Stop guessing, start growing: Why we built Labs by Demandbase

If you’ve spent five minutes in a B2B revenue meeting lately, you know the language. Buying groups. Intent signals. AI-generated account information. Alignment.

But here’s the uncomfortable truth: when it’s time to decide how many touches a rep should make, how long to stay engaged with an account, or how much budget to put behind a segment, most GTM teams are still operating on instinct. We’ve had dashboards. We’ve had data. What we haven’t had is statistically validated proof of what actually drives outcomes at scale.

For all our talk of AI, we’ve still been guessing.

That changes now.

Today, I’m incredibly excited to introduce Labs by Demandbase — our AI-powered research and analytics arm built to bring evidence to the AI GTM era. This isn’t AI for the sake of AI. It’s AI applied to billions of data points to surface what truly works across buying groups, channels, segments, and sales motions — and to validate it with rigor.

Because being AI-first isn’t about adding more signals. It’s about transforming signals into outcomes.

With Labs, we’re giving B2B leaders what they’ve been missing: statistically grounded benchmarks, real performance patterns, and clarity on where to double down in execution — and where to stop guessing.

The era of “best practices” based on anecdotes is over. The era of AI-backed execution that drives outcomes starts now

Real data, real scale

To kick things off, we’re releasing our flagship research: The B2B AI GTM Report: Benchmarks for a New Era.

This isn’t a small-batch survey of a few hundred marketers. This report is grounded in a massive, real-world dataset:

• 1,452 Demandbase tenants
• 429k+ ad campaigns
• 38 million pre-opportunity marketing activities
• 9.7 million sales interactions

We analyzed the operating patterns behind high-performing teams to see how they leverage buying groups and AI to drive actual pipeline.

What the data reveals

If you want a reason to rethink your current playbook, here are a few findings from the report that stopped us in our tracks:

• The power of integrations: Organizations that connect their CRM, MAP, and multiple predictive models see a 22%+ MQA-to-Pipeline conversion rate. Compare that to a 14% baseline for those with limited data, and you’ll see why a robust data foundation is non-negotiable.
• The buying group multiplier: It’s time to stop chasing lone “leads.” GTM teams that align their marketing and sales efforts around buying groups achieve 2–3× higher win rates than those still stuck in the MQL/lead-based world.
• The ad effect: If you think digital ads are just for “awareness,” think again. Accounts with sustained buying group–level advertising convert to opportunities at 2–3× the rate of non-advertised accounts. Even more impressive? Companies using four advertising tiers (high impression volume) saw a 58.7% win rate, a 71% improvement over those running no ads.
• The sales touch threshold: For those wondering if their SDRs are doing “too much,” the data suggests the opposite. When sales engages buying group members with sustained, multi-channel activity, MQA-to-Opportunity conversion can approach a staggering 90%.

What’s inside the report?

The full report is designed to be your operational guide for 2026 and beyond. We dive deep into:

• Conversion Benchmarks by Industry: See how your rates stack up against your specific peers.
• The Role of Programmatic Ads: How to use impressions to move accounts from “third-party intent” to “first-party engagement”.
• Predictive Scoring Impact: Why AI-driven likelihood-to-convert scores are the secret weapon for sales prioritization.
• A Practical Playbook: We don’t just give you the data; we give you a checklist of actions, like limiting journeys to 2–3 buying groups for optimal efficiency.

Labs by Demandbase isn’t just a one-off report. It’s a living hub for GTM intelligence. We want to be your partner in identifying what works, even when that means challenging traditional wisdom.

For example, our research found that simply “doing more” with stalled accounts actually decreases conversion rates. In a world of shrinking buyer attention, we’re here to help you stop shouting into the void and start engaging the people who actually want to buy.

Ready to move from hunches to evidence? Download the full B2B AI GTM Report and explore the Labs Hub today.

To join us live when we break down the key findings, register for our webinar.