The Adaptability Era: 3 Marketing Trends Reshaping B2B Growth

GenAI is reshaping organic reach and how buyers search for solutions. Marketing budgets are tight, with 59% of CMOs reporting they have insufficient budget to execute their strategy.^[1] With the average B2B buying cycle spanning 4.6 months and crossing up to seven channels, the path to purchase is becoming highly complex.

Adapting to such seismic changes will offer a competitive edge. Resilient marketing teams are already leveraging technology and strategic know-how to become more efficient, scalable, and aligned with buyers' actual behavior. 

In this article, we will unpack three trends currently shaping B2B marketing and how high-growth companies are meeting these expectations and preparing for the future. We’ll also explore how a multi-channel presence meets evolving buyer behavior.

Diversification across a wider range of channels to capture buyer attention isn’t just a way to mitigate risk; it’s a growth strategy. High-growth organizations (those with 10% or more revenue growth in 12 months) are showing up in more channels than nongrowth organizations (5% or less year-over-year revenue growth). On average, they leverage 17 marketing channels,^[2] compared to 15 from their peers.

Growth organizations are also more likely to use peer review sites, direct mail, and retargeting as touchpoints to influence buying decisions, with peer review sites standing out as a key differentiator. With a 19-point usage gap between growth and non-growth companies, review sites offer a strategic edge: providing trusted, third-party validation that reaches buyers where they’re researching for software. 

This shows that effective multi-channel marketing is about targeting the right strategic areas, not being everywhere. In an environment where it’s getting harder to track every click and impression, customer reviews create a visible, lasting signal of credibility wherever buyers are searching.

This illustrates a broader shift in how a marketing team’s success is being shaped by the combined workforce of skilled marketers and technology. From creative generation to campaign optimization, automation is helping marketers scale what used to be manual. GenAI tools are accelerating content production, and embedded AI in performance marketing platforms optimizes campaigns in real time, freeing up teams to think strategically rather than chase marginal gains. 

This payoff is tangible: At Gartner Digital Markets, providers use automated bidding to maximize clicks. Compared to manual bidding, it experienced an average 8% lift in clicks and a 5% increase in conversions, and campaigns stayed active 45% longer each month.^[4] These results show automation isn’t just there to keep performance steady but to create more room for growth. 

If you’re already reaching in-market buyers with a Sponsored Profile, check the performance of automated bidding by logging into your account.

High-growth companies also report more strategic-level brand spending, highlighting differentiation and a greater focus on communicating value to customers. In contrast, a greater proportion of low-growth companies reported increased brand spending on more tactical fronts, including employee recruitment and brand consistency across geographies or business units. 

For growth companies, performance marketing is not just about the final click but the touchpoints marketers build in the complex buying journey leading up to purchase. With B2B buying cycles averaging 4.6 months, marketers can’t afford to optimize only for immediate conversions and instead shift toward building visibility, trust, and reputation where it matters most and before a buyer is ready to engage with sales. 

Building a brand becomes the foundation that performance marketing can later harvest, whether that’s through retargeting, paid search, or a PPC campaign on review sites. The opportunity is in blending brand confidence-builders and content that communicates value (such as customer reviews) with performance-oriented channels, to both create and capture demand.