Observed Signal · Aug 21, 2026 · Analysis · Source: https://martech.org/feed/ · Impact: 2/5 · Sentiment: Neutral
Long B2B Sales Cycles Hinder Measurement
Long B2B sales cycles — sometimes months, years, or longer — create major challenges for marketing attribution, optimization, and proving ROI. The author argues that tracking microjourneys (website visits, downloads, webinars) provides faster measurement but has limits because those signals often do not measure quality or purchase likelihood. He recommends eliminating vanity metrics and building better models that assess fit, likely purchase value, and customer quality rather than simply counting raw events. The piece is authored by Mike Maynard, Managing Director of Napier, and published on MarTech (owned by Semrush).
Highlights persistent measurement and attribution challenges in B2B martech and recommends shifting from vanity metrics to quality-based models; useful for B2B marketers but not a platform policy or major technical release.
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Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- Long B2B sales cycles (months to years) create fundamental attribution and ROI measurement problems for marketing.
- Microjourney tracking (e.g., downloads, webinar attendance) offers quicker measurement but often relies on low-quality signals that do not equate to purchase likelihood.
- Author Mike Maynard recommends focusing on quality metrics (fit with ICP, company size, likely purchase value) rather than raw vanity metrics.
- MarTech (the publisher) is owned by Semrush; the article was published on 2026-08-21.
Connected Companies & Entities
4 Entities mapped“MarTech is owned by Semrush....”
“Mike has worked with some of the biggest names in tech, including ABB, Avnet, Microchip, Nokia, NTT and Yokogawa....”
“Mike has worked with some of the biggest names in tech, including ABB, Avnet, Microchip, Nokia, NTT and Yokogawa....”
“I’m not sure they’ll thank me if I wait three years before my first Google Ads optimization....”
Ontology Mapping & Concepts
Related Market Signals & Shifts
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Attribution Limits B2B Growth, Urges Broader Investment
Chris Bagnall, CEO & Founder of Transmission, argues that an overreliance on tidy attribution metrics (especially last-click) constrains B2B marketing growth by diverting budget toward immediately measurable touchpoints and away from brand, community, and creator work that drives future demand. The piece cites research from Gartner, Forrester, McKinsey and Brand Finance to show most of the B2B buying journey occurs out of view of dashboards and involves multiple decision-influencers. Bagnall recommends broader measurement — including account-based attribution platforms (e.g., Dreamdata), incrementality/holdout tests, marketing-mix modelling, brand tracking, and self-reported attribution — and argues businesses should fund activities they cannot fully trace.
B2B Marketers: Lots of Data, Little Insight
Published April 22, 2026 on MarTech, contributor Mike Maynard (Managing Director, Napier) argues that B2B marketers collect large volumes of data but fail to convert it into actionable insight. The piece outlines structural measurement challenges—long sales cycles, large buying committees, and low event volumes—that make incrementality testing and attribution difficult. It highlights practical obstacles to identifying and reaching high-value accounts (declining form signups, remote work undermining IP-to-company mapping, cookie opt-outs) and warns that over‑cautious GDPR-driven policies can lead to unnecessary data loss. The article also notes SMEs often lack the resources to operationalize complex martech (MAPs, CRMs, CDPs, data warehouses) and urges teams to “fix the basics” before pursuing advanced analytics or automation.
B2B measurement: Five areas to fix GTM data
The article argues that B2B go-to-market (GTM) measurement often creates an "illusion of certainty": precise dashboards and platform-attributed conversions can mislead decision-makers because they favor easy-to-capture signals over long-term drivers. Andy Hasselwander, chief analytics officer at Marketbridge, recommends assessing measurement maturity across five areas — Data, Systems, Methods, Reporting, and Organization & Communication — and adopting multiple causal and counterfactual methods (e.g., MMM, incrementality) to provide more accurate answers when CFOs demand evidence of marketing contribution. Marketbridge offers a measurement maturity workshop to help firms identify foundational gaps.
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