#demand-gen

In March 2025, AI-referred traffic to U.S. retail sites converted 38% worse than everything else. By March 2026, the same channel converted 42% better according to Adobe Digital Insights data covering more than a trillion site visits. Microsoft Clarity analysis of more than 1,200 websites in December 2025 recorded AI referral sign-up conversion at 1.66% versus 0.15% from organic search.

Semrush data placed the conversion lift for LLM visitors at 4.4x compared with traditional organic.

A startup lost an enormous RFP because it was viewed as too small. According to SaaStr, the outcome creates an opportunity to prepare for future evaluations that often occur in one to three years for new initiatives. The publication recommends moving the prospect into a dedicated Lost Now (But Not Forever) Marketing Program and treating the account as a medium-warm, long-sales-cycle contact that already knows the vendor and category.

Invitations to customer conferences and webinars are advised...

A researcher researching software opened ChatGPT instead of Google and received recommendations for four vendors with explanations of differences and a suggested best fit. The process occurred without visits to most vendor websites, comparison pages, white papers, or paid ads.

B2BMX Summer Camp 2026 Week 2 examines B2B buyers who finalize vendor shortlists before sales involvement begins. The sessions occur on Wednesday, July 22, and center on influencing preference during the research phase rather than lead volume metrics.

According to Demand Gen Report, 92% of B2B buyers build their vendor shortlists before they ever speak to sales. NetLine’s Josh Baez presents the session How to Influence B2B Buyers Before They Build Their Shortlist at 12:00 PM ET.

AI reduces the time required to generate insights from mobility and location datasets from days to seconds.

Teams previously waited days or weeks for analysts to extract, normalize, and analyze mobility data before producing reports. Natural language interaction now lets marketers, strategists, and operations leaders query complex datasets directly without SQL or BI tools.

A Demand Gen Report article states that B2B SaaS clients have sent AI-drafted bylines to PR agencies since GenAI became widely available.

according to [Demand Gen Report](https://www.demandgenreport.com/demanding-views/we-need-to-talk-about-ai-generated-client-drafts/53651/), a Skyword survey found three in 10 respondents are less likely to buy or engage with a brand they suspect used AI content. The same survey showed 36% double-check information they find suspicious.

Arketi Group added Massachusetts-based digital agency Sperling to its platform. The addition deepens capabilities in website development, UX/UI, paid digital campaigns, and social strategy. It also expands Arketi’s AI services to include intelligent chatbots, workflow automation, AI agents, custom GPTs, and generative search optimization (AEO and GEO).

Sperling was founded in 2008.

The 2026 Demand Gen Benchmark Survey is open for B2B marketing teams to document how they are adjusting budgets, measurement practices and workflows.

According to [Demand Gen Report](https://www.demandgenreport.com/blog/take-the-2026-demand-gen-benchmark-survey-help-shape-what-comes-next/53760/), the survey captures strategies on AI adoption, attribution, sales alignment and pipeline performance so participants can compare their priorities with peers.

The survey examines where teams are...

The 2022 World Cup final drew 1.4 billion viewers globally, with an average of 175 million people watching each match. These synchronized surges exposed weaknesses in digital infrastructure designed for average demand.

Every four years billions of users attempt identical actions at the same moment: watching goals, buying jerseys, checking scores, and sharing highlights. The 2024 Super Bowl LVIII on Paramount+ produced crashes, buffering, and error codes.

Wistia data shows videos 30 to 60 minutes long achieve click-through rates near 23%, compared with roughly 1% for videos under one minute, according to [Demand Gen Report](https://www.demandgenreport.com/industry-news/feature/wistias-chris-savage-on-why-long-form-b2b-video-is-winning-the-demandgenreport-com-qa/53634/). The company's 2026 State of Video Report documents this gap for business buyers.

Buyers expect increasingly personalized experiences, yet many marketing teams continue to rely on static segmentation models built around company size, industry, or job title, according to [Demand Gen Report](https://www.demandgenreport.com/demanding-views/personalization-still-isnt-personal-enough-in-b2b-marketing/53529/).

Patriot Auto Group added AI-generated connected TV ads from Adwave and recorded a 34% increase in showroom visits across four months according to [Demand Gen Report](https://www.demandgenreport.com/case-studies/how-adwave-enabled-patriot-auto-group-to-expand-its-reach-grow-sales-with-ctv-demand-gen-report-case-study/53534/).

The dealership operated two Tampa locations selling new and pre-owned vehicles.

A buyer types “Best solutions for…” into a browser and an AI panel summarizes the market and lists a handful of vendors before traditional search results appear. Evaluation in 2025 moves faster and through algorithmic mediation. According to [Demand Gen Report](https://www.demandgenreport.com/demanding-views/the-demand-gen-engine-why-evaluation-is-being-curated-by-ai/53531/), AI Overviews appeared in 13.14% of U.S.

DemandView has launched EngageSMS, described as the industry’s first automated text message nurture engine built for B2B buyers. The platform is included at no additional charge with every content syndication program according to [Demand Gen Report](https://www.demandgenreport.com/industry-news/news-brief/demandview-launches-first-text-message-lead-nurture-engine-engagesms/53572/).

Over the past 12 months, B2B email open rates, click-through rates, and lead-scoring signals have declined...

A Harris Poll survey of more than 300 U.S. marketing, advertising, communications, and social media decision-makers found that 48% admit they often feel they are guessing which marketing activities drive consumer purchasing decisions, according to [Demand Gen Report](https://www.demandgenreport.com/industry-news/news-brief/madison-logic-harris-poll-half-of-marketers-are-guessing-on-what-drives-purchasing-decisions-today/53624/).

The poll shows proving ROI as the top concern for marketers.

Circana LLC released The Value of Influence report that benchmarks influencer return on investment directly against other media channels. The analysis uses sales impact and incrementality rather than engagement metrics alone.

Circana applied advanced marketing mix modeling and proprietary retail data to quantify short-term sales impact and long-term brand contribution of influencer campaigns.

The 2026 B2BMX Summer Camp begins July 15 and runs through July 29 with a new multi-week webinar format focused on practical B2B marketing execution. Sessions occur every Wednesday, and attendees can join live or watch on demand. The program carries the message Build Once, Multiply Impact.

According to Demand Gen Report, the series brings together B2B marketing practitioners and technology leaders for sessions on pipeline strategy, AI, account-based marketing and buyer engagement.

On July 15...

Programmatic CTV Pause Ads outperformed traditional 60-second CTV spots across all 13 verticals studied according to [Demand Gen Report](https://www.demandgenreport.com/industry-news/news-brief/wunderkind-ads-releases-first-benchmarks-for-programmatic-ctv-pause-ads/53476/). The WunderKIND Ads analysis of millions of impressions found Pause Ads delivered nearly 2X higher attention time.

Digital advertising optimized toward clicks, last-touch attribution, and viewability over the past two decades rather than signals that reflect real business impact, according to [Demand Gen Report](https://www.demandgenreport.com/demanding-views/ad-tech-learned-to-game-itself/53162/).

The dominant signals guiding media optimization have been clicks, last-touch attribution, viewability, and other metrics convenient to track at scale. For smaller advertisers these signals can be sufficient.

At B2BMX 2026, Pam Didner presented a session titled Building an Actionable Go-To-Market Plan Executives Actually Approve. According to [Demand Gen Report](https://www.demandgenreport.com/industry-news/feature/pam-didner-shows-how-to-build-a-gtm-plan-executives-can-actually-approve-lesson-learned-ar-b2bmx/53239/), she stated that GTM plans rarely fail because the product is weak and instead fail when product strategy, sales priorities and marketing execution do not connect.

Didner opened by...

B2B marketers can use browser and OEM advertising to reach decision-makers in high-intent moments during the 2026 World Cup before they search according to [Demand Gen Report](https://www.demandgenreport.com/blog/winning-b2b-attention-during-the-2026-world-cup/53110/). The 2026 FIFA World Cup will feature 48 nations across 16 host cities in North America with expected global engagement of 6 billion people.

Traditional search and social channels become crowded during mega-events.

LinkedIn accounted for 0.53% of citations across 9.5 million AI-generated answers analyzed by Meltwater, placing it second behind YouTube at 1.52%. The study examined citations from six platforms: ChatGPT 5, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews, Gemini 3.5 Pro, Copilot, and Claude Sonnet 4.

LinkedIn ranked among the top five cited domains in B2B categories including AI and data science, marketing and advertising, leadership and strategy, sales and revenue, consulting and professional services,...

The 2026 Account Based Marketing Benchmark Survey found that 84% of respondents use ABM to drive revenue. Of those, 56% prioritize new account acquisition while 28% focus on account expansion, according to [Demand Gen Report](https://www.demandgenreport.com/blog/what-the-2026-abm-benchmark-survey-reveals-about-b2b-growth-strategy/53290/).

56% of respondents identified new account acquisition as the primary goal of their ABM strategy. Another 28% named account expansion as the main focus.

On May 13, creative intelligence platform DAIVID published data ranking the most emotionally engaging World Cup ads released so far. Fox Sports promo Miracle led the field.

DAIVID tested 31 World Cup ads released online and ranked them by the intensity of positive emotions they generated.

Nectar Social raised a $30 million Series A round led by Menlo Ventures and its Anthology Fund. The company simultaneously rebranded as Nectar Agent according to [Demand Gen Report](https://www.demandgenreport.com/industry-news/news-brief/nectar-social-raises-30m-rebrands-itself-as-nectar-agent/53121/).

The 2026 B2BMX Summer Camp will run July 15 through July 30 as a multi-week virtual series instead of a single-day event. The program focuses on practical B2B marketing execution with sessions covering AI, ABM, buyer influence, trust in marketing and AI-native go-to-market workflows.

B2BMX Summer Camp will release new sessions every Wednesday. Attendees can participate live or access recordings on demand.

Amazon Ads and LinkedIn have launched a collaboration that allows advertisers to activate LinkedIn CTV Ads through Amazon DSP.

Advertisers can now reach professional audiences with LinkedIn’s Connected TV Ads through Amazon DSP, bringing LinkedIn’s first-party audience signals from more than one billion members to streaming TV inventory.

Parsnipp has launched an AI Search and GEO platform that models full buyer research journeys to measure brand visibility inside generative AI systems.

The Seattle-based company uses persona-based agents and multi-turn interactions rather than single-prompt testing. The platform covers brand analytics across ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Grok, and Perplexity, plus competitor tracking, prompt and citation analysis, GEO content optimization, search personas, and AI readiness recommendations.

Nearly 80% of surveyed organizations are actively executing an ABM strategy, according to the 2026 Account Based Marketing Benchmark Survey from Demand Gen Report. The remaining organizations plan to add one soon. The findings indicate ABM has moved beyond the pilot stage into the established B2B go-to-market mix.

52% of respondents said their ABM efforts are meeting expectations. Another 23% said programs are exceeding expectations, and 10% said they are greatly exceeding expectations.

Vereigen Media introduced Revenue-First Demand Generation Programs to help B2B marketers move beyond MQL-focused strategies and prioritize verified engagement, first-party data, and measurable pipeline impact, according to [Demand Gen Report](https://www.demandgenreport.com/industry-news/news-brief/vereigen-media-launches-revenue-first-demand-generation-programs/52931/).

The offering combines verified content engagement, programmatic display, ABM campaigns, and event registration supported by...

DesignRush and Originality.ai analyzed 100 published articles and determined that content optimization was the only measured quality signal correlated with traffic. Articles scoring 70 percent or higher on optimization produced 5.4 times more monthly traffic than articles scoring in the 40 to 49 percent range, according to [Demand Gen...

Early-stage B2B teams often treat marketing like a volume knob by turning it up, buying tools, or hiring senior staff, according to [Demand Gen Report](https://www.demandgenreport.com/demanding-views/the-one-sentence-rule-why-most-b2b-startups-scale-marketing-too-early/52918/).

NetLine’s Josh Baez will present a webinar on May 20, 2026, at 2 PM ET that examines why immediate sales pitches often fail after content downloads. The session is organized with Demand Gen Report.

A newly acquired lead is rarely ready to sign a contract. The source material states that even prospects matching an ideal customer profile need education rather than a sales call at the moment of download.

According to Demand Gen Report, B2B marketers have traditionally viewed conversion as a single event, such as clicking a 'Buy Now' button or handing off to sales, but this overlooks the broader evaluation process where buyers abandon deals due to issues like unclear pricing, slow pages, mandatory account creation, limited payment options, and procurement friction. Today’s buyers abandon transactions when these elements undermine confidence, as detailed in the report.

On April 27, tvScientific by Pinterest announced that advertisers can target Pinterest’s exclusive high-intent audiences on Connected TV through its platform, marking the first major milestone since Pinterest acquired tvScientific in February 2026. This launch allows advertisers to reach these audiences off Pinterest and on TV, as part of a broader vision for a unified cross-screen advertising experience.