Very Few B2B Salespeople Say They Typically Deal With A Single Decision-Maker
30 percent of B2B salespeople have said that their sales teams generally deal with between two and four people, with seven percent interacting with just one person, while 14 percent pointed to intra-departmental buying committees of five or more people — three of the findings of interest to B2B marketers contained in newly-published survey data. MarketingCharts

Some B2B agencies see a spike in business as market conditions remain unclear
46 percent of B2B marketers are placing more emphasis on expanding services with existing customers, with 37 percent increasing marketing budgets to boost market share, as some B2B agencies are seeing an uptick in business, with more marketing tools being put to use to help counter economic uncertainly, and DigiDay takes a look. DigiDay

[bctt tweet=”“There’s a blurriness between sales and marketing in B2B that you don’t see in consumer ad spending.” — Brian Wieser @BrianWieser” username=”toprank”]

What B2B Marketing Teams That Outperform the Competition Do Differently
25 percent of B2B marketers at high-performing firms have said that their brand activation efforts are extremely creative, compared to just eight percent of firms in lower-performing categories, while 20 percent at high-performing firms said they had a common plan and worked as a team with sales, compared to some 13 percent noted by lower-performers, according to recently-released survey data. MarketingProfs

Google Ads Tests AI To Help You Create Ads
Search giant Google has conducted tests that allow artificial intelligence (AI) to aid in the creation of ads within its Google Ads platform, including using the technology to suggest ad headlines and descriptive information, Google recently announced. Search Engine Roundtable

The secret sauce behind LinkedIn’s $5bn advertising business
Microsoft-owned LinkedIn (client) will reach its 20th birthday during May, and expects to top the one billion user threshold during the next few years, and The Drum has taken a look at how the professional social media platform continues to enhance marketer opportunities specifically in the B2B sector. The Drum

Despite All The Hype, Dentsu Survey Finds Just 27% Of Consumers Have Used Generative AI Tools
42 percent of U.S. consumers have said that they are interested in generative AI, while over 70 percent said they believed that brands should disclose its use — two of several findings of interest to B2B marketers contained in newly-published survey data. MediaPost

New Study Highlights Key Tips for LinkedIn Video Campaigns, Based on Analysis of 16k Campaigns
When it comes to what works in LinkedIn video efforts, the inclusion of relevant statistics, data-rich notes, and highlighting key campaign points early on were all seen as helping to increase video engagement rates, according to recently-released joint LinkedIn and VidMob study data. Social Media Today

Agencies’ Confidence in Instagram and Facebook’s Effectiveness Wanes
45 percent of marketing agency professionals have said that they are either confident or very confident in Instagram when it comes to driving marketing success during the first quarter of 2023, which is a six percent drop from the same period in 2022, with fellow Meta-owned firm Facebook seeing a drop in confidence from 59 percent last year to 44 percent this year, according to recently-published survey data . MarketingCharts

LinkedIn Adds Algorithmically Suggested Posts to Boost Engagement
LinkedIn has rolled out expanded suggested posts within its users’ content feed, in a move that could increase new and trending content exposure opportunities for brands on the professional platform, LinkedIn recently announced. Social Media Today

How Video Consumption is Changing in 2023 [New Research]
A robust 91 percent of businesses have said that they utilize video in marketing efforts, with consumers being 52 percent more likely to watch video content than other types, while 66 percent said they had watched video content in order to learn about a product or brand during 2022 — three of numerous statistics of interest to B2B marketers contained in newly-released HubSpot report data. HubSpot

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE:

A lighthearted look at “Navigating AI Hype” by Marketoonist Tom Fishburne — Marketoonist

Facebook Entirely Memorialized Accounts — The Onion

TOPRANK MARKETING & CLIENTS IN THE NEWS:

Lee Odden — This Week in Marketing: Redefining the Qualified Lead — LinkedIn (client)
Lee Odden — Tips for partnering with a B2B influencer on LinkedIn — CPA Australia

FRIDAY FIVE B2B MARKETING FAVORITES TO FOLLOW:

Charlene Li @charleneli
Duena Blomstrom @DuenaBlomstrom
Efi Pylarinou @efipm
Cathy Hackl @CathyHackl
Kimberly Bryant @BlackGirlsCode

Learn more about TopRank Marketing‘s mission to help elevate the B2B marketing industry.

Have you found your own top B2B marketing news item for the week we haven’t yet covered? If so, please don’t hesitate to drop us a line in the comments below.

Thanks for joining us for the Elevate B2B Marketing News, and we hope that you’ll return next Friday for another assortment of the most up-to-date and relevant B2B and digital marketing industry news. In the meantime, you can follow us on our LinkedIn page, or at @toprank on Twitter for even more timely daily news.

The post Elevate B2B Marketing News: B2B Marketers See Uptick in Business, Google’s New AI Ad Tools, Falling Instagram & Facebook Effectiveness, & LinkedIn’s Video Success appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog – TopRank®.