Janhavi Nagarhalli

LinkedIn, Google, and Facebook—marketers are spoiled for choice because there are many options for running ads and promoting their products.

But which one takes the win? Or should you use each platform in tandem?

This guide analyses LinkedIn Ads vs. Google Ads vs. Facebook Ads and explores how B2B marketers can effectively use these platforms for various campaign types. Additionally, we’ll discuss the challenges associated with each platform and how a multi-channel approach can help maximize ROI.

TL;DR

• LinkedIn Ads: Best for targeting decision-makers and professionals in niche industries despite higher costs.
• Google Ads: Ideal for capturing high-intent leads with search ads and retargeting.
• Facebook Ads: Effective for broad audience engagement and cost-effective brand awareness.
• Multi-Channel Strategy: Combining all three platforms maximizes ROI by leveraging their unique strengths across the marketing funnel

Overview of Each Ad Platform

LinkedIn Ads

LinkedIn Ads are highly effective for B2B marketers who must reach decision-makers and professionals in specific industries. The platform’s targeting capabilities include options based on job title, company size, industry, and professional skills, making it the go-to choice for account-based marketing (ABM) strategies.

Strengths:

• Superior B2B targeting capabilities.
• High-quality leads due to professional context.
• Ideal for promoting webinars, whitepapers, and other B2B content.

Limitations:

• High cost-per-click (CPC) compared to other platforms.
• Smaller audience size than Google or Facebook.

Google Ads

Google Ads is well-known for its ability to capture intent. Users actively search for solutions on Google, making it an excellent platform for bottom-of-the-funnel conversions. With options like search, display, and YouTube ads, Google offers diverse ways to target audiences.

Strengths:

• High-intent audience.
• Broad reach with multiple ad formats.
• Remarketing capabilities through display ads.

Limitations:

• Competitive keywords can lead to high CPCs.
• Limited ability to target niche professional audiences directly.

Facebook Ads

While Facebook is often seen as a B2C platform, its massive user base allows B2B marketers to target decision-makers who may also use Facebook for personal browsing. The platform's advanced targeting options, such as interests, behaviors, and lookalike audiences, can complement other advertising efforts.

Strengths:

• Lower CPC compared to LinkedIn and Google.
• Advanced audience segmentation and lookalike audiences.
• Ideal for top-of-the-funnel engagement.

Limitations:

• Limited professional targeting options compared to LinkedIn.
• May struggle to capture high-intent B2B leads.

Best Campaign Types for B2B Marketers

1. LinkedIn Ads Campaignssome text
   • Sponsored Content: Promotes thought leadership content such as eBooks, webinars, and case studies. It is ideal for lead generation and nurturing.
   • Message Ads: Directly target prospects with personalized messages. Effective for ABM strategies.
   • Lead Gen Forms: Capture user data directly within LinkedIn, streamlining the conversion process.

💡Learn more about types of LinkedIn ads here.

2. Google Ads Campaignssome text
   • Search Ads: Target specific keywords to capture high-intent prospects. This is useful for driving conversions when prospects are actively searching for solutions.
   • Display Ads: Retarget users who have previously visited your website, keeping your brand top-of-mind.
   • YouTube Ads: Promote video content to educate potential customers about your product or service.

💡Find out more about SaaS google ads

3. Facebook Ads Campaignssome text
   • Video Ads: Promote product demos or customer testimonials to build awareness.
   • Retargeting Ads: Target users who have previously interacted with your website or content.
   • Lead Ads: Collect leads directly on Facebook, similar to LinkedIn’s Lead Gen Forms.

Challenges of Each Platform

LinkedIn Ads Challenges

• High CPC: LinkedIn’s cost-per-click is significantly higher than other platforms. B2B marketers need to optimize their targeting and content to achieve a high conversion rate.
• Smaller Audience Size: Compared to Facebook and Google, LinkedIn’s audience is more limited, potentially reducing the reach of some campaigns.

Factors recently launched a new offering called LinkedIn AdPilot, where you can solve these challenges and double your LinkedIn ROI!

Google Ads Challenges

• Keyword Competition: Popular keywords can lead to high CPCs, making it expensive for B2B companies to compete for clicks.
• Complexity in Setup: Google Ads requires a deeper understanding of keyword research, bidding strategies, and ad optimization.

Luckily, with Factors, you can solve these challenges by knowing exactly which ad keywords are bringing you revenue so you can save up to 50% of your ad spend!

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Plus, you can also use our Segment Insights feature to compare channel performance to see where you can allocate more ad budget. 

Facebook Ads Challenges

• Low Intent: Facebook users may not be actively seeking business solutions, making it harder to drive conversions for B2B campaigns.
• Limited Professional Targeting: While the platform offers demographic and behavioral targeting, it lacks LinkedIn’s professional filters.

Multi-Channel Approach to Maximize ROI

A multi-channel approach leverages the strengths of each platform, addressing the limitations of individual channels and maximizing performance across the marketing funnel.

1. Top-of-the-Funnel (TOFU) Awareness: Use Facebook Ads

• Strategy: Facebook Ads can help you reach a broader audience and create initial awareness. Use engaging content like videos or blog snippets to generate interest.
• Goal: Drive traffic to your website or landing page to build a remarketing audience.

2. Middle-of-the-Funnel (MOFU) Engagement: Leverage LinkedIn Ads

• Strategy: Use LinkedIn’s professional targeting to nurture leads who have shown interest in your content. Promote webinars, eBooks, or whitepapers to educate prospects.
• Goal: Establish credibility and build a relationship with potential customers.

3. Bottom-of-the-Funnel (BOFU) Conversion: Optimize Google Ads

• Strategy: Use Google Search Ads to capture intent-driven leads that are ready to purchase. Bid on keywords related to your solution to target high-intent prospects.
• Goal: Drive conversions by offering product demos, free trials, or consultations.

4. Remarketing Across Channels

• Retarget users on Google Display Network and Facebook who have interacted with your content on LinkedIn or searched for relevant keywords. This ensures your brand remains top-of-mind across various touchpoints.
• Tip: Tailor your messaging based on the user’s previous interactions to make your ads more relevant and personalized.

5. Unified Reporting and Attribution

• Track conversions and attribute leads accurately using tools like Google Analytics, LinkedIn Insights, and Facebook Pixel. This allows you to understand which platform drives the most ROI and adjust budgets accordingly.

Which Ad Platform is Best for B2B Marketers?

The choice between LinkedIn Ads, Google Ads, and Facebook Ads depends on your specific goals and budget:

• Best for High-Quality Leads: If your goal is to target decision-makers or specific industries, LinkedIn Ads offers the best targeting capabilities despite the higher CPC.
• Best for Capturing Intent: Google Ads is the ideal choice for driving conversions when users actively search for solutions related to your product or service.
• Best for Brand Awareness and Engagement: Facebook Ads can be a cost-effective way to build awareness and engage a broader audience, making it a valuable addition to a multi-channel strategy.

Ultimately, no single platform will serve all B2B marketing needs. A balanced, multi-channel approach ensures you can capture leads at various stages of the buyer’s journey and optimize your ad spend for maximum ROI.

Use Factors to Supercharge Your Ad Strategies 

When evaluating "LinkedIn Ads vs. Google Ads vs. Facebook Ads," B2B marketers should focus on a multi-channel strategy that leverages each platform's unique strengths. LinkedIn’s professional targeting, Google’s intent-driven search capabilities, and Facebook’s broad reach create a holistic approach that can nurture leads throughout the buyer's journey. While LinkedIn may be the best option for high-quality B2B leads, integrating all three platforms maximizes performance and ROI.

You can use Factors to measure the impact of each channel and shape your paid marketing strategies to generate more pipeline and revenue. Book a demo today to witness the power of signal-based GTM in your performance marketing efforts.

FAQs

Q1. What is the main difference between LinkedIn and Facebook Ads for B2B marketing?

LinkedIn Ads offer more advanced targeting options for professionals based on job title, industry, and company size, whereas Facebook Ads provide broader audience targeting and lower CPCs.

Q2. Are Google Ads effective for B2B companies?

Yes, Google Ads are effective for B2B companies, especially for capturing high-intent leads through search ads and remarketing strategies.

Q3. How can B2B marketers measure the success of their ad campaigns?

B2B marketers can measure the success of their campaigns through KPIs such as conversion rate, cost-per-lead (CPL), and return on ad spend (ROAS), while also using attribution models to track the contribution of each platform

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Imagine working hard for months to close the deal with a prospect, only for them to churn in less than a year. There could be several reasons, such as:

• Poor customer service
• Choosing a competitor's solution 
• Users not achieving their KPIs

Reducing customer churn is vital for businesses because it ensures customer satisfaction and boosts profitability. The best way to avoid high churn rates is to predetermine the customers at a churn risk. 

In this article, we'll detail how customer churn prediction is the key to reducing churn and keeping the cash flowing in 💸

What is Customer Churn Prediction?

Customer churn prediction involves analyzing data to detect customers likely to cancel subscriptions. SaaS businesses use this analysis to identify at-risk customers, leading to cost savings and improved customer lifetime value.

Analyzing churn through data-driven insights can help your business understand patterns and provide a roadmap for improvement. For example, if your surveys reveal that your platform has a complicated onboarding process – you can direct users to your onboarding specialist to assist them.

Why is Customer Churn Prediction important?

Losing customers is always costly. However, the costs involved go beyond the revenue lost from the customers who leave. It also includes the marketing expenses required to find new customers to replace the old ones. In many cases, the amount spent on acquiring a new customer is not covered by the amount paid during their time with the company. This means that customer acquisition is usually more expensive than customer retention.

Plus, unhappy customers share their experiences with others, impacting the company's reputation and customer acquisition budget. Businesses must predict churn and take action beforehand to prevent customers from leaving. 

Once you know a customer is going to churn, you can take actions such as:

• Providing more targeted re-engagement campaigns
• Launching incentives such as loyalty programs that encourage them to stay 
• Creating educational material that is tailored toward their specific needs
• Ensuring accessible and improved customer support 

How to Build a Customer Churn Prediction Model

Creating a churn prediction model can help businesses retain customers and sustain growth. Using data analytics and machine learning, companies can identify which customers are likely to leave and take action to prevent it. 

Here are the key steps to develop an effective churn prediction model ⬇️

1. Data collection and review

Ensure that the data is accurate by handling missing values, removing duplicates, and converting it into a suitable format for analysis. Before moving on to calculations, reviewing the data for accuracy and validity is crucial. Every piece of customer info is valuable in the upcoming churn calculations, so it's worth ensuring accuracy.

2. Model selection

Select an appropriate machine learning algorithm for churn prediction, such as logistic regression, decision trees, random forests, or gradient boosting machines. Split the data into training and testing sets, train the model, and tune hyperparameters to optimize performance. Evaluate the model using testing data and cross-validation. Deploy the model into production to make real-time predictions and prevent churn.

3. Use an automated predictive model

Do people with lower NPS scores tend to leave more? Are they evaluating competitor solutions? You can predict who might leave by spotting these signs in the data. You must use machine learning with a dataset containing all the information you have about customers who stayed and those who left. The algorithm learns from this historical data to understand how different factors relate to churn. Then, it can predict if future customers with similar behaviors might leave or stay.

💡Factors can help you identify customers evaluating competitor solutions by helping you track when they visit their G2 pages. 

4. Establish retention strategy

Optimize your retention strategy by prioritizing actions based on the probability of customer churn. When customers first sign up, use checklists and personalized help to ensure they understand and use the product. As they keep using it, watch out for signs they might leave. For instance, if they're not using a feature they need, you can send them helpful tips to get them back on track.

5. Track results regularly 

Continuously monitor the churn prediction model's performance and update it with new data periodically to ensure it remains effective as customer behavior evolves. Before introducing any further changes to your plan, collect enough data to measure the real impact of your efforts.

Your churn model will provide probabilities for various customer segments. It's essential to keep testing new strategies and recording the impact on these segments. While creating a mathematical model of churn requires time and resources from your team, each test can help you create a better model for the future. 

6 Customer churn prediction best practices

Now that you know how to build a churn prediction model, here are a few handy tips you must remember to prevent customer churn:

1. Segment Customers

After obtaining your data, it's time to shift your focus towards the users and begin segmenting them. Since users have distinct needs and usage patterns, they don't churn for the same reason. Hence, it's essential to categorize them into separate segments. You can segment them based on their:

• Demographics, such as location, region, company size, and the year they signed up for your company.
• Behavior and usage, such as how often they log in, whether they use a particular feature more or less, or whether they have completed the onboarding process.
• Contract terms include pricing plans and whether customers signed up for a monthly, quarterly, or yearly deal.

You can design retention strategies and marketing campaigns tailored to specific customer segments by segmenting customers based on their churn likelihood and characteristics. Domain knowledge or clustering techniques can help you define meaningful segments.

2. Monitor product usage data of existing customers

Product usage data captures how and when customers use your software. Important data points include feature usage, customer behavior, clicks, and other metrics such as time-to-value and product stickiness.

To build an effective model, it's important to consider some key product usage data points such as:

• Monitor feature usage data to show users' engagement with your product's features, indicating popularity and relevance.
• Observe users’ actions within your product, like when they use it, how long they use it, which features they engage with, and how they progress through it.
• Track the number of times a user clicks or interacts with a UI element, such as a button, checkbox, text area, or menu.
• Track other product usage data such as time-to-value, product stickiness, interactions, and more.

3. Keep an eye on customer success metrics

Understanding your users' success with your product is crucial in determining if they will continue using it. Surveys such as NPS and CSAT can be used to measure customer success. An NPS score of less than 7 or 8 means you may need a win-back campaign or value incentive to change their attitude towards your product. NPS measures loyalty and willingness to recommend, while CSAT measures customer satisfaction. Conduct these surveys periodically to track customer success and satisfaction.

4. Gather customer feedback regularly

Apart from gathering feedback through conventional ways, you can use various other forms of customer feedback to gain insights into their experience with your product or service. For example, in-app surveys can provide you with contextual input from users. You can use them to find out about your customer's overall satisfaction with your product, their experience with a particular feature, any issues they may have faced, or even the features they would like you to add or implement. This can be very helpful in understanding the general sentiment of users and identifying areas of improvement or strengths.

To promptly address issues and demonstrate responsiveness to user input, incorporate real-time feedback loops within your product. Acknowledge the feedback received through in-app surveys and communicate any actions taken to address user concerns.

5. Enhance customer experience

You can streamline the customer experience using automated onboarding, self-service options, and personalized support. Furthermore, you should use customer feedback to identify areas of improvement and proactively address any customer dissatisfaction rather than reacting after the fact.

6. Improve customer service

Respond promptly to inquiries and complaints, offer helpful advice, and measure performance using metrics like support tickets, call center response times, and social media interactions. Monitor these metrics to gain insights into customer service trends and effectiveness.

Customer Churn Prediction: Key Steps & Benefits

Predicting customer churn helps businesses retain clients and reduce acquisition costs through data-driven strategies.

1. Key Steps in Churn Prediction: Data collection, feature selection, model selection (Logistic Regression, Decision Trees, Random Forests, Gradient Boosting), model training, and real-time monitoring.

2. Essential Features: Customer tenure, usage frequency, service interactions, and engagement metrics.

3. Strategic Benefits: Identify at-risk customers, implement targeted retention efforts, and enhance profitability.

Leveraging churn prediction models enables businesses to proactively improve customer retention and long-term growth.

Wrapping up

Reducing customer churn is crucial for businesses as it directly impacts long-term revenue, customer loyalty, and overall business stability. However, understanding why customers leave requires analyzing data and tracking various metrics over time. Effective churn analysis involves monitoring overall customer turnover rates and identifying factors contributing to attrition.

Businesses can use advanced analytics and machine learning techniques to identify potential churners and implement targeted retention strategies.

Sales teams struggle to find the right leads because choosing the right sales intelligence tool is challenging. With so many options in the market, it’s hard to know which platform delivers the most value.

Choosing the wrong tool can cost you time, money, and even missed revenue opportunities. Apollo and ZoomInfo are two popular solutions, but each has its own strengths and limitations. Which one will help your team hit its sales targets without breaking the bank?

This article will compare Apollo vs. ZoomInfo, covering features, pros, cons, and pricing so you can make an informed choice. Plus, we’ll introduce Factors.ai, a data-driven alternative that combines sales intelligence with actionable insights and revenue impact measurement. Read on to find the best solution for your sales team.

TL;DR:

• Apollo: Offers a cost-effective solution with key features like enriched contact data, email automation, and CRM integrations. Suitable for startups and mid-market companies looking for a budget-friendly option.
• ZoomInfo: Provides highly accurate and comprehensive data with advanced search filters and intent data capabilities. Ideal for larger enterprises that require robust sales intelligence.
• Factors.ai: Goes beyond basic sales intelligence by providing a holistic view of sales and marketing data, integrating attribution, and measuring revenue impact for more data-driven decision-making.
• Feature Comparison: ZoomInfo excels in data quality, while Apollo is more affordable with strong email sequencing capabilities. Factors.ai stands out with its multi-channel attribution features and actionable insights.
• Alternative Recommendations: Apollo is a good alternative to ZoomInfo for budget-conscious teams, while ZoomInfo remains a solid choice for those who prioritize top-tier data accuracy. Factors.ai offers a more comprehensive approach to B2B sales intelligence, connecting sales efforts to revenue impact.

Apollo Overview

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Key Features

Apollo is a sales intelligence platform that helps B2B sales teams streamline their lead generation and outreach processes. Here are some of its key features:

• Enriched Contact Data: Provides access to over 250 million contacts, with email addresses, phone numbers, and company information.
• Email Sequencing: Built-in email automation allows for the creation of creating personalized email sequences.
• CRM Integrations: Seamlessly integrates with Salesforce, HubSpot, and other popular CRM platforms.
• Lead Scoring: Uses AI to rank prospects based on their likelihood to convert.
• Engagement Tracking: Monitors email opens, clicks, and replies for better follow-up strategies.

Pros and Cons

(Based on reviews from G2, TrustRadius, and Capterra)

Pros:

• Affordable Pricing: Users appreciate Apollo's budget-friendly pricing, making it suitable for startups and mid-sized businesses.
• Strong Email Sequencing Capabilities: The tool's email automation features are highly rated for ease of use and effectiveness.
• User-Friendly Interface: The platform is easy to navigate, even for sales teams with little technical experience.
• Reliable Data Quality: While not as comprehensive as ZoomInfo's data, Apollo's is considered accurate and useful for most sales teams.

Cons:

• Limited Data Accuracy for Smaller Companies: Some users report that contact data for smaller companies is less reliable.
• Basic Reporting Features: Reporting capabilities are not as advanced as ZoomInfo offers.
• Limited Intent Data: Apollo lacks robust intent data, which can be a drawback for teams prioritizing account-based marketing.

Pricing

Apollo offers a more flexible pricing structure than ZoomInfo. Plans for basic features start at around $39 per month per user. Enterprise-level plans are available for teams requiring more extensive data and capabilities.

ZoomInfo Overview

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Key Features

ZoomInfo is a leading sales intelligence tool known for its extensive contact database and high data accuracy. Key features include:

• Comprehensive Contact Database: Access to a vast database with millions of B2B contacts, including direct dials and verified email addresses.
• Advanced Search Filters: Allows sales teams to filter contacts by industry, job title, company size, and more.
• Intent Data: Identifies companies actively searching for products or services related to yours.
• Sales Automation: Provides automated workflows for outreach, including email templates and engagement tracking.
• CRM and Marketing Automation Integrations: Integrates seamlessly with tools like Salesforce, Marketo, and HubSpot.

Pros and Cons

(Based on user feedback from G2, TrustRadius, and Capterra)

Pros:

• High Data Accuracy: Users consistently praise ZoomInfo for its top-tier data accuracy and contact coverage.
• Robust Intent Data Capabilities: The platform provides actionable intent data for account-based marketing efforts.
• Advanced Search Functionality: Offers more granular search filters compared to Apollo.
• Comprehensive Integrations: Integrates well with most major CRM and marketing automation platforms.

Cons:

• Expensive Pricing: ZoomInfo's pricing is a significant investment, making it more suitable for larger sales teams and enterprises.
• Steep Learning Curve: The platform's numerous features can be overwhelming for new users.
• Occasional Data Gaps: Some users report gaps in data coverage for international contacts.

Pricing

ZoomInfo's pricing is customized based on the number of seats and features required. You can check out Zoominfo pricing here

Why Apollo is a Good ZoomInfo Alternative

• Budget-Friendly: Apollo's pricing is significantly more affordable, making it a great choice for startups and mid-sized companies that need a cost-effective solution.
• Email Sequencing: The tool's robust email automation capabilities are highly rated and can replace the need for a separate outreach tool.
• User-Friendly: The platform is straightforward and easy to use, minimizing the need for extensive training.

Why ZoomInfo is a Good Apollo Alternative

• Data Accuracy: ZoomInfo offers superior data quality, especially for enterprise-level sales teams that require the most accurate contact information.
• Robust Intent Data: ZoomInfo’s intent data capabilities are highly valuable for companies focused on account-based marketing.
• Comprehensive Search Filters: The advanced filtering options help sales teams target prospects more precisely.

Why Factors.ai is the Best Alternative to Both

Key Features of Factors.ai

Factors.ai is a robust analytics and attribution platform designed to provide more than just contact information. Its features include:

• Multi-Channel Attribution: Factors.ai connects marketing efforts across multiple channels, providing insights into what truly drives sales conversions.
• Revenue Impact Measurement: Measures the ROI of sales and marketing activities by linking campaign data to actual revenue outcomes.
• Lead and Account Scoring: Advanced AI-driven scoring helps sales teams prioritize high-quality leads based on multi-touch attribution data.
• Customizable Dashboards: Tailored reports and dashboards for sales leaders to track performance across different stages of the sales funnel.
• Seamless Integrations: Works with popular CRMs and marketing tools like Salesforce, HubSpot, Marketo, and Google Analytics.

Benefits Over Apollo and ZoomInfo

• Holistic View of Sales Performance: Factors.ai offers a broader scope than Apollo and ZoomInfo by combining sales intelligence with multi-channel attribution and revenue measurement.
• Data-Driven Decision Making: Enables sales leaders to allocate resources more effectively by identifying high-ROI activities.
• More Cost-Effective Than ZoomInfo: Provides a powerful suite of tools at a more competitive price than ZoomInfo, while still offering deeper insights than Apollo.
• Improved Alignment Between Sales and Marketing: Factors.ai’s focus on revenue impact ensures both sales and marketing teams are working towards the same goals.

Choosing the Right Sales Intelligence Platform

Apollo and ZoomInfo are leading sales intelligence tools, each catering to different business needs.

1. Apollo Overview: Affordable and user-friendly, ideal for small to mid-sized businesses. Offers 275M+ contacts, AI-driven data verification, CRM integrations, and sales engagement features like email automation.

2. ZoomInfo Overview: Comprehensive B2B database with 600M+ profiles, advanced search filters, real-time job alerts, and deep analytics. Best suited for large enterprises needing robust data and integrations.

3. Key Differences:
- Pricing: Apollo is cost-effective; ZoomInfo is premium-priced.

- Features: Apollo focuses on sales engagement; ZoomInfo provides deeper analytics and extensive firmographic data.

- Best For: Apollo suits smaller teams; ZoomInfo is ideal for complex, data-driven organizations.

Selecting the right platform depends on business size, budget, and data requirements.

Conclusion

Both Apollo and ZoomInfo are excellent tools for B2B sales teams, but each has strengths and weaknesses. Apollo is ideal for smaller teams and companies that need a budget-friendly option with strong email automation features. 

ZoomInfo is the better choice for larger enterprises prioritizing high-quality data and advanced intent data capabilities.

However, Factors.ai emerges as the best alternative for sales teams seeking a more comprehensive approach to sales intelligence. Its multi-channel attribution and revenue impact features go beyond what Apollo and ZoomInfo offer, making it an excellent choice for sales leaders who want to link sales activities directly to revenue outcomes. 

If you're looking for a platform that combines sales intelligence with actionable insights and advanced analytics, Factors.ai is the tool for you.

Book a demo today to learn how Factors can help you supercharge your sales strategy.

Also read, Factors vs ZoomInfo: Pros and Cons.

FAQs

Q1. Is Apollo a cheaper alternative to ZoomInfo?

Yes, Apollo is generally more affordable than ZoomInfo, making it a good option for small to mid-sized businesses.

Q2. Does ZoomInfo provide intent data?

Yes, ZoomInfo offers robust intent data capabilities to help identify companies actively searching for relevant products or services. However, Factors.ai gives a more holistic approach to using intent data for your GTM efforts.

Q3. How does Apollo's data accuracy compare to ZoomInfo's?

While Apollo provides reliable data, ZoomInfo is often considered to have superior data accuracy, especially for large enterprises

Looking for Lead Forensics competitors to better identify and enrich anonymous accounts engaging with your business? You're in the right place. Here's our review of the top 10 Lead Forensics alternatives in 2024

In this article, we’ll cover:

• Lead Forensics' features, limitations, and pricing
• Top 9 Lead Forensics competitors — including their features, limitations, and pricing 
• Factors you should consider when investing in an account intelligence tool

About Lead Forensics

Lead Forensics is a popular visitor identification software that works with over 60,000 customers worldwide. The tool helps businesses identify companies visiting a website using reverse IP-lookup technology.

Some of its key features include:

• Real-time website visitor tracking
• Large database regularly updated with B2B IP addresses 
• Access to contact-level data such as email IDs and phone numbers

Lead Forensics offers two plans: Essential and Automate

Although there’s not much clarity about the pricing on their website, here’s our comprehensive breakdown of Lead Forensics Pricing

Why look for a Lead Forensics Alternative?

Lead Forensics is a widely used tool in the account intelligence space. That being said, no solution is without its flaws. Here are a few reasons why B2B marketers and sales folk consider Lead Forensics competitors. 

Lack of Granularity in Data: Users have stated that they prefer to gain access to deeper insights with the data collected by the tool 

Steep Pricing: Customers across review platforms have stated that Lead Forensics can be relatively pricey for SME businesses looking for cost-effective solutions

Learning curve: Users on G2 have reported that the tool presents certain complexities, leading to a slightly steep learning curve

What to Look for in a Lead Forensics Alternative

• Granular Data: Look for a solution that offers in-depth insight into when a high-fit and high-intent account visits your website. This means access to technographic and firmographic data as well. 
• Real-Time Notifications: Ensure your sales and marketing teams act right when target accounts visit your website. Select a tool that sends real-time alerts on Slack and MS Teams instead of just emails. 
• Robust Integration Options: Invest in a platform that allows flexible integration with existing tools in your tech stack. 
• Ease of Use: Make sure you select a platform that is easy to navigate and has a clean UI 
• Broader ABM functionality: While identifying web visitors is one part, taking actionable steps with this data is equally important. Opt for a tool that gives you the ability to execute your ABM strategy without the need to switch between multiple platforms
• Account and Engagement Scoring: Find a tool that tells you how much your prospects engage with your website so you can appropriately target your marketing and sales efforts
• Intent Data from Multiple Platforms: Your LinkedIn and G2 profiles are lead-generation goldmines, so invest in a solution that gives you 

Top 10 Lead Forensics Competitors in 2024

There are many Lead Forensics competitors in the market today, but we’ve researched and hand-picked the best ones for you. Here’s all you need to know about the top 10 visitor identification and account intelligence tools among B2B companies ⬇️

1. Clearbit

Clearbit is a marketing intelligence tool for B2B businesses that offer users visitor deanonymization, along with intent data, contact data of leads & firmographic data. The tool offers users a large collection of data sets, using publicly available data on the internet, proprietary data, and a large language model (LLM) that organizes unstructured data into usable, standardized modes of information.

Key Features‍

Clearbit offers B2B companies a three-part solution: Enrich, Reveal, and Capture.

• Enrichment: Clearbit’s vast database comprises over 250 data sources and millions of data points, allowing users to easily obtain novel leads.
• Reveal: The tool uses AI-powered deanonymization with data in multiple languages to help users recognize lucrative advertising initiatives and high-intent accounts.
• Capture: Clearbit’s seamless integration capabilities allow it to capture all relevant information from your CRM and streamline sales and marketing processes. 

💡Check out Factors’ new partnership with Clearbit

Limitations

• Relatively high pricing compared to other tools offering similar capabilities

• Users find Clearbit’s integrations immensely useful. However, they find that its data accuracy levels could be higher.‍

Pricing

TrustRadius lists Clearbit’s pricing as $20,000 annually, but the company does not have publicly available pricing information on its website. Clearbit offers flexible pricing on its website, which depends on the user’s contact creation needs, web traffic, and database size.

2. Visitor Queue

Visitor Queue is a visitor identification tool that businesses use to identify prospective clients. You can then use it to reach out to decision-makers from the companies that you’re targeting. 

The tool also provides names, contact information, location, and social media links for the businesses visiting your website. It ensures compliance with local and international privacy laws by relying entirely on publicly available data pulled from a variety of sources.

Key Features

Visitor Queue offers its clients:

• Real-time visitor identification
• Website personalization
• Anonymous website visitor tracking.

Limitations

• It does not have as large a database of companies as many competitors
• It sometimes identifies internet service providers (ISPs) as visiting businesses.

Pricing

Visitor Queue offers five payment tiers depending on the number of leads a client requires from them per month. Here are Visitor Queue’s payment plans:

3. Factors.ai

Factors is an account intelligence and analytics solution that connects with industry-leading data partners to provide IP-based deanonymization. It also provides robust account analytics functions including multi-touch attribution, account scoring, path analysis, and more.

Key Features

Factors offers its clients versatile, comprehensive features, including:

• IP-based B2B account identification across the website, product reviews & ad impressions, with match rates powered by 6sense and Clearbit
• Real-time alerts across Slack & MS Teams to stay on top of high-intent accounts are live and engaging 
• Account scoring where you can create your own scoring rules to score and qualify and segment high-intent accounts based on cross-channel engagement
• G2 and LinkedIn intent signals to identify how prospects are engaging with your profile 
• Workflow automation that allows you to push high-fit and high-intent prospects to mail sequencing tools, push to LinkedIn retargeting audience, and more with webhooks
• Robust analytics and attribution that gives you complete overview on how buyers act at each stage of the customer journey.
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💡Check out how Factors helped Drivetrain 3x their sales engagement 

Limitations

• Factors doesn’t offer native contact enrichment unlike other the more established platforms on this list but integrates with major enrichment tools like Apollo and Zoominfo 

Pricing

Factors offer a free plan along with 3 other tiers:

• Free
• Basic
• Growth 
• Custom

Learn more about our pricing here

4. Happierleads

Happierleads’ visitor identification tool enables you to reach out to, and target leads that aren’t currently converting into clients. Happierleads’ automated solutions enable users to follow up with visitors and retarget them on autopilot. Its large database of companies also makes for quicker, easier visitor identification.

Key Features

Happierleads offers users four solutions:

• Web Visitor Identification, which helps clients understand which visitors to target
• Prospector, a solution that enables users to contact decision-makers for over 60 million companies
• Enrichment, which adds missing information about leads
• Outreach Software, which sends cold emails to target prospects

Limitations

• Users have reported that the platform can be unintuitive and difficult to navigate 

• Does not offer dedicated engagement analytics

Pricing

Happierleads offers 4 different pricing plans based on the company’s growth stage:

5. KickFire (now part of Foundry)

KickFire identifies leads who are engaging with your company and segments them according to intent. KickFire allows you to prioritize leads based on intent segmentation. It also allows users to see which types of content resonate the most with their target audiences. It is now a part of Foundry as of 2024. 

Key Features

KickFire offers users the following features:

• Data verified by humans and normalized across the sales and marketing platforms
• Prompts that offer actionable sales and marketing insights
• Easy installation and buyer identification.

Limitations

• Customers have reported that the filtered results aren’t accurate and lack granularity when compared to other tools in the market

‍Pricing

KickFire does not offer pricing information publicly.

6. LeadLander

LeadLander’s visitor identification solution gives you employee contact information for priority leads. The tool offers users contact profiles and key data points that can help companies close more deals. It also provides user journey information and the web pages each visitor has seen.

‍Key Features

• De-anonymization
• Customer behavior and journey data
• Key contact information for high-priority leads‍

Limitations

• Sometimes gives cable or ISP addresses in place of visitor data
• Account scoring and engagement scoring capabilities are limited

Pricing

LeadLander offers 2 pricing plans:

7. LeadInfo

LeadInfo de-anonymizes website visitors for B2B clients using their extensive data set. They match the visitor’s IP address against their vast database. Their clients obtain an overview of website users, the companies they belong to, and their behaviors.

It offers users various one-click integrations and worldwide coverage to ensure seamless lead generation. It also lets B2B companies view website visitors in real-time.

‍Key Features

Leadinfo’s key features include:

• A vast dataset of companies
• Global coverage
• 60+ one-click integrations
• Real-time website visitor information‍

Limitations

• Limited dashboard capabilities
• Users state that pricing is slightly on the higher end compared to tools with similar capabilities‍

Leadinfo Pricing

Leadinfo’s pricing model uses a sliding scale based on the number of unique companies recognized per month on their clients’ websites.

8. Albacross

Albacross’s account intelligence offerings help users nurture leads visiting their websites. They help clients discover unseen purchasing intent through their deanonymization feature, thereby generating more pipeline and accelerating sales.

Key Features

Albacross offers its users:

• Visitor deanonymization
• Real-time alerts for priority prospects
• A global database of companies

‍Limitations

• Albacross doesn’t offer as many integrations as its counterparts
• Software has a relatively steep learning curve
• Doesn’t offer workflow automation  

Albacross’s interface helps users organize data intuitively. However, small businesses have found that the tool may be more suited to larger organizations due to informational gaps in Albacross’s database.

Pricing

Albacross offers users two pricing models: Self-service and Growth.

9. Leadfeeder (now Dealfront)

Leadfeeder’s visitor identification capabilities help users convert page views into valuable pipeline.

Leadfeeder’s four-step plan to uncover hidden leads visiting their users’ websites is to identify, qualify, collect, and send leads. This ensures that their users obtain high-value leads that have a better chance of converting.

Key Features

Leadfeeder’s features include:

• Website visitor tracking
• Account-based marketing, and
• Sales prospecting.

‍Limitations

• Limited integrations
• Does not offer real-time alerts for website visitors
• Lack of engagement scoring  and workflow automation

Pricing

Leadfeeder offers users two payment plans:

💡Compare‍ Albacross and Leadfeeder

10. Warmly

‍

Warmly is a sales orchestration platform that uses AI to identify, track, and connect with website visitors who are actively looking to buy. They offer workflow features that automate sales prospecting for SMB-sized revenue teams.

Key Features

• Autonomous Sales Orchestration
• Automated Intent-Driven Outreach
• Website deanonymization

Limitations

• Massive pricing jump from the free plan
• Customers have mentioned they would like additional filters to better segment their data
• Users have reported that the tool has a steep learning curve

Pricing

Warmly offers a free plan along with a business plan for $1200/mo and an enterprise custom pricing.

Top Lead Forensics Alternatives

Visitor identification software helps businesses track website visitors and generate leads through reverse IP lookup.

- Top Alternatives: ZoomInfo Sales, Visitor Queue, Clearbit, Salespanel, and Leadfeeder.

- Key Features: Real-time visitor tracking, lead scoring, CRM integration, and enhanced B2B contact data.

- Strategic Benefits: Improve lead generation, personalize outreach, and streamline sales processes.

Choosing the right alternative depends on data accuracy, integration capabilities, pricing, and business-specific needs to optimize lead identification and conversion.

Choose the Right Account Intelligence Tool For You 

Deanonymization is essential for B2B companies to expand and target high-value prospects. Your account intelligence tool should also help you qualify and activate high-intent accounts visiting your website. Factors analytics and attribution platform helps you evaluate and iterate your sales and marketing campaigns so you can turn prospects to paying customers in no time. 

Its no-code integrations and robust reporting make for an easy user experience with a minimal learning curve.

Get in touch with us today to find out how Factors’ account intelligence capabilities can help your company minimize pipeline leakage and increase efficiency and revenue.

When you think of launching an ABM campaign, it’s natural to consider running LinkedIn ads. All you need to do is build and upload an audience list of your target accounts and launch your ads… right? Unfortunately, creating audience lists isn’t a walk in the park. 

Your ability to maximize the value of your ads depends heavily on how you target them. If you want to build the perfect audience list, you need to look through mountains of data across multiple tools and Excel sheets while manually categorizing it according to your campaign goals. 

Luckily, we have “Audience Builder” to prevent you from wasting your money.

In this article, we’ll show you how using Audience Builder is an effective way for you to target your audience on LinkedIn 🎯 

Audience targeting: why the old way doesn’t work 

Marketers typically build multiple audience lists for several different marketing initiatives, such as:

• ICP lists
• ABM lists
• Retargeting lists
• Webinar lists
• Intent data lists
• SDR lists, etc. 

You might rely on LinkedIn’s native targeting filters to build your target account list. However, this comes with a set of challenges, such as: 

• LinkedIn native targeting filters don’t include intent data, making it difficult to specifically target high-intent accounts 
• LinkedIn’s job titles and industry tags are still being updated, so you might unintentionally target accounts that don’t fall under your ICP. 

Of course, you can also build target account lists outside the platform via Apollo or Zoominfo and upload them to Campaign Manager. However, building out and vetting this list while sorting through different data sets would be time-consuming. Let’s say you want to build a list excluding your existing customers or those who have already signed up for a demo. It becomes tedious to scope out and filter every single account. Plus, you also have to continuously update this list every day according to when prospects book demos. 

Now that’s A LOT ☠️

Abhishek at Descope explains why they faced a challenge when creating audience lists for their LinkedIn ad campaigns:

“Most tech companies have very complex buying groups with multiple stakeholders where the decision-maker and influencer differ. We were looking for a scalable way to craft the right message for the right buyer role at the right organization size without blowing the company’s budget.” – Abhishek Iyer, Director of Marketing at Descope.

For all these reasons, you need a tool that consolidates and integrates all your account data across multiple tools and automatically creates an audience list of accounts interested in your solution. Fortunately, your search ends here!

Introducing Audience Builder 

Audience Builder allows you to build any audience from your Factors data and automatically sync these lists directly to LinkedIn. Let’s show you how: 

Segment your audience lists based on intent data

Let’s say you want to show your ads specifically to accounts who visit your pricing page. You can use the event as a trigger to add them to a LinkedIn audience. Now, you can show ads to product-aware accounts, aiming to engage them further after they've shown interest. 

You can skip the guesswork and leverage the power of intent data to target the accounts genuinely interested in your product. You avoid wasting ad spend and can have your GTM team prioritize the right prospects to meet your pipeline targets

Sync data from multiple sources 

Every marketing team uses various tools across their tech stack, each with different capabilities. However, syncing data across these tools to create an airtight audience list can be tricky. 

Let’s say you use Salesforce. Since Salesforce doesn’t have a native sync with LinkedIn, you have to manually sort and build the list before uploading it to Campaign Manager. Plus, Salesforce doesn't offer website intent data or G2 intent data, so you cannot filter accounts that are genuinely interested in your solution. That’s where Factors comes in. 

We help you unify end-to-end B2B customer journey data from G2, Linkedin, CRMs, and MAPs, giving you insights into every customer segment, their intent signals, and how to reach them effectively.

Here’s an example of how Descope uses the Audience Builder feature to build their lists:

“Factors provides granular visibility into accounts visiting our website as well as their engagement across G2 and other channels. Accordingly, we receive tons of insight into account activity without the need for form submissions or sign-ups. 

Based on this, we’ve created 3 audience segments: Top, middle, and bottom of the funnel. These audiences are pushed into LinkedIn campaigns and served tailored ads based on their sales cycle stage.”  – Abhishek Iyer, Director of Marketing at Descope

Audience Builder use cases

Now, you can leverage every bit of GTM data to create and activate the most relevant audiences. Here are a few ways you can use this shiny new feature to supercharge your LinkedIn ads:

• US-based software companies with 500+ employees that visited the pricing page >2 times and are not in the CRM: When ICP accounts visit a high-intent page like your pricing or demo booking page, they are far more engaged than just regular website visitors. You can create a list of such accounts in your CRM and launch a retargeting campaign where you can use ads to drive consideration for your product. 

• ICP accounts that clicked on a search ad but failed to convert: Suppose a set of accounts clicked on a search ad that includes a feature keyword. You can use this data to push these accounts to a list that shows ads related to the relevant feature. Plus, you can add a condition to exclude companies who booked a demo. 

• Enterprise Software and IT services companies that engage with more than 5 pages of your G2 category: When you notice accounts engage with your G2 page, they are evaluating your solution. Create a list targeting decision-makers and launch an ad campaign highlighting your best reviews and case studies. 

• ABM target accounts that viewed LinkedIn ads and then visited the website: Prospects that visit your site after clicking an ad are likely problem-aware, so you can create an account list and add them to a sequential ad campaign to move them further down the funnel. 

Once Descope used Factors to build audience lists, they saw positive results and could easily target their ICP accounts without sifting through loads of data across their tech stack:

“Factors is already playing a key role in helping us make our LinkedIn paid spend more efficient. Even if one person from a specific account visits our website, Factors helps us target decision-makers and the larger buying committee as a whole to ensure that all the right people from a target account see our ads. Ultimately, this helps our LinkedIn ad budgets go that extra mile.”  – Abhishek Iyer, Director of Marketing at Descope.

Enhancing LinkedIn Ad Targeting with Factors.ai's Audience Builder

Factors.ai’s Audience Builder refines LinkedIn ad targeting by leveraging intent data for precise audience segmentation.

- Targeting with Intent Data: Identify high-intent accounts, such as those visiting pricing pages.

- Automated Audience List Creation: Integrates data from multiple sources to streamline segmentation and reduce manual effort.

- Direct LinkedIn Sync: Ensures ads reach relevant prospects in real-time, boosting engagement and conversions.

By addressing limitations in LinkedIn’s native filters—such as outdated job titles and lack of intent data—Audience Builder enhances targeting accuracy, improves campaign performance, and drives higher ROI.

Join the waitlist today

Building a solid audience list is key to targeting your ideal prospects. With AdPilot, you can use data-driven insights to effectively target the right accounts at the right time and double your LinkedIn ROI. Speak to our experts today to learn how AdPilot can revamp your LinkedIn ads strategy.

LinkedIn is truly the place to B2B, isn’t it?

80% of B2B marketers say LinkedIn is part of their advertising strategy because 4 out of 5 of its 900 million members drive business decisions, making it a key platform for lead generation. Marketers can launch ad campaigns to target decision-makers from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies worldwide. 

LinkedIn’s robust campaign manager platform allows companies to set their targeting criteria based on 20 different attribute categories, such as company, job experience, education, demographics, interests, and traits.

However, while LinkedIn campaign manager is a boon for running B2B ads, there's room for refinement when it comes to the ad platform's industry tag categorization and audience targeting mechanism.

The LinkedIn industry list currently consists of 24 main categories and 148 subcategories as applicable industries for company profiles. These categories are presently visible for company pages but are yet to be updated on Campaign Manager.

While these categories cover a wide range of industries, this article explores why they may still be insufficient — and how we can overcome the hurdle of vague industry tags to optimize ad performance ⬇️

How Does LinkedIn Campaign Manager Define Industries? 

LinkedIn defines industry as the company's primary industry, which is where the member is employed, as stated by the company. Additional industries may be inferred about the company and included for targeting.

Individuals can’t choose the industry but rather get assigned the company's industry to which they are attached. 

The problem arises when there is limited clarity on which industry a particular company belongs to. When selecting the industry option of a LinkedIn company page, the creator or page admin determines the industry. Since these are subjective, irregularities can occur especially when a company can come under two different industries. 

For instance, a health tech company can come under “health, wellness and fitness,” “hospital and health care” or “software development”

Let’s look at this with a detailed example 🔽

Suppose you want to showcase your ad to decision-makers working in fintechs specifically. Here are examples of 3 fintech companies and how LinkedIn identifies their industries: 

1. RazorpayXPayroll is placed under “IT services and consulting,” whereas it’s payroll software. 

2. PayPal & Payoneer are similar platforms that facilitate international bank transfers but are under different industry tags.

As you can see, all 3 companies are virtually the same but are categorized differently on Linkedin. Seems confusing, right?

You risk losing out on ICP companies or worse you spend on irrelevant companies that are not your ICP because LinkedIn's categorization is different from your expectations

For instance, if you want to target fintechs and pick “financial services” in campaign manager, you’d also end up advertising to banks and investment companies.

Or if you pick “software and development,” your ads are shown to every other software company, regardless of whether they come under your ICP.

And we all know that an unqualified prospect can take a lot of time from your sales and marketing team, costing your company more than it pays.

Now the real question is, 

How Do You Overcome This Problem?

Here’s what Tim Davidson, VP of Marketing at B2B Rizz, has to say:

As mentioned above, creating a target account list on a third-party platform allows you to present your ads to high-intent companies that actually fall within your ICP without overshooting your paid ad spend.

You can either build a list of cold accounts on a database tool like Apollo or ZoomInfo or build granular segments of warm ICP accounts engaging on your Website, LinkedIn, G2, CRM, etc. inside Factors.

💡You can use Factors account segments to identify and create a list of web visitors segmented by source and how far along they are in the customer journey. You can also refine the list by targeting accounts that visit high-intent pages (pricing pages, comparison blogs, G2 reviews, etc.) and fit your ICP based on demographics, industry, technographics, revenue, etc. Once done, you’ll have a list of high-fit, high-intent accounts.

Upload this list when creating audiences on LinkedIn to skip the ambiguity and save ad spend. It also comes in handy when launching retargeting campaigns to prospects in the solution-aware stage.

Understanding LinkedIn Industry Tags

LinkedIn industry tags help categorize companies into 24 main categories and 148 subcategories, enabling audience segmentation for B2B advertising.

- Challenges in Targeting: Categories can be ambiguous, making precise audience segmentation difficult.

- Classification Issues: A health tech company may fall under multiple categories like "Health, Wellness and Fitness," "Hospital and Health Care," or "Software Development."

- Optimizing Targeting: Combine industry tags with job titles, company size, and demographics for better audience reach.

Refining targeting strategies with additional attributes ensures more accurate segmentation, improves ad performance, and enhances B2B marketing effectiveness.

Wrapping Up

LinkedIn’s native targeting features while useful still have some room for optimization that the LinkedIn team is currently working on solving. In the meantime, you can use target account lists to save time and exclusively target your ads to prospects in market for your solution.

Find out how you can use Factors.ai for LinkedIn retargeting

And guess what? We’re coming up with something exciting that can help you revamp your LinkedIn ad strategy and make the most of LinkedIn. Stay tuned for more!