New research from LinkedIn highlights growing challenges for B2B marketers, with nearly half (46%) globally required to justify marketing spend to C-suite executives on a monthly basis. As B2B buying cycles continue to lengthen, 87% of marketers report increasing difficulty in measuring the long-term impact of their campaigns.
The B2B ROI Impact report, based on a survey of over 1,000 B2B marketers worldwide, underscores the mounting pressure to prove marketing’s contribution to company revenue. Seventy-eight percent of B2B CMOs say that demonstrating return-on-investment (ROI) has become more critical over the past two years, forcing marketers to find new ways to quantify their success.
Time poor
Among the key barriers to measuring ROI, 38% of marketers cite the time and resources required for analysis, 37% struggle with integration issues across data platforms, and 36% point to misalignment between sales and marketing teams. With these challenges in play, B2B marketers must refine their measurement strategies to meet increasing executive expectations and secure future investment.
Among the 15 Australian CMOs surveyed, AI-driven innovation ranked as the leading growth driver. The top three priorities identified were upskilling employees in technical skills like AI, leveraging AI for productivity gains, and accelerating the adoption of innovative technologies. These strategies were rated higher than traditional growth tactics such as talent attraction and acquiring new customers.
Head of LinkedIn marketing solutions, APAC, LinkedIn, Matt Tindale said: “In 2025, B2B marketers must get one core operating priority right: proving ROI. To help them move away from a monthly reporting cycle that doesn’t reflect the long-term nature of B2B buying, they must work closely with senior leaders to demonstrate which metrics drive the greatest impact.
“Winning trust with the C-suite starts with helping them see why in B2B, revenue does not increase simply because of the number of leads that a marketing team drives, but rather the quality of those leads,” said Tindale.
Head of LinkedIn marketing solutions, APAC, LinkedIn, Matt Tindale.
AI engagement
Currently, 90% of B2B marketers report improved return on investment (ROI) when using AI to build and optimise campaigns. Key AI applications include enhancing audience segmentation and targeting (57%), predictive analysis for performance and lead scoring (55%), automating routine tasks (53%), and real-time ad spend and content optimisation (53%). Looking ahead, AI is expected to be most valuable in measuring ad effectiveness (53%), personalising content (52%), and advancing predictive analytics (50%).
Among Australian CMOs surveyed, 90% agree AI will unlock new business opportunities, with all respondents stating AI will help free up more time for customer engagement. Additionally, 80% believe AI will shorten the B2B buying cycle, indicating a shift towards more efficient and data-driven decision-making processes.
Luke Fielding, Head of Demand Gen, Eftsure, said: “Today’s marketing success isn’t measured by surface-level metrics like clicks or views. It’s about demonstrating how every campaign, event, or initiative drives revenue and fuels long-term business growth.
“At Eftsure, we use Dreamdata as our revenue attribution platform which enables us to seamlessly connect to LinkedIn Conversions API (CAPI). These tools unlock the insights we need to link marketing efforts directly to pipeline performance and revenue impact,” he said.
Luke Fielding, Head of Demand Gen, Eftsure.
Value-driven insights
While volume metrics such as Customer acquisition cost, return on ad spend (RoAS), and cost per acquisition remain key indicators for senior leadership, marketers are shifting focus toward value-driven metrics. Despite 47% of senior leaders prioritising RoAS, marketers consider marketing qualified leads (MQLs) and sales qualified leads (SQLs) to be stronger indicators of long-term campaign success.
Understanding buyer intent – the likelihood of a purchase – is emerging as the biggest challenge for proving campaign effectiveness. To address this, nearly half of B2B marketers (46%) are adopting a buyer group marketing strategy to drive conversions, while 45% are prioritising customer lifetime value (CLV) in reporting to showcase long-term business impact.
AI-driven measurement
LinkedIn continues to enhance its measurement solutions, enabling B2B marketers to track and optimise campaign performance with greater precision. Two key tools, conversions API and revenue attribution report (RAR), are helping marketers improve lead quality and demonstrate ROI more effectively.
• Conversions API allows marketers to integrate first-party data, including online and offline customer interactions, to better target engaged audiences. By optimising for high-value leads that meet MQL or SQL criteria, marketers have seen a 31% increase in attributed conversions, a 20% decrease in cost per action, and early results show a 39% decrease in cost per qualified lead.
• Revenue attribution report (RAR) connects opportunity and pipeline data to LinkedIn, helping marketers tie campaigns to key sales metrics such as revenue influenced, return on ad spend, and pipeline growth. A newly introduced 365-day look back window provides insight into how long-term campaigns contribute to ROI, while new RAR functionality is being tested to track customer engagement patterns and their impact on revenue generation.
Head of digital at Australian Institute for Business, Aimee Simpson.
Head of digital at Australian Institute for Business, Aimee Simpson, said: “The ability to pass back data on the touch points that matter most in our funnel has had tangible success for our business. The biggest success story has been the improvement in lower funnel conversion from our leads. Since launching CAPI earlier this year, our lead-to-opportunity conversion has increased by 27%.”
Jae Oh, Head of ads measurement, LinkedIn, said: “Vanity metrics, like CPC or CPM, are transient and provide a false sense of performance based on volume. B2B sales cycles take time and the quality of your impressions matters more than quantity.
“Redefining measurement with senior leaders, helping them understand how your campaigns map to qualified leads – and the cost per qualified lead acquisition – is critical because those are the leads that will drive tangible results for the business,” Oh said.