For the last decade, every B2B digital marketing strategy has started with the same question: “Who should we target?”
Which often becomes a harder question to answer then it first appears. The answer often gets formed by running ICP workshops. Or grabbing the old static TAL spreadsheets. Or some forms of guesstimates versus hard science.
This lands us on targeting audiences which equate to segments frozen in time and uploaded into platforms that assume the market politely stands still. Its devoid of dynamism and doesn’t reflect the oscillations in buying behaviour
In 2026, that framing is quietly breaking.
Not because ABM is wrong.
Not because targeting doesn’t matter.
Not because audiences no longer matter, but because they can no longer be decided in advance.
Modern B2B demand doesn’t announce itself neatly. Buyers research anonymously, living in an increasingly dark-internet, they move across surfaces you don’t control, and progress in uneven …
