Digital advertising in the B2B environment presents companies with unique challenges. While B2C marketing often relies on personal data and behavioural patterns, successfully reaching business audiences requires an entirely different approach. We spoke with Harald Petry of AccountInsight about the evolution of B2B advertising, programmatic media buying, and how account-level targeting is transforming digital marketing.

Harald, tell us about AccountInsight. How did the company get started?

AccountInsight was founded on a simple realization: traditional digital advertising models are not designed for the realities of B2B marketing. While many advertising platforms focus on individual user profiles, successful B2B campaigns require an understanding of company characteristics such as industry, company size, location, annual revenue, or even specific target accounts.

To address this challenge, we developed a dedicated technology platform for company-level targeting. Today, we operate our own Demand Side Platform (DSP), purpose-built for the needs of B2B marketing and Account-based Marketing (ABM).

How does a campaign work on your platform?

Every campaign begins by defining the target accounts. Together with our clients, we identify the companies, markets, and decision-makers they want to reach.

We then leverage real-time programmatic media buying. Whenever advertising inventory becomes available on a website, our platform evaluates within milliseconds whether the impression is relevant to the predefined target accounts. If it is, the platform automatically bids for the available inventory and, if successful, delivers the appropriate creative—all while the webpage is still loading.

Rather than distributing impressions across thousands of companies, we deliberately concentrate advertising pressure on carefully selected target accounts. This ensures meaningful visibility where it matters most, creating measurable brand awareness and supporting long-term marketing and sales objectives.

Campaign planning also includes defining target markets, campaign duration, and available budget. Based on these parameters, we recommend an optimal number of target accounts to ensure each receives sufficient visibility to generate measurable impact.

Throughout the campaign, our platform remains fully flexible. Budgets, priorities, and target accounts can be adjusted at any time based on performance data or changing business priorities. Regular reviews with our clients allow us to continuously refine campaign performance.

What advantages does this approach offer compared to traditional advertising?

The greatest advantage is precision. Instead of accepting broad media wastage, companies can focus their marketing efforts exclusively on the accounts that matter most.

Campaigns can also be continuously optimised throughout their lifecycle. Budgets can be shifted towards strategically important companies or regions—for example around trade shows, product launches, or active sales initiatives.

Optimisation is driven by a combination of automated algorithms and experienced campaign managers, who continuously analyse campaign performance, optimise placements, adjust budgets, and align every activity with the client's defined KPIs.

Which advertising formats work best for B2B campaigns?

A wide range of digital advertising formats can be used, including static display banners, HTML5 creatives and animated GIFs.

There is no universal answer as to which format performs best. That depends on the audience, the message and the creative execution. That's why we rely heavily on A/B testing and continuous performance optimisation throughout every campaign.

Our experience clearly shows that creative quality has a major impact on campaign success. Even relatively small changes to design, messaging or visual presentation can significantly improve click-through rates and overall campaign performance. Investing in strong creative assets almost always pays dividends.

How do marketing and sales teams benefit from the reporting?

One of the greatest strengths of account-level targeting is the close integration of marketing and sales.

Our platform provides detailed company-level insights, allowing both teams to understand which target accounts are engaging with the campaign, how frequently advertisements are being served, and which companies are visiting the client's website.

Comprehensive reporting dashboards provide actionable insights throughout the campaign. Marketing teams can optimise ongoing activities, while sales teams can identify highly engaged accounts early and prioritise their outreach accordingly.

Rather than simply reporting clicks, our platform provides valuable intelligence on account engagement, enabling organisations to align marketing and sales activities far more effectively.

When can clients expect to see results?

Conclusion

As marketing and sales become increasingly data-driven, account-based advertising is opening up new opportunities for companies to engage the right decision-makers with greater precision and efficiency.

By combining advanced B2B targeting, real-time optimisation and detailed company-level insights, AccountInsight enables organisations to maximise campaign performance while significantly reducing media wastage.

By the way: As AccountInsight's first European B2B agency partner, Lorenzoni is proud to offer its clients access to this innovative technology—helping them increase visibility, strengthen brand awareness and generate measurable business results.