I’ve been in AdTech since 2012. Since then, the industry has changed multiple times.

How has customer acquisition changed for AdTech companies?

AdTech companies have gone from asking if they need a Facebook page or their blog to find that today it’s necessary. 

Also, during this period of time we’ve seen the access to information that Advertisers and  Publishers have, has increased. Now they are accustomed to advertising or monetizing in a more innovative way. The bottom line is, the way people buy products has changed. 

For example, in 2012 sales reps were responsible for the majority of the customer journey. The reason being that there simply wasn’t a lot of access to the information on the internet. People therefore needed the help of a sales rep to start working with an AdTech platform. They needed a consultation to help them figure out how they can start working with a platform. 

In 2012 marketing was responsible for branding. This included building a conference booth, printing business cards, building a website and delivering leads to sales with a primary goal to get a phone number or email. It really was the only way most companies sourced leads. The ultimate outcome being that sales could call and follow-up with these leads.

And here we are in 2021. Advertisers and Publishers now want marketing to own more of the customer journey. They want sales to be the last completion step. And even if sales wasn’t there, advertisers and publishers would be fine onboarding themselves on a self-served basis. 

More often than not, they want to interact with your business directly the majority of the time. 

Nearly 90% of AdTech companies have not adjusted their marketing strategy. They have not rethought their overall go-to-market to that core need of the buyer to do most of the journey on their own and then launch a test when they want to do so. 

And then when we look at those 2 differences, from 2012 when marketing was getting phone numbers and email addresses, so sales could cold call or cold email those people because sales is responsible for 80% of customer journey, to where we are right now - where only 1% of out of 100 callers pick up the phone, and in 90% of cases may not be interested. 

If you look at this, marketing teams are still doing the same thing today. There is more software and tracking around it but essentially, it's the same process - marketing wants to get contact information so that sales teams could cold call people who may or may not want to work with you right now. 

And if you acknowledge that, and think about: what would I change about my revenue strategy and how I allocate budget and the activities that I do and how I measure it to alight to a buyer journey that exists today? 

And most likely you will have a fundamentally different approach if you truly acknowledge that. 

Marketers primary objection at the moment is the number of leads generated. Instead, marketers would be focusing on revenue objectives. And how their marketing initiatives are directly tied to revenue generated.