization, bringing the goal of real-time, personalized creative delivery closer to reality.

People And Process

The fourth pillar, emphasizes collaboration, extending to the C-suite.

Sharing prioritized AI opportunities early is vital. Transformative leaders restructure organizations to fully leverage the AI engine.

Scaling AI success requires investing in AI talent to develop new operational methods, which are then formalized and disseminated.

Leading marketers design improved workflows and assess AI impact, recognizing that holistic organizational transformation is needed.

The article concludes that these four interdependent pathways merge to create the AI-powered Marketing Engine, amplifying the traditional marketing flywheel.

Analyzing Market Research And Applying Audience Research

CMOs will quickly notice that “The AI-powered Marketing Engine” framework can help to overcome four of the five obstacles that I mentioned above:

  • Measurement and insights can help transform their data into a tool for building a lasting business advantage.
  • Media and personalization can help to reach customers across search, video, social, and shopping platforms.
  • Creativity and content can help unlock exceptional marketing results and increase ROI.
  • People and process can help to drive progress in marketing by championing the latest innovations and ideas.

And CMOs will immediately wonder: Why can’t the AI-powered Marketing Engine help our analysts discover consumer insights for effective marketing in a dynamic market?

That’s the right question to ask, and there are two probable answers.

The first was provided by Avinash Kaushik in 2014, when he asked, “Is your company creating reporting squirrels or analysis ninjas?”

In any organization, investments in data generate two distinct types of work: Reporting Squirrel work and Analysis Ninja work. While both are important, only one directly contributes to improving the company’s financial performance.

Reporting Squirrels primarily focus on data production, spending most of their time creating reports for various stakeholders.

Their responsibilities include data extraction, query writing, fulfilling ad-hoc requests, scheduling data outputs, and coordinating with IT teams for data acquisition.

Conversely, Analysis Ninjas dedicate their time to analyzing data and generating actionable insights, which are typically communicated in clear, plain language.

Their work involves tasks such as data retrieval, segmentation, in-depth exploration, modeling, creating unique datasets, answering business questions, and defining data requirements for Reporting Squirrels and IT teams.

It’s important to note that Fortune 500 companies don’t typically hire individuals with the titles “Reporting Squirrel” and “Analysis Ninja.” Instead, they employ analysts or data scientists.

However, CMOs need to ask if these professionals are primarily focused on data output rather than providing actionable recommendations.

The second probable answer was in my recent article, where I mentioned, “GA4 gives us less than a third of the data we need to know about user acquisition: The initial stage of building business awareness and acquiring user interest.”

I added, “Somehow, we’ve missed what GA4 can’t – or doesn’t – tell us about the Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT): the moment in the purchase process when the consumer or business buyer researches a product or service prior to visiting your website.”

So, if CMOs realize that they don’t have a clue about where the lion’s share of their customers discovered their brands or products before visiting their website, then what should they do?

They have two options: Get audience research and conduct market research.

Audience research and market research are distinct but complementary approaches to understanding a business environment.

Audience Research

Audience research focuses on the individual, delving into the needs, preferences, behaviors, and language of the target audience.

This micro-level perspective is achieved through direct engagement with the audience via interviews, surveys, focus groups, social media analysis, and by leveraging existing customer data like customer relationship management (CRM) and support logs.

Market Research

In contrast, market research takes a broader, macroeconomic view, examining the overall landscape.

It involves analyzing industry trends, competitor activities, economic data, and trade publications to assess the viability of products or services.

Think of market research as providing the map, indicating where to go, and audience research as the compass, guiding you on the best path to get there. Therefore, both types of research play crucial roles.

AI Won’t Take Your Job. Somebody Using AI Will

CMOs remember what economist Richard Baldwin said at the 2023 World Economic Forum’s Growth Summit: “AI won’t take your job. It’s somebody using AI that will.”

They understand that their Fortune 500 company expects them to successfully navigate the complexities of the AI era and achieve sustainable growth.

To do that, they must embrace AI-powered tools and frameworks while prioritizing a deep understanding of their audience through dedicated research efforts.

By integrating these approaches, CMOs can transform data into actionable insights, optimize marketing strategies, and ultimately, build a lasting competitive advantage in an increasingly dynamic market.

More Resources:

Featured Image: R.bussarin/Shutterstock

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Apr 9 2025
Why Search Marketing & Branding Need Each Other via @sejournal, @coreydmorris

I own a digital agency that has existed for 20 years and did branding until just two years ago.

It wasn’t until we stopped doing branding that I came across a number of meaningful connections and “needs” search and branding teams have that enhance the efforts of both.

Search marketers are often at the other end and far away from brand strategy.

When branding is pressed for return on investment (ROI), it often comes downstream through marketing channels, platforms, and the implemented strategy.

Search often struggles without a differentiated brand or strategy to stand  out from competitors in search results for ads or content.

I believe there are great benefits to connecting branding and search, partnering together, and working closely within broader business and marketing teams and environments.

Digging into conversations, my experience, and perspectives shared with me, I’m sharing the benefits categorized for search marketers and brand creatives/strategists alike that can create more consistent and impactful opportunities to elevate brands and performance overall.

For Search Marketers

Content & Creative Standards

In the absence of robust brand strategy development and documentation, search marketers (among other channels) are often left in a vacuum when it comes to creating content and assets needed for SEO and paid search success.

In a vacuum, there are best practices and channel strategies that can guide what gets created and what words, messaging, and creative are utilized.

However, it can be fragmented, inconsistent, and unrelated to broader themes and objectives.

When we have standards and strategies to leverage, we can be a further extension of the key unique messages to bring the brand alive.

I can’t count the number of times there have been conversations between search marketers and sales teams about specific ad copy and imagery that have no grounding or truth from brand strategy to fall back on.

I’ll say this as someone who has done SEO for a long time: You don’t want an SEO to write your copy or design your creative. There are exceptions and unicorns, but you want your SEO experts and SEM specialists doing their craft.

Unique Value Propositions

One of the key measures of search campaigns and strategies is how effective they are in driving conversions – and even deeper, what happens with those conversions and whether they become actual sales, revenue, and profit.

When leads are qualifying, too expensive, beat salespeople up over price, or don’t buy from an online store and go back to Google, we haven’t done our job in telling the story and sharing our value proposition.

There will always be someone looking for the cheapest, and unless we’re the low-price leader, we’ll lose those sales.

But, when someone is seeking our unique offering and factors that can include price but much more are in play, we want to do a great job presenting those at every touch point, including those important to SEO and PPC.

Without having these, we’re either making up our own, leaning on more shallow features and benefits, or inadvertently making our products and services seem similar to everyone else’s.

Support For Off-Page Factors

Unique content, value, and benefits offered through a strong brand identity and strategy can lead to more defined and actionable results.

This is especially true when it comes to attracting links to content (backlinks), and unlinked brand mentions that matter for SEO.

With both legacy focuses on PR and the ability to leverage the brand and newer focuses on digital PR strategies to enhance being found through AI search functions, having a solid branding foundation is important for SEO and PR efforts connected to optimization around external factors and backlinks specifically.

Support For Other Resources

At points in my career managing SEO and paid search, when talking to a writer, UX designer, and other resources, I’ve been faced with questions outside of SEO about voice, tone, style, and other brand aspects.

In many cases, I haven’t had a person, team, or documentation to point to.

SEO especially needs other resources like IT, UX, writers, and others to be successful.

When branding and brand strategy are integrated and accessible, we can again reduce a gap or vacuum created when other resources get pulled in.

The more integrated our messaging is, the better we know our brand and the rules of the road and the more we can do together to be efficient in our resources and not have to do disjointed, unique research in different functions and departments.

For Brand Creatives & Strategists

Connection To More KPIs And ROI

Brand strategy and development have always been critical to any company’s presence, impacting product development, sales, marketing, and customer service.

In so many cases, though, branding has been hard to connect to specific direct key performance indicators (KPIs).

Stakeholder reactions, adoption, and validation of the intended messaging happen.

But most measurement downstream happens in marketing, sales, and other areas well beyond first impressions, and it isn’t explicitly intended to measure brand impact when it gets into marketing tactics and sales pipelines.

With integration and closer relationships between digital marketing (and search) and branding counterparts, more customer journey mapping can be done, bringing KPIs into alignment from the branding process all the way through conversions and sales.

Research And Data Gained

Branding processes leverage market research to guide their work.

Search marketing lives on research data (keywords, audiences, competitors) and analytics to get as real-time as possible in terms of measuring impact.

Search-specific research and analytics are not typically top sources for branding projects. Yet, the data can be a great supplement (and even potentially unique in some cases) to help add another dimension to the market research used in branding strategy decisions and development.

By partnering with search colleagues, a new wealth of information can be gained.

Ongoing Refinement And Optimization

Often, branding, rebranding, and brand strategy are thought of as projects or undertakings that are done once and then done again years down the road – that they aren’t ongoing or continuous processes.

My friend, who owns a highly-regarded branding agency, noted that it is often about once a decade that a lot of companies in the niche industries he serves do a rebrand.

They view it as a one-time event rather than an ongoing strategy or thing to measure, refine, and optimize. That’s a very different approach from search marketing.

By leveraging the insights, partnerships, and opportunities that search marketing and other digital marketing channels offer, branding can become more ongoing and more effective.

Not in the sense of rebranding a company every year, month, or week, but in the sense of being able to make refinements and updates to make it as goal-oriented and effective as possible over time.

Ability To See Implementation All The Way Through

This one is something I was a stickler about in the days that my agency was still doing branding.

It can be deflating, if not frustrating, to invest so much into a complete brand strategy over months and, ultimately, see it not be fully implemented or activated as intended.

In so many cases, the project ended, and even when my team was in charge of implementing the look and feel or messaging in certain places, it was handed off to others to carry forward.

We could find implementations that didn’t follow standards, missed assets, or content that broke the rules.

When search and brand work together, there’s an opportunity to ensure that, down to the keyword and display ad level, there’s a two-way street between search best practices and the brand strategy.

This is to make sure the implementation and activation of the unique aspects of how search is delivered to prospects and customers.

Bringing It All Together

While branding processes and teams might be far away from search tacticians, who are often at the bottom of the funnel driving conversions, and might not seem to have much in common, I contend there’s a big benefit to partnership.

Whether it is a connection to KPIs all the way through, access to data and research, ensuring full and proper implementation, or other factors I unpacked (and even more that I didn’t), in short, brands benefit overall.

We don’t get stuck in as many situations being considered a commodity. Sales teams can be teed up for success without competing on price. Brand affinity can start much sooner, enhancing lifetime value and customer loyalty, which impacts profitability and growth.

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Featured Image: Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Jan 27 2025
Smart Bidding In Google Ads: In-Depth Guide via @sejournal, @brookeosmundson

Imagine running campaigns that adjust bids perfectly for every auction, targeting the right user at the right moment.

That’s the promise of Smart Bidding in Google Ads.

For PPC marketers, especially for beginners, Smart Bidding can feel like an enticing but sometimes overwhelming tool.

Between algorithm updates, new automation options, and ever-changing PPC best practices, it’s easy to lose sight of how to maximize its potential.

In this guide, we’ll explore what Smart Bidding is, how it works today, and the actionable strategies you can use to get the best results. Whether you’re new to automation or looking to fine-tune your approach, this article is here to help.

What Is Smart Bidding?

Per Google’s definition:

“Smart Bidding refers to bid strategies that use Google AI to optimize for conversions or conversion value in each and every auction.”

Unlike manual or rules-based bidding, Smart Bidding uses data signals – like device type, time of day, location, and even user intent – to determine the optimal bid for each auction.

Some of the key Smart Bidding strategies include:

  • Target Cost Per Acquisition (CPA): Sets bids to help you get as many conversions as possible at your target cost per acquisition.
  • Target Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): Focuses on maximizing conversion value at your desired return.
  • Maximize Conversions: Aims to get the highest number of conversions within your budget.
  • Maximize Conversion Value: Optimizes for the highest total conversion value, perfect for campaigns with varied transaction amounts.

These strategies are invaluable for streamlining campaign management, saving time, and improving results.

However, they work best when paired with a clear strategy and enough data points to make sound decisions.

When Should You Use Smart Bidding?

Smart Bidding isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. Choosing the right strategy depends on your campaign goals, audience, and available data.

Here’s when each strategy shines, along with real-world examples to help you decide:

Target CPA

Target CPA is perfect for campaigns where controlling the cost per lead or conversion is crucial, such as lead generation.

For example, a SaaS company running a campaign to drive free trial signups wants to maintain a $50 CPA.

By setting this target, Smart Bidding adjusts bids to focus on leads that are more likely to convert within that range, while ignoring auctions where conversion costs might exceed that goal.

Target ROAS

This Smart Bidding strategy is ideal for campaigns where profitability matters more than the number of conversions. Typically, most ecommerce businesses would opt for a ROAS strategy.

For example, say an online retailer selling high-end electronics has a goal to maintain a 400% ROAS (four times return on every dollar spent).

Using Target ROAS, the algorithm prioritizes auctions for users likely to generate higher-value purchases, such as customers buying laptops, while de-emphasizing bids for lower-margin items like accessories.

Maximize Conversions

Try using this Smart Bidding strategy when you have a set budget and want to maximize the total number of conversions, regardless of cost per conversion.

It’s especially effective for brand awareness or expanding into new markets.

For example, say, a non-profit organization aims to maximize email signups for a new awareness campaign.

Since the focus is on volume rather than cost efficiency, Maximize Conversions helps them get the most signups possible within their budget.

Maximize Conversion Value

This strategy is best for campaigns with varied transaction values, where the goal is to optimize for total revenue or high-value actions.

For example, a luxury travel agency advertises vacation packages ranging from $5,000 to $20,000.

By using Maximize Conversion Value, the campaign prioritizes auctions for customers likely to book premium packages, even if they cost more to acquire, rather than focusing on smaller bookings.

Common Pitfalls Of Smart Bidding

Smart Bidding is a powerful tool, but it’s not immune to challenges. Understanding potential pitfalls can help you avoid costly mistakes.

1. Insufficient Or Incorrect Data

Smart Bidding relies heavily on historical data to optimize bids. Campaigns with low conversion volume or incomplete tracking often confuse the algorithm, leading to poor performance.

For example, if you have a campaign that only gets 10 conversions in the past 30 days, it may not be best to go all in on Target ROAS or Target CPA strategies until it gathers more data.

With only a handful of conversions every month, the algorithm lacks enough data to predict future outcomes, resulting in missed opportunities or over-aggressive bidding.

For new campaigns, consider using Maximize Clicks first to gather enough traffic to your website, allowing the algorithm to learn faster and gain more historical data.

2. Misaligned Goals

Using the wrong bidding strategy for your campaign objectives is the easiest way to derail your campaign.

For instance, Target CPA may not be suitable if profitability (ROAS) is your primary goal.

In this hypothetical example, say a retailer mistakenly applies Target CPA to a holiday campaign, aiming for a $20 CPA, even though their products have a $200 average transaction value.

That strategy drives volume, but at the expense of profitability.

Make sure to clearly define your campaign’s primary objective (lead generation, revenue maximization, etc.) and choose a Smart Bidding strategy that aligns with it.

3. Overlooking The Learning Phase

Every Smart Bidding strategy has a learning phase where performance may fluctuate as the algorithm adjusts.

Making changes too soon can reset the process and waste budget.

Say you just launched a campaign with a Target CPA strategy, only to switch it to Maximize Conversions just one week later due to inconsistent results.

This prevents the algorithm from stabilizing and optimizing for long-term success.

Allow one to two weeks (or longer for low-volume campaigns) for the learning phase to complete. Monitor performance, but avoid major changes during this period.

4. Ignoring External Factors

While Smart Bidding is highly adaptive, it can’t predict seasonal trends, promotions, or external market shifts without proper input.

Make sure to use Google’s seasonality adjustment tool to account for temporary shifts in user behavior during sales or promotions, or even national events that could change a user’s online behavior.

5. Underutilizing Advanced Features

Many advertisers set up Smart Bidding, but fail to use advanced options like bid simulators, audience layering, or custom conversion values.

This limits their ability to optimize performance.

Try testing out some of these additional campaign or ad group layers to understand the potential outcomes, and use audience insights to refine targeting.

Best Practices For Smart Bidding Success

Smart Bidding can be a game-changer in the results of your campaigns, but it’s not a magic wand.

To get the most out of this powerful tool, you need to pair automation with thoughtful planning and regular oversight.

By following these tried-and-true best practices, you’ll not only improve campaign performance but also avoid the common pitfalls that trip up many advertisers.

1. Feed The Algorithm With Clean, Accurate Data

Conversion tracking is the backbone of Smart Bidding. Errors in tracking or unverified conversions can lead to misguided optimizations.

When fed with clean and accurate data, the algorithm has the best chance to produce fruitful results.

But when fed with inaccurate data points, your Smart Bidding strategy will wreak havoc on your performance.

Garbage in, garbage out.

Be sure to regularly audit your conversion tracking setup. Ensure every key action (purchases, form submissions, calls, etc.) is tracked accurately and attributed correctly.

For ecommerce campaigns, make sure to include transaction values to correctly use Maximize Conversion Value or Target ROAS strategies.

2. Set Realistic Goals

Unrealistic CPA or ROAS targets can choke the algorithm, resulting in limited impressions or poor bid adjustments.

If you’re not sure what to set your campaign targets at, review historical campaign datasets to set achievable targets.

For example, if your average CPA is $50, don’t set a Target CPA of $20 right away. Start closer to your historical average and adjust gradually.

This also pertains to your daily budget. If your daily budget is only $50 but your average CPA target is $50, this will severely limit ad serving because it’s holding back finding the user most likely to convert.

3. Layer Audiences And Signals

While Smart Bidding works on its own, adding audience segments or demographic layers can give the algorithm more context.

Try using remarketing lists, in-market audiences, and customer match data to guide Smart Bidding towards higher-value users.

You can add audience segments as “Observation Only” to start with if you don’t want to narrow on those users specifically yet.

Depending on their performance, you can always adjust your bids up or down, or even exclude them altogether.

4. Leverage Seasonality Adjustments

Google’s seasonality adjustment feature lets you signal to the algorithm about anticipated spikes or dips in demand.

Before a major sale or holiday, input a seasonality adjustment to help the algorithm prepare for the surge in conversions.

Additionally, make sure to increase your daily budgets to account for those holiday surges.

5. Monitor Performance With The Right Metrics

Don’t rely solely on Google Ads’ automated suggestions and insights.

Do your due diligence and analyze auction insights, search impression share, and audience performance to identify trends and areas for improvement.

6. Run Experiments To Validate Strategies

Testing is critical to understanding what works.

Google Ads Experiments allows you to split test Smart Bidding strategies without risking your entire budget.

For example, say you’ve been running a campaign on Maximize Conversions, but are looking to narrow in on a specific CPA target.

You can set up an experiment to test a Target CPA strategy against the Maximize Conversions to see what performs better for your goals.

That way, you’re not dramatically shifting the behavior of the account overnight and introducing a lot of volatility into performance.

The Bottom Line On Smart Bidding

Smart Bidding in Google Ads has evolved to become an indispensable tool for PPC marketers.

Its ability to leverage machine learning and real-time data is unmatched, but like any tool, its success depends on how you use it.

By aligning your strategy with your goals, feeding the algorithm accurate data, and monitoring performance regularly, you can unlock its full potential.

Remember, automation doesn’t mean you’re off the hook – it means you have more time to focus on strategy, creativity, and scaling your campaigns.

With the right approach, Smart Bidding isn’t just smart – it’s transformational.

More Resources:

Featured Image: dee karen/Shutterstock

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Oct 28 2024
5 B2B Customer Retention Strategies To Drive Repeat Business [Webinar] via @sejournal, @hethr_campbell

For many B2B businesses, balancing customer retention with new client acquisition can feel overwhelming—especially when the competition is growing faster than ever. 

Retaining clients is not only critical, but often easier than securing new ones, yet it comes with its own set of challenges. In an environment where customer expectations continue to rise, maintaining long-term relationships requires a strategic approach.

Join us for expert, actionable insights from Moxo, as we address the challenge of building long-term relationships and keeping your clients coming back in our upcoming webinar: “How To Elevate Your Client Retention Strategy: Proven Techniques for B2B Success.”

We’ll dive into how top B2B leaders utilize automation and personalized customer experiences to build lasting relationships, ensuring clients keep coming back—without relying on guesswork.

Why This Webinar Is a Must-Attend Event
Customer retention is no longer about just meeting expectations. In this session, you’ll learn how to use cutting-edge strategies and tools to exceed those expectations and create client loyalty that drives repeat business.

In this webinar, we’ll cover:

  • Why traditional retention strategies may be falling short: How innovative tools and approaches can help you focus on what matters most to your clients.
  • How top B2B companies are using automation to personalize client interactions: Learn how to streamline workflows while maintaining a high-touch experience.
  • Proven methods for deepening collaboration with clients: Gain insights into offering real-time updates and support that keeps clients engaged and satisfied.

Expert Insights From Nikhita Iyar
This session will be led by Nikhita Iyar, Head of Product Marketing at Moxo, who will walk you through actionable strategies to boost client retention and long-term growth. With extensive experience in developing customer-centric solutions, Nikhita is ready to share her insights to help you unlock the full potential of your B2B client relationships.

Who Should Attend?
This webinar is ideal for:

  • Business owners aiming to strengthen client loyalty and retention.
  • Sales leaders seeking to leverage tools that enhance customer experience.
  • Customer success professionals looking to deliver personalized support that sets their business apart.

Live Q&A: Get Your Questions Answered
After the presentation, join Nikhita for a live Q&A session, where you’ll have the opportunity to ask specific questions about the strategies shared and how they can be tailored to your business needs.

Can’t Make It?
No worries! Register anyway, and we’ll ensure you receive a recording of the event after, so you don’t miss out on a single insight.

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments