Anonymous website visitors are the most significant untapped opportunity for B2B Revenue teams to generate pipeline and revenue efficiently.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of B2B Marketers and Sales reps today are blind to this visitor traffic and oblivious to these missed revenue opportunities.

Limited by conventional thinking regarding leads and intent, and unaware of emerging identity resolution capabilities, most B2B Revenue teams are missing opportunities hiding in plain sight.

Ironically, this revenue leakage is occurring as VCs and Boards are mandating that Marketing and Sales do more with less and find more efficient ways to grow revenue.

As B2B organizations face the sober reality that their once reliable GTM playbooks no longer work, forward-thinking Revenue leaders are rethinking their GTM strategies and embracing first-party data identity resolution.

Anonymous Visitor Traffic: Myths To Debunk

Before addressing how first-party identity resolution creates net new revenue opportunities in a highly cost-efficient way, let’s first debunk some of the most common misconceptions about anonymous website visitors.

Myth 1: Anonymous traffic has no inherent value

On average, over 95% of B2B website visitors are anonymous.

Why?  Because until recently, the only way to acquire first-party data from a visitor has been via an opt-in form fill.

Typically less than 3% of visitors complete a form asking to speak with Sales.  Sales generally values these self-identifying visitors; they assume the prospect has “high intent” and is looking to buy.

Another 1%-2% of visitors self-identify by downloading gated content or registering for an event.  However, B2B organizations typically view these actions as “low intent” signals and overlook them.

For the remaining 95%+ of website traffic that remains anonymous, conventional wisdom is that these visitors have no value.

But think about it.  These anonymous website visits are not random events.  In the vast universe that is the Internet, virtually every visitor to your website arrives with a specific purpose or intent.

Sure, a percentage of these visitors are vendors, job applicants, investors, or bots - i.e. visitors who have no intent to purchase.

But the vast majority of your anonymous traffic arrived to educate themselves on a topic, research your solution, and/or learn about your company.

Many of these visitors arrived by clicking on a Marketing email, or via a paid marketing campaign.  Some came to your website through organic search.  Others were referred to you via a review site or word of mouth.

Our experience de-anonymizing site traffic for customers confirms that a good number of these visitors previously engaged with Salesall notes and email exchanges exist in the CRM.

Believing the “simple reality” that all these anonymous website visitors have no value because they didn’t complete a form is naive at best, self-sabotaging at worst.

TL;DR - Your anonymous first-party visitor traffic is far warmer and more valuable than any third-party data you’ve obtained because they’re demonstrating familiarity with your brand and solution.

Myth 2: Anonymous visitors aren’t ready to buy

Building on the previous myth, a common misconception holds that since these anonymous visitors haven’t completed a form asking to speak with Sales, they must not be ready to buy.

B2B Buyers are more empowered than ever before.  B2B Buyers prefer to conduct their own online research and gather knowledge from review sites and peer groups well before speaking with Sales. According to Gartner Research, approximately 70% of the buying journey is complete before a prospect proactively asks to speak with Sales.

Is it not likely then that your anonymous traffic consists of Buyers performing self-guided research on your website?  Wouldn’t your Sales reps benefit from identifying these anonymous visitors so they can help guide the prospect toward your solution?

TL;DR - A healthy amount of your anonymous visitor traffic is in a buying cycle performing self-guided research.  Identify these visitors early.  Help guide them towards your solution.  You’ll uncover opportunities you’re currently missing.

Myth 3: Investing in de-anonymizing traffic is a waste of resources

Another misconception is that there’s no clear ROI in investing time and effort trying to identify visitors who engage on your website.

 SaaS metrics, in Q3 of 2023, the median GTM Spend ratio for public company B2B SaaS organizations was $2.64.  In other words, B2B Marketing and Sales teams spent $2.64 to earn one dollar of revenue.  More troubling, this ratio was $1.50 two years earlier and has been on an upward trajectory ever since.

The mandate from VCs and Boards to “do more with less” and operate more efficiently is precisely why focusing on converting your anonymous website traffic into valuable first-party data and insights is necessary.

Your GTM Spend ratio includes the money Marketing spent creating content, implementing paid campaigns, and maintaining the website.  These investments result in valuable website visitors, yet most B2B organizations today are ignoring 95% of this traffic.

TL;DR - B2B Revenue teams can realize improved ROI and GTM efficiencies by  de-anonymizing visitors and extracting more value (i.e. revenue) from the investments they’re making in generating website traffic and engagement.

Myth 4: Third-party data is the only way to de-anonymize visitors

Another popular misconception is that the only way to obtain valuable first-party data from your website traffic is to invest in third-party data capabilities.

This false notion argues that third-party data sources enable you to target accounts showing intent somewhere in the “dark funnel.” According to this logic, your third-party retargeting efforts will drive individual Buyers to your website where they’ll self-identify via a form fill.

While there’s merit in utilizing third-party data to reach Buyers who aren’t currently engaging with you, this argument requires a leap of faith that anonymous visitors will reveal themselves when they’re ready.

Worse, this argument leads to the mis-allocation of scarce resources towards third party data versus focusing on identifying the very people who are wandering through your digital garden today.

TL;DR - A far more effective and cost-efficient use of funds is to invest in first-party identity resolution capabilities that help de-anonymize site traffic though a combination of methods like device fingerprinting, browser analysis and IP address tracking.

Myth 5: Efforts to de-anonymize traffic presents a data privacy risk

A final myth to debunk is that utilizing identity resolution tools to de-anonymize your website traffic is inconsistent with data privacy laws.

Full disclosure: we are not lawyers.  So it’s important to seek your legal counsel’s advice to ensure that your privacy policy terms, opt-out procedures, etc. are properly communicated and in full compliance with the laws where you conduct business.

That being said, leveraging first-party identity resolution tools in and of itself does not increase your legal exposure so long as your organization adheres to relevant data privacy regulations (which you likely are already doing).

In the United States, for example, identity resolution capabilities are used extensively by B2C eCommerce companies today to enrich their email lists and retarget shoppers who abandon carts before logging into the store.  As a consumer, you’ve likely received emails or text messages from a retailer after leaving merchandise in an online cart.

B2C brands must adhere to the same data privacy regulations per legal jurisdiction as B2B organizations.  So the notion that first-party identity resolution in and of itself will increase an organization’s legal exposure is false.

TL;DR - By choosing reputable identity resolution tools and adhering to data privacy regulations, you can safely gather insights from anonymous visitor traffic without compromising security.

How to Implement a First-Party Identity Resolution Strategy

The most effective way to convert your anonymous website visitors into pipeline and revenue is by implementing a first-party identity resolution data strategy with a solution like RevMethods.

You’re likely already licensing data from a third-party provider (e.g. ZoomInfo, Apollo).  These data providers collect customer information from a number of different sources, perform steps to validate the information, and license it to you.

Whereas these data providers offer third-party data to support your cold outreach efforts, RevMethods focuses exclusively on helping you convert the anonymous visitors into identifiable individuals and accounts.

Specifically, RevMethods provides you with person-level and account-level identity resolution on the very people and accounts who are visiting your website, even when they don’t complete a form.

How First-Party Identity Resolution Works

When an anonymous visitor arrives on your website, they provide you with the equivalent of a digital fingerprint - i.e. a unique set of digital attributes such as their IP address, location, browser details, etc.  This information is captured and recorded on your web server log today, but you are most likely not doing anything with it.

RevMethods’ identity resolution solution takes the fingerprints you’re already capturing and matches them to a large repository of proprietary, opt-in, first-party data that we’ve acquired through our data partner network and other sources.

When RevMethods identifies a match, we provide you with the contact details associated with the person or account such as name, email, job title, LinkedIn URL, etc.

Implementing a first-party identity resolution strategy is both simple and effective:

Step 1: Install RevMethods javascript code on your website

RevMethods will provide you with a short snippet of javascript.  It takes just a few minutes to copy and paste the code on your website similar to how you installed Google Tag Manager.

Step 2: Review the person-level and account-level identities that RevMethods resolved

On a recurring schedule of your choosing (e.g. daily, weekly, monthly), RevMethods will provide you with the first-party data associated with the person-level and account-level identities of the visitors to your website during that time period.

Identity resolution results vary by organization.  A conservative estimate is that you can expect to resolve the identities of 15% of your traffic down to the person-level and approximately 50% of your traffic to the account-level.  This represents a 3x-15x increase in first-party data.

Step 3: Leverage resolved first-party data in your Marketing and Sales efforts

Assuming one of your top priorities is to build pipeline, having more information regarding who is showing up and engaging with your content enables you to be more efficient and effective with your retargeting and outreach.

Forward-thinking Marketing leverage the first-party data they acquire to:

-   Validate demand gen activities are reaching the right audience

-   Retarget individuals/accounts who visited via paid ads or email

-   Demonstrate Marketing’s ROI by attributing previously anonymous traffic to pipeline and revenue

-   Reallocate scarce budget dollars on targeted ABM vs. ‘spray and pray’ efforts

Top performing Sales reps utilize first-party data to:

-   Perform more relevant, personalized 1:1 email outreach

-   Engage buyers earlier in their process with a ‘helping is selling’ mindset

-   Leverage LinkedIn URL for social selling

-   Validate that their prospects in the pipeline are engaging

The past 12-18 months have confirmed that the GTM efforts for most B2B organizations need a complete overhaul.  B2B Revenue teams can no longer afford to passively accept false ideas about anonymous visitor traffic and continue to operate inefficiently.

Data – specifically first-party data – is the new soil from which profitable growth will spring.  And first-party identity resolution capabilities are now a core component of any B2B GTM strategy.

To learn more about how RevMethods can help lift the veil on all the valuable traffic you’re receiving, give us a shout.

How To Convert Anonymous Website Visitors into Revenue: A Guide to First-Party Identification Resolution

We’re all familiar with how eCommerce retailers often seem to know exactly what we want and provide us with highly relevant recommendations.

Or how they communicate with us via email and text to remind us of the merchandise we abandoned in our shopping cart.

Even when we never logged into their site.

That’s first-party data at work in B2C eCommerce.  And it’s highly effective.

Digital advertising has always been the lifeblood of B2C eCommerce.  Despite the major web browsers deprecating third party cookies, and changing legislation to address data privacy concerns, B2C retailers keep adapting in novel and legally-compliant ways to ensure they not simply survive - but thrive - in the digital economy.

First-party data is a cornerstone of the B2C Marketer’s playbook.  Increasingly, first-party data strategies are being adopted by forward-thinking B2B Marketers.

B2B Marketers not only face the same regulatory changes and cookie-less future as their B2C peers; they also experience growing inefficiencies in their efforts as the buying process has shifted in favor of the B2B Buyer.

Much ink has been spilled in recent years about the structural shifts that have taken place in B2B Sales and Marketing.  While the specific data points vary from study to study, a clear picture has emerged of an “empowered B2B Buyer.”

No longer reliant on a salesperson, today’s B2B Buyer prefers to educate themselves online.  They evaluate their options via review sites and peer group conversations.  Only when they’re ready to engage Sales do they reveal themselves.  

 estimates that approximately 70% of the buying process is complete before a Buyer proactively asks to speak with Sales, often via an online form submission.

But here’s the rub.  To date, voluntary form submissions have been the only way a B2B Marketer can obtain valuable first-party information.

Looking across the B2B companies we support, on average just 2% of a company’s website traffic requests to speak with Sales each month.  Another 2-3% of visitors complete a form by downloading a piece of gated content or registering for an event.

That means that 95%+ of a typical B2B company’s visitors remain completely anonymous.

B2B Marketers have limited ability to directly influence the number of prospects who raise their hand to speak to Sales.  And generating gated content that is valuable enough to warrant a form fill is time-consuming.

To take advantage of all site traffic they have earned and often paid for via paid ad campaigns, forward-thinking B2B Marketers are adopting the first-party data strategies and tactics that B2C eCommerce brands leverage to identify the 95%+ of visitors who don’t complete a form.

Empowering B2B Marketers with Identity Resolution Capabilities

In recent years, new data technologies have emerged to support B2C retargeting efforts as they become less reliant on third-party cookies.

These powerful capabilities enable online retailers to capture the unique digital fingerprint of each visitor and then match the fingerprint to a proprietary database of opt-in first party data.  When a match is made, the eCommerce brand can resolve the identity of the visitor and utilize it for retargeting purposes.

RevMethods has adapted this first-party data capability to the B2B environment to help Marketing and Sales teams perform person-level and account-level resolution on the 95% of website traffic that is anonymous.

Revealing the identities of B2B website visitors has enormous benefits to both Marketing and Sales:

Validate that your demand gen activities are reaching the right audience

Retarget individuals and accounts with paid ads or email campaigns

Demonstrate Marketing’s ROI by attributing previously anonymous traffic to pipeline and revenue

Reallocate scarce budget dollars on targeted ABM versus “spray and pray” efforts

Perform more relevant, personalized 1:1 outreach

Leverage LinkedIn URLs for social selling

Validate prospects already in the pipeline are engaging with content

To learn how RevMethods can help your team realize a step-change improvement in your first-party data acquisition efforts and drive more pipeline and revenue, give us a call.

Identifying Website Visitors without Forms: How B2B Marketers De-Anonymize Visitor Traffic

Over 95% of B2B website traffic is completely 

B2B Marketers spend money writing content.  Budget on paid ads.  Yet, Marketers are blind to over 95% of the demand they generate.

Marketers can’t validate if their campaigns are reaching the right people.  They lack the intent signals to know who to retarget.  Scarce budget dollars are wasted on guesswork.

Sales reps also operate in the dark.  Each day prospects hit the company website to educate themselves.  They visit the pricing page.  Yet Sales can’t see 95% of these digital signals.

Legitimate prospects who Sales would eagerly target with relevant, personalized outreach are missed.  Opportunities are squandered.

As challenging as last year was for most B2B Revenue teams, the mandate from VCs and Boards to “do more with less” will echo well into 2024.  Difficult as it may be for Revenue leaders to hear, their message is spot on.

B2B companies waste $2 Trillion annually in lost revenue potential and go-to-market (GTM) inefficiencies according to a 

.  The “predictable revenue” sales model that Revenue teams embraced over the past decade has become predictive of a very different outcome: guaranteed GTM inefficiencies.

To succeed in the coming year, Revenue teams must develop GTM strategies that achieve both growth and efficiency.

Sales needs to be productive – not simply busy – by performing outreach that’s relevant and personal.

Marketing needs to extract as much value as possible from the results of its investments.

Forward-thinking B2B Revenue teams are achieving predictable growth by addressing the holes through which revenue is leaking.  They’re embracing data-driven growth strategies; specifically first-party data strategies.

First party data is information a company collects directly from its customers through the interaction they have via their own channels.

Examples of first-party data include such things as contact information, website activities (e.g. page visits; downloads), app usage data, purchase history, social media engagement, etc.

In virtually every digital interaction a company has with an individual, valuable first-party data can be obtained via a unique identifier or “digital fingerprint.”

In contrast, third-party data is data collected and aggregated by an organization or entity other than your own.

“Third-party” (hence the name) data providers collect their data from multiple sources, make it useful, and then sell or license it to you as it relates to your target audience.

First-party data and third-party data both provide Revenue teams with advantages and unique benefits.  B2B teams need both to be effective.

However, as third-party cookie deprecation accelerates and privacy concerns mount, B2B Revenue teams need a first-party data acquisition strategy.

Marketers need to build processes to continuously capture and enrich first-party data.  And both Marketing and Sales need to develop institutional muscles to harness first-party data into a competitive advantage.

First-Party Data: Your Most Valuable Data Asset

First-party data is hands down the most valuable source of customer data available to Marketing and Sales.

There are a number of reasons why Revenue teams need to prioritize first-party data:

: Unlike third-party data, first-party data belongs entirely to you. Your customers and prospects offered it to you in exchange for engaging with your digital assets, and communications.

: By definition, first-party data is far more accurate and relevant to your business than third-party data because it’s collected directly from your customers. The demographic information they share and the digital engagement you capture provides you with relevant, timely information about your customers; insights that third-party data simply can’t provide.

 The insights you can glean from the first-party data your customers share enables you to personalize your outreach and deliver superior customer experiences.

First-party data offers you a distinct competitive advantage over your competition.  As your customers engage and provide you with first-party information, they provide you with insights into their preferences and priorities that your competition doesn’t know.

 Data-driven insights from first-party data empower you to make informed decisions across all aspects of your business. You can optimize marketing campaigns, develop targeted product offerings, and allocate resources efficiently, ultimately contributing to greater business success.

 In the face of evolving privacy regulations and the decline of third-party cookies, first-party data ensures you are less vulnerable to decisions of your third-party data providers that could adversely impact your business.

To date, B2B Revenue teams have been limited in their first-party data acquisition efforts for one reason and one reason only: form submissions have been the only show in town.

The only way to collect first party information from a prospect has been to encourage them to voluntarily complete a web form in exchange for something of value (e.g. speak with Sales, download an eBook, register for a webinar).

A tremendous amount of effort has gone into maximizing the number of form submissions by minimizing friction.

Un-gate your content so prospects can educate themselves on their own time,

Prospects will let you know when they’re ready to speak to Sales

Regardless of tactic, first-party data growth is poor: 95%+ of B2B visitors remain anonymous.

The vast majority of website visitors are interested in educating themselves about your solution.  They just don’t feel obligated to let you know of their interest.

B2B Revenue teams are no longer limited to voluntary form submissions to collect valuable first-party data.

Forward-thinking B2B Marketing teams are increasingly adopting data acquisition capabilities similar to those used by their Marketing peers in B2C eCommerce.

As online shoppers, you are likely familiar with receiving emails and text messages after abandoning an online shopping cart full of merchandise.  More often than not, you abandoned the cart without having logged into the store.  Yet somehow the eCommerce retailer was able to associate the cart with you.

These eCommerce brands are able to contact you because they have your first-party contact data even though you didn’t complete a form.

This same capability is now available to B2B Revenue teams.

By installing a short snippet of javascript on your website, B2B Marketers can capture the unique digital fingerprints associated with their visitors and match them to the people and accounts who are showing interest.

Turning Anonymous Visitors into Revenue: How First-Party Data Powers New Business Growth

Ever noticed how your online shopping experience seems uncannily tailored to your preferences? That's the power of first-party intent data in action in the consumer sector, and it's pretty slick. Now, imagine if you could take that smart, intuitive tech and apply it to B2B marketing. Herein lies your opportunity to add value and competitive advantage, transforming those once-anonymous site visits into actionable insights about potential business partners. By harnessing the power of first-party data, your marketing and sales teams can engage with prospects more effectively, aligning your strategies with their needs from the get-go. We'll delve into the specific benefits in this post.



Improved Lead Quality and Sales Alignment


Unveiling the identity of companies and individuals visiting your site allows for a more strategic lead generation process. When you understand the behavior and profile of your visitors, you can focus on nurturing leads that demonstrate a higher likelihood of conversion. This leads to a more efficient allocation of resources and a stronger alignment between marketing and sales, as both teams work collaboratively to assist, rather than just sell to potential clients. It also leads to our second point.



Better ROI Measurement and Strategy Adjustment


Understanding who your visitors are helps in accurately measuring the return on investment (ROI) of your marketing campaigns. You can see which campaigns are attracting the right kind of traffic and which aren't, allowing for timely adjustments in your marketing strategies.




First-party intent data, collected from your own website, is a critical component in this process. It's inherently more relevant and specific than third-party data, providing deeper insights into what your visitors are genuinely interested in. This allows for tailored marketing strategies that address the real-time needs and interests of your prospects, facilitating a shift from a transactional approach to one that is more consultative and helpful. Third party intent exposes theoretical prospects, first party intent exposes actual prospects. You just haven't met those prospects yet which goes to our final point.




Echoing Gartner's observation that approximately 70% of the B2B buying journey occurs before direct contact with a company, de-anonymizing website traffic empowers you to influence this silent journey. When visitors remain anonymous, opportunities to assist and guide them during this crucial decision-making phase are lost. By identifying these visitors early on, your teams can engage with them more effectively, providing valuable information and solutions that resonate with their specific business needs.




De-anonymizing your website traffic is a bold step towards not just understanding but empowering your potential clients. It's about creating a synergy where every interaction is an opportunity to add significant value to their business choices. In this new era of marketing, you're not just capturing data; you're nurturing partnerships, fostering trust, and sculpting a landscape of successful and enduring business relationships. We hope you'll get in touch to get a detailed demo of our technology.


De-anonymizing Web Traffic: Bringing B2C Smarts to B2B Marketing

B2B Marketing and Sales teams are sitting on a mountain of gold in all their earned, paid for, and proprietary 1st Party customer data.

But their current technologies (siloed endpoint data), processes (arbitrary lead scores), and org structures (S+M misalignment) conceal valuable context and suppress revenue opportunities.

Grateful to 

 for allowing us to share our thoughts in 

 on how B2B Marketing and Sales teams can accelerate revenue, lower CAC, and improve GTM efficiencies by rethinking the value of their existing 1st Party customer data.

Won Deals Are Downstream From Observable Behavior

Engagement --> Revenue

B2B Marketers: If you’re frustrated that Sales hasn’t touched any of the 1,216 MQLs you’ve generated…

The problem is that your definition of “Q”ualified is unconvincing.

The solution is not a better Lead Score equation.

The solution is to ditch your math and communicate the valuable context you have on these leads.

MQL follow through

In July I analyzed the previous 6 months of 1st Party (Known) intent signals Marketing captured.


🔥  19% of all the 1st Party signals were ‘high’ intent events (e.g. demo requests, contact us forms, and inbound calls).

🤷  81% of all the 1st Party signals came from individuals demonstrating some degree of interest (e.g. eBook downloads, webinar registrations, page visits).

Sales took action on every ‘high’ intent lead.


In contrast, 4 out of every 5 intent signals Marketing generated from known contacts received little to no love from Sales.  Why?  Because the intent was ‘unknown’.

Yet a significant percent of these intent signals came from:

By isolating these rich signals and spoon-feeding the context to the Sales team, Marketing helped achieve a +20% lift in new pipeline generated and +10% incremental revenue growth in 90 days.

All from signals Sales historically didn’t see or didn’t value.

As macro economic worries demand that Marketing and Sales achieve more with less, there’s no time like the present to mine the valuable data you already have.

80% of your rich leads are currently not seen (or not valued)

80/20 Rule 

When Sales says “We need more leads!” What they really mean is:

“We need more prospects to hit the Demo Request or Contact Us button.

Why does Sales value these leads so much?

Because the SO WHAT and the NOW WHAT are perfectly clear.


The SO WHAT is: this prospect is interested in speaking with me.

The NOW WHAT is: I need to call them now.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of the intent signals that Marketing generates are of UNKNOWN intent: eBook downloads, webinar registrations, page visits.

The problem is, the SO WHAT and THE NOW WHAT are not obvious.  Sales needs to burn calories to figure it out.

And rich, valuable intent signals from known prospects go untouched.

Marketers: Want to win friends and influence Sales in 2023?  Help them separate the signal from the noise

You have them... In your 1st party data

We Need More Leads!

B2B Sales: “Leave no stone unturned.”

B2B Marketing: “The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago.”

The Q4 calendar naturally reinforces a sense of urgency and focus for Sales.

But how Marketers make use of the remaining 25 workdays of 2022 is equally important and urgent.

It will be January 15, 2023 before we know it.


Plant seeds now.  The future selves in Sales will appreciate you for it.

Balance today's urgent needs with tomorrow's priorities

The Best Time to Plant a Tree is 20 Years Ago

3rd Party data has been all the rage of late.  Dark Funnel.  Dark Social.  All great stuff.

Not enough attention is being paid to 1st Party data.

With budgets under scrutiny, here’s why your KNOWN 1st Party customer data matters more than ever:

💪  It’s Earned. The quality of your content, campaigns, events, and product captured these valuable contact records.

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