%20Market%20Research%20Report.jpg)
The GIS and geospatial data services market is having a bit of a glow-up. Not the flashy kind, but the kind that matters: buyers are treating location data less like “maps” and more like decision infrastructure. That shift is changing what marketing needs to do to earn attention and trust. It’s no longer enough to say your data is “high quality” or your platform is “powerful.” Teams want proof, clarity, and a short path to confidence.
Marketing in GIS is moving toward evidence-first storytelling. The strongest campaigns are built around measurable outcomes (fewer truck rolls, faster claims triage, better site selection, lower risk exposure), and they back those claims with details buyers can verify: data provenance, refresh cadence, coverage limitations, accuracy documentation, licensing terms, and security posture.
At the same time, budgets are tighter across B2B. Gartner reports marketing budgets fell to 7.7% of company revenue in 2024, down from 9.1% in 2023. That doesn’t mean teams stopped spending, it means every channel, every campaign, every tool has to justify itself faster. In practical terms: fewer “brand awareness” flights with fuzzy KPIs, more programs tied to pipeline, conversion rate, and expansion.
A quick reality check: truly GIS-only benchmark data (CPC, CAC, CVR by channel) is not widely published publicly. Most teams use a combination of (1) internal funnel benchmarks and (2) external B2B proxies to sanity-check spend.
Here are the external guardrails worth using while you build your own baselines:
How to use these without fooling yourself:
“GIS” gets used as a catch-all label, so TAM depends on which slice you mean: core GIS platforms, geospatial analytics, imagery/data services, location intelligence, or the broader “geospatial solutions” umbrella. For marketing planning, I like using a bracketed TAM so you don’t fool yourself with one magic number.
If you’re selling geospatial data services specifically (data-as-a-service, imagery, POI, parcel, mobility, risk layers), your serviceable market is smaller than that umbrella. But the big signal still holds: the category is growing fast enough to attract new entrants, which means differentiation and trust signals matter more every year.
At the sector level, the best public source in our set is the market forecast above (14.6% CAGR through 2030). (Grand View Research)
On the marketing side, it helps to zoom out to the ad economy your buyers live inside. U.S. internet advertising revenue has climbed sharply since 2020:
For more recent years:
Why you should care as a GIS marketer: even when your own budget is constrained, your buyers are getting hit with more digital touchpoints and more competing claims. You win by being clearer, not louder.
You can feel the shift in how B2B buyers want to buy, even when the final deal still goes through procurement and a contract redline marathon.
McKinsey’s B2B research describes the “rule of thirds”: at any given stage, about one-third of customers want in-person interactions, one-third prefer remote, and one-third want digital self-serve. They also report buyers use an average of ten interaction channels (up from five in 2016). (McKinsey & Company)
In GIS, that plays out in a very specific way:
Maturing, with saturated pockets.
The “maturing” label matters because it changes what wins:
If you market geospatial data services like you’re selling “a GIS tool,” you’ll feel constant friction. The people who buy this stuff aren’t shopping for maps. They’re shopping for confidence: confidence the data is accurate enough, current enough, legally usable, and safe enough to plug into workflows that carry real risk.
The most reliable way to define ICP in geospatial data services is to start with the decision that the buyer is trying to make, then work backward to the teams and industries who make that decision often, at high stakes, with recurring budgets.
High-propensity ICP clusters for geospatial data services
This sector is classic “multi-persona B2B.” You’re rarely convincing one hero buyer. You’re winning a small committee with different anxieties.
The recurring psychographic patterns you’ll see
The GIS buying journey is now truly mixed-mode, not because it’s trendy, but because buyers have preferences that split across interaction types. McKinsey describes the “rule of thirds”: at any stage, about one-third of customers want in-person interactions, one-third want remote, and one-third prefer digital self-serve. They also report B2B customers use an average of ten interaction channels in their buying journey (up from five in 2016). (McKinsey & Company)
In practical GIS terms, the journey tends to look like this:
What that means for you:
If those answers require a sales call just to get started, your conversion rate will suffer long before anyone can quantify why.
A quick truth before we jump in: GIS-specific CPC, conversion rate, and CAC benchmarks aren’t widely published in clean, public datasets. So for paid media, I’m using two things:
How to read CAC in this section
Example: if CPL is $66.69 and Lead→Customer is 5%, CAC ≈ $1,334.
Paid Search
Meta
SEO
GIS companies don’t have a “special” marketing stack as much as they have a normal B2B stack with two extra quirks:
A. CRM (system of record)
What GIS teams tend to use:
Why CRM choice matters more in GIS than many B2B categories
You’ll usually run longer cycles with buying groups, pilots, and procurement. Your CRM needs to handle multi-threading, partner-sourced deals, and stage definitions that reflect reality (pilot-start is often a better “truth metric” than MQL volume).
Market context for CRM adoption
HG Insights’ CRM market share reporting lists Salesforce, Zoho, and HubSpot as leading CRM platforms by number of installations (and notes spending concentration among larger enterprises). That’s a useful external signal for why Salesforce dominates enterprise environments while HubSpot shows up heavily in mid-market and growth-stage stacks. (hginsights.com)
B. Marketing automation and lifecycle (the conversion engine)
In GIS, marketing automation is less about blasting and more about acceleration:
Market context for marketing automation
Mordor Intelligence’s market analysis lists major marketing automation players including HubSpot, Adobe, Oracle (Eloqua), Acoustic, and Salesforce (Pardot/Marketing Cloud). (mordorintelligence.com)
If you need a directional “who has the most share” signal: The CMO’s 2024 write-up citing Datanyze data reports HubSpot as the largest share in marketing automation in 2024 (with other major platforms including Oracle, Adobe, ActiveCampaign, Salesforce, Marketo). Treat this as directional rather than absolute truth, but it matches what many practitioners see in the wild. (thecmo.com)
C. Analytics stack (pipeline + product + attribution)
For GIS data services, analytics usually splits into three layers:
Market context for product analytics
Mordor Intelligence’s product analytics market overview lists major companies in the space including Amplitude, Heap, Mixpanel, Pendo, and FullStory, and provides market growth estimates. (mordorintelligence.com)
What’s gaining (and why)
Practical takeaway: teams are consolidating around tools that reduce handoffs: one CRM, one MAP, one analytics spine, plus a small set of “must-have” specialists.
What’s losing (or at least getting questioned hard)
Why this matters for marketing: geo-enriched accounts and territories improve segmentation, routing, event targeting, and ABM relevance. It also helps sales follow-up feel less generic.
GIS buyers are skeptical by default. They have to be. Bad data can trigger bad decisions, and bad decisions get expensive fast. So the creative that wins in this sector does two things at once:
A. Hooks that consistently pull attention in GIS
What it sounds like:
Why it works: it frames geospatial data as a risk reducer, not a “cool map.”
What it sounds like:
This aligns with how B2B buyers want to buy. They want self-serve confidence, then human help when risk spikes. Gartner’s buying research has repeatedly pointed to this rep-free preference, but also warns about regret when self-serve has no guardrails. Your creative should feel like guided self-serve, not “talk to sales to learn the basics.” (PPC Land)
What it sounds like:
In GIS, a champion can love you, but procurement can still kill the deal. Creative that helps the champion look competent internally performs better than creative that only sounds exciting.
B. CTAs that convert better for geospatial data services
These CTAs work because they reduce perceived risk and effort:
What usually underperforms in GIS:
Short-form video is the big momentum format in B2B right now, and LinkedIn has been beating this drum hard. LinkedIn reports video consumption growth and calls short-form video a key trust builder, with creation growing quickly compared with other formats. (Social Media Today)
But here’s the nuance for GIS: short-form video works best when it is not “brand film.” It is proof in motion.
Best-performing GIS short-form video patterns
Video benchmarks worth keeping in mind
Wistia’s reporting shows engagement varies sharply by length, with average viewer watch rates dropping as videos get longer, and even short videos seeing engagement shifts year over year. This is why tight editing and a fast hook matters. (Chief Marketer, Wistia)
Carousels and document-style posts
For GIS, carousels (especially on LinkedIn) are basically “mini slide decks.” They perform when they teach:
UGC-style content (but make it B2B)
UGC in GIS does not need influencers dancing with maps. It looks like:
The goal is relatability and credibility, two things many B2B ads lack. LinkedIn and MAGNA’s controlled testing found that more creative B2B ads drove a 40% higher lift in purchase consideration, and decision-makers often complain B2B ads lack emotion, humor, and relatable characters. (IPG Media, EMARKETER)
If you want your messaging to land, anchor it to the buyer’s definition of “safe.”
B2B, including GIS, cannot live on rational claims alone
Google’s Think with Google and CEB work argues that B2B buyers are influenced by emotional drivers, even inside committee-driven procurement environments. The practical implication is simple: make them feel confident, then prove they should. (Google Business)
Now, how that translates by GIS sub-sector:
What buyers respond to:
Messaging angles:
What buyers respond to:
Messaging angles:
What buyers respond to:
Messaging angles:
A heads-up before we get into the fun part: most geospatial companies don’t publish full-funnel metrics (spend, CAC, win rate) publicly. When they do share results, it’s often top-of-funnel or ops metrics. So these case studies focus on what’s verifiable, and I’ll call out where numbers aren’t disclosed.
What it was
A targeted lead generation campaign combining personalized email outreach with LinkedIn engagement to reach decision-makers in industries where spatial analysis drives big operational gains. (leadgendept.com)
Goal
Book meaningful appointments with ICP accounts, not just collect leads. (leadgendept.com)
Channel mix
Results (published)
Why it worked (the repeatable mechanics)
What it was
A global rebrand push powered by a centralized brand hub and templates to scale content creation across regions, without bottlenecking on design reviews. (Canva)
Goal
Launch the rebrand and increase marketing output speed (without chaos).
Channel mix
This is more “campaign infrastructure” than a media campaign:
Results (published)
Why it worked (and why GIS teams should care)
What it was
An integrated campaign concept built around five priority use cases (location-based services, 3D immersive mapping, navigation, outdoor solutions, last-mile delivery), packaged with cohesive visual storytelling and a media plan spanning online and industry events. (Grafik)
Goal
Regain and expand market trust during/after a major organizational shift (splitting into Maxar Intelligence and Maxar Space), and clarify innovation to the enterprise geospatial community. (Grafik)
Channel mix
Results (published)
Why it worked (even without numbers)
If you’ve ever looked at a dashboard and thought, “Cool… but does this turn into pilots and renewals?” you’re not alone. GIS buying cycles are longer, riskier, and more committee-driven than most “normal” B2B SaaS. That means two things:
Below are credible benchmarks you can use as a baseline, plus how they usually show up in geospatial data services.
GIS marketing right now feels a bit like flying in changing weather. The destination is clear (buyers want defensible data and faster decisions), but the air gets choppier every quarter: privacy rules shift, ad costs wobble, and AI changes how people search, create, and evaluate vendors. The upside is that GIS has a built-in advantage: proof is concrete. You can show results, not just promise them.
What it looks like in the wild
GIS-specific implication: marketing claims have to be careful, and your security/licensing/consent story can’t be an afterthought. Buyers will ask, and sometimes legal will ask before the buyer does.
This isn’t just enablement. It’s conversion optimization for buying committees.
The opportunity is not “more content.” It’s faster learning cycles with tighter guardrails.
This section is built for decisions. Not vibes.
GIS marketing works best when you treat it like an evidence engine: every channel and tactic should push a buyer to the next piece of proof, the next stakeholder, the next decision. If it can’t do that, it’s either a brand play (fine) or a distraction (not fine). The goal is to build predictable decision progress.
Primary objective
Prove one repeatable acquisition wedge and one repeatable proof path to pilots.
What to do (playbook)
Where you put budget (typical)
Success metrics that matter
Primary objective
Scale demand capture while expanding buying-group reach and shortening cycle time.
What to do (playbook)
Where you put budget (typical)
A useful benchmark snapshot from Gartner’s CMO Spend Survey (mean share of digital budget) includes search 21.6%, social 14%, display 12%, SEO 11%, email 10%. Use it as a reference point, then shift based on your motion. (sublimeinternet-public-storage-production.s3.amazonaws.com)
Success metrics that matter
Primary objective
Increase win rate and expansion while protecting brand trust and compliance posture.
What to do (playbook)
Success metrics that matter
Channel 1: Paid Search (always-on demand capture)
Why it earns budget
Search is the closest thing to “people raising their hand.” WordStream’s 2024 Google Ads benchmarks show strong baseline CTR and CVR across accounts (again: not GIS-specific, but a defensible baseline). (wordstream.com)
How to win in GIS
Channel 2: SEO (the compounding moat)
Why it earns budget
Paid gets pricier. SEO builds an asset. Your “proof pages” and comparison content are a durable advantage because they’re hard to fake well.
What to ship
Channel 3: Email and lifecycle (conversion acceleration + expansion)
Why it earns budget
Unbounce’s benchmarking shows email can drive higher landing page conversion rates than other sources (their report cites email at 19.3% average LP conversion rate). (unbounce.com)
What to ship
Channel 4: LinkedIn (buying-group reach)
Why it earns budget
When your ICP is niche and senior, LinkedIn is often the cleanest targeting layer. Just don’t judge it by CPC. Judge it by meetings and stakeholder depth.
In GIS, honesty converts because risk is high.
This is where the GIS marketing story gets interesting. The next two years won’t be about finding “the next channel.” They’ll be about who adapts fastest to how buyers discover, validate, and defend decisions in a world where AI mediates attention and trust is harder to earn.
Below is a grounded forecast, stitched together from current platform signals, ad spend trends, and how GIS buying actually behaves.
What changes is how budgets are justified.
What we expect to see:
GIS implication
Paid media becomes sharper, not bigger. Teams that can’t tie spend to decision progress will see budgets capped or reallocated.
What we expect to see:
GIS implication
Because your data is specific, SEO is a moat if you do it right. AI summaries can’t replace a real coverage map or a licensing page written for legal review.
What we expect to see:
GIS implication
If your marketing stops at “deal closed,” you’ll leave a lot of money on the table.
What this means:
GIS implication
Your edge isn’t the number of tools you use. It’s how cleanly your CRM reflects reality (pilots, committees, renewals).
What we expect to see AI used for:
What will backfire:
GIS implication
AI helps you move faster, not sound smarter. Human judgment still matters because the stakes are high.
What changes:
GIS implication
Your site has to do real work. First impressions need to answer: coverage, accuracy, cadence, licensing, security.
What this looks like:
GIS implication
Marketing that helps champions survive internal review becomes a competitive advantage.
Gartner’s repeated guidance to B2B leaders emphasizes that buyers prefer rep-free research but still need human reassurance when decisions feel risky. That tension isn’t going away. (gartner.com)
MAGNA and LinkedIn’s research points to creative as a real growth lever in B2B, with emotionally resonant, relatable ads driving materially higher consideration lift. (ipg-wp-media-mgl-glb.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com)
IAB’s revenue data underscores that competition for attention isn’t easing. It’s accelerating. (iab.com)
Put together, the signal is clear:
The winners won’t be the loudest. They’ll be the clearest.
Because those are the metrics that actually predict revenue.
sclaimer: The information on this page is provided by Digital.Marketing for general informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, legal, tax, or professional advice, nor an offer or recommendation to buy or sell any security, instrument, or investment strategy. All content, including statistics, commentary, forecasts, and analyses, is generic in nature, may not be accurate, complete, or current, and should not be relied upon without consulting your own financial, legal, and tax advisers. Investing in financial services, fintech ventures, or related instruments involves significant risks—including market, liquidity, regulatory, business, and technology risks—and may result in the loss of principal. Digital.Marketing does not act as your broker, adviser, or fiduciary unless expressly agreed in writing, and assumes no liability for errors, omissions, or losses arising from use of this content. Any forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain and actual outcomes may differ materially. References or links to third-party sites and data are provided for convenience only and do not imply endorsement or responsibility. Access to this information may be restricted or prohibited in certain jurisdictions, and Digital.Marketing may modify or remove content at any time without notice.
%20Market%20Research%20Report.jpg)
The GIS and geospatial data services market is having a bit of a glow-up. Not the flashy kind, but the kind that matters: buyers are treating location data less like “maps” and more like decision infrastructure. That shift is changing what marketing needs to do to earn attention and trust. It’s no longer enough to say your data is “high quality” or your platform is “powerful.” Teams want proof, clarity, and a short path to confidence.
Marketing in GIS is moving toward evidence-first storytelling. The strongest campaigns are built around measurable outcomes (fewer truck rolls, faster claims triage, better site selection, lower risk exposure), and they back those claims with details buyers can verify: data provenance, refresh cadence, coverage limitations, accuracy documentation, licensing terms, and security posture.
At the same time, budgets are tighter across B2B. Gartner reports marketing budgets fell to 7.7% of company revenue in 2024, down from 9.1% in 2023. That doesn’t mean teams stopped spending, it means every channel, every campaign, every tool has to justify itself faster. In practical terms: fewer “brand awareness” flights with fuzzy KPIs, more programs tied to pipeline, conversion rate, and expansion.
A quick reality check: truly GIS-only benchmark data (CPC, CAC, CVR by channel) is not widely published publicly. Most teams use a combination of (1) internal funnel benchmarks and (2) external B2B proxies to sanity-check spend.
Here are the external guardrails worth using while you build your own baselines:
How to use these without fooling yourself:
“GIS” gets used as a catch-all label, so TAM depends on which slice you mean: core GIS platforms, geospatial analytics, imagery/data services, location intelligence, or the broader “geospatial solutions” umbrella. For marketing planning, I like using a bracketed TAM so you don’t fool yourself with one magic number.
If you’re selling geospatial data services specifically (data-as-a-service, imagery, POI, parcel, mobility, risk layers), your serviceable market is smaller than that umbrella. But the big signal still holds: the category is growing fast enough to attract new entrants, which means differentiation and trust signals matter more every year.
At the sector level, the best public source in our set is the market forecast above (14.6% CAGR through 2030). (Grand View Research)
On the marketing side, it helps to zoom out to the ad economy your buyers live inside. U.S. internet advertising revenue has climbed sharply since 2020:
For more recent years:
Why you should care as a GIS marketer: even when your own budget is constrained, your buyers are getting hit with more digital touchpoints and more competing claims. You win by being clearer, not louder.
You can feel the shift in how B2B buyers want to buy, even when the final deal still goes through procurement and a contract redline marathon.
McKinsey’s B2B research describes the “rule of thirds”: at any given stage, about one-third of customers want in-person interactions, one-third prefer remote, and one-third want digital self-serve. They also report buyers use an average of ten interaction channels (up from five in 2016). (McKinsey & Company)
In GIS, that plays out in a very specific way:
Maturing, with saturated pockets.
The “maturing” label matters because it changes what wins:
If you market geospatial data services like you’re selling “a GIS tool,” you’ll feel constant friction. The people who buy this stuff aren’t shopping for maps. They’re shopping for confidence: confidence the data is accurate enough, current enough, legally usable, and safe enough to plug into workflows that carry real risk.
The most reliable way to define ICP in geospatial data services is to start with the decision that the buyer is trying to make, then work backward to the teams and industries who make that decision often, at high stakes, with recurring budgets.
High-propensity ICP clusters for geospatial data services
This sector is classic “multi-persona B2B.” You’re rarely convincing one hero buyer. You’re winning a small committee with different anxieties.
The recurring psychographic patterns you’ll see
The GIS buying journey is now truly mixed-mode, not because it’s trendy, but because buyers have preferences that split across interaction types. McKinsey describes the “rule of thirds”: at any stage, about one-third of customers want in-person interactions, one-third want remote, and one-third prefer digital self-serve. They also report B2B customers use an average of ten interaction channels in their buying journey (up from five in 2016). (McKinsey & Company)
In practical GIS terms, the journey tends to look like this:
What that means for you:
If those answers require a sales call just to get started, your conversion rate will suffer long before anyone can quantify why.
A quick truth before we jump in: GIS-specific CPC, conversion rate, and CAC benchmarks aren’t widely published in clean, public datasets. So for paid media, I’m using two things:
How to read CAC in this section
Example: if CPL is $66.69 and Lead→Customer is 5%, CAC ≈ $1,334.
Paid Search
Meta
SEO
GIS companies don’t have a “special” marketing stack as much as they have a normal B2B stack with two extra quirks:
A. CRM (system of record)
What GIS teams tend to use:
Why CRM choice matters more in GIS than many B2B categories
You’ll usually run longer cycles with buying groups, pilots, and procurement. Your CRM needs to handle multi-threading, partner-sourced deals, and stage definitions that reflect reality (pilot-start is often a better “truth metric” than MQL volume).
Market context for CRM adoption
HG Insights’ CRM market share reporting lists Salesforce, Zoho, and HubSpot as leading CRM platforms by number of installations (and notes spending concentration among larger enterprises). That’s a useful external signal for why Salesforce dominates enterprise environments while HubSpot shows up heavily in mid-market and growth-stage stacks. (hginsights.com)
B. Marketing automation and lifecycle (the conversion engine)
In GIS, marketing automation is less about blasting and more about acceleration:
Market context for marketing automation
Mordor Intelligence’s market analysis lists major marketing automation players including HubSpot, Adobe, Oracle (Eloqua), Acoustic, and Salesforce (Pardot/Marketing Cloud). (mordorintelligence.com)
If you need a directional “who has the most share” signal: The CMO’s 2024 write-up citing Datanyze data reports HubSpot as the largest share in marketing automation in 2024 (with other major platforms including Oracle, Adobe, ActiveCampaign, Salesforce, Marketo). Treat this as directional rather than absolute truth, but it matches what many practitioners see in the wild. (thecmo.com)
C. Analytics stack (pipeline + product + attribution)
For GIS data services, analytics usually splits into three layers:
Market context for product analytics
Mordor Intelligence’s product analytics market overview lists major companies in the space including Amplitude, Heap, Mixpanel, Pendo, and FullStory, and provides market growth estimates. (mordorintelligence.com)
What’s gaining (and why)
Practical takeaway: teams are consolidating around tools that reduce handoffs: one CRM, one MAP, one analytics spine, plus a small set of “must-have” specialists.
What’s losing (or at least getting questioned hard)
Why this matters for marketing: geo-enriched accounts and territories improve segmentation, routing, event targeting, and ABM relevance. It also helps sales follow-up feel less generic.
GIS buyers are skeptical by default. They have to be. Bad data can trigger bad decisions, and bad decisions get expensive fast. So the creative that wins in this sector does two things at once:
A. Hooks that consistently pull attention in GIS
What it sounds like:
Why it works: it frames geospatial data as a risk reducer, not a “cool map.”
What it sounds like:
This aligns with how B2B buyers want to buy. They want self-serve confidence, then human help when risk spikes. Gartner’s buying research has repeatedly pointed to this rep-free preference, but also warns about regret when self-serve has no guardrails. Your creative should feel like guided self-serve, not “talk to sales to learn the basics.” (PPC Land)
What it sounds like:
In GIS, a champion can love you, but procurement can still kill the deal. Creative that helps the champion look competent internally performs better than creative that only sounds exciting.
B. CTAs that convert better for geospatial data services
These CTAs work because they reduce perceived risk and effort:
What usually underperforms in GIS:
Short-form video is the big momentum format in B2B right now, and LinkedIn has been beating this drum hard. LinkedIn reports video consumption growth and calls short-form video a key trust builder, with creation growing quickly compared with other formats. (Social Media Today)
But here’s the nuance for GIS: short-form video works best when it is not “brand film.” It is proof in motion.
Best-performing GIS short-form video patterns
Video benchmarks worth keeping in mind
Wistia’s reporting shows engagement varies sharply by length, with average viewer watch rates dropping as videos get longer, and even short videos seeing engagement shifts year over year. This is why tight editing and a fast hook matters. (Chief Marketer, Wistia)
Carousels and document-style posts
For GIS, carousels (especially on LinkedIn) are basically “mini slide decks.” They perform when they teach:
UGC-style content (but make it B2B)
UGC in GIS does not need influencers dancing with maps. It looks like:
The goal is relatability and credibility, two things many B2B ads lack. LinkedIn and MAGNA’s controlled testing found that more creative B2B ads drove a 40% higher lift in purchase consideration, and decision-makers often complain B2B ads lack emotion, humor, and relatable characters. (IPG Media, EMARKETER)
If you want your messaging to land, anchor it to the buyer’s definition of “safe.”
B2B, including GIS, cannot live on rational claims alone
Google’s Think with Google and CEB work argues that B2B buyers are influenced by emotional drivers, even inside committee-driven procurement environments. The practical implication is simple: make them feel confident, then prove they should. (Google Business)
Now, how that translates by GIS sub-sector:
What buyers respond to:
Messaging angles:
What buyers respond to:
Messaging angles:
What buyers respond to:
Messaging angles:
A heads-up before we get into the fun part: most geospatial companies don’t publish full-funnel metrics (spend, CAC, win rate) publicly. When they do share results, it’s often top-of-funnel or ops metrics. So these case studies focus on what’s verifiable, and I’ll call out where numbers aren’t disclosed.
What it was
A targeted lead generation campaign combining personalized email outreach with LinkedIn engagement to reach decision-makers in industries where spatial analysis drives big operational gains. (leadgendept.com)
Goal
Book meaningful appointments with ICP accounts, not just collect leads. (leadgendept.com)
Channel mix
Results (published)
Why it worked (the repeatable mechanics)
What it was
A global rebrand push powered by a centralized brand hub and templates to scale content creation across regions, without bottlenecking on design reviews. (Canva)
Goal
Launch the rebrand and increase marketing output speed (without chaos).
Channel mix
This is more “campaign infrastructure” than a media campaign:
Results (published)
Why it worked (and why GIS teams should care)
What it was
An integrated campaign concept built around five priority use cases (location-based services, 3D immersive mapping, navigation, outdoor solutions, last-mile delivery), packaged with cohesive visual storytelling and a media plan spanning online and industry events. (Grafik)
Goal
Regain and expand market trust during/after a major organizational shift (splitting into Maxar Intelligence and Maxar Space), and clarify innovation to the enterprise geospatial community. (Grafik)
Channel mix
Results (published)
Why it worked (even without numbers)
If you’ve ever looked at a dashboard and thought, “Cool… but does this turn into pilots and renewals?” you’re not alone. GIS buying cycles are longer, riskier, and more committee-driven than most “normal” B2B SaaS. That means two things:
Below are credible benchmarks you can use as a baseline, plus how they usually show up in geospatial data services.
GIS marketing right now feels a bit like flying in changing weather. The destination is clear (buyers want defensible data and faster decisions), but the air gets choppier every quarter: privacy rules shift, ad costs wobble, and AI changes how people search, create, and evaluate vendors. The upside is that GIS has a built-in advantage: proof is concrete. You can show results, not just promise them.
What it looks like in the wild
GIS-specific implication: marketing claims have to be careful, and your security/licensing/consent story can’t be an afterthought. Buyers will ask, and sometimes legal will ask before the buyer does.
This isn’t just enablement. It’s conversion optimization for buying committees.
The opportunity is not “more content.” It’s faster learning cycles with tighter guardrails.
This section is built for decisions. Not vibes.
GIS marketing works best when you treat it like an evidence engine: every channel and tactic should push a buyer to the next piece of proof, the next stakeholder, the next decision. If it can’t do that, it’s either a brand play (fine) or a distraction (not fine). The goal is to build predictable decision progress.
Primary objective
Prove one repeatable acquisition wedge and one repeatable proof path to pilots.
What to do (playbook)
Where you put budget (typical)
Success metrics that matter
Primary objective
Scale demand capture while expanding buying-group reach and shortening cycle time.
What to do (playbook)
Where you put budget (typical)
A useful benchmark snapshot from Gartner’s CMO Spend Survey (mean share of digital budget) includes search 21.6%, social 14%, display 12%, SEO 11%, email 10%. Use it as a reference point, then shift based on your motion. (sublimeinternet-public-storage-production.s3.amazonaws.com)
Success metrics that matter
Primary objective
Increase win rate and expansion while protecting brand trust and compliance posture.
What to do (playbook)
Success metrics that matter
Channel 1: Paid Search (always-on demand capture)
Why it earns budget
Search is the closest thing to “people raising their hand.” WordStream’s 2024 Google Ads benchmarks show strong baseline CTR and CVR across accounts (again: not GIS-specific, but a defensible baseline). (wordstream.com)
How to win in GIS
Channel 2: SEO (the compounding moat)
Why it earns budget
Paid gets pricier. SEO builds an asset. Your “proof pages” and comparison content are a durable advantage because they’re hard to fake well.
What to ship
Channel 3: Email and lifecycle (conversion acceleration + expansion)
Why it earns budget
Unbounce’s benchmarking shows email can drive higher landing page conversion rates than other sources (their report cites email at 19.3% average LP conversion rate). (unbounce.com)
What to ship
Channel 4: LinkedIn (buying-group reach)
Why it earns budget
When your ICP is niche and senior, LinkedIn is often the cleanest targeting layer. Just don’t judge it by CPC. Judge it by meetings and stakeholder depth.
In GIS, honesty converts because risk is high.
This is where the GIS marketing story gets interesting. The next two years won’t be about finding “the next channel.” They’ll be about who adapts fastest to how buyers discover, validate, and defend decisions in a world where AI mediates attention and trust is harder to earn.
Below is a grounded forecast, stitched together from current platform signals, ad spend trends, and how GIS buying actually behaves.
What changes is how budgets are justified.
What we expect to see:
GIS implication
Paid media becomes sharper, not bigger. Teams that can’t tie spend to decision progress will see budgets capped or reallocated.
What we expect to see:
GIS implication
Because your data is specific, SEO is a moat if you do it right. AI summaries can’t replace a real coverage map or a licensing page written for legal review.
What we expect to see:
GIS implication
If your marketing stops at “deal closed,” you’ll leave a lot of money on the table.
What this means:
GIS implication
Your edge isn’t the number of tools you use. It’s how cleanly your CRM reflects reality (pilots, committees, renewals).
What we expect to see AI used for:
What will backfire:
GIS implication
AI helps you move faster, not sound smarter. Human judgment still matters because the stakes are high.
What changes:
GIS implication
Your site has to do real work. First impressions need to answer: coverage, accuracy, cadence, licensing, security.
What this looks like:
GIS implication
Marketing that helps champions survive internal review becomes a competitive advantage.
Gartner’s repeated guidance to B2B leaders emphasizes that buyers prefer rep-free research but still need human reassurance when decisions feel risky. That tension isn’t going away. (gartner.com)
MAGNA and LinkedIn’s research points to creative as a real growth lever in B2B, with emotionally resonant, relatable ads driving materially higher consideration lift. (ipg-wp-media-mgl-glb.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com)
IAB’s revenue data underscores that competition for attention isn’t easing. It’s accelerating. (iab.com)
Put together, the signal is clear:
The winners won’t be the loudest. They’ll be the clearest.
Because those are the metrics that actually predict revenue.
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