Observed Signal · Oct 7, 2026 · Event Recap · Source: The Drum · Impact: 2/5 · Sentiment: Positive
LinkedIn says don't treat leads as finish in B2B
At LinkedIn's B2Believe event in its new Empire State Building space, executives and practitioners called for a shift from lead-centric B2B marketing to a 'full journey' approach that links signals, targeting, creative, full journey, and measurement. Jae Oh, senior director of product management, revealed that fewer than 10% of upper-funnel audiences make it into bottom-funnel campaigns, urging marketers to connect awareness with demand capture. Research from LinkedIn's B2B Institute with eMarketer showed 77% of marketers say they no longer target individuals, yet only 31% have a playbook for activating audiences down the funnel. Practitioners from Canva, SAP, Mastercard, and others shared examples of aligning marketing and sales on common signals. LinkedIn also outlined a product roadmap focused on cost-per-opportunity targeting, multi-format campaigns, agentic workflows, and incrementality forecasting.
LinkedIn, a major B2B ad platform, is promoting a strategic shift toward full-journey measurement and agentic workflows, which could influence B2B marketing practices and product direction. However, this is an event recap without concrete product launches or financial data, limiting its direct impact.
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Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- At LinkedIn's B2Believe event, Jae Oh revealed that fewer than 10% of upper-funnel audiences make it into bottom-funnel campaigns.
- LinkedIn B2B Institute research with eMarketer found 77% of B2B marketers say they no longer target individuals, but only 31% have a playbook for down-funnel activation.
- Canva attributes 8x year-over-year pipeline growth to product education efforts, driven by buyers using LLMs for self-education.
- LinkedIn's product roadmap includes cost-per-opportunity targeting, multi-format campaigns, agentic workflows via MCPs, and incrementality forecasting.
- Buyers start researching around 124 days before they raise a hand, and 94% of buying groups use LLMs before speaking to sales.
Connected Companies & Entities
11 Entities mapped“LinkedIn's B2Believe event and product roadmap announcements, including cost-per-opportunity targeting and agentic workflows....”
“Anna Sims, growth strategist, discussed Canva's upper-funnel investment and pipeline attribution....”
“Cited as source for data on LLM use by buying groups....”
“Partner in research with LinkedIn B2B Institute across more than 500 US B2B marketers....”
“Cited as example of tracking buying-group roles and counting engagement....”
“Cited as example of building a single funnel view for every team....”
“Cited as example of automatically pursuing the rest of the buying group after intent....”
“Cited as example of holding sales back when a deal goes to a competitor....”
“Michele Eggers of SAS participated in the panel....”
“Alyssa Connolly of dentsu participated in the panel....”
“Ari Echt-Wilson of HubSpot participated in the panel....”
Ontology Mapping & Concepts
Related Market Signals & Shifts
Recent verified developments and strategic activity across this market segment.
Céline Flores Willers urges B2B marketers to think like B2C
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