The question: are B2B brands buying both print and digital ads? 

The answer: they’re starting to, kind of. 

In our 2018 B2B recap trend report, we found that most B2B brands would only spend on either print or digital. Just 11 percent of brands bought both print and digital placements. 

By way of an update: not much has changed in the first half of 2019, but it’s enough to indicate a shift toward digital spend within B2B. 

For example, the number of digital-only B2B publishers remained consistent (with just a .1 percent drop), but the spend increased by nearly 60 percent year-over-year. At the same time, print-only B2B brands fell by 8 percent and spend dropped by 16 percent, year-over-year. 

The spending across both mediums is less significant: the number of B2B brands who spent on both digital and print remained consistent (less than a 2 percent change), while the amount they spent increased by just 3 percent, year-over-year. 

You can see a direct comparison to the chart below.

As you can see, there is a slight shift away from a single medium:

• 14 percent of B2B advertisers are spending on both digital and print, which is a slight increase. 
• 56 percent of B2B advertisers are spending on print only, which is consistent. 
• 30 percent of B2B advertisers are spending on digital only, which is a slight decrease. 

While only time will tell, we expect this slow-but-sure shift toward a combined effort across mediums to continue. By way of example, we need only to look to Pages, a new print trade publication focused on the digital-focused niche of search engine optimization.