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2026 B2B Marketing Edge: Enterprise Edition
Bigger Budgets, Deeper Data, and the Measurement Gap Holding Both Back
Our 2026 B2B Marketing Edge Report uncovers a unique set of opportunities for enterprise B2B marketers – with deeper data and better measurement, enterprise B2B marketers have the insights they need to outmaneuver competitors from the beginning of audience discovery all the way through campaign measurement and optimization - and deliver value to the C-Suite.
What separates enterprise B2B marketers who are pulling ahead? We asked 151 marketing leaders at companies with $500M or more in annual revenue how they find, engage, and measure their audiences. Their answers reveal a clear set of opportunities, from audience discovery through campaign measurement, and a path to proving value to the C-suite.
What it takes to make the most of these opportunities:
- Maximize access to a wide variety of high-quality audience data
- Fully implement buying groups with dynamically updated, optimized data
- Use end-to-end measurement to inform strategy and C-suite conversations
Enterprise B2B Marketing Today
Enterprise B2B marketers are getting more to work with in 2026. We found that enterprise B2B marketers experienced similar company revenue growth and marketing success in the past year compared to smaller marketers, but that they had slightly higher budget increases. About one third (31%) cited budget increases of more than 10% compared to 27% of all companies getting the same increases.
With these budget increases, enterprise B2B marketers plan to increase spending across channels, with paid search and paid social receiving the largest increases. At a time when search is shifting dramatically due to AI, enterprise marketers with big and increasing budgets are in a good position to establish winning strategies.
How will your investment in the following channels change over the next 12 months?
Resolve Data Problems, Gain Data Dominance
Enterprise B2B marketers use more types of data when targeting audiences, which gives them a distinct advantage over smaller competitors. In particular, 73% use content and campaign data compared to 63% of all marketers and 52% use intent data compared to only 43% of all marketers.
More data means more insights, more accuracy, and more relevance. Enterprise B2B marketers can’t let this advantage slip through their fingers. One of the biggest challenges they cite is a lack of quality data. 52% cite a lack of high quality or reliable data sources as their biggest challenge when it comes to maintaining and managing marketing data.
To get more from the data they are already using, enterprise B2B marketers should:
- Regularly review and upgrade data sources to ensure high quality and recency.
- Audit current data access and ensure all data resources are part of audience discovery, targeting, and measurement.
- Use incrementality testing to measure the effectiveness of different kinds of data on outcomes.
Which of the following are you currently utilizing when targeting audiences?
(Select all that apply)
Dive Deeper Into Buying Groups
Our research found that nearly 40% of enterprise marketers have implemented buying groups fully, and another 36% have implemented them partially. While enterprise marketers are only very slightly. More likely to have fully implemented buying groups than all marketers, they are more likely than other marketers to be updating buying group data dynamically, 25% (vs. 19% overall) - the best option, compared to 22% of enterprise marketers who update daily, and 30% who update weekly.
Perhaps because of this fresh data, or because of their broader use of different types of data in general, enterprises report much higher reported benefits from buying groups.
Which business outcomes have improved as a result of implementing buying groups?
(Select all that apply)
Even with this reported success, there’s a lot of room for growth. More enterprise B2B marketers fully implement buying groups, and work to improve the processes that support their buying group strategy. We found that 42% cite lack of integrated tools or technologies and 39% perceived complexity or length of implementation as barriers to using buying groups.
Solve Measurement Challenges to Build C-Suite Trust
The real challenge for most marketers is not just implementing targeted marketing campaigns but measuring their impact in a way that translates to the C-suite. Enterprise marketers have a head start: 54% have full attribution visibility, compared to 51% of all marketers. But, that visibility has limits.
Enterprise marketers struggle more than their peers to measure performance across channels in one place (38% vs. 36%) and to connect marketing activity to specific buyers or buying groups (38% vs. 35%). They can follow a deal from first touch to closed revenue, but comparing channels side by side to see which one is doing the work is much harder.
That gap comes with a cost, 38% of enterprise marketers say incomplete cross-channel attribution keeps them from shifting budget mid-campaign, compared to 30% of all marketers. It's the largest gap among any challenge or barrier enterprise marketers report, and it means budget can stay stuck in channels that aren't performing.
What are the biggest challenges your team faces when using analytics to inform marketing decisions and understand performance?
(Select up to 3)
The good news is that enterprise B2B marketers are moving towards metrics that connect marketing activity to results. We found that 31% have increased their use of marketing-attributed revenue as a metric, compared with 27% of all marketers.
Perfect measurement might never be possible, but enterprise marketers have opportunities to continue to close the gap:
- Communicate current measurement shortcomings to finance to justify investment in improvements.
- Lean into metrics that prove revenue, not just volume.
- Continue to improve the connection between buying groups and measurement outcomes.
Grab the Opportunity
B2B marketing leaders at enterprise companies are well positioned to increase their profile and importance within their companies. Already, they are more connected to leadership - 42% of senior marketing leaders at enterprise organizations report directly to the CEO compared to 36% of all companies.
With bigger budgets, more data and better use of buying groups, now is the time for B2B marketing leaders to prove that they are delivering real value to the company.
Our research shows enterprise marketers have deep data resources, have started to embrace buying groups, and have better than average measurement practices, but challenges still hold them back, including having access to quality data and having insights that enable mid-campaign budget optimization. As AI reshapes the customer journey, addressing these challenges with high-quality data partners and more robust cross-channel attribution will help enterprise marketers continue to secure budget and drive results.
About the research
Ascend2 benchmarks the performance of business strategies and the tactics and technology that drive them. Anteriad partnered with Ascend2 to survey 631 marketing decision-makers across all levels of marketing leadership in the United States, United Kingdom, and APAC. Respondents represent B2B and B2B/B2C organizations with 250 or more employees. The survey was fielded in March 2026.
This enterprise report focuses on the 151 respondents from companies with $500M or more in annual revenue. Findings for the full sample are available in the 2026 B2B Marketing Edge report.
Sources
1 Ross Graber, “AI Search Will Crack the Foundation of B2B Marketing’s Accountability Model,” Forrester (blog), April 15, 2026, https://www.forrester.com/report/budget-planning-guide-2026-b2b-marketing-executives/RES182864?ref_%E2%80%A6.