B2B paid media investments suffer when organizations operate with a “more traffic for less money” optimization mentality. That’s because traditional digital advertising optimization begins and ends with two flawed premises: that advertising’s highest and best use is inviting direct clicks, visits, and conversions, and that optimizing for the ratio of clicks to visits to conversions at the lowest possible cost is the best path to advertising ROI. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Although traffic may be a fine goal for advertising, a good paid media mix should avoid too much focus on click-through and conversion rates and instead aim to maximize the efficacy, amplitude, and value of traffic from multiple traffic sources. Taking the focus off click-through and conversion rates is the first step to unlocking the full value of B2B digital advertising impressions and the creative within them. The full value is to reach and influence the attitudes and behaviors of target audiences and buying groups wherever and whenever they spend their digital time.

Making these changes requires an overhaul to the standard optimization approach. Now is the time to change, as recent advertising budget increases have elevated paid media governance to higher levels of conversation within many B2B organizations.

Organizations need to follow an audience-centric approach and evolved maximization model for evaluating the effectiveness of each paid media flight. This approach is detailed in our new report “Rethinking B2B Digital Advertising Optimization.”

This report provides an overview and examples of paid media maximization as well as recent advertising budget benchmarks from Forrester’s benchmark data. Read the report here, and schedule an inquiry with us to discuss paid media optimization and reporting for your organization and what you should do to demonstrate the value of your paid media efforts.