Search budgets shift to social and CTV as B2B targeting enters new precision era

Chris Modzelewski, EVP of Ad Solutions and Data Monetization at Intentsify, outlined three major shifts expected to reshape business-to-business advertising during 2026 in comments dated December 10, 2025. The predictions arrive as marketing professionals confront performance pressure replacing the artificial intelligence hype cycle that dominated 2024 and early 2025.

Generative AI tools are placing search under sustained pressure. Search dollars have started shifting to alternative digital channels, according to Modzelewski. "Search is under pressure from generative AI, and search dollars are starting to shift to other digital channels," Modzelewski stated. "Notably, paid social, audio, CTV and digital out of home."

The migration reflects fundamental changes in how consumers and business buyers discover information online. LoopMe research published December 11, 2025 found consumers are twice as likely to use generative AI for search in the United States and United Kingdom, while the likelihood nearly triples in Australia. The shift reduces traditional search engine usage and web browsing time as users obtain information directly from AI tools without navigating through multiple web pages.

Video channels will continue their convergence over longer timeframes, according to Modzelewski's forecast. Linear television, over-the-top streaming, connected TV, and online video will add further channels to the B2B marketer's toolkit. This convergence trend has accelerated throughout 2025 as platforms expand their advertising infrastructure to accommodate business-focused campaigns.

MNTN partnered with ZoomInfo in July 2025 to bring B2B advertising to connected TV, providing access to 100 million decision-makers within ZoomInfo's platform. The partnership demonstrated industry-wide recognition that streaming television represents a significant opportunity for reaching business buyers. Research from LinkedIn and MAGNA Media Trials revealed that 98% of LinkedIn users watch CTV content weekly, compared to 83% who watch linear television.

The second major shift involves B2B targeting becoming substantially more sophisticated. "The theme here is to basically bring the kinds of audience targeting techniques and data that the B2C world takes for granted into the B2B space," Modzelewski explained. The advancement primarily focuses on enabling B2B advertisers to leverage solution-level intent and buying group targeting throughout their campaigns.

This targeting sophistication applies across the entire B2B funnel, using targeting to build awareness where needed and drive conversion engagement where appropriate. The prediction aligns with infrastructure developments across the advertising technology ecosystem throughout 2025.

Bombora launched Curated Ecosystem Audiences in October 2025, partnering with Crunchbase, Definitive Healthcare, G2, and HG Insights to transform proprietary B2B data signals into addressable audience segments. The system converts specialized platform data into actionable audience segments for digital advertising campaigns, addressing a persistent challenge in B2B marketing around translating specialized data into scalable advertising audiences.

Bombora audiences reached Reddit's 116 million daily users in December 2025, making the B2B data provider's company-level audience targeting capabilities available on the social platform. Advertisers gained access to hundreds of prebuilt firmographic and behavioral segments designed for B2B marketing objectives. The company offers 6,300 B2B attributes that can be combined to create custom audiences tailored to specific targeting requirements.

Intuit's SMB MediaLabs audiences arrived on The Trade Desk platform in November 2025, providing advertisers with access to aggregated, de-identified insights from QuickBooks, TurboTax, Credit Karma, and Mailchimp. Small businesses constitute 99% of companies in the United States, making this audience segment valuable despite historically fragmented and outdated third-party data limiting accurate targeting.

The targeting advancements extend to account-based marketing approaches where companies focus on entire target organizations rather than individual prospects. Adobe released AI agents in October 2025 targeting B2B sales and marketing workflows, designed to streamline complex purchasing cycles through automated audience building and journey orchestration.

B2B buyers typically make purchase decisions through committee structures, bringing varied perspectives to consensus while navigating supplier sales processes and internal procurement procedures. Identifying decision makers who collectively authorize large purchases presents a persistent challenge for marketing and sales teams that new targeting capabilities aim to address.

The buying complexity continues expanding. Dreamdata's LinkedIn Ads Benchmarks Report released in September 2025 found B2B customer journeys span 211 days with 76 touches across 6.8 stakeholders and 3.7 channels before purchase completion. Marketing teams now maintain responsibility for nurturing leads through extended periods before sales engagement begins, requiring orchestration across multiple touchpoints.

The third prediction involves AI tools facing a reality check during 2026. "This primarily boils down to chatbot-enabled exploration of data and performance, but not yet to the level of agentic orchestration of campaigns," Modzelewski stated. "Lots of promise, but it's still early in the traditional hype cycle, which means it's not yet truly in practitioners' hands."

The assessment reflects growing skepticism about artificial intelligence capabilities after a period of aggressive marketing claims throughout 2024 and early 2025. While AI-powered tools have demonstrated value for specific use cases, the industry has not yet delivered on promises of fully autonomous campaign management.

Chatbot-enabled exploration represents the primary near-term application. Marketing professionals can query campaign performance data, analyze trends, and generate insights through conversational interfaces. These capabilities streamline routine analytical tasks without requiring extensive technical expertise or manual report building.

The gap between current capabilities and agentic orchestration remains substantial. Agentic AI refers to systems that can independently make strategic decisions, adjust campaign parameters, allocate budgets across channels, and optimize toward business objectives without human intervention. Such systems require sophisticated understanding of business context, competitive dynamics, and nuanced performance tradeoffs that current technology cannot reliably deliver.

Amazon introduced agentic AI capabilities across its seller platform in December 2025, but positioned the system as monitoring accounts, optimizing inventory, and managing advertising campaigns while maintaining seller control over strategic decisions. The implementation demonstrates how major platforms approach AI automation by preserving human oversight for critical decisions.

The cautious assessment aligns with broader industry findings about AI implementation challenges. McKinsey research from November 2025 revealed that while 88% of organizations report regular AI use in at least one business function, only approximately one-third have begun scaling AI programs across the enterprise.

Practitioners need time to evaluate AI tools in production environments before widespread adoption occurs. Early adopters must navigate integration challenges, train teams on new workflows, and validate that AI-generated recommendations align with business objectives. This maturation process typically takes longer than vendor marketing cycles suggest.

The predictions arrive during a period of significant infrastructure consolidation across the B2B advertising ecosystem. AdRoll unified its brand with AI assistant launch in August 2025, eliminating RollWorks complexity by creating two core product offerings under the AdRoll umbrella: a multi-channel advertising product for cross-industry marketers and a specialized B2B account-based marketing solution.

Budget allocation trends demonstrate LinkedIn's growing dominance in B2B advertising. B2B marketers allocated 39% of their advertising budgets to LinkedIn Ads by the end of 2024, according to Dreamdata's analysis of 23 million sessions and over 220,000 customer journeys. The comprehensive data demonstrates LinkedIn's 113% return on ad spend, positioning it as the largest single ad platform by expenditure when Google's various networks are examined separately.

The data suggests a fundamental shift in B2B advertising budget allocation toward platforms offering professional targeting and measurement capabilities. LinkedIn's performance metrics combined with growing budget share indicates strong advertiser confidence in the platform's B2B effectiveness.

Trust emerged as the dominant business strategy in B2B marketing during 2025, with 94% of marketing professionals agreeing that building trust represents the most important factor for achieving B2B brand success. Research from LinkedIn and Ipsos found 78% of B2B marketers currently use video in their marketing efforts, with 56% planning to increase usage. Short-form social video content leads performance metrics, generating 41% ROI according to survey responses.

Platform developments throughout 2025 reflected increased attention to B2B advertiser needs. Reddit launched interactive ads in November, providing custom engagement experiences within the feed. Optimization scoring and AI-powered recommendations became available in July, automating campaign performance analysis. The platform reaches 61% of business decision-makers according to Comscore data from June 2025.

The advertising technology ecosystem has demonstrated sustained interest in B2B audience solutions throughout 2025. These partnerships reflect growing recognition that B2B audiences require specialized data sources and targeting capabilities distinct from consumer advertising approaches.

Measurement frameworks continue adapting to changing consumer behavior patterns. IAB Australia research released in December 2025 found instant answers are reshaping search measurement frameworks as zero-click search becomes more prevalent. Publishers and advertisers must adapt to new measurement paradigms as generative AI compresses multi-step discovery journeys into concise, high-intent interactions.

Intentsify, where Modzelewski serves as EVP of Ad Solutions and Data Monetization, was founded in 2018 and employs between 51 and 200 people. The company is headquartered in Westwood, Massachusetts. According to the company's profile, Intentsify empowers B2B marketers to turn buying signals into pipeline by enhancing conversions among decision makers at priority accounts throughout their buying journey.

The company combines an unrivaled portfolio of data sources and an industry-leading media ecosystem, enabling integrated, signal-based marketing programs for revenue acceleration. Intentsify's specialties include intent data, buyer intent, marketing technology, digital display, B2B marketing, B2B sales, demand generation, account-based marketing, digital marketing, and content syndication.

Modzelewski brings extensive experience across the advertising technology and market research industries. He previously served as SVP of Dynata Solutions and SVP Head of Product at Dynata. His career includes leadership positions at companies across the technology sector, with expertise in product management, mergers and acquisitions, and business analysis.

The predictions for 2026 reflect broader patterns across the advertising industry as platforms, data providers, and technology vendors respond to changing buyer behavior and regulatory pressures. Privacy regulations continue shaping targeting capabilities across digital channels, while measurement standards adapt to accommodate new interaction patterns enabled by AI-powered interfaces.

European regulators identified gatekeepers' AI advantages in data and infrastructure access through analysis released in December 2025. According to the European Commission, when gatekeepers embed AI technologies into core platform services, this may have implications for content providers on the Internet particularly regarding their traffic volume and visibility.

The regulatory attention extends to content usage for AI-generated search features. The Commission noted that Google may have used web publisher content to provide AI Overviews and AI Mode on search results pages without appropriate compensation to publishers and without offering them the possibility to refuse such use of their content.

Google launched Gemini 3 with generative UI for dynamic search experiences in November 2025, introducing the capability through AI Mode in Google Search for subscribers of Google AI Pro and Ultra plans in the United States. The generative UI implementation uses custom simulations and interactive tools generated specifically for individual queries.

These platform developments demonstrate how major technology companies are reshaping search experiences through AI integration, creating the pressure on traditional search that Modzelewski's predictions address. The shift has implications for how B2B marketers structure their channel strategies and budget allocations across paid media investments.

Programmatic infrastructure continues expanding into emerging channels. PubMatic partnered with Kontext for AI chatbot advertising in December 2024, establishing real-time ad generation frameworks for conversational interfaces. The partnership operates within PubMatic's programmatic advertising infrastructure, extending to Kontext's network of AI-powered publishers including AI search engines, entertainment applications with virtual AI characters, social chat platforms, customer support bots, and sales applications.

Consumer interactions are shifting toward generative AI-powered experiences, with more than one billion people now using AI tools each month worldwide. This behavioral change creates monetization challenges for publishers and new advertising opportunities for brands seeking to reach consumers during high-intent moments when they are actively asking questions, comparing options, or making decisions.

The predictions outlined by Modzelewski provide marketing professionals with a framework for evaluating channel strategies and technology investments as the industry transitions from AI hype to performance pressure. The emphasis on targeting sophistication and measured AI adoption reflects lessons learned from rapid technology deployments that did not always deliver promised results.

Timeline

• July 2025: MNTN partners with ZoomInfo to bring B2B advertising to connected TV, providing access to 100 million decision-makers
• August 2025: AdRoll unifies brand with AI assistant launch, eliminating RollWorks complexity with streamlined platform structure
• September 2025: LinkedIn ads deliver 113% ROAS as B2B marketers increase platform investment to 39% of total advertising budgets
• October 2025: Bombora launches curated ecosystem audiences with premier B2B partners including Crunchbase, G2, Definitive Healthcare, HG Insights
• October 2025: Adobe releases AI agents targeting B2B sales and marketing workflows for automated audience building and journey orchestration
• November 2025: Intuit SMB audiences arrive on The Trade Desk platform providing access to verified small business decision-makers
• December 2025: Bombora audiences reach Reddit's 116 million daily users for B2B targeting with 19,000 intent-based segments
• December 2025: Your search habits are changing and mobile gaming is reaping the rewards as consumers are 2-3x more likely to use GenAI than search engines
• December 10, 2025: Chris Modzelewski, EVP of Ad Solutions and Data Monetization at Intentsify, outlines three major shifts expected to reshape B2B advertising during 2026

Summary

Who: Chris Modzelewski, EVP of Ad Solutions and Data Monetization at Intentsify, a B2B intent data and advertising technology company headquartered in Westwood, Massachusetts. Modzelewski previously served in leadership positions at Dynata and brings 25 years of experience across advertising technology, media research, and technology industries.

What: Modzelewski outlined three major shifts expected to reshape B2B advertising during 2026: search budgets shifting to paid social, audio, CTV, and digital out of home as generative AI places pressure on traditional search; B2B targeting becoming more sophisticated through solution-level intent and buying group targeting capabilities; and AI tools facing a reality check with capabilities limited to chatbot-enabled data exploration rather than full agentic campaign orchestration.

When: The predictions were communicated on December 10, 2025, through a media relations representative. The timeline projects these trends will materialize throughout 2026 as AI hype gives way to real performance pressure and marketers demand measurable results from technology investments.

Where: The predictions apply to B2B advertising markets globally, with particular relevance to United States, United Kingdom, and Australian markets where generative AI adoption has accelerated most rapidly. The trends affect advertising across paid social platforms, streaming television, audio channels, and digital out of home environments where B2B marketers are reallocating budgets from traditional search.

Why: The shifts reflect fundamental changes in how business buyers discover information online, with generative AI tools reducing traditional search engine usage. Marketing professionals face performance pressure to demonstrate return on investment, requiring more sophisticated targeting capabilities that identify decision makers within buying groups. The AI reality check emerges from recognition that current technology cannot yet deliver on promises of fully autonomous campaign management, requiring practitioners to evaluate tools carefully before scaling deployment across organizations.