Best B2B marketing campaigns: 8 examples that drive pipeline
By Kathryn Casna●3 min. read●Feb 26, 2026
Most "best B2B marketing campaign" roundups feature Workday's celebrity Super Bowl spots or Mailchimp's million-dollar productions. Great for inspiration. Useless for replication.
This list is different. Instead of campaigns you can admire from afar, these are campaign examples that in-house teams can actually run — organized by the motion they're built around — and a breakdown of what made each one work. Here's what a strong brand, ABM, demand gen, and referral campaign actually looks like.
Brand awareness campaigns that create category association
Brand campaigns play the long game. They build mental availability so that when buyers enter the market, your company is already top-of-mind. Research from Forrester found that 92% of B2B buyers start their search with at least one vendor already in mind — and 41% have a single preferred vendor before formal evaluation even begins. Brand campaigns help you become that vendor.
Spotify "Spreadbeats"
This campaign proved B2B advertising doesn't have to be boring. It featured an animated character coded entirely within Microsoft Excel, bouncing to music in a spreadsheet. It was a creative flex that resonated with media buyers who live in those cells. It won nine Cannes Lions in 2024, including the Digital Craft Grand Prix.
Shopify "Let's Make You a Business"
As Shopify's first integrated brand campaign, this one ran across TV, digital, out-of-home, and radio in 12 North American markets. Rather than leading with product features, it positioned Shopify as the catalyst that transforms side hustles into real businesses — owning the entrepreneurship narrative before competitors could claim it.
How to implement your brand campaign
Brand campaigns require sustained investment and are harder to measure short-term, so think outside the box. Original research, contrarian takes from internal subject-matter experts, and other thought leadership content can work just as well as paid creative. Three-quarters of decision-makers say thought leadership has prompted them to research products they hadn't previously considered. And that's what gets you on the shortlist.
ABM campaigns that convert named accounts
Account-based marketing (ABM) flips the funnel: instead of casting a wide net, you focus resources on accounts that actually matter. The best ABM campaigns pair firmographic data with personalization at scale.
Loom 1:1 LinkedIn ABM play
Loom targets top accounts with 100% personalized creative. According to Nick Lafferty, Loom's Head of Growth Marketing, account density is central to their go-to-market strategy. Hyper-personalized ads help them cut through crowded feeds and reach the specific buyers they care about most.
Palo Alto Networks buying group ABM
Palo Alto Networks restructured its lead management around identifying and targeting entire decision-making committees within target accounts. The results: 17% increase in closed-won rates, 2.3x larger deal sizes, and opportunities that moved through the pipeline 17x faster. This shift changed how they measured and won enterprise deals.
How to implement ABM at your company
The challenge of ABM is creating enough targeted content. In a recent ABM benchmarking study, only 51% of experienced ABM marketers could deliver custom content for each account. Tailoring to specific industries (64%) and account challenges (61%) are a bit easier. To make ABM work, focus on dynamic creative, modular landing pages, and tight CRM integration.
Demand gen campaigns that scale pipeline
Only about 5% of your target audience is ready to buy this quarter. Demand gen is how you stay top-of-mind for the other 95% long enough to remain on their shortlist when they are. The best demand gen campaigns feed the funnel consistently without requiring net-new creative every quarter. They're systems, not one-offs.
HubSpot free tools
HubSpot built a library of tools and trainings that attract inbound leads on autopilot. Take Website Grader, which analyzes any URL for performance, SEO, mobile-friendliness, and security. Users get actionable recommendations. HubSpot gets a qualified email address and a natural on-ramp to paid products — no ad spend required.
Zapier programmatic SEO
Zapier generates a landing page for every possible app integration. That’s 50,000+ pages targeting searches like “connect Gmail to Slack” or “sync Salesforce with Google Sheets.” The result: millions of monthly organic visits from actively interested buyers. Zapier leans on partners to create content for their pages, but AI could work too.
How to implement demand gen at your company
The common thread across these examples is building systems that generate leads without proportional effort. Free tools and systematic content are natural fits, but you could find success by amplifying other efforts with marketing incentives. Companies offering $50–100 gift cards for demo bookings see 3x higher booking rates and 81% lower cost per lead.
Referral and advocacy campaigns that turn customers into a channel
B2B referral programs don’t get the same attention as B2C ones, but the economics often work better. Deal sizes tend to be larger, sales cycles are longer, and trust carries more weight.
Salesforce Trailblazer Community
Salesforce's Marketing Champions program has recognized over 400 members across 33 countries since 2020. Members get early product access, networking opportunities, and public recognition in exchange for sharing expertise and driving adoption. It's structured advocacy that scales through community rather than ad spend.
Dropbox's "Life Inside Dropbox"
What started as an employer branding initiative — sharing employee stories and behind-the-scenes culture content — ended up improving overall brand perception by 19%. Employer branding that resonates tends to attract admiring customers too. Dropbox also runs a customer referral program that rewards both the referrer and the new customer with free additional storage.
How to implement referral and advocacy programs
What makes referral and advocacy campaigns work: genuine community and incentive structures that include monetary rewards, recognition, and exclusive access. You can create your B2B referral program in five steps and it doesn't require a massive budget to get started.
What these campaigns have in common
Whatever tactics you choose for your B2B marketing strategy, don’t get so swept away by clever creative that you forget the big picture. These examples all show that the best campaigns are built around specific growth goals and tied to metrics that can help you optimize and scale.
Ready to add incentives to your B2B marketing mix? Explore how Tremendous' marketing incentive solutions can help you drive pipeline.
