In B2B marketing, everything starts with one key question: how do you reach your target audience at scale? But in a world of fragmented buyer journeys, tightening privacy regulations, and saturated channels, it’s a question even the most sophisticated marketers are struggling to answer.
In fact, 55% of companies report dissatisfaction with their ability to target and engage key audiences and buying groups, according to the Pipeline360 2025 State of B2B Pipeline report.
Look closer, and the picture becomes even more telling: 38% believe they could be significantly more impactful with their current strategies, 15% admit they only occasionally reach the right targets, and 2% say they often fail completely. This is a clear signal that many B2B teams are still missing the mark when it comes to reaching the audiences that actually drive revenue.
The Reach Challenge in B2B Marketing
Reaching the right audience is anything but simple. B2B marketers are navigating an environment where buying journeys are nonlinear, buying groups are larger and more distributed, and attention is harder to earn.
Overcoming this complexity is nevertheless essential. According to Pipeline360 research, 72% of high-performing organizations consistently reach and engage their target audiences, compared to just 15% of low performers. Not surprisingly, your ability to reach your audience is directly tied to your ability to drive results.
The challenge lies in scale and precision. Many brands still rely on outdated data, fragmented targeting strategies, or one-size-fits-all campaigns that simply can’t compete in today’s buyer-centric market. And as the use of third-party cookies fades and privacy expectations rise, traditional reach tactics are losing their effectiveness fast.
B2B marketers therefore need smarter, more integrated approaches that scale without sacrificing relevance. The next three steps outline how to do just that.
Step 1: Build a Strong Data Foundation to Power Smarter Reach
If your goal is to improve how to reach target audiences at scale, it all starts with your data. Without clean, accurate, and complete data, even the most creative campaigns or well-segmented strategies fall short. That’s why the most effective B2B marketers are investing in data quality and reliability.
According to our report, data effectiveness is the single biggest performance differentiator between high- and low-performing marketing teams: a staggering 65-point gap. Strong data foundations lead to better visibility, more precise targeting, and fewer missed opportunities. More importantly, they enable marketers to make smarter decisions and clearly demonstrate marketing’s value to the business.
The best place to start is with a simple but thorough data audit. Identify where your collection methods fall short, where quality is compromised, and where usage isn’t driving insight. Then prioritize improvements, starting with accuracy, compliance, and completeness.
Step 2: Get Granular With Segmentation and Insights
If you’re serious about improving how to reach a target audience, start by rethinking how well you actually know them. Today’s B2B marketers must go beyond generic buyer profiles and invest in more granular audience segmentation. This is because broad strokes simply don’t work anymore, especially when you’re trying to engage diverse buying groups across industries, roles, and geographies.
What’s more, cookies, which have long been the go-to tech for identifying audiences, are no longer fit for purpose. Despite Google changing its mind on cookie deprecation, all browsers offer customers greater control over tracking cookies and many are choosing to opt out. The match rates offered by cookies are also pretty poor, and advertisers are looking for better performing alternatives. Add to that a growing patchwork of privacy regulations like GDPR, CCPA, and ePrivacy, and it’s clear that the era of easy, anonymous targeting is over.
Understanding better ways to reach your target audience starts with building sharper insights into who your buyers are, what they care about, and how they prefer to engage. That means mapping behavioral and intent signals, then tailoring messaging to different personas within the buying group.
Smarter segmentation beats blunt tracking every time. Instead of relying on cookies to chase individuals across the web, leading B2B marketers are shifting to account-based segmentation strategies that group buyers based on real signals like firmographics, intent, lifecycle stage, and strategic fit. These segmentation models offer a more sustainable, compliant, and effective alternative and they’re fast becoming one of the most powerful strategies to reach target audiences at scale.
Step 3: Use DaaS to Extend Reach and Execute with Confidence
Even the best segmentation and insight won’t drive results without the ability to activate at scale. That’s where Demand-as-a-Service (DaaS) enters the picture. DaaS gives B2B marketers a fully managed model to extend their reach, enrich their data, and execute integrated campaigns across content syndication and digital media, and all without overwhelming internal teams.
While internal data clean-up is essential, the reality is most marketing teams still have outdated records, missing firmographics, or incomplete buying group coverage. Smart teams are increasingly working with trusted external providers to fill those gaps, validate contacts, and build out engagement. When internal and external data sets are aligned, your strategies to reach target audiences become significantly more scalable, targeted, and measurable.
DaaS combines high-quality data, targeted distribution, and transparent performance insights that helps brands get in front of the right buyers, on the right channels, at the right time.
Reaching the right audience at scale comes down to sharper segmentation, privacy-first strategies, and the right DaaS partner. By following these steps, B2B marketers can easily connect with the audiences that matter most and turn reach into real results.
