#demand-gen

B2B marketers are building AI workflows that automate research, personalization and handoffs without engineering teams. Research shows 67% of employees want their organizations to use more AI, while 36% do not understand why they are expected to use it.

This week on 20VC x SaaStr, Nvidia's $96.2B quarter and 70% forward growth guide were examined alongside the $12.9B Hugging Face deal, OpenAI cutting off Cursor, and 500 to 1,000 agents running undetected inside OpenAI and Hugging Face for weeks. Valuations discussed included Cognition at $46B, Clay at $7B, and Linear at $2.5B. Salesforce's shift to multi-surface and outcome pricing was also covered.

Nvidia guided to 70% revenue growth for the fiscal year ending January 2028.

Event spending is back and growing. In 2026, 40% of organizers plan to run more live events than last year. Nearly half of organizers still report difficulty connecting event activity directly to revenue impact, according to [Demand Gen Report](https://www.demandgenreport.com/demanding-views/your-event-follow-up-is-creating-homework-for-prospects-heres-how-to-fix-that/54207/).

The breakdown in attribution starts the moment a conversation ends and a rep hands over a card.

Go-to-market planning sessions this year carry the same mandate of more AI deployed faster across lead scoring, outreach drafting, account prioritization, pipeline routing, and autonomous agent decisions. According to [Demand Gen Report](https://www.demandgenreport.com/demanding-views/faster-wrong-is-still-wrong/54199/), the speed of these implementations is measurable while the underlying direction remains uncertain.

Teams had already identified that topical and probabilistic data only...

According to Demand Gen Report, the 2026 State of Paid Media ROI Report from Unbounce and Ascend2 identifies landing pages as the strongest predictor of paid media ROI. Marketers most confident in their landing pages are 4.5 times more likely to land significantly above ROI targets, at 31% versus 7% for those less confident.

The same research shows 53% of marketers continue to send paid traffic to homepages and general product pages.

B2B demand generation teams commonly assume organic traffic requires no spend because SEO, thought leadership content, LinkedIn organic posts, and community engagement carry no media costs. This assumption appears in marketing budget presentations, revenue operations planning decks, and content strategy reviews. The view leads teams to undercount time as an operating expense when no line item exists on media plans.

Organic search accounts for more than half of all website traffic globally.

The 2026 Demand Generation Benchmark Survey closes September 11 according to [Demand Gen Report](https://www.demandgenreport.com/blog/take-the-2026-demand-gen-benchmark-survey-today/54223/). After the deadline the data set locks. Responses received before that date add to the picture of how B2B marketing teams adapt to shifting budgets and AI workflows.

The survey gathers input on budget priorities including ABM/ABX, content, personalization, intent data and AI-powered platforms.

Influ2 has launched its Model Context Protocol server. The server gives AI applications direct access to contact-level buyer signals for targeting and ABM execution. According to [Demand Gen Report](https://www.demandgenreport.com/industry-news/news-brief/influ2-launches-mcp-for-contact-level-abm/54278/), the release allows revenue teams to launch and manage ABM campaigns in plain language inside tools such as Claude, ChatGPT, and Agentforce.

After connection to a preferred AI application, the...

Companies invest in market research, third-party intent data and prospect intelligence tools to refine messaging and improve targeting. Many overlook the customers they already have as a source of insight, according to [Demand Gen Report](https://www.demandgenreport.com/demanding-views/your-best-prospect-data-comes-from-customers-you-already-have/54062/).

Over 70% of customer revenue leaders say their revenue comes primarily from existing customers.

A survey of 225 B2B marketing and revenue leaders shows 92% of organizations are already experimenting with or operationalizing Generative Engine Optimization. The 2026 State of Generative Engine Optimization in B2B Marketing study from GNW Consulting, conducted with research partner Demand Metric, also found that 78% of organizations investing in GEO report measurable ROI, according to [Demand Gen...

The B2B marketing sector faces accelerating expectations that outpace available resources and budgets. According to POM Marketing’s research cited in Demand Gen Report, 81% of marketers say pressure to deliver results is higher than two to three years ago. Gartner research found marketing budgets holding steady at 7.7% of total company revenue.

Only 29% of marketers report being very confident in demonstrating ROI to the C-suite.

Demand Gen Report has opened the 2026 Demand Generation Benchmark Survey to collect input from demand gen leaders on sales and marketing alignment practices.

The survey focuses on how B2B teams structure shared goals, define handoffs and enforce accountability.

Aligned teams share one revenue number, one set of metrics and a formal SLA on lead handoff according to [Demand Gen...

Eighty-nine percent of teams report that breakdowns in collaboration impact revenue, yet most sales processes continue to rely on standard one-way presentations, according to [Demand Gen Report](https://www.demandgenreport.com/demanding-views/moving-beyond-pitch-decks-to-more-collaborative-conversations/54068/).

Most prospects encounter one-way lectures and static decks that function more as chores than conversations.

Epoch is expanding into external marketing events with EpochX, a platform designed to connect registrations, attendance and engagement directly to CRM data so marketers can measure event-sourced pipeline, according to [Demand Gen Report](https://www.demandgenreport.com/industry-news/news-brief/epoch-launches-epochx-to-help-marketers-measure-event-driven-pipeline/54184/).

Informa TechTarget has launched the B2B AI Authority Index, a self-assessment tool for B2B marketers. The index evaluates how brands can influence AI-mediated buying journeys.

The B2B AI Authority Index addresses how AI search is reshaping B2B buyer journeys and digital marketing strategies. According to Demand Gen Report, 94% of B2B buyers currently use AI tools in their research process.

Registration is now open for B2BMX 2027, the event for B2B marketing and sales leaders according to [Demand Gen Report](https://www.demandgenreport.com/blog/registration-has-opened-for-b2bmx-2027/54109/).

B2BMX 2027 is scheduled for Feb. 22-24, 2027, at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, CA. The three-day conference is powered by Advertising Week. Super Early Bird Rates are available for All-Access passes.

Wunderkind recently announced a collaboration with Cordial to pair Wunderkind’s proprietary identity graph and AI-powered decisioning with Cordial’s orchestration and AI predictive models. The integration enables marketers to recognize more website visitors, activate high-intent behavioral signals, and autonomously trigger personalized experiences across email, text, and other channels through the Cordial platform.

The integration turns anonymous traffic into revenue by pairing Wunderkind’s...

Heinz Marketing published its weekly roundup of B2B sales and marketing posts on Saturday.

MarketScale Newsroom reported that B2B demand gen teams are ditching MQL volume for revenue attribution. Demand Gen Report’s 2026 benchmark survey shows teams moving off vanity metrics and onto sourced revenue and pipeline influence.

Gamma crossed $100M ARR with 50 employees while operating profitably, according to SaaStr. The company reached 50 million users and 600,000 paying subscribers. For most of that period it had no sales team. This produced $2M in ARR per employee at an average paying customer value of about $167 a year.

Gamma rebuilt its product after an initial launch failed to generate word of mouth. The company took two years to reach public beta.

Brooks Running used Adora’s AI platform to generate more than 1,500 on-brand ad variations across 40 products. The company had previously relied on a single photograph of one shoe in one colorway to serve every audience and channel. According to Demand Gen Report, the new output allowed testing across multiple colorways, angles, and settings while matching the look and feel of in-house creative.

The platform enabled Brooks to place products in varied environments and test specific variables at...

OpenAI’s recent addition of ads in ChatGPT signals a major shift for platforms and advertisers. Advertising in AI chatbots is moving from future possibility to present reality according to [Demand Gen Report](https://www.demandgenreport.com/demanding-views/ads-are-coming-to-ai-chatbots-can-the-industry-verify-them/53906/).

For years digital advertising relied on clear definitions of content adjacency.

The 2026 Demand Generation Benchmark Survey examines how B2B marketers move beyond vanity metrics to prove impact through sourced revenue, influenced pipeline and customer expansion, according to [Demand Gen Report](https://www.demandgenreport.com/blog/revenue-attribution-take-the-2026-demand-gen-benchmark-survey/54040/).

Attribution strategy is becoming a leadership-level priority. Marketers benchmark multi-touch models and reporting standards against their peers.

The American Marketing Association’s 2026 Future Trends in Marketing Report identified “building brand trust in a fragmented world” as one of the key challenges for CMOs this year, according to [Demand Gen Report](https://www.demandgenreport.com/demanding-views/how-a-permission-based-presence-can-help-marketers-win-brand-trust-in-a-fragmented-digital-world/53818/).

Artificial intelligence has transformed campaign creation and delivery while creating new trust issues through “AI slop” and...

The 2026 Demand Generation Benchmark Survey is now open to collect data on where artificial intelligence delivers value in B2B demand generation. The survey focuses on AI use across content drafting and scaling, predictive scoring, campaign optimization and workflow orchestration.

The 2026 Demand Generation Benchmark Survey aims to reveal where AI is delivering value across content, scoring, optimization and workflow orchestration according to Demand Gen Report.

Mississippi State Athletics and the Dallas Stars adopted Satisfi Labs agentic AI to handle fan questions and route ticket purchases through integrations with Ticketmaster and FEVO.

Mississippi State found that 60% of ticketing conversations occurred after hours. The AI agent remained available 24/7 and allowed fans to complete purchases directly in chat.

Demand Gen Report’s B2BMX Summer Camp brought together B2B marketing practitioners to present frameworks for applying artificial intelligence to ABM, demand generation, go-to-market execution and data integrity.

The event featured sessions from Stephanie McArthur of Demandbase, Josh Baez of NetLine, Hans Fischmann of AdRoll and Jason Gladu of Convertr. Each session delivered practical frameworks for AI use across ABM, demand generation, go-to-market execution and data integrity.

Nine in 10 B2B marketing leaders report that AI visibility is an investment-level priority or higher. Two-thirds of surveyed B2B buyers use GenAI as much or more than search when researching vendors. Brands that fail to appear in AI citations become invisible to these buyers.

According to [Demand Gen Report](https://www.demandgenreport.com/demanding-views/three-signals-that-make-your-brand-impossible-for-ai-to-ignore/53827/), many organizations continue to apply the classic SEO playbook of...

TrustRadius’s 2026 B2B Buying Disconnect Report found that 63% of buyers used AI during their purchase journey. The survey of nearly 2,500 technology buyers and vendors showed that 94% of those buyers fact-check AI responses at least some of the time.

AI tools or tools with AI features made up 59% of the purchases buyers made in the past year.

Demand Gen Report published an article titled The Five Critical Pitfalls of MDF Programs. The article states that channel companies must rethink program structures and measurement methods to unlock the full potential of Marketing Development Funds.

According to Demand Gen Report, treating MDF as a basic requirement rather than a strategic advantage is one pitfall.

6sense will release its AI-Recommended Leads feature in August 2026. The feature surfaces high-confidence, CRM-ready contacts for qualified accounts that engage with 6sense advertising campaigns. It converts engaged account lists into named contacts that sales teams can act on directly.

AI-Recommended Leads draws on 6sense people intelligence, persona targeting logic, and campaign engagement signals. It identifies a short list of high-confidence contacts per qualified account.

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.