Factors.ai Blog

Remember when your marketing stack looked like a game of Tetris designed by someone in the midst of a caffeine overdose?

You had one tool for attribution. Another for ads. A third for visitor identification. Something else for account intelligence. A different platform for brand awareness. Yet another for retargeting. And maybe, if you were feeling really spicy, a separate budget line for "thought leadership" that nobody could quite quantify.

Each tool promised to be the missing piece. Each integration required three meetings and a sacrifice to the API gods. And each quarterly business review involved explaining to your CFO why you needed 47 different SaaS subscriptions for marketing.

That era is ending. Not because someone invented a magical all-in-one platform, but because LinkedIn quietly became really, really good at doing multiple jobs that used to require completely separate channels and tools.

The data tells a story that's impossible to ignore. B2B marketers are consolidating spend, strategy, and execution onto LinkedIn at a blistering pace. And it’s for some good, measurable, ROI reasons.

TL;DR

• Marketing stacks are shrinking, and LinkedIn is replacing tools for ABM, brand, demand, and attribution.
• Ad budgets are shifting fast: LinkedIn ad spend rose 31.7% YoY; Google’s grew just 6%.
• Thought Leader Ads and native audience targeting outperform legacy tactics in both reach and ROI.
• LinkedIn isn't everything, but it’s fast becoming the center of gravity for B2B marketing.

The Facts: A 31.7% Vote of Confidence

LinkedIn advertising budgets grew 31.7% year-over-year. Google Ads? Just 6%.

That's not a trend. That's a stampede.

LinkedIn's share of digital marketing budgets jumped from 31.3% to 37.6%, a 6.3 percentage point shift that represents billions of dollars in reallocation. Google's share dropped from 68.7% to 62.4%.

But here's what makes this consolidation different from typical "hot new channel" hype cycles: marketers aren't just experimenting with LinkedIn. They're systematically moving budget away from other channels because LinkedIn is doing jobs those channels used to own.

Brand awareness? LinkedIn.
Lead generation? LinkedIn.
Account-based targeting? LinkedIn.
Thought leadership distribution? LinkedIn.
Retargeting? LinkedIn.
Pipeline attribution? LinkedIn.

One platform. Multiple jobs. And the performance data backs up why this consolidation is accelerating.

Job #1: Brand Awareness (Your TV Budget)

Brand awareness campaigns on LinkedIn grew from 17.5% to 31.3% of total ad spend. That's nearly doubled in a single year.

Why? Because LinkedIn cracked the code on something that's frustrated B2B marketers forever: how to build brand awareness among your exact ICP without wasting impressions on people who will never, ever buy from you.

Traditional brand advertising required you to buy billboards, sponsor conferences, maybe run some display ads, and hope the right people saw them. You'd spend six figures reaching a million people, knowing that 990,000 of them were completely irrelevant.

LinkedIn flips this equation. You can run brand awareness campaigns that reach exclusively VPs of Marketing at 500-1000 person SaaS companies in North America. Zero waste. Total precision.

And that brand awareness creates a multiplier effect across every other channel. Analysis shows that ICP accounts exposed to LinkedIn ads demonstrate:

• 46% higher paid search conversion rates
• 43% better SDR meeting-to-deal conversion
• 112% lift in content marketing conversion

Your LinkedIn brand investment doesn't just stop at LinkedIn. It makes everything else work better.

Job #2: Demand Capture (What Google Used to Own)

LinkedIn isn't replacing Google for bottom-funnel search intent (that said, paid traffic is declining 39%, with an average of 24% increase of spend, do with that what you will). But it's taking a massive share of the "consideration stage" demand capture that used to flow through content syndication, display ads, and mid-funnel nurture.

Lead generation campaigns still represent 39.4% of LinkedIn spend (down from 53.9%, but still substantial). And the quality metrics are crushing it:

• 71.9% of marketers agree that leads from LinkedIn ads align more closely with their ICP
• 52.3% say LinkedIn leads are more likely to be senior-level decision-makers

You're not just capturing demand. You're capturing the right demand, from people who can actually sign contracts.

The cost efficiency tells the story even more clearly. Cost per ICP account engaged on LinkedIn is $257. On Google? $560. LinkedIn costs less than half for higher-quality accounts.

When one platform delivers better targeting, quality, and economics, consolidation just makes sense 🤌.

Job #3: Thought Leadership Distribution (RIP, Your Blog)

Here's where LinkedIn really stands out from every other platform: it's the only place where executive thought leadership actually reaches decision-makers at scale.

42% of marketers now use Thought Leader Ads regularly. Another 31% use them occasionally. That's 73% adoption of a format that barely existed two years ago.

The explosive growth is because Thought Leader Ads solve a problem that used to require an entire content distribution apparatus. You'd write a killer article, publish it on your blog, promote it through email, maybe syndicate it, cross your fingers, and hope the right people saw it.  Now it’s simply not happening that way; even the gold standard of proprietary analyst reports are facing declining performance for 75% of organizations. There’s a 26.3% decline in report downloads. Your CEO is yelling into a void.

Now, your CEO writes a post. You put $500 behind it as a Thought Leader Ad. It reaches 10,000 people who match your exact ICP. They see authentic content from a real person (not a corporate page), in their feed, with the credibility that comes from executive bylines.

The engagement rates speak for themselves. According to LinkedIn's platform data, Thought Leader content receives significantly higher engagement than traditional company page posts. It's authentic, it's from a real human, and it builds trust in ways that traditional ads never could.

Static images can still work, but video and document ads allow brands to tell richer stories and build emotional connections faster. Even short videos communicate tone and personality in ways static content can't, whilst document ads help educate and add genuine value.

LinkedIn Ad Formats Comparison Table

Job #4: Account-Based Targeting (What Used to Require a Whole Stack)

Traditional ABM required you to:

1. Identify target accounts (some specialized platform or a massive spreadsheet)
2. Enrich those accounts with data (Clearbit, ZoomInfo)
3. Track their behavior (your analytics platform)
4. Build audiences (your ad platforms)
5. Retarget them (separate retargeting tools)
6. Measure everything (attribution software)

LinkedIn collapsed that entire stack into native functionality.

Matched Audiences lets you upload your CRM data directly. Account targeting lets you specify exact companies. Predictive Audiences uses AI to find lookalikes of your best customers. Website retargeting via Insight Tag captures visitors and brings them back.

What’s amazing is that it actually works better than the Frankenstack approach because everything is native. No leaky integrations, data delays, and no "why is this account showing up in one system but not another?" debugging sessions.

The consolidation isn't just about convenience, it's about effectiveness.

Job #5: Multi-Format Creative (Because Buyers Are Humans)

LinkedIn used to be "that place you run text ads and single image ads." Not anymore.

Video ads grew from 11.9% to 16.6% of spend. Document ads grew from 6.4% to 10.7%. Connected TV advertising went from 0.5% to 6.3%. Off-site delivery (reaching LinkedIn's audience across the web) grew from 12.9% to 16.7%.

One platform now supports:

• Single image ads
• Carousel ads
• Video ads
• Document ads
• Thought Leader ads
• Message ads
• Conversation ads
• Event ads
• Connected TV ads
• Off-site display

Oooh, that’s a loooong list!

Each format serves a different job in the buyer journey. Document ads for education. Video for storytelling. Thought Leader for authenticity. Single image for direct response. Connected TV for broad reach among your ICP. Let me just put it in a table for you.

LinkedIn Ad Formats & Use-Cases Comparison Table

You used to need different platforms and vendors for each format. Now it's in the Campaign Managers tabs.

Job #6: The 95%-5% Rule (Why LinkedIn Owns Both Ends)

The LinkedIn B2B Institute's research established a critical insight: only 5% of your target market is actively in-market at any given time. The other 95% are out-of-market but will buy eventually.

Most platforms force you to choose. Brand awareness platforms (display, TV, sponsorships) reach the 95% but can't capture the 5%. Performance platforms (search, intent data) capture the 5% but miss the 95%.

LinkedIn is the only platform that legitimately does both jobs well. And with CRM’s misattributing 14.3% of leads as ‘generated from paid search’ actually originating from LinkedIn, it’s well worth looking a bit harder at your data to find out where your leads are really coming from.

Brand awareness campaigns with broad targeting build mental availability with the 95%. Retargeting and lead generation campaigns capture the 5% showing intent. Same platform and data, with unified measurement… it’s a dream come true (ok maybe notonly for a bunch of weird marketing people).

This isn't theoretical. The budget shifts prove marketers recognize this dual capability as LinkedIn's killer feature.

And Consolidation Only Accelerates From Here

Survey data shows 56.4% of B2B marketers plan to increase their LinkedIn budgets by more than 10% in 2026. The consolidation  is speeding up.

Three forces are driving continued acceleration:

1. Measurement keeps improving.
   LinkedIn CAPI integration enables accurate conversion tracking. Account-level analytics provide visibility into buying committee engagement. Multi-touch attribution actually works when most touchpoints happen on the same platform.
   
2. Format innovation continues.
   Thought Leader Ads launched and immediately hit 42% regular usage. Document Ads went from nothing to 10.7% of spend. What's next? Whatever it is, it'll be native to the platform and integrated with everything else.
   
3. ROI is undeniable.
   Median ROAS of 1.8x. Cost per ICP account that's half of Google. LinkedIn-sourced deals closing 28.6% higher ACV. When one platform delivers superior performance across multiple metrics, CFOs stop asking "why are we spending so much on LinkedIn?" and start asking "why are we still spending so much on everything else?"

The Caveat is That LinkedIn Can’t Be Everything

LinkedIn consolidation doesn't mean LinkedIn monopoly. It’s not some magical unicorn.🦄

You still need:

• A website (obviously)
• Email nurture (LinkedIn can't send your drip campaigns)
• CRM (Hubspot isn't going anywhere)
• Analytics infrastructure (like Factors.ai you need to measure cross-channel impact)
• Other channels for specific use cases (events, community, SEO)

The consolidation is NOT  about replacing your entire stack. It's about LinkedIn absorbing jobs that used to require 5-10 separate tools and channels.

Instead of: Display network + content syndication + brand awareness campaigns + thought leadership distribution + ABM platform + retargeting tool + intent data provider.

You get: LinkedIn.

That's the consolidation. And it works.

What This Means for Your Strategy Now

If LinkedIn is becoming the platform that does everything, your strategy needs to reflect that reality.

Stop thinking about LinkedIn as "social media" or "just another channel." Start thinking about it as your primary B2B marketing operating system.

That means:

• Consolidating previously separate budgets (brand, demand, ABM) into an integrated LinkedIn strategy
• Using LinkedIn as the hub for both the 95% (brand awareness) and the 5% (demand capture)
• Leveraging multiple formats to engage buyers across the entire journey
• Building measurement that captures LinkedIn's impact on every other channel
• Accepting that the platform doing multiple jobs well is better than multiple platforms each doing one job, adequately

The data shows this consolidation is accelerating, not slowing. The companies winning in 2026 will be the ones who recognized this shift in 2025 and restructured their entire approach accordingly.

The companies still treating LinkedIn as a test budget or a side channel? They'll be the ones wondering why their competitors are running away with market share.

Want to see which accounts are engaging with your LinkedIn campaigns and how that engagement impacts your entire funnel? Factors.ai provides unified visibility across LinkedIn, your website, CRM, and G2 so you can measure the true impact of consolidating your B2B marketing on one platform.

FAQs for 

Q1: Why are B2B marketers shifting their budgets to LinkedIn?

Because LinkedIn now provides better ROI, tighter audience precision, and consolidated functionality across brand, demand, and ABM, making it more efficient than fragmented stacks.

Q2: Is LinkedIn replacing platforms like Google Ads or HubSpot?

Not entirely. Google still dominates bottom-funnel intent. LinkedIn complements, not replaces, tools like CRM or SEO platforms. But it does take over many mid-funnel and targeting roles.

Q3: What makes LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads so effective?

They deliver authentic, executive-authored content to exact decision-makers, with higher engagement and credibility than traditional brand content or blog distribution.

Q4: Does consolidating on LinkedIn mean giving up control over strategy?

No. It means streamlining execution while improving visibility, performance tracking, and buyer journey orchestration, all within a unified ecosystem.

Q5: What types of ad formats are working best on LinkedIn right now?

Video ads, document ads, and Thought Leader Ads show strong engagement. Their flexibility supports storytelling, education, and direct conversion, depending on campaign goals.

You're sitting in a budget planning meeting. Your CFO is asking why you need more money for LinkedIn Ads when "Google has always worked." Your VP of Sales wants to know which channel is actually delivering pipeline. Your CEO is wondering if this whole "social selling" thing is just marketing buzzword bingo.

You need answers. Real ones. With actual numbers attached.

We analyzed performance data from 100+ B2B marketing teams spanning Q3 2024 to Q3 2025. And the results are about to make your next budget conversation a whole lot easier.

TL;DR

• LinkedIn delivers stronger ROI. With a 1.8x ROAS vs Google’s 1.25x, LinkedIn ads are driving 44% more revenue per dollar spent.
• It costs less to reach your ideal buyers. LinkedIn’s cost per ICP account engaged is $257, less than half of Google’s $560.
• Meetings are better and cheaper. LinkedIn generates qualified meetings at a 1.3x cost advantage, and with higher decision-maker quality.
• Deals close bigger on LinkedIn. LinkedIn-sourced opportunities produce 28.6% higher average contract values than Google.

The Stakes: A Massive Budget Shift Is Already Happening

Before we dive into the four-metric-takedown, let's talk about what B2B CMOs are actually doing with their money.

Our report showed that over the past year, LinkedIn's share of digital marketing budgets jumped from 31.3% to 37.6%. Google's share dropped from 68.7% to 62.4%. We're witnessing a 6.3 percentage-point shift in market share, which in absolute dollar terms represents a fundamental reallocation of B2B marketing spend.

CMOs don't make these kinds of moves on a whim. They make them when the ROI data becomes impossible to ignore.

So, what does that data actually say?

Metric #1: Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)

Let's start with the metric that makes your CFO's cold, money-loving heart sing: raw return on ad spend.

• LinkedIn median ROAS: 1.8x
• Google Ads median ROAS: 1.25x

LinkedIn delivers a 44% advantage in revenue return per dollar spent, compared to Google Ads.

Read that again. For every dollar you invest in LinkedIn Ads, you're getting $1.80 back in revenue. For Google Ads? $1.25.

A 1.25x ROAS isn't bad. It's positive ROI. You're making money.

But when you're allocating budget between channels, 44% matters. A lot.

If you have $100K to spend and you're trying to hit pipeline targets, that 44% ROAS advantage translates to real money. We're talking about the difference between hitting your number and explaining to your board why you came up short.

Why the ROAS Gap Exists

LinkedIn's ROAS advantage stems from something fundamental: targeting precision.

Google Ads operates on intent signals. Someone searches for "marketing automation software," and boom, your ad appears. That's powerful. But it's also a blunt instrument.

You're catching people at the moment of search, but you have no idea if they're:

• A qualified buyer or a student doing research
• At a company that fits your ICP or a 10-person startup
• A decision-maker or an intern gathering information
• Actually in-market or just browsing

LinkedIn flips this equation. You're targeting based on professional identity: job title, company size, industry, and seniority level. You know you're reaching the VP of Marketing at a 500-person SaaS company, not some rando who typed marketing-related words into a search bar.

This precision means every ad impression has a higher probability of reaching someone who could actually buy. And that precision compounds into higher ROAS.

Metric #2: Cost Per ICP Account Engaged

ROAS tells you about revenue efficiency. But what about pipeline efficiency? How much does it cost to get your ideal customer profile accounts into your funnel?

• LinkedIn: $257 per ICP account engaged
• Google: $560 per ICP account engaged

LinkedIn costs less than half of what Google costs to engage an ICP account.

Half. The. Cost.

You can reach and engage more than twice as many high-fit accounts on LinkedIn for the same budget.

This metric is where the account-based marketing rubber meets the road. B2B isn't about reaching everyone. It's about reaching the right ones. The accounts that fit your ICP. The companies that have the budget, the need, and the authority to buy.

When you're running an ABM motion (and if you're not, what are you even doing?), cost per ICP account engaged might be the most important metric on this list.

The Math That Changes Everything

Say you have $50K to spend on paid media this quarter. Your ICP is mid-market tech companies with 200-1000 employees.

On Google: $50,000 ÷ $560 = 89 ICP accounts engaged
On LinkedIn: $50,000 ÷ $257 = 194 ICP accounts engaged

With the same budget, LinkedIn gets you 109 more ICP accounts into your pipeline. That's not incremental improvement. That's game-changing coverage of your total addressable market.

LinkedIn was historically underappreciated because advertisers couldn’t adequately measure their performance. But recently, LinkedIn has really stepped up its game in the measurement department. Advertisers can see the impact of their LinkedIn ads and their true value. Now, more B2B advertisers are pulling from their Google/Meta budgets in favor of LinkedIn.

Metric #3: Cost Per Qualified Meeting

Pipeline velocity matters. How much does it cost to get a qualified meeting on someone's calendar?

Qualified meetings from Google cost 1.3X more than meetings from LinkedIn.

This metric directly impacts sales productivity and customer acquisition cost. Meetings are where marketing hands off to sales. It's the critical moment where opportunity becomes reality.

When meetings cost 1.3X more from one channel versus another, that inefficiency cascades through your entire go-to-market motion. Your SDRs are spending time on meetings that cost more to generate. Your AEs are working on deals that have higher acquisition costs baked in from the start.

The Quality Question

Here's where the LinkedIn data gets really interesting. It's not just that meetings cost less. It's that the meetings are with better prospects.

Survey data from 125+ marketing leaders reveals:

• 71.9% agree that leads from LinkedIn Ads align more closely with their ideal customer profile
• 52.3% say leads from LinkedIn Ads are more likely to be senior-level decision-makers

You're not just getting cheaper meetings. You're getting meetings with the actual people who can sign contracts.

Compare that to Google, where you're often catching mid-level managers doing research, or consultants gathering information for a client who may or may not be in-market.

Metric #4: Average Contract Value (ACV)

This is LinkedIn’s real flex. Deals sourced from LinkedIn don't just close more efficiently. They close bigger.

LinkedIn-sourced deals close with 28.6% higher average contract value compared to Google-sourced deals.

If your typical Google-sourced deal is $50K, your typical LinkedIn-sourced deal is $64,300. That's an extra $14,300 per deal. On a hundred deals, that's $1.43 million in additional revenue. From the same number of customers.

Why LinkedIn Deals Are Bigger

This isn't some random quirk. LinkedIn's account-based targeting enables you to focus your spend on high-value prospects. You can direct budget toward enterprise accounts capable of larger contracts, rather than Google's broader reach that captures intent regardless of account quality.

When you target the VP of Sales at a 1,000-person company versus catching whoever searches for your product category, the ACV difference is inevitable.

The platform enables relationship building at scale. Video ads. Document ads. Thought Leader ads. These formats let you demonstrate expertise and build trust before a prospect ever fills out a form. That trust translates to bigger deals.

The Synthesis: LinkedIn Wins on Revenue, Google Maintains Pipeline Volume

Let's put all four metrics in one place:

LinkedIn wins decisively on three of four metrics. But there is still nuance: Google drives significant pipeline volume. Its broader reach means you'll capture more total leads, even if cost efficiency is lower.

The strategic insight isn't "LinkedIn good, Google bad." It's understanding where each channel delivers maximum value.

Use LinkedIn for:

• High-value account targeting
• Building relationships with buying committees
• Brand awareness among your ICP
• Generating high-ACV opportunities

Use Google for:

• Capturing bottom-funnel intent
• Reaching buyers actively searching
• Geographic or niche targeting
• Volume pipeline generation

The smartest CMOs aren't choosing between LinkedIn and Google. They're allocating budget based on which metric matters most for their business model and growth stage.

The Multiplier Effect: Why This Isn't Either/ Or

LinkedIn doesn't just win on its own metrics. It also improves your Google performance.

Analysis shows that ICP accounts exposed to LinkedIn Ads demonstrate:

• 46% higher paid search conversion rates
• 14.3% of paid search leads actually started their journey on LinkedIn

LinkedIn creates brand awareness and trust, making every subsequent touchpoint more effective. When someone sees your thought leadership on LinkedIn, then later searches for your product category on Google, they convert at nearly 50% higher rates.

This multiplier effect is why the budget shift is accelerating. CMOs are realizing LinkedIn isn't competing with Google for budget. It's making Google perform better.

What This Means for Your 2026 Planning

If you're building your 2026 marketing plan right now, these four metrics should fundamentally reshape your thinking.

The days of defaulting 70-80% of the paid budget to Google because "that's what we've always done" are over. The data doesn't support it anymore.

Survey results show 56.4% of B2B marketers plan to increase their LinkedIn budgets by more than 10% in 2026. These aren't wild experiments. These are calculated bets based on measurable ROI.

Your move: Stop treating LinkedIn as a "brand awareness" line item with fuzzy attribution. Start measuring it on the same hard revenue metrics you use for Google. When you do, the four-metric comparison becomes impossible to argue with.

1.8x ROAS. $257 cost per ICP account. 23% cost advantage on meetings. 28.6% higher ACV.

Factors.ai provides unified visibility across LinkedIn, your website, CRM, and G2 so you can prove ROI with the metrics that actually matter. Your CFO doesn't need more convincing than that.

FAQs for LinkedIn Ads vs Google Ads

Q. Is LinkedIn really more cost-effective than Google for B2B?

Yes. LinkedIn ads engage ICP accounts at less than half the cost of Google Ads and produce significantly higher average deal sizes.

Q. Does LinkedIn generate pipeline volume, or just better-quality leads?

LinkedIn excels at quality, better-fit accounts, and senior buyers, but still delivers competitive volume when used strategically.

Q. Why are CMOs shifting budget to LinkedIn?

Because the ROI data is undeniable. LinkedIn outperforms on ROAS, cost per meeting, and ACV, and also improves Google Ads performance.

Q. Should I replace Google Ads with LinkedIn Ads?

Not necessarily. Use Google to capture active demand and LinkedIn to influence high-value buyers. The best results come from combining both strategically.

Q. What’s the biggest ROI difference between the platforms?

Average contract value. LinkedIn deals are 28.6% larger on average, making it a key driver of revenue growth.

Your paid search dashboard stats resemble a control panel in a disaster movie. There’s lots of warning lights flashing, alarms are incessantly dinging in your ear, and everything is going downward, fast. Houston, we have a problem.

Traffic down 25%. Conversion rates down 20%. Cost per click up 24%. And your performance marketing manager is in your office explaining that it's "definitely not their fault," and "the algorithm just changed," and "maybe we need a bigger budget?"

Cool. Cool cool cool.

Here's what's actually happening: paid search isn't broken. The world around it has changed. And if you keep trying to fix modern problems with an old playbook, you're going to keep bleeding budget while your competitors figure out what’s working, and move forward.

Our report, with data from 100+ B2B marketing teams, paints a pretty grim picture. But it also reveals exactly what separates the winners from the losers. It's not about bid strategies, keyword match types, or any of the tactical nonsense marketing influencers are ranting about.

TL;DR

• Search traffic is down (but not dead). Top-funnel traffic has shifted to AI tools like ChatGPT, cutting volume but concentrating buyer intent.
• Conversion rates dropped because buyers already know who they want. Most B2B buyers have vendors in mind before they ever search.
• Your paid search fails when it ignores brand. Brand-driven demand fuels better conversion. LinkedIn awareness campaigns now shape paid search outcomes.
• Winning teams measure pipeline, not MQLs. The smartest marketers focus on closed-won deals and account-level signals, not form fills.

But How Bad Is Paid Search Really?

Let's get real about the scale of the problem.

Paid search traffic grew just 4.9% overall, but that number masks uneasy waters underneath. The median change in paid search traffic was -25.2%. The bottom quartile saw declines of -58.9%.

Companies at the 25th percentile lost nearly 60% of their paid search traffic year-over-year.

But wait, there's more.

65% of companies analyzed are showing declining conversion rates from paid search. The aggregate conversion rate dropped 8%. The median conversion rate change was -20%.

Oh, and cost per click increased by a median of 24%.

So you're paying more, getting less traffic, and that traffic is converting at lower rates. It's the perfect storm of paid search pain.

If you're experiencing this, you're not alone. You're not bad at your job. The game has just changed. And the sooner you accept that, the sooner you can fix it.

Why This Is Happening (It's Not Google's Fault)

Three shifts are converging to break paid search as we knew it:

1. LLMs Ate Your Top-of-Funnel Traffic

89% of B2B buyers now use generative AI in their purchasing process, according to Forrester research.

Think about what that means for search behavior. All those informational queries that used to drive traffic? "What is account-based marketing?" "How to choose marketing automation software?" "Best practices for demand generation."

They're gone. Not to a competitor. To ChatGPT.

Buyers aren't Googling for education anymore. They're using LLMs to get synthesized answers, comparison tables, and decision frameworks without ever clicking a search result.

The searches that remain are high-intent, vendor-specific queries. Which is actually good news, except there are way fewer of them. That explains the drop in traffic.

2. Buyers Decided Before They Searched

According to Forrester, 92% of B2B buyers start their journey with at least one vendor in mind. 41% have already selected their preferred vendor before formal evaluation even begins.

This fundamentally breaks the paid search model.

Traditional paid search assumes you're catching buyers during their research phase. You show up for "marketing analytics software," they click, they learn about you, et voilà, they convert.

But if 92% already have a vendor in mind when they start searching, you're not educating. You're validating. They've already formed preferences through LinkedIn, peer recommendations, G2 reviews, and conversations with their favorite bot. 

By the time they search, the game is largely over.

3. The Algorithm Optimized for the Wrong Thing

Google's machine learning has gotten really, really good at finding people who will click your ads. Unfortunately, "people who click ads" and "people who buy your B2B product" are only a small crossover on a Venn diagram.

Google optimizes for engagement. You care about revenue. That misalignment creates expensive traffic that doesn't convert.

Your CPC goes up (because, competition), your volume goes down (because, LLMs), and your conversion rate tanks (because the traffic quality deteriorated).

Fun times.

Fix #1: Accept Lower Volume and Optimize for Quality

Sorry, but you're not getting that traffic back.

The informational searches are gone. They moved to LLM platforms, and they're not coming back. Stop trying to recapture 2023 traffic levels. It's not happening.

Instead, optimize aggressively for the high-intent traffic that remains.

This means:

• Shift budget from broad match to exact match and phrase match
• Focus on branded searches and high-intent keywords (pricing, demo, vs competitor, etc.)
• Ruthlessly cut keywords that drive traffic but not pipeline
• Accept that your traffic graphs will look sad (but your pipeline graphs won't, so, chill)

The top quartile companies in the benchmark data saw paid search traffic growth of 44.8%, while the median was -25.2%. What separates them? They're not chasing volume. They're chasing accounts that convert.

Fix #2: Build Brand Before You Buy Search

Here's the stat that changes everything: ICP accounts exposed to LinkedIn ads show 46% higher paid search conversion rates.

Your paid search performance isn't just about your paid search strategy. It's about whether buyers already know who you are when they search.

The fix:

• Allocate 30-40% of your paid budget to LinkedIn brand awareness campaigns
• Target your exact ICP with thought leadership, not just ads
• Build mental availability so when buyers do search, they already recognize you
• Measure the lift in search conversion rates for accounts exposed to brand campaigns

Search isn't dead. But search as a standalone demand generation engine? That's over. Search is now a capture mechanism for buyers who were influenced elsewhere.

Fix #3: Retarget High-Intent Search Visitors on LinkedIn

Analysis shows that 14.3% of paid search leads originally started their journey on LinkedIn. But here's what's more interesting: traffic converts at significantly higher rates.

Flip this insight around. If LinkedIn makes search traffic better, use search traffic to identify accounts for LinkedIn retargeting.

The workflow:

1. Someone from Acme Corp visits your website via paid search
2. They check out your pricing page and product features
3. They leave without converting (as most do)
4. You capture them as a matched audience in LinkedIn
5. You retarget them with account-specific messaging, including other stakeholders at Acme Corp

This is where the magic happens. You're not just retargeting the individual who searched. You're using that search intent signal to unlock the entire buying committee at that account.

Fix #4: Stop Measuring MQLs, Start Measuring Pipeline

If you're still judging paid search success on cost per lead or MQL volume, you're measuring the wrong thing.

The traffic quality has changed. The buyer journey has changed. Your success metrics need to change too.

What to measure instead:

• Cost per demo booked (demos are up 17.4% median, this is what actually matters)
• Cost per pipeline generated
• Cost per closed-won deal
• Conversion rate from visit to opportunity (not visit to form fill)

When you shift to pipeline metrics, you'll make very different decisions. You'll stop celebrating 1,000 leads that go nowhere. You'll start optimizing for 50 accounts that turn into real deals.

Demo requests are growing (9.5% overall, 17.4% median) even as search traffic declines. That's because bottom-funnel intent is actually fine. It's just concentrated among fewer, higher-quality prospects.

Fix #5: Combine Search with Account Intelligence

Here's where modern paid search diverges from traditional paid search: you need to know which accounts are searching, not just how many people.

Traditional search tracking tells you:

• 500 people visited from paid search
• 50 filled out a form
• 10% conversion rate

Account-level search tracking tells you:

• 87 ICP accounts visited from paid search
• 12 are in active deals in your CRM
• 23 are showing intent across multiple channels
• 8 are competitors (exclude these obviously)
• 44 are net-new, high-fit accounts worth pursuing

That second view changes everything about how you optimize.

When you identify that an account from your tier-1 target list just visited your pricing page via search, you can:

• Alert the account owner in your CRM
• Add them to a LinkedIn retargeting campaign
• Suppress them from expensive keyword campaigns
• Track their full journey across channels

This is the difference between search as a lead generation tool and search as an account intelligence signal.

Fix #6: Embrace Branded Search, Even If It Feels Weird

Branded search feels like cheating. They already know who you are! Why pay for that click?

Because 92% of buyers start with a vendor already in mind. If you're not showing up at the top for your own brand terms, you're losing deals to competitors who bid on your brand.

More importantly, branded search volume is one of the few search metrics that's still growing for successful companies. It's a lagging indicator of your brand work paying off.

The fix:

• Own all your branded terms (obviously)
• Bid on competitor brand terms strategically
• Create brand + problem combination terms ("Company Name analytics," "Company Name attribution")
• Use branded campaigns to control the message and landing page experience

Your branded search performance tells you whether all your other marketing is working. If branded search is declining, you have a brand awareness problem, not a search problem.

Fix #7: Reduce Friction for High-Intent Visitors

This one's simple but most companies still screw it up.

If someone searches for "your product demo" or "your product pricing," don't make them fill out a form to see basic information. Don't make them wait for a BDR to call them. Don't send them to a generic landing page.

Give them exactly what they searched for, immediately. There is almost nothing as annoying as being directed to fill out a form or being sent to some random page when you’ve asked a specific question. Don’t gate keep, don’t send customers on a merry-go-round. 

The companies in the top quartile (28% conversion rate growth) are winning because they removed friction for high-intent visitors. The companies in the bottom quartile (-43% conversion rate decline) are still trying to "capture" leads.

High-intent search visitors don't need to be captured. They need to be served what they asked for in the first place. 

Search Isn't Dead, But It's Different

Paid search performance is declining for 65% of companies. Traffic is down. Conversion rates are down. Costs are up.

But the top quartile is seeing 44.8% traffic growth and 28% conversion rate improvement. The difference isn't luck. It's strategy.

The winners are:

• Accepting lower volume at the top of the funnel and instead optimizing for quality
• Building a brand on LinkedIn to lift search performance (46% higher conversion rates)
• Using search as an account intelligence signal, not just a lead source
• Measuring pipeline and revenue, not MQLs
• Combining search with retargeting and account-based plays
• Reducing friction for high-intent visitors
• Owning their brand terms and controlling their narrative

The losers are:

• Chasing 2023 traffic levels that aren't coming back
• Running search in isolation from brand investment
• Measuring form fills instead of pipeline
• Treating all traffic equally instead of prioritizing ICP accounts
• Adding friction in the name of "lead capture"

Paid search isn't broken. But if you're still running it the way you did three years ago, you're going to keep seeing performance decline.

The fix isn't more budget. It's a completely different approach that acknowledges how buyers actually research and make decisions in 2025.

If you want to see which ICP accounts are visiting from paid search and track their complete journey across channels, Factors.ai provides account-level analytics that turns paid search from a lead gen tool into an account intelligence signal, helping you identify high-intent accounts and orchestrate the right follow-up across LinkedIn, sales outreach, and more.

Your move.

FAQs for Fixing Declining Paid Search Performance

Q. Why is paid search performance declining across B2B teams?

Because buyer behavior has shifted dramatically, informational queries now go to AI tools, not search engines, and most buyers choose vendors before they even search.

Q. Is Google’s algorithm to blame for poor conversion rates?

Not entirely. Google's algorithm favors engagement, not revenue. It’s optimized to find clickers, not buyers, making traffic more expensive and less qualified.

Q. Should I stop investing in paid search?

No, but you should radically change your approach. Focus on high-intent keywords, integrate brand campaigns, and use account-level data to drive smarter follow-up.

Q. What metrics should I use instead of MQLs?

Track cost per demo, cost per pipeline, and conversion rates to opportunity. These metrics align better with revenue and signal real buyer intent.

Q. How does LinkedIn improve paid search performance?

Accounts exposed to LinkedIn branding convert 46% better via paid search. Building brand familiarity raises your odds when buyers search with intent.

As an SEO professional, here is a situation that lives in my head rent-free.

You open your dashboard.

Paid search is driving leads (nice, very nice).

SEO traffic is… slowly inching up (less nice).

Then someone asks that question. You know that one. “So… should we invest more in SEO or paid search?”

Everyone turns to you. You nod thoughtfully, as if this question is not going to haunt you during quarterly planning.

And this is where most conversations go sideways. Because here’s the truth: SEO vs paid search is not a fair fight. They’re not trying to do the same job. They just happen to live on the same Google results page.

Let’s untangle this properly and see how it actually works. 

TL;DR

• SEO and paid search are not competitors. They solve different problems, on different timelines, even though they show up on the same search results page.
• Paid search delivers speed and clarity. It captures existing demand, works immediately, and is easy to measure, but only while you keep spending.
• SEO builds long-term leverage. It takes time, influences buyers early, compounds over time, and often looks weaker in last-click reports despite real impact.
• The best teams sequence both. Use paid search to move fast and learn what converts, then use SEO to turn those insights into sustainable growth.

What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) (aka the channel that refuses to be rushed)

Search engine optimization, or the acronym SEO, is how you earn visibility on Google without paying for every click. You do this by:

• Creating content people actually search for (not just what you want to say)
• Making sure your site is technically sound (no duct tapes or broken links)
• Building authority over time, so Google goes, “Okay, fine, these folks know their stuff.”

Here’s the important part people forget: SEO takes time to start, but once it works, it keeps working.

You don’t see results immediately. In the beginning, it feels quiet. Sometimes too quiet. 

But over time:

• Pages start ranking
• Traffic comes in regularly
• Then suddenly, you’re getting leads from a blog you wrote months ago and forgot about.

You’re not “turning SEO on.” You’re building something that continues to drive traffic over time.

Slow start but long payoff, that’s SEO.

Paid search: The overachiever who gets results now

Paid search has a very different energy. You:

• Pick keywords
• Set a budget
• Start getting clicks almost immediately

No waiting. No suspense. No “let’s see what happens in three months.”

It’s fast. It’s measurable. And yes, it can get a little addictive.

Paid search is what you reach for when:

• You need results this month
• Leadership wants numbers, fast
• You’re launching something new and can’t wait for SEO to warm up

But here’s the simple truth people often ignore: Paid search only works while you’re paying. Pause the budget, and the traffic pauses with it.

That doesn’t make it bad. It just means it’s built for speed, not permanence.

How SEO actually works

SEO isn’t magic. It’s three things working together:

• Content – Are you answering real questions people search for?
• Technical health – Can Google even understand your site?
• Authority – Do other sites trust you enough to link to you?

And one thing people always forget: SEO runs on Google’s timeline, not yours.

When you publish a page, Google doesn’t instantly reward you with traffic. First, it does a little homework. It:

• Finds your page
• Tries to understand what it’s about
• Decides where it might fit among millions of other pages

Now, at this stage, Google is basically asking, “Is this page useful, and who is it useful for?”

If the answer isn’t clear yet, nothing dramatic happens. Your page just… sits there. (Very humbling, I know.) Which is why:

• New pages don’t rank instantly
• Results feel invisible at first
• Patience becomes a strategy (unfortunately)

Over time, Google watches what users do:

• Do people click your results?
• Do they stay or bounce?
• Do other sites reference or link to it?

Each of these is a small signal. One signal doesn’t move the needle. Many signals, consistently, do. 

As that confidence builds, your page starts showing up more often, in more places, for more searches. Not because you asked nicely. But because the data says you deserve it.

Slow, yes.

Predictable, also yes.

And once you understand that, SEO stops feeling mysterious and starts feeling manageable.

How paid search (PPC) actually works (also not magic)

Paid search looks simple at first.
Pick keywords. Add budget. Get clicks.

Easy… until you zoom in.

Behind every single click, Google is quietly evaluating a few things:

• Your bid – How much you’re willing to pay
• Your relevance – How closely your ad matches what someone searched
• Your quality score – How useful Google thinks your ad and landing page are
• Your signals – What Google learns from who converts and who doesn’t

Here’s where things get interesting:

• If your targeting is off, you don’t just get bad clicks. You pay more for them.
• If your conversions are weak, Google learns the wrong lesson.
• If your tracking is messy, Google guesses. And guessing gets expensive.

We know that paid search moves fast, but it has very little patience. It rewards teams who are clear about:

• Who they want
• What action matters
• What a “good” conversion actually looks like

And it quietly punishes everyone else. But once you understand how it thinks, it becomes very predictable.

Fast, yes. Easy? Only if you’ve done the homework.

Let’s talk money (the slightly awkward part)

This is usually where everyone clears their throat and says, “Well… it depends.”

With SEO, you usually pay for:

• Content
• Tools
• People
• Time

You spend upfront, then wait for results. That’s why SEO can feel expensive early on. You’re investing before you see much return.

With paid search, you pay for:

• Every click
• Every test
• Every campaign you run

Traffic starts quickly, but the moment you stop spending, results stop too.

So the difference isn’t really about cheap vs expensive. It’s about when you pay:

• SEO costs more at the start and pays off over time
• Paid search costs less upfront but adds up continuously

Basically, one expects patience and the other expects a credit card. Neither one is actually cheaper. They just hurt (and work) in very different ways.

Once you look at it that way, the tradeoff becomes much easier to explain.

Where SEO and paid search fit in the funnel (aka who does what)

Think of the funnel like buyer’s mood swings.

Paid search works best when buyers already know what they want. They’re typing things like:

• Best X software
• X pricing
• X alternatives

They’ve done the thinking.

They’re comparing options.

They’re basically saying, “I’m ready. Don’t mess this up.”

That’s paid search territory.

SEO shows up much earlier in the story. This is when people are Googling things like:

• How do I solve this problem?
• Is this even the right approach?
• What does everyone else do?

Questions are vague. Intent is forming. Nobody is ready to talk to sales yet (and they definitely don’t want a demo).

That’s where SEO belongs.

So, my point is…
Paid search catches people when they’re ready to decide

SEO meets them while they’re still figuring things out

Paid search captures demand. SEO warms it up quietly, long before anyone is ready to buy.

Different moments. Same journey.

Why SEO always looks worse in reports (and isn’t actually worse)

Paid search is very straightforward to explain in a report.

Someone clicks an ad.

They fill a form.

Revenue shows up.

Everyone nods. Charts look clean. Life is good.

SEO is messier.

Someone reads a blog.

They leave.

They come back a week later.

Then maybe they check pricing.

They later fill a form by clicking on your ad.

Then they talk to sales.

Then they convert.

Then no one remembers how they first found you.

So when you look at last-click attribution reports, SEO looks… underwhelming (and feels like you’re right in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle).

Not because it didn’t help. But because it showed up early, did its job quietly, and didn’t stick around to take credit.

SEO doesn’t close the deal in one move. It warms people up, gives them context, and nudges them forward long before conversion happens.

Which is great for buyers. And mildly frustrating for dashboards.

Classic SEO behavior.

SEO vs Paid Search: Mistakes almost everyone makes

If you have done at least one of these, you are completely normal.

• Expecting SEO to behave like ads
• Giving up on SEO because nothing happened immediately
• Throwing more budget at paid search without fixing targeting
• Treating SEO and paid search like rival teams instead of coworkers

None of these comes from a bad strategy.

They usually come from pressure. Deadlines. And someone asking, “Why is this not working yet?”

So decisions get rushed. Shortcuts get tempting. Context gets ignored.

At this point, know that this is not incompetence (it’s stress). 

And once you see that clearly, these mistakes become easier to avoid next time.

What the community actually thinks (and why it matters)

Spend a few minutes reading Reddit threads on SEO vs paid search, and a pattern shows up pretty quickly. People say things like:

• “Paid search works… until it suddenly gets very expensive.”
• “SEO was painfully slow, but it saved us later.”
• “Turning SEO off was a mistake.”
• “Ads are great, as long as you know exactly what you are doing.”

Reddit is not polished. There are no frameworks, slides, or jargon. But it is honest. And here is the part worth paying attention to. Most people are not arguing about which channel is better. They are talking about what happens when teams over-rely on one and ignore the other.

The takeaway is simple:

• Teams that rely only on paid search feel exposed (and broke) when budgets tighten
• Teams that ignore paid search struggle to move fast when it matters
• Teams regret not doing SEO in the early stages of growth.

In other words, the community has already learned the lesson the hard way.

Balance wins. Short-term speed plus long-term stability beats picking sides.

So… SEO vs Paid search: Which one should you choose?

Here’s the answer most people don’t love, because it is not flashy.

You do not choose.

You sequence.

• Use paid search when you need to move fast. It helps you test, learn, and capture demand that already exists.
• Use SEO to build something that keeps working over time, even when budgets or priorities shift.

Let both channels talk to each other. Let paid search show you what converts. Let SEO turn those learnings into long-term traffic and demand.

The best teams do not debate SEO versus paid search. They design a system where each channel does what it is actually good at.

Final thought before your next planning meeting

SEO builds leverage, and paid search buys speed.

One helps you survive the quarter. The other stops you from starting from scratch every quarter. 

If this question keeps coming up in your team, that’s a good sign.

It means you’re not just trying to win this month. You’re trying to still be winning a year from now.

And that is when both channels start to make a lot more sense (in their own way).

FAQs on SEO vs Paid Search

Q1. Is SEO better than paid search in the long run?

SEO wins long-term, but only if you are willing to wait. On Reddit, you will often see comments like “SEO saved us once ads got too expensive.” The catch is that SEO takes time to build. If you need results immediately, paid search usually performs better early on.

The practical answer is not either or. Use paid search for speed and SEO for durability.

Q2. Can I rely only on paid search and skip SEO completely?

You can. Many teams do. They just rarely enjoy it forever.

Communities like Reddit are full of stories where teams relied heavily on ads, then struggled when costs increased or budgets tightened. Paid search works, but it keeps charging you rent. SEO gives you a fallback. Without it, you are fully dependent on ongoing spend.

Q3. Why does SEO feel slow compared to paid search?

Because Google does not trust new pages instantly. Paid search shows results as soon as you launch a campaign. SEO needs time to understand your content, test it against competitors, and see how users respond. It is also normal.

Q4. Should startups focus on SEO or paid search first?

Start with paid search if you need quick feedback and leads. Start SEO as early as possible, even if it is small. Paid search helps you learn what converts. SEO helps you avoid rebuilding demand from scratch later.

Teams that delay SEO often say they wish they had started sooner.

Q5. Why does SEO look weak in attribution reports?

SEO often influences buyers early. People read a blog, leave, come back later, then convert through another channel. In last click reports, SEO does not get credit. SEO “works quietly” and gets undervalued because of how attribution is set up, not because it is ineffective.

Does this story sound familiar?

Marketing spends weeks creating ‘‘personalized’ content. They tell sales it’s ready. A few emails go out. Nothing happens.

And the conclusion is:

“ABM content doesn’t scale.”

That’s not true. The content wasn’t wrong. The timing, context, and ownership were.

A functional ABM content strategy is more about operational discipline than creative brilliance. You need to know who the content is for, why it exists, when it should be used, and how sales should act on it.

This article breaks down ABM content strategy and what works for B2B SaaS teams IRL.

TL;DR:

• ABM content strategy is not about creating more content. It’s about delivering the right content to the right accounts based on intent, buying stage, and sales context.
• Inbound content attracts demand. ABM content reorients it by supporting live deals, real objections, and buying-group decisions.
• Effective ABM content is activated by account behavior, not publishing calendars. It is measured by pipeline movement, not engagement metrics.
• SaaS teams excel at ABM when they use product signals (feature interest, docs usage, trials, demos) to deploy business-relevant content.
• Platforms like Factors.ai make ABM executable by mapping content engagement to account intent, sales actions, and revenue impact.

What Is ABM Content Strategy (Practically Speaking)?

Technically, ABM content strategy refers to the planning, creation, activation, and measurement of content designed to influence specific target accounts and their buying decisions. Unlike search engine optimization, ABM is heavily driven by account intelligence signals, buying stage, and sales context.

In practice, it means answering three uncomfortable questions:

1. Which accounts are we trying to move this quarter?
2. What decision are they currently stuck on?
3. Who inside that account needs proof, reassurance, or leverage?

ABM content strategy plans, creates, and leverages content around those answers.

Within an inbound marketing content strategy, you publish and wait.

ABM content is:

• Triggered by account behavior
• Used directly in sales motion
• Measured in its impact by deal movement

Pro-Tip: If any content piece does not support a step in the sales funnel, it’s probably not ABM content.

ABM Content vs Inbound Marketing Content Strategy

Inbound content is the raw material. ABM content reframes existing assets around real account-related questions that arise at that moment.

The Operating Principles Behind ABM Content That Actually Works

ABM content often fails because teams skip the basics under pressure.

But these principles are essential and evidence-based on patterns that show up repeatedly when ABM programs either start influencing pipelines or just stall.

1. Account lists always come before content ideas

Don't ask “What content should we create?” before “Which accounts matter right now?” If you do, you end up with:

• Content that feels generic, truly relevant to no one
• Sales saying, “This does not work for my accounts.”

Instead, do this:

• Lock a quarterly ABM account list with sales
• Group accounts by shared decision blockers like budget approval, security review, and internal consensus. Don't just judge by industry or size.
• Then ask: What proof or clarity is missing for these accounts to move?

2. Intent, not calendars, determines timing

If you serve the right ABM content at the wrong moment, you find that even great content “didn’t work.”

Accounts move in bursts, pauses, and regressions. Your content marketing efforts have to match this momentum. Be timely, not persistent.

Instead, do this:

• Identify 5–7 intent signals indicating real movement: pricing/demo page revisits, competitor comparison views, repeat visits from the same account, direct engagement with sales emails, etc.
• Map one clear content action to each signal
• If an account isn’t showing buyer intent, don't bombard them with content. Consider letting the account rest for a while

Question: Are you counting LinkedIn intent data into your ABM brainstorming?

3. Buying-group coverage > persona perfection

You can refine personas all you want, but deals will get stuck even if one person in the B2B account has unanswered questions. ABM content works best if it is catered to core decisions in the sales pipeline, rather than these personas.

Instead, do this:

For each target account, list out:

• The economic buyer (who approves spending)
• The technical evaluator (who manages risk)
• The day-to-day user or champion (who actually uses the product)

Then ask yourself and your team: Which of these roles seem to currently lack proof or confidence in our product?

Now build ABM content to unblock that decision. Address specific concerns instead of throwing generic assets at them.

4. Sales must know when and how to use content

ABM content can't just live in marketing folders. If sales teams don't know when to use an asset, why it exists, and what it’s meant to achieve, it just won’t get used.

Instead, do this:

For every ABM asset, note down:

• When in the sales funnel, it should be used
• The specific objection or risk each content piece talks to
• The follow-up action that the content is meant to enable

If a salesperson can’t explain any asset’s purpose in one sentence, it's not ABM content, just marketing collateral.

5. Measure movement, not performance

ABM content isn't successful when it ‘performs’, but rather when it moves accounts along the buying pipeline.

Instead, do this:

Track outcomes that reflect movement, such as

• Target audience engaged after exposure
• If opportunities were created or accelerated by the content
• If relevant content has helped sales move conversations forward

Vanity engagement metrics do not matter. Only the ones that correlate with pipeline change do.

Types of ABM Content That Hold Up in Real Sales Cycles

Content for account based marketing works best when it is deployed at the exact moment a deal risks stalling.

Since B2B buying dynamics are mostly predictable, mature ABM pipelines tend to use content in a few repeatable categories.

1. Early-Stage: Creating a Reason to Engage

Right now, key accounts are aware of the problem but not yet working on solving it, especially with you. You have to get their attention on said problem.

Try using:

• Industry POV memos talking about issues each account is likely feeling, but hasn’t focused on
• Problem-specific landing pages pointing out operational pain points rather than product features
• Lightly personalized ads speaking to the account’s industry, role, or maturity

Deploy this valuable content when accounts are still researching, or when sales needs a credible reason to start a conversation.

2. Mid-Stage: Helping Accounts Choose, Not Browse

At this stage, multiple stakeholders enter the conversation, internal comparisons begin, and “we need to review options” becomes a frequent reply.

Try using:

• Industry-specific case studies responding to each account’s structure
• Competitive comparison pages that acknowledge tradeoffs
• Webinars or workshops tailored to a narrow segment or buying concern

This content helps you when more than one stakeholder is involved, when deals stall, and when the account is comparing you to competitors.

3. Late-Stage: Reducing Risk, Not Selling Harder

Here, the deal has to be justified. Accounts tend to back off when they perceive some form of risk.

Try using:

• ROI calculators mapped to the account’s scale and cost hierarchy
• Security, legal, and compliance documentation to address specific risk concerns
• Custom decks aligned with the account's internal approval process

These assets are best used when budget, security, or procurement teams are involved as buyer personas.

4. Post-Sale: Expansion

Don't stop thinking about ABM once the deal closes. Instead, work on:

• Creating content around enablement, tied to real usage milestones
• Building expansion use-case playbooks for accounts based on similar growth paths

This content comes into play when sales and marketing teams want ABM to extend beyond acquisition, and when expansion depends on more product adoption and internal advocacy.

The goal of post-sale ABM content is to anticipate the next buying decision before the account explicitly asks for it.

Pro-Tip: The strongest ABM teams don’t create endless new assets but edit ruthlessly.

• Remove generic framing
• Use examples relevant to the account’s reality
• Map each asset to a specific deal moment

Focus on relevance, not novelty.

ABM Content Strategy for SaaS Teams

SaaS buying behavior is quite visible if you know what to look for. You can actually gauge intent way before anyone fills out a form or replies to sales messages.

SaaS teams can operationalize these signals via ABM content. The trick is to stitch together product data, content, and sales insights into ABM assets.

1. SaaS buying is product-informed

Serious SaaS buyers don’t read blog posts to make decisions. They explore feature pages, study product documentation, take free trials, and watch demos multiple times. ABM success comes from responding to signs of product curiosity with business contextual content.

These are the metrics to focus on, rather than engagement, eBook downloads, webinar attendance, and generic site visits.

2. Treat feature interest as a buying hypothesis

If an account repeatedly views a specific feature, they are probably wondering whether it can solve their problem.

Instead of retargeting such accounts with product ads or generic nurture emails, trigger content that explains:

• Why teams like them care about this capability
• What problem it typically solves
• What changes operationally after adoption

3. Pay attention to documentation and help-center visits

Pre-sale documentation page visits are one of the clearest signs of buying intent in SaaS. Such accounts are usually:

• Validating feasibility
• Pressure-testing the product
• Raising and debating internal questions

When you detect such account behavior:

• Flag repeated or deep documentation usage
• Trigger ABM content that anticipates implementation concerns, explains time-to-value, and shows how similar teams have onboarded successfully

4. Trial friction is an ABM content opportunity

When an account stalls inside a trial, don't jump right to blaming onboarding or UX.

It could be that:

• The buyer doesn’t know what “success” should look like
• The wrong stakeholder is judging the product
• The use case isn’t clearly mapped to ROI

Use ABM content to smooth the journey with:

• Role-specific “what success looks like” guides
• Use-case playbooks relevant to the account’s industry or size
• Short internal decision aids

5. Repeated demo views = internal selling (probably)

If an account watches demos multiple times over several days, that's usually a sign of internal sharing. Most probably, someone on the account side is discussing the product internally and trying to get other stakeholders on board.

Deploy high-impact ABM content to help them out. This can include:

• One-page decision summaries
• Stakeholder-specific FAQs (security, finance, ops)
• ROI narratives that can be forwarded without explanation

Note: The biggest ABM content marketing strategy mistake is treating ABM content as gated inbound content (long-form, overproduced assets, no clear instructions for sales use, etc.). ABM needs to be shorter, sharper, and tied to specific moments in the customer journey.

How Factors.ai enables ABM

Most ABM programs stall due to visibility and handoff issues. Marketing creates or curates account-level content, but nobody knows which accounts are engaging, how that engagement helps deals, or when sales should act. Factors.ai fixes those gaps by extracting account signals from raw engagement data.

1. What Factors actually gives you

• Anonymous account identification to match IP and behavioral patterns to companies. Uses firmographics to show who’s visiting even before forms are filled.
• Unified account-level intent to analyze website behavior, intent feeds, ad interactions, and trial/demo signals. Combines this data into a single account engagement profile.

This might help: A Guide to Intent Data Platforms: Features, Benefits & Best Tools

• AI scoring & Milestones that score accounts by fit + intent, detect milestones (e.g., pricing page + repeated docs views), and point out accounts that look ready for conversation.
• Activation & orchestration to notify sales, trigger outbound sequences, and refresh ad audiences automatically (AdPilot/activation features).
• Account-first attribution that connects content and engagement to pipeline and revenue.

In other words, with Factors.ai in your ABM toolkit:

• You stop guessing which content gave a win. You know which account visited which pages, saw which ads, and led to what opportunity.
• You act at the right moment. Factors will trigger content or sales actions (like reaching out, sending a specific deck) when an account shows signals of buying interest.
• You make sales-shareable content for the buyer. When you know which stakeholder is interacting, you can push the right asset that tips the scales in your favor.

2. How to wire Factors.ai into your ABM content operating model

3. Measuring ABM Content Success

Common ABM Content Strategy Mistakes

Most ABM content failures don’t blow up campaigns or trigger emergency meetings. They drain time, budget, and credibility until teams either mistakenly conclude that “ABM doesn’t work”. Or, they accurately realize that ABM exposes weak operating models.

1. Creating content before account prioritization

Often, ABM starts with a quarterly planning meeting, a list of “high-value” industries, and content ideas. The high-value accounts are forgotten, which means:

• Content is designed for hypothetical accounts
• Salespeople don't understand how to use it

Instead, try this:

• Set up a time-bound ABM account list (30–90 days)
• Tie every asset to specific accounts
• If you can’t name the deal a content piece aims to influence, toss it

2. Over-personalizing before intent is clear

In ABM, personalization is not equivalent to effectiveness. Don't spend time creating heavily customized content for accounts that haven’t yet shown buying signals. You just end up with:

• High effort, low response
• Teams burning out trying to scale 1:1 assets
• Leadership questioning ROI

Instead, try this:

• Only personalize content for accounts showing intent
• Start with light contextualization according to industry, role, and problem
• Only offer deep customization to accounts showing high-confidence signals

3. Expecting sales adoption without enablement

Don't just create “ABM-ready” content and wait. Often, sales does not know how to use it. The content also might not map clearly to account objections.

Instead, treat every ABM asset like a sales tool. Define the moment in the sales funnel when it should be used, the specific objection it addresses, and the next step it enables.

Review ABM assets in sales meetings, not just marketing syncs.

4. Rebuilding assets that already exist

Marketing teams assume ABM requires entirely new content libraries, which eats up duplicate effort, pushes longer timelines, and results in inconsistent messaging.

Instead, try this:

• Audit existing content ruthlessly
• Strip away generic pointers
• Rebuild assets around specific account problems, clear account questions, and internal objections

5. Measuring success per asset instead of per account

Often, teams running ABM look at engagement without noticing how the content impacts deals. Content optimization happens in a vacuum, and eventually sales loses trust in marketing data.

Instead, measure this:

• Accounts engaged
• Stakeholders reached
• Deals influenced or accelerated
• Kill or refine assets that don’t move accounts forward

Delete or refine assets that do not move any accounts to

 the final purchase. Judge the success of ABM content at the account level, not the asset level.

Summary

ABM content strategy is a structured, account-first approach to planning, activating, and measuring content that influences specific target accounts and buying groups. It does not bother with boosting anonymous traffic. Unlike inbound marketing content strategy, which optimizes for reach and discovery, ABM content strategy optimizes for relevance, timing, and deal progression.

In practice, ABM content works best when teams start with account prioritization, not content ideas. Define which accounts matter in a given window, identify the decisions those accounts are stuck on, and create or repurpose content to unblock those decisions. Content is activated based on account-level intent signals (pricing views, demo replays, documentation usage, or trial behavior) and is used directly in sales interactions.

For SaaS companies, ABM content strategy helps because buying intent is visible early through product behavior. Feature interest, trial friction, repeated demos, and technical validation are signals that directly impact business impact, risk reduction, and internal justification.

ABM content success is evaluated at the account level, using metrics such as buying-group coverage, pipeline influenced, deal velocity, and sales adoption. Vanity metrics such as pageviews or asset-level conversion rates are not important here.

Tools like Factors.ai enable ABM content execution by identifying high-intent accounts (including anonymous visitors), tracking account-level content engagement, activating timely sales actions, and mapping content exposure to pipeline and revenue outcomes.

FAQs for ABM Content Strategy

Q. What is ABM content strategy?

ABM content strategy is a structured approach to planning, delivering, and measuring content for specific target accounts and buying groups. This content is based on account intent, buying stage, and sales context. It aims to move accounts through real deals, not to generate traffic or leads at scale.

Q. How is ABM content strategy different from inbound marketing content strategy?

An inbound marketing content strategy aims to attract unknown buyers through SEO, social, and gated content. ABM content strategy supports known accounts that are already analyzing solutions. It deploys content based on intent signals and aligns directly to sales conversations.

Q. What types of content work best for account-based marketing?

Account based marketing content is best served by content that helps buyers evaluate risk and justify decisions. For example, industry-specific case studies, ROI or cost-impact calculators, competitive comparison pages, security and compliance documentation, and short sales-enablement assets for internal sharing.

Q. Can ABM content strategy scale for SaaS companies?

Yes. ABM content strategy scales for SaaS when teams reuse inbound content and deploy it according to account intent and product signals (such as feature interest, demo replays, or trial behavior).

Q. Do you need to create new content for ABM?

In most cases, no.

Successful ABM teams recontextualize existing inbound and sales content, and anchor it to account-specific context, buying-stage questions, and real objections.

Q. How personalized should ABM content be?

Light personalization (industry, role, problem) works early. Deep, account-specific personalization should be reserved for high-value accounts that show clear buying intent. Increase personalization with intent, not by default.

Q. How do sales teams use ABM content?

Sales teams utilize ABM content to initiate conversations, address objections, facilitate internal decision-making, and expedite deals. If content cannot be used directly in sales outreach or follow-ups, it is not effective ABM content.

Q. What tools are required to execute an ABM content strategy?

Teams need tools for CRM alignment, easy access to sales-ready content, and account-level visibility into engagement and intent. Without account intelligence, ABM content is difficult to scale.

Q. How does Factors.ai support ABM content execution?

Factors.ai supports ABM content execution by identifying high-intent accounts (including anonymous visitors), tracking content engagement at the account level, activating timely sales actions, and connecting content to pipeline and revenue outcomes.

Q. Is ABM content strategy only for enterprise teams?

No. While enterprise teams use ABM, mid-market SaaS teams often see faster results because account lists are shorter, sales cycles are cleaner, and marketing–sales collaboration is easier to achieve.

The average B2B marketing team uses 8 tools. Sales uses another 8. Add in your CRM, marketing automation, attribution, intent data, sales engagement, and call intelligence, and you've got 16 marketing and sales tools that are supposed to work together. 

Here's the problem: most don't. Attribution lives in one place, and deal data in another. No one can say which touchpoints actually moved the pipeline. Marketing and sales aren't misaligned; their systems are. 

You want to cut your stack without breaking everything, but don't know how. 

And in this blog, we show you exactly that: the categories of tools you need, how they connect, and how to choose what stays and what goes. 

TL;DR

• Your ideal 2026 revenue stack should include 4–7 integrated tools, anchored by a CRM like Salesforce, HubSpot, or Zoho, eliminating data silos between marketing and sales.
• For marketing, use up to 3 tools: a marketing automation platform (HubSpot, Marketo, ActiveCampaign), an attribution solution (Dreamdata, Factors.ai, Marketo Measure), and an ABM or intent platform (6sense, Demandbase).
• Sales teams need just 2 tools: a sales intelligence platform (ZoomInfo, Apollo, LinkedIn Sales Navigator) to identify decision-makers, and a sales engagement tool (Klenty, Salesloft, Outreach) to automate outreach and accelerate deal flow.
• AI is already embedded in most leading tools, Factors.ai, Salesforce, Klenty, ZoomInfo, Outreach, but is only valuable when the data is clean, connected, and centralized in your CRM.
• Cut stack bloat through consolidation, not addition, run a tool audit, identify overlapping capabilities, and prioritize platforms that cover multiple use cases without sacrificing usability or adoption.

So what exactly are marketing and sales tools?

Marketing tools like automation platforms, analytics and attribution systems, and ABM tools generate and nurture demand. Sales tools like CRMs, sales intelligence platforms, and sequencing tools convert that demand into revenue. 

Simple on paper, but only 11% of companies have effective hand-offs between the two, according to Influ2's 2025 Sales-Marketing Alignment Report. The problem? Most treat these as separate systems with different owners and dashboards. 

The fix isn't more tools. It's building one revenue stack connected to your CRM, where both teams see the same accounts, signals, and data.

What is a revenue stack? (and how many tools should be in it)

A revenue stack is the minimum set of sales and marketing tools needed to create pipeline, move deals forward, and prove which efforts impact revenue, with the CRM as the single source of truth.

You can decide whether a tool belongs in your revenue stack by checking if it does at least one of these three core jobs:

• Create pipeline by capturing and qualifying demand
• Move deals forward through sales engagement and execution
• Prove revenue impact through attribution and ABM

In practice, most revenue stacks include 4–7 tools spread across marketing, sales, and CRM.

Here’s how this usually plays out.

On the marketing side, teams typically use up to three tools to handle demand generation, attribution, and intent.

• An automation platform for campaigns and lead scoring
• An attribution tool to track what drives revenue
• An ABM or intent platform to identify high-intent accounts

The CRM sits at the center, bringing marketing and sales data together so pipeline and deals are tracked in one place.

On the sales side, teams usually rely on two tools to convert leads and move deals forward.

• A sales intelligence tool for contact and account data
• A sales engagement platform for outreach and follow-ups

Types of B2B marketing tools

For marketing tools, there are only three jobs that actually matter:

• Generate demand through campaigns: Ads, emails, nurture sequences that create consistent interest
• Measure which efforts drive closed deals: Full-funnel attribution that ties activity to revenue
• Identify high-intent accounts: Surface which prospects are ready to buy right now

And the tools to get these jobs done are:

Marketing automation platforms

Marketing automation platforms capture leads, run nurture campaigns, and score prospects, all while syncing with your CRM.

What to look for:

• Multichannel automation: Email, ads, LinkedIn, SMS in one workflow
• Clean CRM integration: No broken routing or duplicate leads
• Revenue reporting: Ties activity to pipeline, not just MQLs

1. HubSpot Marketing Hub

Best for: Small-to-mid-market companies looking for an easy-to-manage automation platform.

Pros:

• Built-in CRM, perfect for HubSpot CRM users
• Intuitive workflows to fast-track campaign launches from months to days
• Low learning curve and fast time-to-value
• Plug-and-play automations, great for companies without a dedicated ops person

Cons:

• Costs rise quickly once you cross 10K contacts ($800+)
• Paywalls for basic features like conditional logic and snippet limits
• Advanced customization, reporting and AI features require add-ons that can reach ~$3,200/month

Bottom Line: Choose this if you value speed and simplicity over deep customization. Budget accordingly because costs climb fast as you grow.

2. Adobe Marketo Engage

Best for: Enterprise teams with dedicated marketing ops that need advanced workflows and logic.

Pros:

• Powerful segmentation to run highly personalized, multi-step campaigns
• Built for complex use cases across regions, teams, and channels
• Predictive personalization that helps improve engagement at scale
• Works seamlessly with Salesforce and broader Adobe ecosystem

Cons:

• Steep learning curve, but very powerful and flexible once you get past it
• Need Marketo specialists to get the most out of the tool
• Clunky and outdated UX
• Overkill for teams under 50

Bottom Line: Only choose this if you have someone in-house who knows Marketo inside and out. Without dedicated resources, you're paying for features you can't use.

3. ActiveCampaign

Best for: Budget-conscious startups and growth-stage teams looking for marketing automation with decent CRM features.

Pros:

• Easy to use visual and AI-powered automation builder
• Best for email marketing with a solid deliverability rate of 94.2%
• Great onboarding and support (not paid like HubSpot)
• Integrates with over 1,000+ tools

Cons:

• Limited CRM and CMS depth
• Doesn't offer account-level reporting or advanced attribution
• No sales features like booking links, scheduling, etc.

Bottom Line: Great starter platform for tight budgets, but plan your migration strategy upfront. You'll likely need to upgrade within 18-24 months.

Marketing Attribution Tools

59.4% of B2B teams use marketing attribution tools to end the sales vs. marketing blame game. How? Marketing attribution maps the full buyer journey to show which channels, campaigns, and touchpoints actually influence closed deals, giving both teams clarity on what works.

What to look for:

• Multi-touch attribution: Credit every touchpoint in the journey, not just first or last click
• Account-level visibility: Track all 6-10 stakeholders in the B2B buying committee, not just one lead record
• Automated integration: Clean data from CRM, ads, web, and marketing automation without manual work

4. Adobe Marketo Measure

Best for: Enterprise teams already deep in the Marketo/Adobe stack.

Pros:

• Solid multi-touch attribution
• Tracks online + offline touchpoints across the funnel
• Deep Salesforce integration
• Excellent onboarding and customer support

Cons:

• Enterprise-heavy tool with a steep learning curve
• Manual cost entry for ad channels outside Google/Bing/Facebook
• No full-session journey visibility without the Amazon Redshift add-on

Bottom Line: Only worth it if you're committed to the Marketo ecosystem, otherwise you're paying enterprise prices for workflows that still require manual setup.

5. Dreamdata

Best for: Mid-market teams that need revenue-linked account journeys without enterprise complexity.

Pros:

• Deep account-level visibility with journey maps and timelines
• Strong multi-source stitching across ads, web, and CRM
• Seamless LinkedIn ad data capture via CAPI integration
• Clean CRM syncing with HubSpot, Pipedrive and Salesforce

Cons:

• 5-10 seat caps per tier, teams outgrow it fast
• Limited reporting flexibility for complex RevOps questions
• UI feels dated compared to newer attribution tools

Bottom Line: Solid mid-market pick for account journey clarity, but you'll feel the limits as the team scales.

💡Also Read: Factors Vs DreamData and Factors Vs Marketo Engage (Bizible)

6. Factors.ai 

Best for: High-growth B2B teams needing attribution + account intelligence without enterprise complexity.

Pros:

• Unlimited seats, perfect for high-growth teams
• Endless custom user stage models to segment leads
• Dedicated support on all plans, unlike Dreamdata
• More out-of-the-box integration options compared to Marketo Measure (9 vs 6)
• Onboarding in less than 30 minutes
• Larger IP database than Demandbase (4.6M vs 3.6M)
• LinkedIn AdPilot shows which companies saw ads and returned
• Doesn't deanonymize individual contacts

Cons:

• Doesn't integrate with Microsoft Dynamics 365
• There's a learning curve for custom reporting and advanced setup
• Doesn't deanonymize individual contacts

Bottom Line: Great for teams looking to cut stack bloat. Attribution + account intelligence + ABM in one tool. Expect a light learning curve as you scale into custom reporting.
💡Also Read: How Squadcast used Factors to reduce prospecting time by 25% using Factors.ai's account intelligence

ABM Tools

ABM tools identify which accounts are in-market right now, so sales stops playing eeny-meeny-miny-mo with leads who downloaded a PDF versus those checking pricing three times.

ABM-aligned companies grow revenue by 208% and increase profits 27% over three years.

What to look for:

• Account identification and intent signals: Who's in-market and what they're researching
• Cross-channel orchestration: Run LinkedIn, email, display ads, and direct mail from one place
• Shared account intelligence: Everyone sees the same signals and buying behaviors

7. 6sense

Best for: Enterprise GTM teams with strong RevOps support managing 200+ accounts per SDR.

Pros:

• Identifies accounts to prioritize from large lists
• Strong Salesforce fit once configured
• Catches early intent like competitor spikes or category interest

Cons:

• Needs a dedicated RevOps owner
• Data accuracy issues (stale contacts, false positives)
• Weak EMEA coverage

Bottom Line: Best for complex enterprise sales. Smaller teams struggle to get value, and it becomes shelfware.

8. Demandbase

Best for: Enterprise teams running heavy paid ads targeting full buying committees.

Pros:

• Strong account-level ad targeting across buying groups
• Hands-on support
• Integrates with Salesforce, HubSpot, Marketo, LinkedIn
• ABM + light sales intelligence in one

Cons:

• Intent signals need manual validation
• Limited segmentation
• Outdated UX

Bottom Line: Works well for big-budget ads. Less useful for outbound sales teams.

The CRM: Where marketing and sales data connect

Without a shared CRM, marketing can't prove ROI, and sales can't see buying signals. 90% of executives say unified customer data is critical; it's the difference between aligned teams and constant firefighting.

Your CRM is that single source of truth. Marketing tracks engagement and attribution. Sales logs calls and moves deals. Both teams work from the same data.

What to look for:

• Bi-directional sync: Marketing pushes leads in, sales pushes deal data back out
• Full-funnel visibility: Track from first touch to closed revenue in one system
• Automatic logging: Emails, calls, meetings, and campaign activity captured without manual entry

9. Salesforce

Best for: Enterprise GTM teams with complex processes and a Salesforce-centric revenue stack.

Pros:

• Highly customizable for intricate workflows
• Strong enterprise-grade security and governance
• Integrates well with tools across the revenue stack
• Deep automation + strong reporting with cross-team visibility

Cons:

• Requires a dedicated ops/admin owner
• Expensive as you scale modules and seats
• Steep learning curve for non-technical users

Bottom line: Strong choice for teams with ops support, heavy customization needs, and cross-visibility requirements. Lean teams may struggle with the overhead.

10. HubSpot CRM

Best for: Small–mid GTM teams who want fast adoption, tight marketing alignment, and minimal admin support.

Pros:

• Sales + Marketing data in one system, lifecycle clarity without stitching tools
• Integrates well with tools already in your revenue stack (Outreach, Gong, Factors, Marketo, etc.)
• Easy to set up, less dependence on RevOps
• Works well for simple pipelines and straightforward GTM motions

Cons:

• Less flexible data model than Salesforce
• Annual contracts, cancellation is cumbersome
• Advanced reporting and automation sit behind higher tiers

Bottom line: Perfect for basic CRM + marketing flows, but not ideal if you need heavy customization, deep reporting, or complex workflows.

11. Zoho CRM

Best for: Budget-conscious, sales-driven teams that need CRM + ops + support in one place, and have basic ops/admin help for setup and upkeep.

Pros:

• CRM + email marketing + support desk + basic workflows in one suite
• Highly customizable for ops-heavy teams
• Low per-seat cost compared to HubSpot (good for scaling)
• Integrates with common GTM tools (LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Zapier, Slack, Google, Factors, Outreach, Gong)

Cons:

• Clunky UI, steeper learning curve
• Reporting and automation often need custom work
• Requires ongoing ops/admin ownership

Bottom line: Works well for custom ops setups, not the best if you need a simple, rep-friendly CRM.

Types of B2B Sales Tools

Once leads get qualified, it’s the sales team’s job to move them toward conversions. At this stage, they mainly focus on three jobs:

• Track every deal in one place: A CRM that stores contacts, conversations, and opportunities.
• Find the right people inside each account: Sales intelligence that identifies decision-makers and champions.
• Reach them efficiently: Engagement tools that automate outreach, schedule meetings, and reduce friction.

And the tools to get these jobs done are:

Sales Intelligence Tools

ABM shows which accounts are ready. Sales intelligence tools show who to contact within those accounts, along with their roles, seniority, buying authority, and engagement signals.

Two people from the same account may see your content, but only one is checking pricing or has decision-making power. Sales intelligence tools make that clear, so reps don't waste time.

What to look for:

• Fresh, accurate data: 70%+ verified contacts with weekly updates, stale data means bounced emails and dead calls
• Complete contact profiles: Direct dials, emails, LinkedIn URLs, roles, and job changes
• Account structure visibility: Org charts and buying committees to navigate multi-stakeholder deals

12. LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Best for: Teams doing high-volume LinkedIn outreach or social selling

Pros

• Advanced filters for B2B prospecting (function, growth signals, Boolean)
• Real-time signals (job changes, role updates, company news)
• Great for identifying decision-makers and mapping org structures
• Integrates with major CRMs (Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho)

Cons

• Scraping/export automations carry real account-ban risk
• Native exports are limited, third-party tools needed
• High per-seat cost

Bottom line: Perfect for targeting and intelligence inside LinkedIn, but you’ll still need another tool for verified emails and mobile numbers.

13. ZoomInfo

Best for: US outbound teams needing comprehensive contact data and org charts

Pros

• 85% data accuracy 
• Fast enrichment and one-click CRM pushes
• Deep contact & account coverage - direct dials, verified emails, buying-committee visibility
• Strong intent signals and internal buying triggers that help prioritize in-market accounts
• Highest hit-rate for US tech + mid-market/enterprise personas

Cons

• Very expensive compared to Apollo, and Lusha
• EMEA/APAC data coverage is weaker and less reliable than US

Bottom line: Industry leader for data depth and accuracy. Expensive but worth it for teams doing serious outbound at scale.

14. Apollo

Best for: Budget-conscious GTM teams that want broad contact coverage, built-in outreach, and solid data without enterprise-tool overhead.

Pros:

• 210M+ contacts, 35M+ companies (70–80% accuracy)
• Strong value for price, ZoomInfo-like depth at lower cost
• Easy CRM integrations (HubSpot, Salesforce, Zoho, Pipedrive)
• Prospecting + sequencing in one platform across all paid plans

Cons:

• Phone/mobile accuracy weaker compared to ZoomInfo
• Data freshness varies, some roles outdated
• Daily send limits on lower-tier plans

Bottom line: ZoomInfo-level depth at a more competitive pricing. Expect 10–15% lower accuracy but 40–50% cost savings.

You can also pair Apollo with Factors.ai to identify and score in-market accounts first, then pull contact details for faster, higher-quality outreach.

Sales Engagement Tools

Sales engagement tools handle the repetitive work (sequences, follow-ups, meeting scheduling, next-step suggestions) so reps can focus on selling, not admin.

What to look for:

• Multichannel sequencing: Email, LinkedIn, calls, SMS, and follow-ups from one place
• Built-in calling + meetings: Native dialer with recordings and frictionless scheduling
• Personalization at scale: Dynamic fields and clear reply/meeting metrics

15. Klenty

Best for: Small–mid sales teams that want fast, email-first outreach, smooth CRM syncing, and minimal setup.

Pros

• Lightweight to operate, no admin or training needed
• Strong email sequencing with high-volume support
• Built-in deliverability boosters (random send intervals, mailbox rotation)
• Smooth CRM integrations (HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Zoho)

Cons

• Limited LinkedIn automation
• Paywalled features on lower plans
• Less customization than bigger platforms

Bottom line: A fast, no-friction outreach tool for email-first teams. Great for simple, high-volume execution, not the choice if LinkedIn or deep customization matters.

💡Case study: Klenty increased conversion rate by 34% using Factors.ai's intent data for sequence triggering.

16. Salesloft

Best for: Mid to large sales teams running multichannel outreach who need deep Salesforce integration, deep reporting and analytics

Pros

• Powerful multichannel cadences across email, calls, LinkedIn
• Deep Salesforce integration with reliable bi-directional syncing
• Strong analytics, activity dashboards, and AI-driven task prioritization
• Conversation intelligence and deal insights for pipeline visibility

Cons

• Steep learning curve for new users
• Higher cost than most alternatives
• UI can feel heavy or cluttered for simple outreach needs

Bottom line: Strong for pipeline visibility and deep CRM integration. Skip if you need lightweight tools or tight budgets.

17. Outreach

Best for: Enterprise teams that need deep visibility into pipeline activity and one system to manage outreach, calls, and deal tracking.

Pros

• Clear visibility from lead handoff to closed deal 
• Outreach + conversation intelligence + revenue forecasting in one tool
• Great option for enterprise teams
• Handles high-volume outreach without breaking down

Cons

• Overly complicated UI
• Unresponsive customer support
• Limited automation flexibility

Bottom line: Best for enterprise teams needing forecasting and conversation intelligence in one platform. Too heavy for lean teams with under 50 reps. 

💡Also Read: How Klenty increased their conversion rate by 34% with Factors.ai

Consolidation opportunities: How to cut your stack from 16 to 6 tools

AI Sales Tools: Do you need them?

Searches for ‘AI sales tools’ and ‘sales AI tools’ are exploding. Threads list 70 plus options. But here’s the thing: You probably already have AI.

Look at what you already have:

• HubSpot / Marketo → AI lead scoring, send-time optimization
• Factors.ai / Dreamdata → ML-driven conversion prediction + account scoring
• Klenty / Salesloft → AI email writing, call summaries, next-step suggestions
• Salesforce → forecasting, opportunity scoring, pipeline health
• Outreach / Gong → AI deal insights, risk detection, talk-track breakdowns
• ZoomInfo → intent scoring + predictive buyer signals
• Apollo → AI research + AI scoring baked in

   But none of it is useful in isolation. Unless every tool is integrated with your CRM, you only get a partial picture or end up spending time shuttling between multiple tools. AI is only as good as the data it’s fed.

How to choose the right marketing and sales tools? 

Choosing the right sales and marketing in 2026 can be quite overwhelming.  You open one blog and find 47 "best tools" lists. G2 shows 4.7 stars, but reviews say "great for enterprises, terrible for teams under 50." Three hours later: 23 tabs open, zero decisions made.

If that sounds like a day in your life, here’s how you can evaluate what belongs in your revenue stack:

1. Start with the gap, not the category 

Ask: "What's actually breaking in our funnel?" Map the tool to your buyer journey. If prospects drop off after initial engagement, you need nurture automation. If sales can't tell who's serious, you need intent signals.

2. Integration with your CRM

No tool is worth buying if it doesn't sync cleanly with your CRM. Broken integrations create more problems than they solve. Check for native integrations first, not just ‘API available.’

3. User experience

Let your team decide. Take free trials to gauge ease of use. If reps won't use it, it's wasted budget.

4. Security and AI transparency 

Ask: Where does the data come from? Does the AI learn from your closed deals or generic patterns? For sales intelligence tools, verify 70%+ data accuracy.

5. Pricing and contract terms 

Calculate total cost: seat licenses, onboarding, training, and admin time. Before signing, confirm you can scale or cancel mid-contract.

Next Steps: Your 3-Step Stack Audit

Step 1: Map your current sales and marketing tools against the revenue stack

List every tool you're paying for. Which category does it serve? Look for functional overlaps. For example, if you have 2 tools doing attribution, you've found bloat.

Step 2: Look for consolidation opportunities

• Paying for attribution + ABM separately? Consolidate to one platform (like Factors.ai)
• Have ZoomInfo and Lusha? Choose one that offers deeper intelligence
• Using multiple engagement tools? Pick one that includes calling, sequencing, and scheduling

Step 3: Test before you cut

Run free trials for at least a month on new tools before replacing the older ones. If adoption sticks and data flows cleanly to your CRM, make the switch.

And that's how you build a sales and marketing tool stack that does more with less.

Start here: Try Factors.ai free to consolidate attribution + ABM + intent in one platform.

FAQs for Marketing and Sales Tools 

1. What are marketing and sales tools?

Marketing and sales tools are platforms that generate demand, nurture leads, and convert customers. They include SaaS marketing tools, CRMs, ABM platforms, sales intelligence tools, and sales engagement software.

2. What are AI sales tools?

AI sales tools (also called sales AI tools) use artificial intelligence or machine learning to automate sales tasks like lead scoring, content generation, call/email assistance, and account research. Unlike normal automation that uses if-then clauses, AI learns from past wins to figure out the next best steps.

3. How is machine learning used in sales?

Machine learning automates a variety of sales tasks, including churn prediction, lead scoring, forecasting accuracy, and deal health scoring. These tools gauge buyer behavior and historical performance to determine the best way forward to move deals across the pipeline.

4. What are the best AI tools for sales?

The best sales AI tools depend on your tech stack, CRM, team size, and workflows. Pick based on the biggest gap in your funnel, whether that's assistants/copilots, predictive forecasting, or prospecting tools.

5. What are business development tools?

Business development tools (also called sales development tools) help teams find new opportunities and reach out to them. This includes prospecting platforms, sales intelligence tools, meeting-scheduling software, proposal tools, and LinkedIn-based outreach tools.

6. What are SaaS marketing tools?

SaaS marketing tools are platforms designed to help software companies attract, engage, and convert customers through digital channels like email, content, SEO, and paid advertising.

If you’ve used Clay, you know it’s impressive. It pulls data from the deepest corners of the world, lets you shape it exactly how you want, and helps build flexible workflows with a high degree of control. For fast-moving teams, this gives a powerful edge.

But once Clay becomes part of day-to-day GTM operations, it loses steam. 🌫️

Yes, Clay keeps doing its part well, but it stops short of actual execution. If I had to tell you another thing that bothered me… it would be maintenance. I spent more time keeping existing workflows running than I expected. I also had to jump between tools just to act on the data, while outreach, ads, and intent signals were all on different platforms.

I could prepare everything perfectly, but I still had to decide (through human intervention) what to do next and where to do it. At this stage, it really started to feel like automation that isn’t automated?!

The pattern became obvious for me: Clay helped me get ready, but it didn’t help me execute.

That’s when I understood why GTM teams start looking for alternatives. While Clay does its job pretty well, it’s not enough anymore. Job requirements have changed. GTM motions have grown more complex, and the question has shifted from “How do I enrich this data?” to “How do I turn real signals into action without jumping between different tools?”

This guide is for that moment.

TL;DR

• Clay is great for data enrichment and workflow building, but it falls short when it comes to execution.
• Apollo and ZoomInfo solve specific problems, but don’t unify GTM workflows.
• As GTM motions mature, teams need systems that connect intent, action, and CRM updates.
• Factors.ai stands out by focusing on signal-driven activation, not just data prep.
• The right tool depends on your GTM maturity, not feature checklists.

Criteria for Evaluating Clay Alternatives in 2026

Yes, Clay is good at what it does (There’s a reason so many growth teams adopted it early). But the way teams evaluate alternatives today is very different. These teams know firsthand that connecting multiple tools is like playing Jenga: Each workflow works fine on its own, but one small change (like a broken sync, or a missed signal) and the whole thing starts wobbling.

That’s why I have evaluated Clay alternatives that align with the changing requirements - a new system that helps you choose “better alternatives”:

1. Unified data and activation:

The first thing I look for now is unified data and activation. Clean data matters, but it’s useless if it can’t trigger action. The system should know when something important happens and act on it without waiting for manual steps.

2. CRM hygiene: 

CRM hygiene is next. If the tool doesn’t keep records clean, updated, and consistent, everything downstream suffers. A modern GTM tech stack should prevent mess, not create more of it.

3. Intent integration: 

Teams need real buyer intent signals (not static worksheets) that show when an account is warming up along with the ICP.

4. Workflow automation:

Workflow automation still matters, but the bar is higher. It’s moved on from just building clever logic to whether workflows actually reduce work across teams.

5. AI-driven routing and prioritization: 

This one helps in deciding what deserves attention right now.

6. Cost efficiency: 

Cost plays a bigger role, too. Tools that look affordable initially can become expensive once usage scales.

7. Integration:

Integration is another non-negotiable. Any serious alternative needs to work cleanly with LinkedIn Ads, Google Ads, and the CRM. If those connections are weak, the system won’t hold.

And finally, I asked one simple question: Can this tool function as growth engineering infrastructure, or is it just a one-off solution?

These are the criteria on which I have chosen the seven Clay alternatives.

What Is Clay Better At (But Where It Falls Short)

But, before we get down to the alternatives, there are a few upsides and downsides to Clay (you start to feel these just as soon as you catch momentum) that need to be looked at.

Clay does a lot of things (genuinely) well:

• It is excellent at data enrichment.
• The spreadsheet-style interface feels familiar.
• The workflows are flexible.
• Its ability to layer logic on top of data is impressive (and powerful).

For research-heavy GTM work or one-off growth experiments, it’s hard to beat.

It’s also great for teams that like to build. If you enjoy tinkering, testing prompts, and building complex workflows, Clay gives you a big sandbox. That flexibility is the reason so many growth teams opt for it in the first place.

But, here’s where it falls short:

• Clay isn’t built to run end-to-end GTM automation:

There’s no native prioritization layer (to help you decide which accounts matter right now), and it doesn’t even give you a sense of timing (so you know when to outreach prioritized accounts). Everything still depends on someone checking workflows, exporting data, and deciding what to do next.

• Clay assumes technical expertise: 

It assumes your team has the technical skills to manage workflows on their own. Your team has to own the logic, watch credit usage, debug broken workflows, and keep everything in sync, which works when volume is low or the team is small. Scaling with it becomes harder, when SDRs, marketers, RevOps, and growth teams all depend on the same system.

• Clay doesn’t unify GTM touchpoints: 

Fragmentation is its biggest limitation. Clay can’t unify GTM touchpoints on its own. Ads data, contact details, website intent, all are managed separately. CRM updates happen after the fact. Yes, Clay is in the middle of all this, but it doesn’t close the loop.

So, while Clay remains a strong data enrichment and workflow tool, it struggles to become the system that runs GTM. If your team is hustling toward full GTM engineering, this gap is hard to ignore.

Now, let’s take a look at the alternatives.

Top Clay Alternatives for GTM Tools & Growth Teams

Note: Not every Clay alternative (listed here) is trying to replace the same thing. Some replace data enrichment, some sequencing, while a few others try to replace the system Clay often ends up sitting inside.

1. Factors.ai (Best for unified GTM automation: intent, ads, signals)

If Clay is your prep kitchen (it helps you source ingredients, clean them, cut them, label them, and keep them ready), Factors.ai is your head chef + service flow (it watches what guests are doing, who just walked in, who is lingering, and who looks ready to order).

Factors.ai combines strong enrichment with workflow automation, helping GTM teams act on data instead of just collecting it.

Factors.ai starts with account-level intelligence and is designed to turn signals into action. This means it:

• Captures intent and engagement across touchpoints, including website activity and account behavior
• Syncs that context into the CRM, keeping records current without manual updates
• Routes signals to sales teams in real time, so outreach happens when timing is right
• Triggers action across channels, including outbound motions and LinkedIn and Google Ads through AdPilot.
• Maintains closed feedback loops between signals, actions, and CRM updates

By orchestrating website activity, account signals, ads, and CRM feedback loops in one system, it removes much of the manual data movement that slows GTM teams down. For teams doubling down on growth engineering motion, Factors.ai comes up to be one of the cleanest Clay alternatives.

Related Read: How Factors.ai connects intent, signals, and activation across the full GTM funnel 

2. Apollo.io (Best for scaling cold outreach quickly)

If Clay is your prep kitchen, Apollo is your serving line (where the focus is on getting plates out fast rather than perfecting ingredients. Speed matters more than nuance).

At first glance, Clay vs Apollo feels like a simple choice: Clay is technical and flexible, while Apollo is practical and ready to use. But that framing misses the MAIN question GTM teams should be asking.

Apollo has its own database and works well as an email automation tool when speed is your goal. If you need sales reps to send emails fast, Apollo removes friction. Lead lists, sequences, replies, and basic reporting all come together in one place, making it easy to get an SDR motion off the ground without much operational/administrative work.

With Apollo.io, you get: 

• A large contact database that makes list-building fast
• Built-in email sequencing, so that reps can move from list to outreach quickly
• A straightforward outbound setup with minimal operational friction
• An easy path to spinning up SDR motions without heavy tooling or setup

But Apollo’s data is broad, and context can feel thin. Meaning,

• You get the job titles without any real insights
• Personalization feels templated because the intent signals aren’t clear.

Where Clay fits:

Clay is on the opposite end of the spectrum. It focuses on data enrichment and workflow building, with strong automation features for shaping and transforming data.

Where Clay falls short: 

Clay doesn’t activate outbound on its own. It doesn’t have native sequencing, prioritization, or timing sense. Apollo, meanwhile, activates outbound easily but doesn’t always give teams confidence in who they’re reaching or why now is the right moment.

So GTM teams end up connecting the two: Clay prepares the data and Apollo runs the sequences. 

Simple, right? Not so much…Turns out connecting the two creates handoffs and sync issues. 

Why teams move past the Clay vs Apollo debate

At this point, GTM teams move away from the ‘Clay vs Apollo’ debate, towards GTM workflows. Instead of alternating between better data and sequencing, they want a unified platform that not only silences this debate but also takes away the pain of connecting different tools.

Factors.ai helps you achieve this seamlessly. Using company-level intelligence and intent data, Factors.ai identifies an account that’s warming up and triggers activation automatically. That activation can be outbound, ads through AdPilot (Google and LinkedIn), CRM updates, or alerts to sales teams to amplify their outreach efforts.

3. ZoomInfo (Best for enterprise data quality and depth)

If Clay is your prep kitchen (where the ingredients are sourced from different suppliers), ZoomInfo is your walk-in freezer stocked by a national supplier (where everything is labeled, organized, reliable, and comes from one large, dependable source).

The Clay vs ZoomInfo comparison usually comes up when GTM teams start questioning the data itself, instead of just how fast they can act on it.

ZoomInfo stands out when accuracy and coverage matter more than flexibility. Large teams rely on it for firmographics, org charts, and buyer intent, especially in US-focused sales motions. You get some of the most accurate contact data, especially for the US, and buyer intent is part of the package. For sales teams that want confidence in who they’re reaching and whether an account fits their target market, ZoomInfo feels reliable. It gives leadership confidence that the data foundation is solid.

The downside here is how that data is used. ZoomInfo isn’t built to adapt to custom GTM workflows or to support rapid experimentation. Activation usually happens elsewhere, and teams rely on downstream sales tools to turn data into action. Cost also becomes a factor as usage scales.

ZoomInfo is strong at answering who exists. It’s less strong at helping teams coordinate what happens next.

Where Clay fits:

Clay flips that. Clay is all about flexibility. You can combine data sources, apply logic, and shape data to fit your process. If the problem is adapting data to your GTM motion, Clay gives you room to do that.

Where both tools fall short is execution (again). Neither is built for multi-channel GTM engineering. Intent, outbound, ads, and CRM updates still live in different places, which means manual stitching and fragile feedback loops.

Some GTM teams take a step back from this data depth vs workflow flexibility row. Instead, they look for systems that handle both intent and activation together. Factors.ai does this seamlessly. By ingesting account-level intent and triggering activation from the same place, it reduces the need for constant handoffs and data silos.

Clay and ZoomInfo solve different problems well. But once GTM becomes system-level, data alone isn’t enough.

Related Read: Detailed comparison of Factors.ai vs ZoomInfo

4. 6sense / Terminus (Best for ABM and intent signal programs)

If Clay is your prep kitchen (focused on getting ingredients ready), 6sense and Terminus are your banquet planning system (they decide which tables matter, what meals are being served, and how the evening is structured) that assumes you have well-trained staff and set menu. 

6sense and Terminus are purpose-built for account-based motions. They bring intent data, account insights, and advertising together under an ABM framework. For enterprise teams running planned, top-down GTM programs, this structure works well.

The challenge is weight. These platforms take time to implement, require alignment across teams, and come with higher cost. They’re opinionated systems, which makes them powerful in the right environment but less flexible for teams still evolving their GTM motion.

For mid-market or lean teams, they can feel like committing to a GTM model before it’s effectiveness is clear.

5. n8n (For GTM teams with in-house engineering muscle)

If Clay is your prep kitchen, n8n is the plumbing and wiring behind the building. It’s powerful, flexible, and gives you full control, but it doesn’t know anything about GTM on its own.

n8n is an open-source workflow automation tool. It’s loved by technical teams because you can self-host it, customize it deeply, and build exactly what you want using APIs and custom logic. For GTM engineering teams with strong developer support, this is appealing. You can recreate enrichment flows, routing logic, and tool-to-tool syncs without being boxed into a predefined GTM model.

However, n8n doesn’t understand concepts like intent, accounts warming up, buying stages, or prioritization. You have to define all of that yourself. Every scoring rule, every trigger, every edge case becomes your responsibility. Maintenance scales with complexity.

n8n works best when:

• You already have engineers supporting GTM
• You want maximum control over workflows
• You’re comfortable building and maintaining logic long-term

It’s less ideal if you want GTM intelligence and execution out of the box. n8n moves data extremely well, but it doesn’t tell you what matters or when to act unless you explicitly build that intelligence yourself.

6. Make (For teams that want flexibility without full engineering)

If Clay is your prep kitchen, Make is the conveyor system that moves ingredients between stations quickly and reliably.

Make (formerly Integromat) is a low-code automation platform designed for speed and accessibility. Compared to n8n, it’s easier to set up and friendlier for RevOps or growth teams that don’t have deep engineering support. You can connect tools, automate handoffs, and build fairly complex workflows without writing code.

That ease comes with limits. Like n8n, Make doesn’t understand GTM context. It doesn’t know what an intent spike is, how to score accounts, or when outreach should happen. You can automate actions, but you still have to decide the logic manually, often using static rules or scheduled checks.

As GTM motions grow more complex, Make workflows can become fragile. Small changes in tools or logic often require manual fixes, and prioritization still lives outside the system.

7. Clearbit, People Data Labs, Datagma (Breadcrumb-style enrichment tools; Good for data, not for GTM workflows)

If Clay is your prep kitchen (where ingredients are turned into something usable), Breadcrumb tools such as Clearbit, People Data Labs, and Datagma are ingredient suppliers (they just deliver high-quality ingredients at your doorstep).

Tools like Clearbit, People Data Labs, and Datagma enrich records, fill gaps, and improve data quality inside your CRM or warehouse. But they stop at enrichment. There’s no orchestration, no activation, and no feedback loop. Teams still need other systems to route leads, trigger outreach, run ads, or prioritize accounts.

They work best as supporting pieces in a larger tech stack if your goal is end-to-end GTM automation.

Deep Dive: Why GTM Engineering Teams Prefer Unified Platforms

Growth engineering has pushed GTM teams to think in systems. The focus is no longer on what a single tool can do, but on how everything works together once real volume and multiple channels are involved.

That’s why Clay alternatives are increasingly evaluated at the system level.

1. Unified view of account activity:

GTM teams want one common view for account activity and intent. When signals, engagement, and context live in different tools, decisions slow down and confidence drops.

2. Multi-Channel Activation From One Signal:

They also want multi-channel activation built into the same workflow. A meaningful signal should trigger the right actions across outbound, ads, and the CRM without manual coordination.

3. CRM hygiene automation:

This has become just as important. Rather than fixing routing or fields as problems appear, growth engineering teams want systems that keep records clean as signals change.

4. Real-time signal-based routing:

Static rules miss timing. Teams want actions triggered by actual behavior over scheduled batches and fixed logic.

5. Turning Intent Into Ads Automatically:

And finally, insights need to flow directly into ad activation. When intent stays locked in dashboards, value is lost. The strongest systems push those insights straight into LinkedIn and Google automatically.

Tools like Factors.ai work well because they operate as a unified system for account intelligence and activation, connecting signals, routing, CRM updates, and ads in one place. Factors.ai also works across LinkedIn, Google, CRM, Slack, and HubSpot workflows, aligning closely with how growth engineering teams run GTM today.

Related Read: Intent data platforms and how they work

Case Study Highlights: Common Patterns Across Factors Customers

Teams from Descope, HeyDigital, and AudienceView show a similar shift in how they run GTM once they move to a unified setup with Factors.ai.

Rather than centering GTM around spreadsheets and enrichment workflows, these teams focused on account-level signals and automation.

Here, using company intelligence as the trigger for action, website engagement and account activity acted as the starting point. This then flowed into downstream GTM actions without manual handoffs.

Next, they activated multiple channels from the same signal. The same account insight informed outbound outreach and ad activation, rather than maintaining separate lists for SDRs and marketing. This reduced lag and kept messaging aligned.

CRM data hygiene also improved as a result. Instead of cleaning records after issues appeared, routing, ownership, and key fields updated automatically as engagement changed. Now, RevOps involvement shifted from constant maintenance to oversight.

By changing the operating model, i.e. keeping intent, activation, and CRM data updates in one place, these teams reduced operational drag and made GTM execution easier to scale and trust.

Related Read: Turning anonymous visitors into warm pipeline

Pricing Comparison: Clay Alternatives

Who should choose what:

• Lean teams experimenting with enrichment and workflows often start with Clay.
• Outbound-heavy teams that value speed and predictable pricing lean toward Apollo.
• Enterprise teams from established companies prioritizing data depth and coverage typically choose ZoomInfo.
• GTM engineering teams focused on intent, automation, and system-level execution tend to prefer other platforms like Factors.

Final Recommendation: Best Clay Alternative by GTM Maturity

Simply put: There’s no universal winner. The right choice depends on where your team is currently and how much GTM engineering you actually want to run. Evaluate the path that fits your maturity, rather than opting for a tool that looks powerful on paper.

FAQs for Best Clay Alternatives

Q. Is Clay a data provider or an orchestrator?

Clay is primarily an orchestration and enrichment platform. It aggregates third-party data sources and layers workflows and AI research on top, rather than owning a single proprietary database. 

Q. Which Clay alternative has the best US contact data?

For US contact coverage and depth, ZoomInfo is most often cited in community discussions. Apollo.io is commonly chosen for price and ease of use, with mixed views on accuracy.

Q. Can Apollo replace Clay?

Sometimes. Apollo bundles contact data and sequencing, which makes it a simpler and cheaper option for solo users or small teams. Power users often keep Clay for research and personalization, then export it into Apollo for sending. Teams that move toward signal-based GTM often replace both with systems like Factors.ai, where activation is driven by intent rather than static lists.

Q. What’s a good Clay alternative for signal-based prospecting?

LoneScale is frequently mentioned for real-time buyer signals at scale. Some teams layer it with platforms like Factors.ai to combine signal ingestion with downstream activation across outbound sales processes and CRM workflows.

Q. If I just need automation, not databases, what should I try?

Tools like Bardeen, Persana, or Cargo focus on automation rather than owning data. If you need automation tied to GTM signals and activation, Factors.ai fits better than general-purpose automation tools.

The B2B world is noisy right now… almost as much as a honk-y traffic jam in Times Square.

There’s too much going on at once. Organic search feels unpredictable, CPCs are climbing (and jittery) like they’ve had too much caffeine, and gated content is… well, let’s just say no one wants to open those gates.

So instead of guessing what’s working, we analyzed performance data from 100+ B2B companies and survey responses from 125+ senior marketers.

The result is our 67-page Benchmark Report packed with uncomfortable truths, delightful surprises, and a snowman hidden somewhere in the middle. Yes, really.

If you want the short version, here’s the state of B2B marketing in 2025, backed entirely by what the data actually shows.

TLDR

• B2B buyer behavior has changed significantly, and traditional channels aren’t performing as they used to.
• LinkedIn is becoming the center of modern GTM because it influences buyers long before they enter a formal evaluation.
• The platform isn’t just a top-of-funnel channel anymore; it amplifies paid search, outbound, and content performance across the entire buying loop.
• Creative formats and brand-first strategies are evolving fast, with richer in-feed content outperforming old-school gated plays.
• To win in 2026, marketers must operate in a non-linear loop, show up early, and empower buying committees with consistent, credible engagement across channels.

B2B Benchmark Report: The B2B market shift you can’t ignore

1. Organic Search Is Getting Tougher

Search is still important, but it’s no longer the dependable traffic engine it once was.

• The median organic traffic change was –1.25%
• Among companies with large traffic volumes (50K+), 67% saw a decline

But, here’s the thing, even with traffic dropping, organic conversion rates increased by 21.4% on average for those with declining traffic

Fewer people are arriving, but the right people still are. Basically, quality is still winning.

2. Paid Search Is Under Real Pressure

Paid search is having a rough year.

• Median paid search traffic dropped 39%
• CPCs increased 24%
• And 65% of companies saw conversion rates decline

This is the channel equivalent of “it’s not you, it’s me.” No matter how well you optimize, auction dynamics and buyer behavior are changing the economics.

3. Gated Content Isn’t Pulling Its Weight

The gates aren’t just creaking, they’re closing with loud thuds.

• Webinar registrations dropped 12.7%
• Ebook downloads dropped 5%
• Report downloads dropped 26.3% among established programs

Buyers now prefer research through LLM summaries, peers, communities and platforms like LinkedIn.

4. Demo Requests Are Holding Strong

Despite turbulence up-funnel, demo requests grew:

• Median demo growth was 17.4%
• And 63% of organizations reported an increase in demos

It lines up with a key Forrester insight included in the report: 92% of B2B buyers begin their journey with at least one vendor in mind, and 41% already have a preferred vendor before evaluation begins.

By the time they fill a form, the decision is already halfway made.

Why is LinkedIn quietly becoming the new B2B Operating System?

You’ve probably noticed CMOs talking a lot more about LinkedIn lately. That’s not nostalgia for early-2000s networking. It’s because the data shows a decisive shift.

Budgets are moving at the speed of light 

Between Q3 2024 and Q3 2025:

• LinkedIn budgets grew 31.7%
• Google budgets grew 6%
• LinkedIn’s share of digital budgets increased from 31.3% to 37.6%
• Google’s share reduced from 68.7% to 62.4%

This is not your usual “let’s test and learn” moment, it’s more like the Great Reallocation (at the executive level).

Brand and Engagement Are Back in Fashion

Marketers finally have proof that brand pays off.

• Brand awareness and engagement campaigns increased from 17.5% to 31.3% of objective share
• Lead generation campaign share dropped from 53.9% to 39.4%

When buyers form preferences early, showing up early matters.

Creative Formats Are Evolving

What’s working:

• Video ads and document ads both increased their spend share (from 11.9% to 16.6%)
• Single-image ads declined sharply
• CTV spend increased from 0.5% to 6.3%
• Offsite delivery increased from 12.9% to 16.7%

Buyers want richer stories, not static rectangles.

The Most Interesting Finding: LinkedIn Makes Every Other Channel Better

This section is where marketers usually lean in.

Across the companies evaluated:

1. Paid Search Performs Better After LinkedIn Exposure

• Paid search leads were 14.3% influenced by LinkedIn first
• ICP accounts convert 46% better in paid search after seeing LinkedIn ads
  

2. Outbound Performs Better

• SDR meeting-to-deal conversion increased 43% when accounts had seen LinkedIn ads
  

3. Content Performs Better

• ICP accounts converted 112% better on website content pages after seeing LinkedIn ads

My point is, LinkedIn is amplifying everything.

So, where do you stand? Don’t be shy… come, benchmark yourself

Here are some of the medians pulled from the Benchmarking Framework:

• Organic traffic: –1.25%
• Organic conversion rate: –2.5%
• Paid search traffic: –39%
• Paid search conversion: –20%
• Demo requests: 17.4%
• LinkedIn budget share: Around 40.6%

If you're above these numbers, great. If you're below them, also great… you now know exactly what to fix.

So What Should Marketers Actually Do With All This?

1. Build Presence Before Buyers Enter the Market

Since 92% start with a vendor already in mind, waiting for in-market buyers is a losing game. Show up with:

• Executive thought leadership
• Ungated value content
• Category POVs
• Insight-rich document ads

2. Treat LinkedIn as a Full-Journey Channel

Awareness, interest, consideration, validation… LinkedIn supports all of it, especially with:

• Thought Leader Ads
• Document Ads
• Website retargeting
• Predictive Audiences
• Matched audiences

3. Shift From Linear Funnels to Non-Linear Loops

Modern buyers loop, pause, reappear, consult peers and re-research.
Your marketing has to follow them, not force them into a stage.

4. Track What Actually Moves Accounts Forward

This is where tracking and measuring tools step in.

How Factors Helps (This is not a sales pitch, or is it?)

The report makes one thing obvious. To operate in a loop instead of a funnel, you need clean, connected buyer intelligence.

1. Company Intelligence (LinkedIn’s new API + Factors)

Unifies:

• Paid LinkedIn engagement
• Organic LinkedIn activity
• Website behavior
• CRM activity
• G2 and intent data

This lets you create buying-stage rules and trigger the right plays when accounts heat up.

2. LinkedIn CAPI

With automated bidding rising from 27.6% to 37.5% of campaigns, accurate server-side conversions matter more than ever. 

Factors helps send pipeline events like MQLs, SQLs and meetings straight to LinkedIn.

3. AdPilot for LinkedIn

Helps you:

• Control impressions at an account level
• Reduce over-serving top accounts
• Redistribute spend to underserved ones

Descope used this to increase ROI by 22% and reduce wasted impressions by 17%..

Okay, that’s enough from me, you can directly download the full Benchmark Report here. Trust me, your future pipeline will thank you.

In a Nutshell

Paid search is under pressure, organic traffic is thinning, and gated content is losing traction… LinkedIn is rewriting the rules of B2B go-to-market strategy. This benchmark report, built from the data of over 100 companies and 125+ senior marketers, reveals a shift in buyer behavior and the growing dominance of LinkedIn across the full funnel.

From surging demo requests (+17.4%) to skyrocketing ad effectiveness when paired with LinkedIn exposure, the platform isn’t just top-of-funnel anymore; it’s influencing decisions throughout the buying loop. Creative formats like document and video ads are outperforming legacy assets, while brand and engagement budgets have more than doubled.

More tellingly, paid search, outbound, and even website content convert significantly better when LinkedIn is part of the journey. With LinkedIn budgets growing 5x faster than Google’s, this is less a trend and more an executive-level reallocation.

To compete in 2026, marketers need to operate in loops, not funnels, showing up early, tracking behavior across platforms, and using connected tools to move accounts forward with credibility and precision.

FAQs for B2B Benchmark Report

Q. Why is organic traffic declining even though conversion rates are improving?

Because buyers aren’t browsing the web the way they used to. They are researching through LLM summaries, LinkedIn, communities, and trusted sources. Those who do arrive are higher-intent, which explains the 21.4% uplift in organic conversions despite median traffic dropping 1.25%

Q. Should we reduce paid search budgets since results are dropping?

Not necessarily. Paid search isn’t dead; it’s just strained. With median traffic down 39% and CPCs up 24%, the math has changed. The best performers are pairing paid search with LinkedIn exposure, which lifts search conversions by 46%

Q. Is gated content still worth producing?

Only if it’s exceptional. The report shows steep declines in webinar, ebook, and report performance (down 12.7%, 5%, and 26.3%, respectively). Buyers now prefer ungated content, document ads, and in-feed value.

Q. Why did LinkedIn budgets grow 5x faster than Google?

Because marketers are following return on investment, not trends. LinkedIn delivered stronger performance across the buying committee, better ICP alignment, and a 44% revenue return advantage over Google. Budgets grew 31.7% on LinkedIn vs 6% on Google.

Q. Is LinkedIn only good for brand awareness?

Not at all. Yes, brand and engagement campaigns increased from 17.5 to 31.3%, but LinkedIn also drives:

• Better paid search conversions
• Stronger outbound success (43% lift)
• Higher content conversions (112%)
• Larger ACVs (28.6% higher than Google-sourced deals)

LinkedIn is becoming a full-journey channel.

Q. What creative formats work best on LinkedIn now?

Video and document ads. Both increased from 11.9 to 16.6% of spend. Single image ads are declining as buyers prefer richer formats and in-feed content consumption. CTV and offsite delivery also saw strong growth.

Q. How do I know where my company stands?

Use the Benchmark Framework in the report. Some medians:

• Organic traffic: –1.25%
• Paid search traffic: –39%
• Demo requests: 17.4% growth
• LinkedIn budget share: roughly 40.6% for median performers

If you're above or near these values, you’re aligned with top performers.

Q. Where does Factors come in without this feeling like a sales pitch?

The report makes it obvious that modern buying requires:

• Connected account journeys
• Visibility across paid and organic LinkedIn
• Better conversion signals for automated bidding
• Account-level impression control

Factors helps with LinkedIn CAPI, Company Intelligence, Smart Reach, and AdPilot, all of which support the behaviors the report uncovers.

Remember the golden days of yesteryear when gating an eBook felt like a secret hack to marketing success? When every webinar registration made your lead gen dashboard light up like a Christmas tree? When downloading a whitepaper in exchange for an email address was just... how things worked?

Those glory days are over. 

TL;DR

• Gated content performance is collapsing, with major drops in webinar signups, eBook downloads, and report requests.
• Buyers now prefer ungated, native content, using AI tools and social platforms to gather information before ever signaling intent.
• LinkedIn ads and brand campaigns are rising, with marketers prioritizing reach, trust, and mental availability over form fills.
• Retargeting and bottom-funnel content are replacing lead forms as key mechanisms to convert high-intent traffic into pipeline.

The Numbers Don't Lie (But Your Dashboard Might)

Let's rip off the rose-tinted band-aid. Our recent analysis of 100+ B2B marketing teams reveals that gated content is in freefall.

Webinar registrations are down 12.7% overall. And before you blame Zoom fatigue, this decline is systemic across the board. The median company saw a 42% drop in webinar registrations, with the bottom quartile experiencing a brutal 70.2% decline.

eBook downloads dropped 5% among companies with established content programs. These aren't companies just testing the waters with their first eBook. We're talking about organizations that had more than 100 downloads in the previous year's comparable quarter. They built the machine, and now it's running out of gas.

Industry reports? Down 26.3% for companies with mature report programs. Again, these are organizations that had proven track records (100+ downloads previously). The content that used to be your ace in the hole is now more like a two of clubs.

This isn't about content quality. Your eBooks didn't suddenly become boring. Your webinars aren't less valuable than they were last year.

The game itself has changed.

Why Buyers Are Breaking Up With Your Lead Forms

The decline of gated content isn't random. Three shifts have converged to make lead forms feel as outdated as a fax machine.

1. The LLM Revolution Changed How Buyers Research

89% of B2B buyers now use generative AI in their purchasing process. Think about what that means. Instead of downloading your "10 Best Practices" PDF, buyers are asking ChatGPT for 50 best practices, comparison tables, implementation frameworks, and ROI calculators. All in about three minutes. No email address required.

Your gated eBook isn't competing with other vendors' eBooks anymore. It's competing with AI that can synthesize information from hundreds of sources instantly. And frankly, the AI is winning on convenience.

2. Buyers Form Preferences Before You Even Know They Exist

According to Forrester, 92% of B2B buyers start their journey with at least one vendor already in mind. And 41% have already selected their preferred vendor before formal evaluation even begins.

By the time buyers are filling out your webinar registration form, the decision is often already made. They're not in "learning mode" anymore. They're in "validation mode" or "building internal consensus mode."

That changes everything about what content needs to do.

3. Digital Fatigue Is Real

Marketing automation and AI-generated content have flooded the market with generic, samey messaging. Buyers can smell a lead gen magnet from a mile away. They know that downloading your eBook means entering a nurture sequence. They know their inbox is about to get lit up by your SDR team. They know the game.

And increasingly, they're opting out.

But Wait, There's Good News (Kind Of)

Before you burn down your content calendar and quit marketing forever, here's what's working:

Demo requests are up 9.5% overall. The median company saw a 17.4% increase, and 63% of organizations reported growth in demo requests. The 75th percentile? A whopping 56.1% increase.

This tells us that bottom-of-funnel intent is alive and well. Buyers still want to engage. They're just done with the foreplay.

They don't want your 20-page eBook. They want to see if your product actually does what they need it to do. They don't want to sit through a 45-minute webinar about industry trends. They want a demo with someone who can answer their specific questions.

The data also reveals another fascinating trend: among companies that saw traffic decline, conversion rates actually improved. Companies experiencing a 28% decline in traffic saw conversion rates increase by 18%.

Why? Because the traffic that is coming is higher-intent. As informational research migrates to LLMs and social platforms, website visitors increasingly represent people who have already narrowed their vendor shortlist. They're showing up ready to convert, not browse.

Lower volume, higher intent. That's the new reality.

So What Replaces Gated Content?

If lead forms are dying, what fills the void? The answer isn't to abandon content. It's to fundamentally rethink how and where you distribute it.

1. Build Brand Presence Where Buyers Actually Are

While gated content declined, LinkedIn advertising budgets grew 31.7% year-over-year. That's not a typo. LinkedIn ad spend is growing 5X faster than Google Ads (which grew just 6%).

Why? Because B2B marketers are finally catching on to where the real action is happening.

71.9% of marketers report that leads from LinkedIn Ads align more closely with their ideal customer profile and are more likely to be senior-level decision-makers. When 92% of buyers already have a vendor shortlist before active evaluation, being present and visible where they consume professional content becomes the entire ballgame.

2. Shift From Lead Generation to Brand Awareness

Here's a stat that should make you rethink everything: LinkedIn campaign objectives shifted dramatically in 2025. Brand awareness and engagement campaigns grew from 17.5% to 31.3% of total spend. Meanwhile, lead generation objectives dropped from 53.9% to 39.4%.

The smartest marketers are realizing that preferences form before buyers signal intent. You need to build mental availability well before you enter the market.

That means:

• Executive thought leadership (not just company posts)
• Ungated, valuable content distributed through Thought Leader Ads
• Consistent presence across both paid and organic channels
• Document Ads that let buyers consume content natively on LinkedIn without friction

Document Ads, specifically, saw spend increase from 6.4% to 10.7% of total LinkedIn budgets. Why? Because they enable native content consumption without requiring landing page visits. Buyers can get value without entering a lead form. And paradoxically, this builds more trust and engagement than gating ever did.

3. Make Organic Content Your Lead Engine

The most successful B2B brands aren't gating content anymore. They're amplifying it.

53% of B2B marketers now amplify organic posts with Thought Leader Ads. They're taking genuinely valuable content from executives and founders and putting ad spend behind it to reach the right ICP accounts.

This approach solves for both the 95% who aren't in-market now (building awareness for future demand) and the 5% showing intent today (capturing attention at the moment of consideration).

4. Focus on Bottom-of-Funnel Conversion Assets

Since demo requests are growing while top-of-funnel gated content declines, double down on conversion optimization:

• Make demos easy to book (remove friction, not add it)
• Create interactive product experiences
• Build ROI calculators that work without email capture
• Offer assessments that provide immediate value

Save the "give us your email" ask for when someone is actually ready to talk. Not as a toll booth for basic information.

5. Retarget High-Intent Accounts Intelligently

Here's where the magic happens. While you're building brand awareness and distributing ungated content, you're also identifying accounts showing genuine interest. Accounts visiting your pricing page. Accounts reading competitive comparison content. Accounts from your ICP showing repeated engagement.

These accounts get retargeted on LinkedIn with bottom-of-funnel offers. Not another eBook. Not another webinar registration. A direct path to conversation.

This is where 75% website visitor identification becomes a superpower. When you can identify which accounts are engaging with your content across channels (website, LinkedIn, G2), you can build precise retargeting audiences without ever needing a lead form.

The Content Isn't Dead, The Gate Is

Let me be crystal clear: this isn't about creating less content. Or dumbing down your content. Or giving up on content marketing.

This is about your distribution strategy.

Your eBook is probably still valuable. Your webinar content is probably still insightful. Your industry reports likely still contain proprietary data buyers want.

But the lead form between buyers and that value? That's what's dying.

The companies winning right now are taking the same quality content and:

• Publishing it openly on LinkedIn
• Distributing it through Document Ads
• Turning it into organic thought leadership
• Making it discoverable without friction
• Using engagement as a signal (not a lead form submission)

They're building audiences, not lead lists. They're earning attention, not extracting email addresses. They're playing for mental availability with the 95% who aren't buying today, while staying top-of-mind for the 5% who are.

The Bottom Line

The data is unambiguous. Gated content is in systematic decline. Webinar registrations down 12.7%. eBook downloads down 5%. Industry reports down 26.3%.

Meanwhile, LinkedIn ad budgets are up 31.7%. Brand awareness campaigns nearly doubled their share of spend. Document Ads are growing. Thought Leader Ads are becoming standard practice.

The shift is happening with or without you. The only question is whether you're going to adapt or keep watching your webinar registration numbers slowly thin out until your audience is three people (two of whom are staff).

Your buyers have already voted with their behavior. They want valuable content without the friction. They want to learn on their own terms. They want to control their journey.

Give them what they want. Build presence where they already are. Earn trust through consistent value. And save the "enter your email" ask for when someone is actually ready to have a conversation.

FAQs for why is gated content declining

Q1: Why is gated content no longer effective in B2B marketing?

Gated content is losing effectiveness because buyers now prefer on-demand, ungated access to information. They use AI tools, peer networks, and native content formats to research independently, avoiding lead forms that trigger sales outreach.

Q2: What does the data say about gated content performance?

Recent analysis shows webinar registrations are down 12.7%, eBook downloads dropped 5%, and industry report requests fell 26.3%, even among companies with well-established content programs.

Q3: What’s replacing gated content in 2026?

Marketers are shifting to ungated content distributed via Document Ads, LinkedIn thought leadership, and targeted retargeting. These methods build brand trust and drive conversions without forcing email captures.

Q4: Should B2B companies stop using lead forms entirely?

Lead forms still have a place—but only when intent is clear. Use them for demo bookings or ROI tools where buyers are ready to engage. For earlier touchpoints, focus on value-first content without friction.

Q5: How are top B2B brands adapting their content strategy?

Leading companies are investing in brand visibility across LinkedIn, amplifying organic content with paid distribution, and measuring success by pipeline quality, not MQL volume or form fills.

Your analytics dashboard is sending mixed signals. It’s like the person who meets for a date, says they’d love to meet again, and then sends three messages every four days for the next six weeks (he’s just not into you, BTW).

Paid search conversion rates are down 20% at the median. Organic traffic is declining 1.25% for the median company. The charts are red. Your search agency is scrambling for explanations. Your CFO is asking uncomfortable questions about your Google Ads ROI. 

But then you look at demo requests. Demo requests are up 9.5% overall.

And this isn’t just a ‘you’ thing, this is across the board. The median company saw demo requests grow by by 17.4%. Sixty-three percent of organizations reported increases. Some companies in the 75th percentile are seeing 56% growth in demo bookings.

What. The. Heck.

Welcome to the great B2B marketing paradox of 2026. Search is struggling, but bottom-of-funnel conversions are thriving. Traffic is down, but sales conversations are up. Traditional demand gen metrics are tanking, but pipeline quality is improving.

This isn't a bug, nor is it some hot-and-cold romantic prospect. It's a fundamental restructuring of the B2B buyer journey. And if you understand what's driving it, you can stop panicking about declining search metrics and start optimizing for what actually matters.

TL;DR

• Search conversions are falling due to reduced top-of-funnel activity, especially from paid channels.
• Demo requests are rising because buyers now engage only when they’re close to a decision.
• AI tools and peer networks are replacing traditional search during early research stages.
• B2B marketers must refocus on brand visibility, high-intent engagement, and quality pipeline over vanity metrics.

The Data: Two Trends Moving in Opposite Directions

Let's start with the search situation, because it's genuinely rough out there.

In our report, we found that paid search is under severe stress:

• Overall paid search traffic grew just 4.9%, but that masks massive divergence
• The median change in paid search traffic was -25.2%
• The bottom quartile saw traffic declines of -58.9%
• Conversion rates from paid search declined for 65% of companies
• The aggregate conversion rate from paid search dropped 8%
• The median conversion rate change was -20%

To make matters worse, cost per click increased by a median of 24%. So you're paying more, getting less traffic, and that traffic is converting at lower rates. It's the trifecta of paid search pain.

Organic search isn't much better. Overall organic traffic grew just 1.7%, but the median company experienced a -1.25% decline. The bottom quartile saw traffic drop by 25%.

Now here's where it gets weird.

Demo requests are absolutely crushing it:

• Overall demo requests grew 9.5%
• Median growth was 17.4%
• The 75th percentile saw growth of 56.1%
• 63% of organizations reported increases in demo requests

These trends are moving in completely opposite directions. Search metrics (the top and middle of your funnel) are declining. Demo requests (bottom of your funnel) are growing.

How is this possible?

The Answer: Higher Intent, Lower Volume

Here's the key insight that explains the entire paradox: website traffic is becoming more concentrated among high-intent, later-stage buyers who have already narrowed their vendor shortlist.

What does that mean, without the marketing gobbledegook? 

When organizations experience traffic decline but their conversion rate improves, it’s because buyers are doing a new and different thing to discover vendors. LLM-based tools and social validation are the culprits for this change.

Among companies that saw organic traffic decline, even though overall traffic dropped -28%, conversion rates grew 18%.

Lower volume. Higher conversion. This is the pattern.

The buyer journey has been restructured by two massive forces:

1. LLMs Have Absorbed Informational Research

89% of B2B buyers now use generative AI in their purchasing process, according to Forrester research.

Think about what that means for search behavior. Buyers aren't Googling "what is marketing automation" or "best practices for demand generation" anymore. They're asking ChatGPT. They're using Perplexity. They're getting synthesized answers from Claude.

And all that informational, top-of-funnel search traffic is evaporating.

LLM platforms don't show up in your analytics. So you have a black box in your marketing equation, with no way of knowing what’s happening in a crucial part of your strategy.

The remaining searches are high-intent, vendor-specific queries from buyers who already know what they want and are narrowing their options.

2. Buyers Know What They Want Before Signaling Intent

According to Forrester, 92% of B2B buyers start their journey with at least one vendor in mind. Even more striking: 41% have already selected their preferred vendor before formal evaluation even begins. That’s four out of ten buyers who have already decided who they're going to buy from, before they ever contact you.

By the time they're searching for your brand, clicking your ads, or visiting your pricing page, they're not in "learning mode." They're in "validation mode" or "building internal consensus mode."

This is why demo requests stay strong while search conversions decline. Buyers are researching elsewhere (LinkedIn, peer networks, G2, LLMs), forming preferences, and only visiting your website when they're ready to evaluate.

The Vendor Pre-Selection Phenomenon

Traditional funnel thinking assumes buyers move linearly: Awareness → Consideration → Decision. You catch them at the top with content and paid search, nurture them through the middle with email sequences and retargeting, then convert them at the bottom with demos and sales conversations.

That model is dying. Dead, some marketers say.

Modern buyers are conducting extensive research through channels you don't control and can't measure. They're:

• Asking peers in Slack communities and LinkedIn groups
• Reading reviews on G2 and TrustRadius
• Consuming executive thought leadership on LinkedIn
• Using LLMs to compare features, pricing, and use cases
• Watching product demos on YouTube

By the time they land on your website, they've already:

• Identified their problem
• Educated themselves on solutions
• Compared multiple vendors
• Formed initial preferences
• Maybe even built internal consensus

What looks like a website visitor in your analytics is actually a buyer who's most of the way through their journey.

That's why conversion rates from organic content pages are improving for accounts that have seen your LinkedIn ads (+112% lift), why paid search conversion rates are higher for ICP accounts exposed to LinkedIn (+46%), and why demo requests are growing even as top-funnel metrics decline.

The funnel hasn't disappeared. It's just happening somewhere else.

This Means You Need To Stop Optimizing for Vanity Metrics

This shift requires a fundamental rethinking of how you measure marketing success.

If you're still judging performance primarily on:

• Total website traffic
• Number of leads generated
• Top-of-funnel conversion rates
• MQL volume

You're measuring the wrong things. Or more accurately, you're measuring lagging indicators of a system that's already changed. You’re a dinosaur, measuring dinosaur things.

The companies winning right now are focusing on:

• Share of voice in professional communities
• Brand presence where buyers do research (LinkedIn, peer networks)
• Quality and intent level of the traffic they do get
• Velocity from interest to demo
• Bottom-of-funnel conversion rates

Shiyam Sunder, from TripleDart, says “Buyers today don't wander around the internet. They go where the signal is. LinkedIn has quietly become the research layer for B2B, and only high-intent users even bother coming to your site. Lower traffic with higher conversions is a quality upgrade, not a problem.”

You don't have a traffic problem. You have a visibility problem in the places where research actually happens now.

What’s Your Strategy Now?

So, what do you actually do with this information? How do you restructure your marketing strategy around this new reality?

1. Invest in Brand Before Demand

If 92% of buyers start with a vendor in mind, the battle is won or lost before they ever signal intent. That means brand investment isn't a nice-to-have. It's the prerequisite for everything else working.

This is why LinkedIn advertising budgets grew 31.7% year-over-year while Google spending grew by just 6%. CMOs are realizing that being present and visible where buyers conduct research is more valuable than catching them at the moment of search.

Brand awareness and engagement objectives grew from 17.5% to 31.3% of LinkedIn campaign spend. Marketers are shifting dollars from bottom-funnel lead capture to top-funnel presence and trust-building.

2. Accept That Most Touchpoints Are Now In An Invisible Black Box

End-to-end tracking shows that most demos come from multiple marketing touchpoints but ultimately appear as direct website traffic in your analytics.

A buyer might:

• See your CEO's LinkedIn post about industry trends
• Click a Thought Leader Ad to read a case study
• Visit your G2 profile to read reviews
• Ask ChatGPT to compare your product to competitors
• Discuss options in a Slack community
• Finally visit your website directly and book a demo

In your attribution model? That shows up in a roundabout way as "direct traffic."

You can't measure everything anymore. But you can make sure you're present in the channels where invisible research happens. LinkedIn. G2. Peer communities. Executive thought leadership.

3. GI:GO

The old playbook was about volume. More traffic. More leads. More MQLs. Pointless blogs. Erratic posting. Just getting things in front of people. Garbage? No problem.

The new playbook is about precision. Right accounts. Right intent signals. Right timing. 

This is why cost per ICP account engaged matters more than cost per lead. Why 75% website visitor identification is becoming table stakes. Why account-level analytics is replacing lead-level tracking.

If you're still celebrating 10,000 monthly website visitors, but only 200 are from your ICP and only 50 are showing high intent, you don't have a traffic asset. You have noise.

4. Rethink Your Search Strategy

Here's what not to do: panic and slash your search budget.

Paid search is still valuable. It still captures bottom-funnel intent. It still drives demos. But its role has changed.

Search is no longer a standalone demand generation engine. It's a capture mechanism for buyers who were influenced elsewhere.

This means you need to:

• Accept lower traffic volumes as the new normal
• Optimize aggressively for conversion rate, not click volume
• Focus search budget on high-intent, branded, and competitor terms
• Stop trying to use search for education and awareness (that's gone to LLMs)
• Measure success on demos and pipeline, not form fills

Kamil Rextin, General Manager at 42 Agency, puts it this way: "B2B is finally realizing how important brand is because technology is becoming more and more commoditized, and everybody is doing the same thing. And then we also have better measurements of brand through qualitative surveys and statistical modeling, so I think it's easier to understand how brand impacts the bottom line."

Search still matters. But only after your branding has done its job.

The Upside: Better Leads, Better Pipeline, Better Deals

There's a silver lining in all of this. Yes, your search metrics look worse, and you’re getting questioning looks from the money-crunchers. But your pipeline is probably getting better.

Lower-volume, higher-intent traffic means:

• Shorter sales cycles (they've already done research)
• Higher conversion rates (they're ready to buy)
• Better product fit (they understand what you do)
• Larger deal sizes (they've identified real use cases)

The companies experiencing this shift report that even though they're generating fewer leads, those leads are converting to opportunities and closed-won at much higher rates.

You're not losing effectiveness. You're gaining efficiency.

This Isn't a Paradox at All

Search conversions are down, but demos are up. Once you understand what's actually happening, it's not a paradox. It's a logical consequence of buyer evolution.

Buyers are doing more research in places you can't track (LLMs, peer networks, LinkedIn). They're forming preferences before signaling intent. They're only visiting your website when they're already 70% of the way through their journey.

You can’t change this. The genie isn't going back in the bottle.

Your job is to adapt. Build brand presence where research actually happens. Accept that most touchpoints are invisible. Optimize for quality over quantity. And measure success on demos and pipeline, not traffic and MQLs.

The companies that figure this out will look at declining search metrics and shrug. Because they'll be too busy handling the flood of qualified demo requests.

Want to understand which accounts are engaging with your brand across LinkedIn, your website, and other channels before they signal intent through search? Factors.ai unifies account intelligence across all your GTM data so you can identify high-intent buyers earlier in their journey.

FAQs for Why Search Conversions Are Down but Demos Are Up

Q1: Why are search conversions declining while demo requests are increasing?

Search conversions are declining because buyers are no longer using search engines for early-stage research. They now rely on AI tools, peer reviews, and communities, arriving at websites only when ready to evaluate, hence the increase in demo bookings.

Q2: How has the buyer journey changed in B2B marketing?

Today’s B2B buyer often pre-selects vendors before formal evaluation. Most research now happens off-site: on LinkedIn, G2, Slack groups, and AI platforms, leading to fewer visits but more decisive actions.

Q3: What should marketers measure instead of traffic or MQLs?

Marketers should focus on metrics like demo-to-opportunity conversion rate, velocity from interest to meeting, and engagement from ICP (ideal customer profile) accounts. These offer a clearer picture of revenue impact.

Q4: Should B2B companies stop investing in paid search?

No, but its role has shifted. Paid search should be used to capture, not generate, demand. Focus spend on high-intent keywords, brand terms, and competitor searches, and judge success by demos and revenue, not clicks.

Broad keywords get you broad results in a larger market. When businesses targeting a niche need every click to matter, the effort to find niche keywords is your leverage point.

Instead of competing for overly competitive terms like "project management software" with companies that have six-figure monthly Google Ads budgets, you can target "construction project management for small crews" and speak directly to potential customers who are genuinely interested in your solution.

This guide walks you through a step-by-step process that produces a prioritized keywords plan mapped to specific pages on your site, not just a list of terms with high search volumes.

What is an SEO Keyword?

An SEO keyword is a term or phrase people type into search engines when looking for information, products, or services. Initial research involves identifying these search terms based on search volume (how often people search), competition levels (how difficult it is to rank), and search intent (the intent behind a given search query).

For example, someone searching "how to fix a leaky faucet" has informational intent, while "emergency plumber near me" signals transactional intent. Understanding this distinction helps you create content that matches what searchers expect to find.

What are Long-Tail Keywords?

Long-tail keywords are multi-word, intent-rich search phrases that typically have lower search volumes but higher conversion rates.

Where "running shoes" might get 100,000 monthly searches, "best trail running shoes for wide feet" gets maybe 500. But those 500 people know exactly what they want. And although such keywords individually don’t bring a lot of search traffic, over 91% of all search queries on Google are long-tail keywords.

Fortunately, they’re also easier to rank for because there is less competition, and the traffic converts better because you're answering specific questions.

What is Keyword Optimization (vs. Research)?

Keyword optimization is the ongoing process of placing the right keywords in high-value elements like titles, headers, URLs, and body copy to match user intent.

Keyword research helps you find keywords. Optimization puts them to work. After identifying "eco-friendly office gifts under $50" as a target keyword, optimization means using it in your page title, H1 tag, first paragraph, and alt text for product images.

Do note that keyword optimization isn't a one-time task but rather a continuous refinement as you track performance and adjust based on what ranks.

The 7-Step Niche Keyword Research Workflow (US)

Alright, now that we have the basics out of the way, let’s go over the steps to perform keyword research. The steps here apply to pretty much any target audience that you may want to target.

Step 1: Clarify Your ICP and List Seed Keywords

Start by defining the right audience and what specific problems keep them searching at 2 AM.

Your ideal customer profile determines everything downstream. If you run a B2B SaaS tool for accounting firms, your seed keywords might include "audit automation," "tax workflow management," and "client portal software."

Write out 5-7 pain points your customers face, then turn each into phrases related to your niche. Don't overthink this step with formal buyer personas. Just list the actual terms your customers use when describing their problems.

Step 2: Generate Keyword Ideas from Autocomplete and PAA Tools

Feed your seed topics into question mining tools to discover what real people actually ask. Start with a platform like Soovle to aggregate autocomplete suggestions across multiple search engines.

You could also use AlsoAsked, AnswerThePublic, and KeywordsPeopleUse to mine People Also Ask (PAA) questions. For "audit automation," you might discover "can audit automation integrate with QuickBooks" or "what tasks can audit automation handle."

Using your Google Ads account, set your Google Keyword Planner location to the United States to ensure you're getting US-specific volume data. These questions become content angles that align with search intent.

Step 3: Steal from Competitors (Systematically)

Drop 3-5 top competitors into a keyword research tool and harvest content gaps and competitors keywords.

Go to Ahrefs Site Explorer or Semrush's Organic Research tool.

Enter a competitor's domain, then filter their organic keywords by question modifiers (who, what, where, when, why, how). Sort by traffic to find their top ranking pages.

We consistently recommend competitor mining as it reveals proven keywords that already drive organic traffic. You're not copying their content but rather identifying validated search demand.

Redditors on the r/SEO subreddit often mention competitor research as the fastest way to generate keywords.

Source

Step 4: Validate Demand and Difficulty

Check potential keywords for monthly search volume, keyword difficulty (KD), and SERP composition before committing to create content.

Use Ahrefs Keywords Explorer to see if your target keywords actually get searches in the US market. As a general rule, a keyword with 10 monthly searches isn't worth targeting unless it's extremely high-intent.

Look at KD scores (Ahrefs calculates these based on backlinks needed to rank), but more importantly, manually review the SERP. If you see forums, old sites, or thin content ranking in positions 3-7, that's a signal you can compete.

You can also read through Google's SEO Starter Guide which emphasizes matching content type to search intent over chasing vanity metrics.

Step 5: Mine Your Own Data for Long-Tail Gold

Use Google Search Console (GSC) with regex patterns to surface longer queries that already bring you traffic.

Open Search Console, go to Performance > Search Results, click "New" under Queries, then select "Custom (regex)."

Enter the pattern .{25,} to filter for queries with 25 or more characters. This regex technique reveals the specific phrases people use to find your content.

You might discover "how to automate recurring invoices in accounting software for small businesses" brings 5 clicks per month at position 12. That's an easy optimization win where you can create dedicated content to capture more targeted traffic or optimize existing blog articles to capture that intent.

For B2B companies, layer in behavioral intelligence from your target accounts. If you're running account-based marketing, platforms like Factors show which companies visit your site, what relevant topics they engage with, and where they spend time. This reveals interest in a particular topic that search volume data can't capture.

Step 6: Prioritize for Business Impact

Rank keywords by "pain proximity" (how close they are to your solution), achievable KD, and internal link support you can provide.

Not all new keywords deserve equal effort. Create a simple scoring system: high commercial intent (ready to buy) = 3 points, medium intent (comparing options) = 2 points, low intent (learning) = 1 point. Then factor in whether you can realistically rank.

A KD of 30 with 200 monthly searches beats a KD of 65 with 2,000 searches if you're working with limited domain authority. Consider which existing pages can link to your new content, as strong internal linking from related pages makes ranking easier.

“Internal linking is one of those underrated SEO strategies that quietly does the heavy lifting for your website. It’s about connecting pages, but also about helping search engines and users better understand your site. When done correctly, internal links can enhance crawlability, improve your search engine rankings, and boost your topical authority.” – Edwin Toonen on the Yoast blog

Step 7: Build Your Keyword Map

Assign one primary keyword per URL, cluster related secondary terms around it, and map content types to search intent. Open a spreadsheet and start assigning keywords to pages. Each row represents one URL on your site.

Source

For instance, your homepage might target "construction project management software." A feature page could target "time tracking for construction crews."

You can also use Backlinko's keyword mapping methodology where you group semantically related keywords under one primary term.

If you have "best time tracking apps for contractors," "contractor time tracking software," and "construction crew time management" all ranking for similar results, put them on one page as primary/secondary targets instead of creating three competing pages.

Create Your 'Keywords Plan' Sheet

Your keyword plan should live in a spreadsheet with specific columns that guide initial research and content creation.

Here’s a Google sheet you can duplicate to get started with your tracking.

SEO Tracking Spreadsheet Template

If you prefer setting up manually, here are the 13 columns you need along with the values they can have.

Keyword, Intent (Informational/Commercial/Navigational/Transactional), US Volume (from Keyword Planner), Keyword Difficulty, CPC (to gauge commercial value), Priority (1-3 ranking), Funnel Stage (Awareness/Consideration/Decision), Page Type (Guide/Product/Category/Comparison), Primary or Secondary designation, PAA Questions to Answer, Target URL, Internal Link Opportunities, and Notes.

For example, a row might look like:

• Keyword: "best accounting software for nonprofits"
• Intent: Commercial
• US Volume: 320
• KD: 42
• CPC: $18
• Priority: 1
• Stage: Consideration
• Page Type: Comparison Guide
• Primary/Secondary: Primary
• PAA: "Does QuickBooks work for nonprofits?" / "What accounting software do 501c3s use?"
• Target URL: /accounting-software-nonprofits
• Internal Links: Blog post on nonprofit bookkeeping, Nonprofit resources hub
• Notes: Competitor X ranks with thin content, opportunity to outrank

This format keeps your research organized and makes it simple to hand off to writers who need clear guidance on what to create.

Keyword Best Practices for Marketing Strategy

One primary keyword per page prevents cannibalization, while semantic clustering captures related search variations.

According to Ahrefs' research data, pages that rank for their target keyword also rank for an average of 1,000+ related terms. This happens when you build comprehensive content around one primary focus. Your title tag, H1, and URL should all contain your primary keyword naturally. Your H2 and H3 subheadings can target secondary keywords and PAA questions.

Each page needs a distinct purpose. If you have two pages targeting nearly identical keywords, consolidate them to make a stronger piece.

You also need strong internal linking from high-authority pages to newer content using keyword-rich anchor text. For example, when you write "check out our guide to construction project management" and link those words to your target page, you're passing relevance signals.

And no matter how tempting it may seem, avoid the old-school SEO tactics.

• Don't stuff keywords unnaturally into your copy (targeting a 2-3% keyword density is outdated advice).
• Don't hide keywords in white text or behind images. Google's guidelines are clear: write for humans first, optimize for search engines second.
• If your content reads awkwardly because you forced keywords into every sentence, you'll see high bounce rates even if you rank temporarily.

Free and Paid SEO Tools

Start with free tools to validate your niche, then invest in paid platforms when you're ready to scale competitor analysis.

Free Tools

• Google Keyword Planner (set location to United States for accurate volumes)
• AnswerThePublic limited free searches
• Answer Socrates for question-based discovery

You can export data from these tools and build your initial keyword list without spending anything.

Paid Tools

• Ahrefs ($129/month) and Semrush ($199/month) provide keyword difficulty scores, SERP analysis, and competitor gap reports.
• KWFinder from Mangools ($43.85/month) focuses specifically on long-tail discovery with an interface built for finding low-competition terms.

These platforms aggregate billions of keywords and show you which ones competitors rank for but you don't, making the investment worthwhile when you're producing content regularly.

Account Intelligence for B2B Keyword Strategy

For B2B companies running account-based strategies, Factors.ai adds a behavioral layer that traditional keyword tools miss. While Ahrefs tells you search volumes, Factors shows which target accounts actually engage with specific content topics on your site. This reveals keyword opportunities based on real buyer behavior rather than just search data.

Factors identifies anonymous website visitors at the company level, tracks their content engagement patterns, and connects this to your CRM and ad platforms.

When you see that multiple high-value accounts repeatedly visit content about "SOC 2 compliance automation" but spend minimal time on "unique features," that's a signal to create more content around the specific compliance angle, even if search volumes look similar.

Common Pitfalls of Keyword Research

Keyword research fails when people optimize for the wrong signals or create overlapping content without a map. Here are some of the most common mistakes:

• Chasing volume over intent is the most common mistake. A keyword with 10,000 monthly searches looks attractive until you realize it's informational ("what is project management") and your product page won't rank because Google shows definitions and guides in those results. Always check the actual SERP before committing.
• Duplicating primary keywords across multiple pages creates keyword cannibalization where your own content competes with itself. Without a keyword map, you might have three blog posts all targeting "best time tracking software" in slightly different ways. Google doesn't know which to rank, so none rank well.
• Ignoring SERP features costs opportunities. If your target keyword triggers a People Also Ask box and a Featured Snippet, you need to structure your content to capture those. Use clear H2 questions and provide direct answers in the following paragraph.
• Not localizing to US search behavior when you're targeting US customers leads to volume miscalculations. Always set your keyword tool location filters appropriately.
• Keyword stuffing and hidden text still happen, usually with AI-generated content that someone didn't edit. Google penalizes these tactics, and they make your content unreadable to actual humans who might convert.

FAQs

Q: What is an SEO keyword?

A: An SEO keyword is a word or phrase people enter into search engines, chosen by website owners based on search volume, competition level, and intent during keyword research to optimize their content.

Q: How do I search for long-tail keywords in a niche?

A: Use PAA mining tools like AlsoAsked, AnswerThePublic, and Soovle for autocomplete suggestions. Run competitor domains through Ahrefs to find keyword ideas they rank for, and use GSC regex (.{25,}) to surface 25+ character queries your site already gets.

Q: What's a good 'low-competition' signal?

A: Check SERP quality first. If you see forums, outdated sites with thin content, or low domain authority pages in positions 3-7, that signals an opportunity. Ahrefs' keyword difficulty under 30 is generally achievable for newer sites, but manual SERP inspection matters more than the number. Look for an intent match where the ranking content type aligns with what you plan to create.

Q: How many primary keywords per page?

A: Typically one primary keyword per URL, supplemented with semantically related secondary terms. This prevents keyword cannibalization, where multiple pages compete for the same rankings. Use a keyword map to track which page owns which primary term.

Q: What is keyword mapping?

A: Keyword mapping assigns specific target keywords to individual pages on your site, reflecting your site structure and preventing overlap. You organize keywords into clusters around primary terms, then map each cluster to one URL with supporting secondary keywords.

Q: What is 'keyword optimization'?

A: Keyword optimization is placing selected keywords strategically in high-value page elements (title tags, H1, H2, body copy, URLs, image alt text) while maintaining natural readability and matching user search intent. It's an ongoing process of refinement based on performance data.

Q: Which free tools should I start with for US data?

A: Google Keyword Planner (set location to United States) for volume estimates, AnswerThePublic for question discovery (3 free searches daily), Answer Socrates for additional PAA questions, and Soovle for autocomplete across multiple search engines.

You might think you know what a competitor’s SEO strategy looks like. But are you really going to market on gut feel alone?

Sure, if you had an unlimited budget, you could afford to guess. Most of us don’t.

When you’re working with near-zero budgets and million-dollar growth targets, assumptions get expensive fast. What you actually need is real data on which content formats bring in visitors before you spend a single rupee.

That visibility comes from analyzing competitor website traffic. 

The only catch is, you cannot access their first-party data through Google Analytics or Search Console. 

So, let’s talk about the next best method to find competitor website traffic and keywords so you can compete for them on the SERPs.

What tools do you need for Competitor Website Traffic Analysis?

Before jumping into competitor analysis, you need the right website traffic analysis tools. Here’s a quick list of the free and paid ones you can use based on what your budget is and how deep you want to go into your analysis. 

Free Tools for Quick Checks and Analysis

• Similarweb Website Traffic Checker provides directional visits, traffic sources, and country breakdowns with five free daily comparisons. 
• Semrush Website Traffic Checker offers 10 free traffic reports per month showing estimated traffic, channel mix, and accuracy scores.
• Neil Patel's Ubersuggest gives limited daily searches for traffic estimates and top keywords.

These free options work well for occasional competitor checks or when you're just starting to build competitive intelligence. 

But when you need comprehensive website traffic data across multiple competitors with historical data tracking, premium tools become worthwhile investments.

Paid Tools for Deeper Analysis

Semrush Traffic Analytics + Market Explorer compares traffic share, audience overlap, and growth velocity across five domains. Key features include the Growth Quadrant showing who's gaining or losing position. According to Semrush's documentation, their clickstream data covers over 200 million users.

• Ahrefs Site Explorer excels at organic search intelligence with traffic estimates, top pages, and traffic share by domains. Ahrefs updates hourly, making it reliable for tracking recent ranking changes and gaining a competitive advantage over slower-moving competitors.
• Semrush paid plans are powerful and offer additional features, such asquite powerful and offer additional features, like Semrush Trends, advertising research, social media tracker, and more. 
• SE Ranking provides organic and paid breakdowns with geographicgeography distribution. Their AI algorithm adjusts click-through rates based on SERP features.
• SpyFu specializes in PPC intelligence with budgets, paid keyword history, and ad copy variations. SpyFu tracks 15+ years of historical data, revealing seasonal patterns and campaign trends.

Step-by-Step: How to Check Competitor Traffic

Running a one-time competitor check gives you a snapshot. Building a repeatable process gives you actionable traffic insightstraffic insights you can act on. The workflow below helps you move from curiosity about competitor traffic to actionable insights that plug directly into your content marketing calendar and paid campaigns.

1. Build Your Competitor List

Track both direct competitors (same products, same audience) and search competitors (ranking for your keywords). 

Semrush Organic Research helps you expand beyond obvious rivals by showing sites competing for the same organic keywords.

Your direct competitor might be another project management tool, but your search competitor could be a productivity blog ranking for "how to organize team tasks." Both steal potential customers at different funnel stages. And you need to pay attention to both. 

Both steal potential customers at different funnel stages. And you need to pay attention to both. 

Here’s how you could go about it:

• Start by listing 3-5 companies you know that you know are compete for the same deals. 
• Enter your domain in Semrush, navigate to Organic Research > Competitors, and you'll discover 2-3 sites you never considered. 
• Pay attention to competitors with 30-50% keyword overlap. A CRM might compete with a sales automation tool and a lead generation guide for "sales pipeline management."

2. Get Traffic & Channel Mix

Pull up each competitor in Similarweb or Semrush. Then, note estimated monthly visits (US-filtered), channel split (organic, paid, direct, referral, social), and three-month traffic patterns. 

Channel mix reveals resource allocation.

• Competitor A shows 150k monthly visits: 65% organic, 15% paid. 
• Competitor B shows 180k visits: 35% organic, 45% paid. 

Despite similar traffic, they run different SEO playbooks. 

In this above case Competitor A has built an SEO moat while Competitor B relies on paid acquisition with higher customer costs and ad platform vulnerability.

3. Benchmark Share & Growth

Semrush Market Overview shows traffic share percentages and positions competitors in a Growth Quadrant: "Game Changers" (high growth, rising share), "Leaders" (high share, stable), or declining players. 

For instance, you may celebrate 100k monthly visits while competitors capture 500k each. Then you discover the total addressable search volume sits at 5M monthly searches. You're fighting for 2% market share while three competitors own 10% each. That 70% unclaimed territory represents your real opportunity for gaining a competitive edge.

4. Identify Top Pages

Semrush Traffic Pages shows which URLs drive the most visits. The question you want to be asking is, does your competitor dominate with comparison pages, long-form guides, or product landing pages?

Go through 10-20 SERP competitors and look for repeatable content patterns. For instance, if 60% of your competitors have “A vs. B” comparison pages ranking in the top 10 and you don’t, that’s a clear gap you need to fill. 

5. Monitor Changes

Set weekly snapshots in your chosen tool. For example, a tool like Visualping alerts you when competitor pages update. 

You can create a simple tracking dashboard for the same. Every Monday:

• Log each competitor's total traffic, top 5 ranking changes, and new content published. 
• Watch for sudden traffic spikes. 
• Check Google Trends for the target keyword. 
• Flat trend means they improved the content. 
• A rising trend means they caught a wave.

Also set up Visualping to track their pricing page, features page, and main landing page. Pricing changes often precede major campaigns. New feature launches reveal product roadmap priorities. 

When three competitors simultaneously increase paid spend, industry competition is heating up. When all reduce content output, that's your window to dominate organic search.

Going from Competitor Traffic to Competitor Keywords and Beyond 

Traffic numbers tell you what. Keywords tell you the how. 

Knowing a competitor gets 500k monthly website visitors means little until you understand which search terms and paid campaigns actually drive those visitors. So let’s look at the extraction process. 

Organic Keyword Extraction

Semrush Organic Research shows every term competitors rank for, with position, search volume, difficulty, and traffic share. Filter for positions 1-10 with volume above 500 to surface their money keywords. Keyword Gap reveals shared keywords (you both rank, they outrank you), missing keywords (they rank, you don't), and weak keywords (you rank outside the top 20).

Ahrefs Site Explorer takes a page-level approach. Click any top page to see its organic keywords and traffic drivers. The "Traffic share by domains" report shows which competitors own visibility for specific keyword clusters.

Organic keyword research reveals what content attracts searchers. Paid keywords reveal where competitors invest actual budget, making them more reliable indicators of what actually converts.

PPC Competitor Keywords

SpyFu shows every keyword competitors bid on, estimated CPC, monthly spend, and ad copy variations. SpyFu's Kombat tool reveals keywords multiple competitors bid on for strong conversion signals. According to Directive Consulting, keyword overlap identifies high-value terms validated by competitor budgets.

Semrush Advertising Research and Ahrefs Paid Keywords show search ads copy, landing pages, and spend trends. Google Ads Keyword Planner offers free keyword discovery. Just enter a competitor's domain under "Discover new keywords."

Build Your Tracking Dashboard

Raw website traffic data doesn't help without organization. 

Create a spreadsheet with these columns: Domain, US Visits (est.), Traffic Share %, Channel Mix, Top Pages, Top Organic Keywords, Top Paid Keywords, Change vs Last Month %, and Notes. Populate monthly to spot patterns like paid plan budget shifts, new content hubs, or post-redesign traffic drops.

Accuracy Expectations

According to Reddit practitioners, estimates vary across tools. SpyFu's accuracy sits around 85-90% for US keyword data. Ahrefs acknowledges its data is "approximated for relative performance."

Absolute numbers fluctuate between tools, and trends remain consistent. Low-traffic sites have wider error margins; high-traffic sites generate more accurate estimates. Focus on share of voice rather than raw visits. Whether you own 15% or 45% of search visibility matters more than exact category size.

What External Tools Can't Show

You'll never see exact Google Analytics data, conversion rates, or real user behavior metrics. Email and app traffic stay largely invisible. MonsterInsights confirms: "First-party data gives exact numbers only for properties you control. Third-party tools provide estimates."

While these tools excel at tracking Google search visibility and organic rankings, they can't reveal what happens after visitors land on your competitor's site. You won't see bounce rates, time on page, or which pages drive conversions. For your own site's performance analysis, combine competitor traffic tools with Search Console data for complete visibility.

Turn Competitor Traffic Into Your Content Strategy 

Checking competitor traffic shows what's already working in your market. With that data, you're simply gathering validated strategies, then building better ones or filling in overlooked gaps.

To get started, pick one competitor and run them through Similarweb for traffic overview, Semrush for market share and top pages and organic keyword gaps. Export their top 20 ranking keywords and compare against your rankings. You'll typically find 5-10 terms where you could rank and haven't created content yet. 

That's your roadmap. For paid campaigns, download their SpyFu keywords and filter for consistent monthly spend (conversion signals). Then test a few keywords in your campaigns with lower bids, tracking performance against existing keywords.

Set monthly check-ins to find traffic share changes, content launches, and ranking shifts. When a competitor gains 20% more organic traffic, investigate what changed. New content hub, site speed improvements, fresh backlinks. Learn from their wins while avoiding their losses.

Web traffic analysis works because it proves what converts in your market. Your competitors already ran the experiments and validated the demand. You just need to analyze the results and execute better. Combine these website traffic checker insights with other tools like Google Analytics and Search Console for your own properties to build complete market intelligence.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How can I see how much traffic a website gets?

A: Similarweb or Semrush provides directional estimates for understanding growth patterns and channel mix. Adding Ahrefs reveals organic keyword data and top pages. Treat numbers as trends, not exact figures. Cross-referencing multiple tools improves accuracy.

Q: What's the most accurate way to check traffic?

A: No external view matches internal analytics. Reddit practitioners recommend combining Semrush, Ahrefs, and Similarweb while validating with keyword rankings and backlink signals. When three tools show 25-35% growth, trust the trend even when exact numbers vary.

Q: How do I compare competitors' traffic against mine?

A: Semrush Market Explorer shows traffic share and growth quadrants. Ahrefs Domain Comparison provides side-by-side organic metrics. Both reveal relative positioning better than absolute visit counts.

Q: Which tools show competitors' top pages?

A: Semrush Traffic Analytics and Ahrefs Top Pages surface the highest-traffic URLs with engagement metrics, revealing which content formats drive sustained growth.

Q: How do I find competitors' PPC keywords?

A: SpyFu provides paid keyword lists, ad spend estimates, and ad copy history spanning 15+ years. Semrush Advertising Research and Ahrefs Paid Keywords also surface active terms and landing pages.

Q: Any free ways to get competitors' keywords?

A: Google Ads Keyword Planner offers zero-cost discovery. Navigate to "Discover new keywords" and enter a competitor domain. Ubersuggest provides limited free daily searches.