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Study Shows Differences Between B2B and B2C Marketers

posted on November 3, 2011


Its not news that B2B and B2C marketing techniques and preferences differ. As with most things, however, it’s when you see numbers tied to the assumptions that you can say “Hmmm, I didn’t know it was quite that different” or “Well, of course! I knew that already because I am a social media and marketing guru!”.

A report done by Webmarketing123 shows some of these stark differences particularly in the use of social media marketing. Here we see just how different the use of social media tools can be between the two disciplines.

What is more surprising about this is the B2C dependence on Facebook. Good news for Zuck and the boys, huh?

Of course the best way to tell where a marketers’ heart lies is to examine where they spend their money. The following chart shows the differences in priorities based on B2B v B2C marketers.

The differences between B2B and B2C marketers are becoming more and more obvious as time passes. Each segment is realizing just what it can expect to get from their digital marketing efforts. With B2C being more an impulse buy their efforts are going to be pointed to selling online whereas B2B marketers have longer sales cycles and higher ticket items which lend to the bulk of efforts pointing to lead generation. One thing they can agree on though is that web traffic is a goal no matter who you market to.

Are you a B2B or a B2C marketer? What differences do you see in the two? Do you agree with these findings?

Let’s hear you in our comments!


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  • http://www.velocitypartners.co.uk Doug Kessler – B2B Marketing

    Nice one.
    I wonder about the samples.
    Hard for me to believe that B2B marketers spend 28% of their budgets on PPC.
    We work only with B2B companies and I don’t think a single one spends anywhere near that much of their budget on PPC.

    Is it just our clients or does this feel a bit off?

    Hmmmm…

    • http://www.brickmarketing.com/seo-training-courses.htm Nick Stamoulis

      Doug, I felt the same way about B2C companies. 42% for PPC seems a little high based on the clients I work with. I wonder how much it varies based on industry.

    • http://www.frankthinking.com Frank Reed

      As with all data it is important to check the source and see what their advantage may be in having some numbers look a certain way. Hate to be such a cynic but it’s a caution we research consumers need to exercise in every case. Not saying that is the case with Webmarketing123 but I will offer a healthy “Caveat emptor” to all who are trying to make head or tails of the industry through sponsored “research”.

  • http://www.cotedambrosio.com Cara Klein

    My thoughts regarding B-toB PPC…On graph #2, when asked how they allocate their budgets, I’m sure overall that the social media budgets for most of the B-to-B companies is significantly less than B-to-C companies. So while it appears by the chart that there is a significant investment happening in B-to-B SEO and PPC, I’d be curious to see the total dollars actually invested.

  • http://www.webmarketing123.com/ Kristen Shue

    Hi there, I’m with Webmarketing123. To clarify – the question was: where do you spend the majority of your digital marketing budget? NOT – how much of your digital marketing budget do you spend on each of these channels? In other words, 42.5% of B2Cs spend the MOST of their marketing $ on PPC, but it’s not saying they spend 42.5% on PPC.

  • http://www.marketingpilgrim.com Frank Reed

    Thanks for coming by Kristen.

    While the commenters earlier did “misread” the data it still means that close to 30% of the B2B companies are spending the majority of their digital marketing dollars on paid search. With a majority meaning it is somewhere north of 50% that is an even more remarkable number.

    In the B2C space then 4 out of ten companies spend somewhere over 50% of their digital marketing budgets on paid search? That’s a big number for sure as well.

    Interesting stuff. Would love to hear more voices as to whether they have experienced this same breakout.

  • http://www.redrocketmedia.co.uk Michelle Hill

    I currently spend 50% of my marketing budget on PPC across LinkedIn and Google. I definitely agree with the Facebook and Twitter percentages. Having worked in both B2B and B2C, I found Facebook a much better tool for engaging B2C prospects and Twitter much more effective for B2B.

  • Brad H

    Its great to see trends by segment. Ill ciontinue praise by saying these numebrs are very informative. But its not clear to me the herd numbers are what is important. The article doesnt say anything about which tools have highest impact or how best to maximize bang for buck withn in one category.

  • http://www.adthena.co.uk Faseeh Shams

    I agree with Brad, true these numbers are very informative and knowledge of their impact would strongly improve these stats. I also tried to reflect these percentages to how I am allocating over all marketing budget in my present company. My division is 100 percent of our PPC budget on Google and a huge structural focus on SEO i.e. white papers, informative blog updates etc. and for social media – I have found, for a marketing intelligence firm, Twitter to have ore impact over all than Facebook.

  • http://www.baldmarketing.com Shimon Mantell

    I’m actually surprised at the relatively large investment in Facebook (34%) vs LinkedIn (25%) in the B2B segment. And I’m wondering whether this is delivering any results at all…

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