Elevate B2B Marketing News Weekly Roundup: B2B Buyers Refocus On ROI, Meta’s New Audio AI, & More Marketers Increasing Budgets

B2B Buyers More Thoroughly Evaluating Purchases
When it comes to the new processes that B2B buyers have added for purchase decisions, some 38 percent have said they are conducting more rigorous analysis of return-on-investment (ROI), with 31 percent noting that they are taking more time researching buying decisions, and 24 percent focusing on adjusting decision timelines to reflect changing business needs — three of numerous findings contained in newly-published survey data. MarketingCharts

Marketers Upbeat About 2024, But Still Worry About Inflation: Study
58 percent of marketing and communications professionals have said that they are increasing budgets during 2024, with 69 percent expecting business to pick up during the year ahead, while 53 percent cited inflation as their most sizable obstacle, according to recently-released report data of interest to B2B marketers. MediaPost

Meta releases open source AI audio tools, AudioCraft
Facebook and Instagram parent firm Meta has rolled out an updated and open-source addition to its AudioCraft generative AI audio suite of utilities, including the ability to produce a variety of sound effects and music from text prompts, opening the door for more widespread use of the technology among developers and ultimately marketers, Meta recently announced. Ars Technica

“We are releasing three more foundation models, for music and audio. It’s been fun to play with these models, and generate a variety of new outputs.” — Joelle Pineau @jpineau1 of @MetaAI
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The US B2B Media Market is Forecast to Surpass Pre-Pandemic Levels This Year
The size of the overall U.S. B2B media market is expected to see 4.7 percent growth during 2023, totaling some $85.04 billion — a figure that would top pre-pandemic marks — with expectations to reach $91.19 billion by 2027, with smaller growth forecast for the coming years, as the trade show sector represented the fastest B2B market segment, according to newly-published report data. MarketingCharts

B2Bs Consider Mobile-Only Threads’ Biggest Limitation
Meta’s Threads social platform, which set a record for the swiftest rise to 100 million users, has set sights on ultimately topping the one billion user mark thanks to the eventual rollout of mainstream advertising options, yet challenges for B2B marketers remain, as 45 percent noted that the present mobile-only incarnation of Threads was its biggest disadvantage, with 39 percent citing the platform’s lack of direct messaging features, according to recently-released survey data. MediaPost

Marketing uses for generative AI that will outlive the hype
83 percent of global executives have said that chatbots were the AI app type that was the most relevant to their business, with 75 percent pinpointing data-oriented tasks, 71 percent citing text interpretation and content creation, and 70 percent AI-powered search marketing insights — some of the findings included in newly-published survey data. Insider Intelligence

How the Pandemic Changed Marketing Channels
A mere 6.7 percent of organizations have reported that their face-to-face (F2F) marketing channels have shifted …read more

Source:: Top Rank Blog