What is a buying group in B2B marketing?
Article
An Introduction to Buying Group Marketing
In B2B, purchasing decisions are rarely made by one person anymore. Instead, they’re shaped by a buying group or Marketing Qualified Buying Group (MQBG) – a set of individuals within an account who all play different roles in the process. Some may hold the budget, some may influence the final decision, and others may be the end users of the solution. Together they evaluate options, weigh risks, and ultimately decide if a purchase goes ahead.
This shift from focusing on single leads to recognising this group within an account is at the heart of the future of buying group marketing.
Traditional lead-based marketing assumes that capturing one contact is enough to drive a deal forward. Whilst lead-based marketing should remain a key component of your marketing strategy, in reality, ignoring the wider group of decision-makers often leads to stalled or missed opportunities.
A buying group is the set of individuals within an organisation who collectively decide whether to purchase a product or service. Each member may bring a different perspective to the overall buying decision. Buying group marketing recognises that:
- A Chief Financial Officer might care about cost and ROI
- A Chief Information Officer may focus on integration and security
- Practitioners / End-Users want usability and support
- Influencers may be looking for market credibility or peer validation
Why does buying group marketing matter?
Traditional lead-based marketing treats individuals such as CFO’s, CIO’s, practitioners, and influencers as isolated contacts within an organisation. Buying group marketing recognises them as a connected team whose combined engagement determines success.
By tailoring content and communications to each of these perspectives, organisations can create a more relevant, personalised journey that accelerates buying decisions and strengthens long-term relationships. The result:
- More relevant content delivery
- Better alignment between marketing and sales
- Faster buying cycles
- Stronger long-term client relationships
Understanding the roles within Marketing Qualified Buying Groups
A useful way to think about MQBGs is to break them into roles. Each role perceives your product or service through a different lens and has a different set of priorities that shape their decision making.
- Decision Makers (executives or budget holders) are ultimately responsible for saying yes or no. They will want to see strategic clarity and financial justification, such as how the solution will create value, reduce risk, or improve efficiency.
- Influencers (managers, consultants) may not sign the contract, but they hold a great deal of sway in shaping opinions. They often do the groundwork of comparing solutions, gathering insights, and validating credibility. Winning them over is often the first step in winning the group.
- Practitioners (advisers, technical teams, end users) are closest to the day-to-day impact. They want reassurance that the solution is practical, reliable, and easy to use. Their feedback often feeds directly into the decision maker’s final call.
- Champions are the highly engaged advocates inside the account who can tip the balance in your favour. They are the people who talk positively about your solution internally, share your content, and push colleagues towards your side of the table.
What makes this framework so useful is that it helps you align the right message with the right person. A financial services case study may be perfect for a CFO, but it will fall flat with a practitioner who really wants a technical, hands-on guide. Likewise, a thought leadership piece may capture the attention of an influencer, while a champion might be more motivated by exclusive insights or direct support. Recognising these nuances is what gives buying group marketing its power.
Putting buying group marketing into practice
So how do you adopt buying group marketing into an actionable strategy? Platforms like Adobe Journey Optimizer B2B Edition (AJO B2B) make the process manageable. The platform is designed to mirror real buying group behaviour, helping marketers to orchestrate journeys built around people and roles, not just leads.
1. Define role templates
It all starts with role templates, which define the types of personas you expect to find in a group. These templates allow you to map account members to a role and automatically match them with the content that fits. A decision maker can be served an ROI-focused case study, while an influencer is sent a thought leadership article, and a practitioner receives a practical guide. This isn’t just about sending different emails, it is about delivering the right experience to the right person at the right time.
2. Connect to solution interests
Next, AJO B2B lets you connect each buying group to a solution interest. This ties the group’s activity back to the specific product or service they are considering, keeping your engagement relevant and ensuring you are not sending mixed messages.
3. Activate stage models
Finally, stage models bring the journey to life. Groups can move fluidly through stages such as: awareness, consideration, and intent, based on their behavior and engagement. At each stage, content and outreach adjust automatically, so the journey feels natural to the group rather than forced.
4. Align with CRM
Alongside this, the platform integrates with CRM systems to feed insights directly to sales teams. That way, when a champion is showing strong intent signals, the sales team is alerted and can act at the right moment.
The result is a marketing process that feels less like a one-size-fits-all campaign and more like a tailored conversation with an entire team.
Where to go next
Understanding buying groups is the first step; putting it into practice is where the advantage lies. To explore how AJO B2B can help you design and orchestrate journeys around buying groups, speak to our AJO B2B consultants today.
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