In our latest State of B2B Brand Marketing report, we surveyed 100 marketing leaders using Wynter. What we found: not one of them (zero out of 100) feels confident in their brand data.
Despite this complete lack of confidence, these same marketers continue measuring, reporting, and making decisions based on data they don't trust.
Here's everything they told us
The numbers reveal an industry in denial:
Nearly half of B2B marketers make decisions based on data they actively distrust. Another 20% have no idea if their metrics mean anything.
One marketing leader captured the struggle:
"Brand marketing is not always quantitative in ROI, so it makes it increasingly difficult to justify adding spend beyond doing what 'feels' directionally correct."
Feels directionally correct. That's the foundation of current B2B brand strategy.
When confidence in metrics collapses, companies don't fix their measurement systems. They default to whatever feels manageable, even when they know it's not perfect.
"Even share of search does not directly track to revenue or pipeline."
"High sensitivity to ROI, ignorance of exec team of value of brand,"
"I'm tired of educating leadership over and over again on how marketing works."
While marketers debate how to measure brand, the market doesn't wait. The research reveals what's actually happening while companies struggle with metrics:
Competitors continue to build: Every quarter spent perfecting measurement systems is a quarter competitors spend building awareness. They're capturing mental real estate while you're capturing more data requirements.
Budget flows to false certainty; When brand metrics feel unreliable, money gets prioritized to channels with "clear" attribution:
"I'm stuck investing in bottom of funnel performance campaigns."
The compound effect works against you: Brand builds like interest and it might feel slow at first but as one leader noted:
"The better our brand, the greater market pull and less reliance on marketing push."
But this only works if you start before you're certain.
Teams optimize for reporting, not impact: When brand measurement becomes impossible to trust, marketing teams pivot to what they can defend.
"I'm expected to deliver a very consistent number of MQLs each month."
They use multiple lenses: Rather than seeking one source of truth, they engage with multiple data streams - search trends, surveys, sales feedback, win/loss analysis. Pattern recognition replaces precision.
They act on real data: They've learned that 70% confidence acted on beats 95% confidence analyzed forever.
"We measure what we can, acknowledge what we can't, and invest anyway."
They track movement: Rather than obsessing over absolute numbers, they monitor direction. Rising or falling? Gaining or losing to competitors? Movement matters more than position.
The 52% who've given up on measurement entirely face three hidden costs:
Flying blind: Without any measurement, brand investment becomes pure guesswork. They might be winning or losing - they'll never know. Competitors with even basic measurement have an advantage.
Budget battles lost: When asked to justify brand spend, they have nothing. CFOs allocate budget to what can be measured, even imperfectly. No measurement means no defense.
So what now? The data’s messy, the metrics aren’t always perfect but ignoring it altogether is worse. Here’s how teams can start re-engaging with brand measurement in a way that actually works.
Start somewhere: The 52% measuring nothing need to start, even minimally. A basic quarterly survey beats total darkness. Google Trends beats guessing. Some data beats no data.
Connect to business logic: Find the link between brand metrics and business outcomes. If awareness rises and RFPs increase, that's a connection worth tracking, even if it's not perfect.
Build measurement muscle: Regular engagement with metrics, however flawed, builds organizational capability. You learn what works, what doesn't, what to ignore.
Two paths emerge from the research:
Path 1: Disengage completely. Join the 52% who've given up. Make decisions based on gut feel and hope. Accept that you'll never know if brand investments work.
Path 2: Engage despite imperfection. Join the 26% who measure what they can, learn from patterns, and build confidence through consistency. Accept uncertainty but reduce it systematically.
Most B2B marketers don’t trust their brand data, but some teams are still making it work. They use the data they have, look for patterns, and build experience over time.
It’s about being consistent, paying attention, and learning what actually moves the needle.
Meanwhile, others are stuck waiting for perfect attribution, for total clarity. But brand doesn’t work that way, and neither does measurement.
The teams that make progress are the ones who realize what matters most is whether buyers think of you when they’re ready to buy. And if you’re not paying attention to how your brand is landing, you’ll never know if you’re heading in the right direction.