Brand Awareness is Back in B2B SaaS – But Are We Ready for It?

The dirtiest words of marketing: brand awareness. Shiver at the thought. It sends boardroom veneers chattering.

Brand awareness is back. And it’s worse than ever.

Marketing moves in cycles, and Bordeaux & Burgundy predicts that the coming years will see the brand awareness trendline finally head upwards. After years of demand generation dominance, where ‘get a demo’ ruled, marketers are turning their eyes back to the creativity of brand activation. I’m taking a lens to today’s brand awareness efforts. Spoiler: it’s not looking good for B2B SaaS.

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RIP demand generation (sort of)

Digital advertising has boomed since the early 2000s. LinkedIn (2005), Facebook (2007), Twitter/X (2010) all rolled out their ad platforms as the internet matured. Today, digital advertising on these and other platforms are a cornerstone of marketing. Why? Fine-tuned targeting options, year-on-year ad tech evolutions, and attributable reporting have filled the accountability gap in marketing. At least in the eyes of the non-marketer C-suite. 

To this day, current and future budget committal, pipeline growth, and the continuous justification for marketing’s existence keep CMOs up at night. But, if you can link every dollar spent to a measurable result, that's a problem solved, right?

Not quite. Attributable demand generation only works when the advertising works. If the results aren’t there, the budget gets slashed. If the sales team starts throwing “bad quality” complaints into the feedback mix, marketing’s value is back on trial. But, it’s not because paid advertising as a whole doesn’t work. It’s because everyone is advertising the same thing. 

• “Book a demo”
• “Start Free Trial”
• “Increase Efficiency”
• “Save Time”
• “The proliferation of something means you need our product”
• “You are [job title], you have [problem A]”

We’ve all seen these. Even in top-of-funnel (TOFU) advertising, marketing departments are being pushed to sell, sell, sell.

Years of the same messaging has diluted the effectiveness of demand generation advertising. Market data tells the story. In 2013, the SaaS industry was worth $30.4B. By 2022, it had ballooned to $146.6B. Then came 2023, with a sharp 21.9% drop in growth. Is that all because of the state of today’s advertising, no. But, it’s arguably been a factor in the market trend.

With demand gen losing its punch, everyone’s pivoting back to brand. But anyone expecting a quick fix is in for a shock.

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The sorry state of brand awareness

Leaving behind demand gen should feel like freedom. A release from the shackles of attribution models and MQL pipelines. But instead of creative liberation, B2B brands are stumbling around waking up from a ten-year nap.

Scratch below the surface of today’s brand awareness and it appears to be demand gen in disguise. Every ‘brand’ play is tethered to a pipeline. Every impression comes with a conversion caveat.

Brand awareness today feels more focused on pantomime than actual performance. Salesforce, HubSpot, and the other usual suspects can afford to go big because they’ve already won mindshare. The leading players are all about creative OOH because they no longer need to explain what they do and why it’s great. 

For everyone else… years of demand gen-first marketing has flatlined differentiation. Every B2B SaaS company’s brand now claims to ‘save time’ and ‘drive growth.’ These aren’t values a brand can stand upon anymore. Simply put, if your brand’s big promise can be copy-pasted across a thousand websites, it’s not actually promising anything. All it is, I’m afraid, is background noise.

Another example is the introduction of AI in every SaaS product. Your value isn’t in having AI anymore; it’s the value your AI features bring to the software. 

Brand awareness requires a deeper thought process. It has to mean something. Take the commonly used ‘integrate seamlessly with your tech stack’ and transform this into the day-to-day benefit your user will experience: ‘Integrate data movement across your 5 operational channels’ or ‘no code required integration’. Both spell benefits and fix a daily problem that’s on your ICP’s to-do list.

If your brand doesn’t say something different, it’ll be more ‘mehmorable’ than memorable.

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How to do brand awareness: Shifting the conversation

Approvals… audible sigh. The first and often biggest hurdle. 

Brand awareness isn’t built on neat attribution models or tidy ROI reports. OOH, events, sponsorships, podcast advertising, and video campaigns don’t always produce ‘meeting booked’ on a silver platter. That alone makes them a hard sell to leadership.

The conversation needs to change. Instead of focusing on conversion rates, shift the focus to traction. Web activity. Social sentiment. Community engagement. Sales call feedback. When prospects start saying, “I see you everywhere” or “I’ve been following your content for a while,” that’s the signal: it’s working.

Just look at Clay. They’ve doubled down on thought leadership and content, showing up in the right places in the right way. But when was the last time Clay hit you with a hard sell? Exactly. And they’re growing like no one else in the B2B space.

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Getting buy-in without the eye rolls

You’re not getting approval for brand alone. Not in a world still obsessed with lead gen reports. So don’t frame it as brand awareness for the sake of brand awareness. Instead, position it as a demand gen amplifier. It’s not a case of replacing performance marketing. It’s about making sure it lands when it matters.

The pitch is simple. Your goal is to be the first name that comes to mind when the problem arises. 

Not if. When. 

Because when that moment comes, demand gen doesn’t need to work as hard. That means pipeline. That means revenue. That means buy-in.

And that’s the true power of brand awareness. When the pain point finally hits, the decision is already made.

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Winning the battle for creative

Approval isn’t just about budget. It’s about getting sign-off on creative that slices through the sameness. The real challenge is that B2B brands are terrified of being interesting. Safe and predictable feels comfortable, but it also makes you forgettable.

Your market isn’t a faceless corporate entity. Your audience is human (yes, even during working hours). They have emotions. Yes, they experience stress and frustration, but they also feel moments of relief. Speak to that. If you want brand awareness to stick, stop marketing to job titles and start marketing to people. And if that means incorporating a few whacky narratives, a bit of quirky copy, or some bold designs, make the case for it.

But remember: a good pitch is only as strong as its framing.

If you want leadership to back your next creative endeavor, don’t just talk about brand. Talk about impact. Drive home the importance of stirring emotions and creating lasting moments.

Take Monday.com. Every time you mark a task as Done, an animation plays in the status’ frame. It might be a small, seemingly inconsequential moment, but it creates an emotional connection and raises dopamine levels. That’s what brand awareness should strive for. Whether in marketing or actually inside the product, the brands that win are the ones that make people feel something.

So if you want to win the battle for creative and ensure your brand stands out, frame your pitch around impact, not just ideas. Fight for copy and design that actually resonates, stirs emotions, and sticks in people’s minds.

Otherwise, you’ll just be another SaaS company whispering into the B2B void.

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References:

• LinkedIn's history of advertising
• Twitter (X)'s history of advertising
• Facebook's history of advertising blog
• SaaS market stats
• 2023 B2B SaaS market report

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