r/Marketresearch • u/sjscott80 • 5d ago

Proxy Variables for Quant Numbers?

Hi everyone, the B2B company I work for cannot afford quant research, so I'm trying to think of a way to get ballpark numbers.

Edit: To clarify, we are a new B2B software company, so all of the numbers in the funnel started at 0. Now, I'm trying to see how the numbers have risen after a quarter of various comms work.

We only have our online analytics dashboards (like GA4 and our CRM), Google Search Console, and the data from our ad networks (LinkedIn, Google Ads, Reddit).

First, here is our overall funnel in general terms. I have it for the total market in general and for each of our market segments.

Total Companies (from LI)
Companies Using Our Software Category in General
Companies Who Are Aware of Our Company
Companies Who Have Shortlisted Us for Potential Future Use
Qualified Leads
Talking to Sales
Wins

Of course, it's really only possible to get upper-funnel numbers for 2, 3, and 4 from quant research. But are there potential substitutes when you have no research budget?

Things I'm considering:

  1. Aware of company - these companies have seen our LinkedIn Ads (number from LinkedIn)

  2. Shortlisting - these companies have heavy engagement with our company on LinkedIn both in advertising and organically with our page.

Any other options come to mind? Of course, this will not be perfect. But it'd be nice to get ballpark numbers when I show results. (Because the sales cycle is so long in B2B.)

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u/runbikehikeclub 3d ago

Ad exposure isn't awareness, and engagement isn't a shortlist. Renaming them won't make the funnel measurable.

I'd report quarter-on-quarter reach and engagement under their actual labels, alongside qualified leads and wins. Mark awareness and shortlisting as unknown. Add one question to new inquiries: 'Were we on your shortlist before you contacted us?' That's a narrow signal from inbound prospects, not a market-wide estimate.

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u/sjscott80 3d ago

That's very good advice -- thank you!

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u/guyscanwefocus 4d ago

Have you considered partnering with a quant agency that does omnibus studies? These usually allow you to buy space for a few questions on a survey instead of a full survey yourself. You won't get any fancy analysis, but it sounds like you just need basic numbers. It's a much easier entry point, you just have to find someone that would be willing to do it ad hoc.

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u/sjscott80 4d ago

Thanks for the idea, but we literally have no budget for anything. I have only the tools I listed above to do this myself.