While measuring long term impact remains a challenge, 94% of B2B marketers in India see AI driving high ROI: LinkedIn
Pune (Voice news service):- The pressure for B2B marketers is intensifying as nearly half of them in India have to justify marketing spend to C-suite executives on a monthly basis, according to new research from LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network and leading B2B advertising platform. With the length of B2B buying cycles getting longer, the majority (89%) of B2B marketers say it’s getting harder to measure long-term impact of a campaign.
LinkedIn’s new ‘B2B ROI Impact’ research,* which surveyed over 1,000 B2B marketers in the US, UK, France, and India, highlights the ongoing pressures that marketers face to demonstrate the impact of their work on company revenue. 84% of B2B CMOs in the country say that proving campaign return-on-investment (ROI) has become more important in the past two years.
Research shows that there are three key barriers B2B marketers face when demonstrating ROI — lack of standardised industry benchmarks and metrics, particularly for B2B campaigns (42%); difficulty in accurately attributing conversions to specific campaigns (39%), integration issues between different data platforms (39%); and lack of organisational alignment on metrics between sales and marketing (38%).
Sachin Sharma, Director, LinkedIn Marketing Solutions, India, says, “As proving ROI remains the core priority for Indian B2B marketers in 2025, their relationship with senior leaders will be in sharper focus. With 9 in 10 already using AI tools to improve campaign returns and measure ROI better, B2B marketers must work with leaders to prioritise ‘value metrics over volume metrics’. To do this, they must adopt the right AI tools that can help measure a campaign’s impact with greater precision – resulting in real business outcomes.”
Majority of B2B marketers say value metrics are stronger indicators of campaign success
Although research finds that volume metrics, like Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), Cost per Engagement (CPE), and Return on Ad Spend (RoAS) are some of the most frequently requested metrics from senior leadership, B2B marketers know that mindsets need to shift. Despite data showing that 46% of senior leaders in India are focused on RoAS, B2B marketers consider value metrics, like Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) and Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs), as stronger indicators of campaign success.
Looking ahead into the next year, B2B marketers say that understanding buyer intent – a buyer’s likelihood to purchase – will be the biggest challenge in proving campaign effectiveness, signaling the criticality in effectively measuring qualified leads. As a result, over half (53%) of B2B marketers are pivoting to a buyer group marketing strategy to influence purchase decisions and drive conversions, and focusing on Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) in reporting.
96% of B2B marketers believe AI will have a positive impact on measurement
As the buying group continues to evolve and B2B marketers find it harder to reach the right decision-makers and prove campaign effectiveness, more than 9 in 10 B2B marketers in India believe AI will have a positive impact on measurement over the next five years.
And, 94% of B2B marketers also agree that they are seeing improved ROI when using AI to build and optimize campaigns. Research shows they are using AI to enhance audience segmentation and targeting (65%), drive predictive analytics for better lead scoring (61%), personalize content at scale (57%), and optimize ad spend and creative content in real time (55%).
When looking to the future, B2B marketers believe that over the next five years, AI will prove to be the most valuable in measuring ad effectiveness (62%); content creation and personalisation (60%); and predictive analytics (53%)
Saloni Javeri, Chief Digital & Marketing Officer at L’Oréal India says, “LinkedIn’s unique blend of professional networking and content marketing enables L’Oréal to connect with key stakeholders—industry professionals, potential employees, investors, and consumers. Through targeted campaigns like L’Oréal Sense of Purpose, we’ve strengthened brand awareness, corporate reputation, and engagement within a highly relevant and influential audience. LinkedIn’s sophisticated targeting and analytics help us measure impact, optimize campaigns, and maximize ROI.”
