Industrial purchases aren’t impulse decisions. A facility manager evaluating ventilation equipment or a procurement team sourcing commercial doors is going through a 3-to-6-month process involving multiple stakeholders. If your ads and your website don’t match that journey, you’re paying to lose. We do the research that closes that gap.
Research works best alongside paid. See our paid media services →
Generic buyer persona templates don’t account for the difference between a residential purchase and a six-figure industrial equipment decision. We build research products specifically for the way industrial and commercial buyers actually evaluate, compare, and purchase: by specification, application fit, vendor reputation, and sales team interaction. The output is practical. Not a slide deck that sits in a drawer, but a document your marketing and sales teams can use to align on who they’re targeting and why.
We start with what you already know: your best customers, the questions your sales team hears most, and what your web and ad analytics show about search behavior and drop-off. No unnecessary interviews. We use what exists before commissioning new research.
A written profile of each key buyer type, built around how industrial buyers actually decide: job title, decision authority, technical requirements, vendor evaluation criteria, and timeline. Not stock photography with a fake name.
A stage-by-stage map of how your buyer moves from "I have a problem" to "I'm requesting a quote." We look at where they search, what they read, who they talk to, and what objections slow them down. This tells us where to run ads and what those ads need to say.
We take your target buyer through your website and identify the gaps between what they're looking for and what your site actually delivers. The output is a prioritized list of fixes with a direct line to conversion improvement.
We ran this buyer research process with a client before restructuring their paid media account. The research surfaced who their buyers were, how those buyers searched, and where the existing campaigns and content were failing to meet them. Everything that followed was built on that foundation.
Paid-influenced revenue growth on 21% less spend
Blended paid ROAS, year over year
Blended customer acquisition cost
Results are full-year 2024 vs. 2025 across Google Ads, Bing Ads, and Meta, per HubSpot CRM and platform reports. The buyer research informed the restructure strategy. The restructure and the creative unlock that followed drove the outcomes. Full methodology in the case study.
Most manufacturers run ads before they’ve answered the basic questions: who is deciding, what are they comparing, and what objection is keeping them from contacting sales? Research answers those questions first. We run it as a standalone engagement or as the starting point for a paid media program.
This is a fit if:
Typically four to six weeks for a standard engagement covering personas, buyer’s journey, and user story. If additional primary research is needed, such as customer interviews or surveys, add two to four weeks. We’ll tell you upfront what’s required based on your starting point.
No. We run buyer research as a standalone engagement. That said, clients who do the research first typically get more out of their paid programs faster. If you’re running paid with another agency, the research output is still useful for targeting and creative decisions.
Documented buyer personas for each key customer type, a stage-by-stage buyer’s journey map, and a user story audit of your website with a prioritized improvement list. These are working documents, not presentation decks. We build them to be used by your marketing and sales teams, not filed away.
Sometimes. The research often surfaces buyer segments that are under-targeted or entirely missed. That’s useful input for both your ad targeting and your sales team’s outreach priorities. We’ll flag what we find and let you decide what to act on.
Our focus is industrial and commercial manufacturers. If you sell direct to consumers as well as through commercial channels, we can discuss what makes sense. Consumer-only research is a different discipline and not our primary area.
We’ll tell you what we find and what it means for your ads and your website. No commitment required to see the research scope.