Dear Reader,
November has brought me back to a question I've been thinking about for some time: are we becoming better at understanding our buyers, or simply better at collecting information about them?
We have more data, more automation, and more ways to reach potential clients than ever before. AI can identify patterns, help us understand intent, personalise communication, and accelerate execution. Yet gaining genuine attention and trust seems increasingly difficult.
This contradiction is at the centre of November's edition.
I'm particularly pleased to feature a conversation with Marvin van der Sluis, Co-Founder of Clawbuildr, who brings a practical perspective on automated outreach, buyer intent, and why personalisation does not always mean relevance.
We're also looking at several important developments: advertising inside ChatGPT is reaching commercial scale, Google is strengthening its first-party-data measurement capabilities, and new research shows why original evidence is becoming increasingly valuable in B2B thought leadership.
The latest Marketing and Communications Review 2026 in Latvia offers some interesting findings on brand trust, reputation risks, marketing priorities, and expectations for 2027. Although the research covers different industries, several of its findings reflect challenges that B2B marketing leaders are facing more broadly.
I hope this edition gives you something useful for your own planning, and perhaps a reason to question whether every activity we can automate is an activity we should automate.
Warm regards,
Kristīne
Hot Updates
ChatGPT Advertising Moves Beyond Experimentation
On October 21, OpenAI shared details of the advertising infrastructure behind ChatGPT, reporting that more than 100,000 advertisers have run ads since launch and that the business reached a $1 billion annualised revenue run rate in less than 200 days.
The development is significant because advertising in conversational environments works differently from conventional search advertising.
Traditional search ads respond to relatively explicit queries. In ChatGPT, commercial intent can develop gradually throughout a conversation, as users compare options, clarify requirements, and work toward decisions.
OpenAI says its advertising system uses conversational context to identify relevant sponsored placements while maintaining a technical separation between advertising selection and organic answer generation.
What this means for B2B marketers: Conversational AI is becoming another commercial discovery environment. But two different opportunities must be understood separately: earning visibility in organic AI-generated answers and potentially reaching buyers through paid placements.
For expert-led businesses, the underlying challenge remains familiar:
Can buyers clearly understand what you offer?
Is your expertise supported by credible evidence?
Do your materials address specific buying questions?
Can potential clients distinguish your offer from alternatives?
As AI becomes more involved in commercial research, unclear positioning becomes increasingly expensive.
Google Strengthens First-Party Data and Conversion Measurement
Google's October Demand Gen update introduces several developments intended to improve how advertisers connect data with campaign performance.
Among the changes:
Data Strength Uplift, a new metric designed to show conversion gains associated with advertisers' data setup.
Data Manager expansion into Google Analytics and Display & Video 360.
Enhanced conversions, planned for Google Analytics and DV360 to improve measurement accuracy.
Google also reports that advertisers using Google Tag Gateway saw an average conversion uplift of more than 20% in its internal analysis. This is vendor-reported performance data, not a guaranteed outcome for every advertiser.
The more important development is the growing dependence of advertising performance on the quality and consistency of first-party data.
What this means for B2B marketers: For businesses with longer sales cycles, disconnected conversion tracking can create a misleading picture of performance. A completed form does not necessarily represent a qualified opportunity. A booked consultation is not equivalent to a proposal, and neither guarantees revenue. Before investing in more sophisticated campaigns, teams should ensure that CRM records, conversion definitions, and analytics reflect how commercial opportunities actually progress. Better measurement begins with better definitions, not necessarily more technology.
Original Research Is Becoming a Stronger Thought Leadership Asset
As AI-generated content becomes easier to produce, original knowledge is becoming a more important source of differentiation. Research conducted by TopRank Marketing and Ascend2, surveying 797 senior B2B marketing leaders in the United States and United Kingdom, provides an interesting indication of where thought leadership investment is heading.
According to the findings:
47% plan to increase their use of original research and data-driven thought leadership.
53% use direct customer feedback to inform research topics.
44% draw on CRM data and customer insights.
44% use competitor or market-trend analysis.
The findings reinforce an important distinction between producing information and contributing knowledge.
An expert article that summarises existing industry commentary may still be useful. But original customer observations, proprietary data, practical case evidence, or a well-supported professional perspective can give readers something they would not find elsewhere.
What this means for B2B marketers: Companies already possess valuable knowledge inside sales conversations, customer relationships, project reviews, service delivery, and internal expertise. The opportunity is to turn that knowledge, with appropriate permissions and confidentiality safeguards, into useful evidence. This does not always require an expensive research programme. Sometimes it begins with structured customer interviews, anonymised client patterns, or a recurring analysis of questions raised during the buying process. Thought leadership becomes more valuable when it contributes something original to the discussion.
Feature Insight
Brand Trust Is Becoming Harder to Protect
One of the more interesting pieces of research I've reviewed recently is the Marketing and Communications Review 2026, conducted in Latvia by WKND, Deep White, Delfi, and Norstat. Based on responses from 312 marketing and communications professionals, the report examines business confidence, communication priorities, brand trust, and emerging risks. Although it is not exclusively B2B research, several findings deserve attention.
34% of respondents reported that their companies had experienced unauthorised or misleading use of brand elements.
The research also identifies some of the risks professionals consider most significant:
Digital fraud using brand names and identities - 37%.
AI-generated content published without sufficient verification - 33%.
Disinformation or the spread of negative reviews - 30%.
Deepfakes or other AI-generated impersonation - 17%.
These percentages represent perceived risks, not verified incident rates.
Perhaps the more concerning finding is that 49% of surveyed organisations had no crisis-response plan, including those planning to develop one. This reveals a gap between recognising reputational threats and preparing to respond to them.
For B2B companies, the consequences of lost credibility can extend beyond marketing performance. In legal, technology, consulting, financial, and other professional services, trust influences whether clients disclose business problems, involve experts in strategic decisions, and commit to long-term relationships.
What this means for B2B marketers: Brand safety should no longer be treated simply as advertising placement control or an occasional communications concern. It increasingly requires coordination between marketing, leadership, IT, legal, and customer-facing teams. Businesses should understand how their brand is represented online, who is authorised to communicate on its behalf, what happens when misleading material appears, and how quickly they can respond. As AI makes professional-looking content easier to generate, credibility must be supported by processes as well as messaging.
C-Suite & Leadership Corner
Planning for 2027: Growth Expectations Without Matching Budgets
Another finding from the Latvian marketing and communications study reflects a familiar leadership challenge.
Looking ahead to 2027:
58% of respondents expect their organisations to grow, but only approximately one-third anticipate an increase in marketing and communications budgets.
The research suggests a climate of cautious confidence rather than widespread pessimism. Businesses still see opportunities. But the resources available to pursue them are not necessarily expanding. For marketing leaders, this creates a difficult balancing act. Expectations around AI, content, digital visibility, performance measurement, and sales support continue to increase. Yet in many organisations, the resources and organisational structures behind marketing have not evolved at the same pace. This raises an important strategic question: If growth is expected without additional resources, which activities genuinely deserve priority?
The answer cannot simply be to automate everything. AI can help improve execution, but it cannot independently decide which market represents the strongest opportunity, which client segment offers the greatest value, or which strategic activities should be discontinued. Those decisions require commercial understanding, leadership alignment, and informed judgment.
What this means for B2B leaders:
Before finalising 2027 marketing plans, review three areas:
Business priorities: Which markets, clients, and opportunities have the strongest commercial justification?
Resource allocation: How much capacity goes into maintaining existing activities rather than developing future growth?
Strategic contribution: Is marketing involved early enough in decisions about positioning, market entry, customer priorities, and business development?
Better planning may require fewer disconnected initiatives and more involvement in the decisions that determine what marketing should support.
Deep Dive Article — Executive Interview
When Everyone Has Intent Data, What Actually Makes B2B Outreach Relevant?
A conversation with Marvin van der Sluis, Co-Founder of Clawbuildr
We have more tools to identify potential buyers than ever before. Intent signals, data enrichment, automated personalisation, and multichannel outreach have made prospecting increasingly sophisticated.
Yet many buyers seem less willing to engage.
For this edition, I spoke with Marvin van der Sluis, who works with autonomous outbound systems and B2B pipeline development, about the difference between having information about a prospect and understanding what might make a conversation relevant. One of the most interesting distinctions he makes is between passive interest and active commercial friction. Reading an article or researching a topic can indicate curiosity. It does not automatically mean that someone has an immediate business problem, an approved budget, or a reason to speak with a salesperson. Marvin argues that observable operational challenges, such as publicly discussed workflow problems, hiring activity, or difficulties with existing systems, can provide more meaningful context. We also discuss why automated personalisation sometimes creates the opposite of its intended effect. Mentioning someone's university, job title, or latest LinkedIn post may demonstrate access to information. It does not necessarily demonstrate an understanding of their business.
Marvin puts it this way: Fake personalisation mentions who they are. Genuine relevance addresses what they are wrestling with at 2:00 PM on a Tuesday.
The conversation also explores concise messaging, the importance of matching a prospect's communication style, and why qualified conversations deserve more attention than outreach volume. Marvin shares results from his own campaigns, including reported improvements in conversation-to-meeting conversion. These are practitioner-reported outcomes rather than independently established industry benchmarks.
Read the full interview →
Future Signal
The Next Competitive Advantage May Be Interpretation
Across this month's developments, a common question is emerging: what happens when everyone has access to similar technology? Advertising systems can interpret conversational intent. Analytics platforms can connect more data. Outbound tools can monitor buying signals. Generative AI can produce content at scale.
But access to these capabilities does not automatically mean we understand our buyers better.
The value lies in interpreting the signals: recognising a real problem, understanding its commercial context, and knowing whether a conversation would be useful.
For B2B marketers, that means combining customer insight, original evidence, expert judgment, and clear priorities. More information becomes valuable when it helps someone make a better decision.
Closing Note
This month's edition comes back to a simple question: are we using technology to understand people better, or simply to reach them more often?
Thank you to Marvin van der Sluis for sharing his perspective on relevance, intent, and the conversations that matter.
Forward this Digest to a colleague or comrade who would benefit. 🤍
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