A report from Dreamdata, the B2B Activation and Attribution platform, has found that today’s customer journeys take an average of 211 days and 76 touches before a purchase - underlining the increasing complexity of today’s buying decisions, and placing lead nurturing and social strategy in the spotlight.
Key findings include:
- The typical B2B customer journey now involves 6.8 buyer stakeholders across an average of 3.7 channels, with 76 touches needed to drive a purchase.
- Large companies’ customer journeys are 49% longer than the standard. Interestingly, the bottleneck happens before sales gets involved, with over three months between marketing leads and sales. This shows that marketing teams need to focus on nurturing leads and moving them toward buying readiness.
- Buyers are busy, taking 62 sessions on average to reach a decision, highlighting that collecting a lead is just the beginning - marketing teams must sustain engagement and guide prospects continuously.
For marketers, the message is clear: capturing a lead is just the start. Today’s buyers are busy and multi-stakeholder, taking an average of 62 sessions across 3 to 4 channels to reach a decision. Sustained engagement across these channels and stakeholders is what drives real results.
On LinkedIn, that journey plays out over the long term - taking an average of 320 days from a first ad impression to revenue. Crucially, the timeline shortens as buyer intent deepens at 235 days from first engagement and just 219 days from a first conversion.
The report also revealed that LinkedIn leads the way as the only major digital ad platform delivering a positive return on investment, delivering 113% ROAS (return on ad spend), compared to 78% for Google Search and 29% for Meta.
Steffen Hedebrandt, CMO of Dreamdata, said: “B2B buying isn’t slowing down - it’s multiplying in complexity. Our data shows journeys stretching across months, with dozens of touchpoints, multiple stakeholders, and activity spread across several channels. This means marketing teams now play a bigger role than ever, nurturing leads long before sales enter the picture. It’s increasingly clear that success depends on understanding and orchestrating the full journey, not just isolated interactions. Those who invest in mapping these journeys and maintaining consistent, personalised engagement will stay ahead as buying cycles grow longer and decision-making grows more distributed.”
About the report
The Dreamdata LinkedIn Ads Benchmarks Report 2025 is based on anonymized, aggregated data from thousands of B2B companies using Dreamdata’s platform. The insights include spend distribution, cost benchmarks, ROI analysis, pipeline influence, and customer journey metrics. All ROAS figures are calculated using Dreamdata’s proprietary data-driven attribution model, applied to closed-won deals over a 12-month window.
To download the report, visit: https://dreamdata.io/linkedin-ads-b2b-benchmarks
About Dreamdata
Dreamdata is a B2B Activation & Attribution Platform that provides the most complete B2B customer journey map anywhere, empowering marketers to build and activate precise audiences, leverage AI signals, and measure what truly drives revenue.
Dreamdata is an official LinkedIn Marketing Partner.
Learn more at: dreamdata.io
Media Contact
Resonance PR