6 Questions With AnnMarie Wills of Leverage Lab: Why Publisher Data Is Worth More Than Publishers Think

Passendo: You and your co-founder both come from B2B publishing. How did that background shape what you built at Leverage Lab, and what problem were you most determined to solve?

AnnMarie Wills: We both believed there was vast untapped value in B2B media’s unique and high-value audiences. We also knew firsthand how underprepared and under-resourced B2B media companies were to realise that value. There are lots of vendors in the space that will sell you a technology solution to store data, but none that will walk the path with you and ensure you drive new revenue from your data. This is the gap we saw and the reason Leverage Lab exists.

P: Publishers are sitting on enormous amounts of first-party data — subscriber behaviour, content preferences, event registrations — but most of it goes unused. What does it actually take to unlock that data and turn it into something actionable?

AMW: Leverage Lab believes the best action is revenue action, and the fastest path to revenue is a four-step process: 1) organise your data, pulling it out of the silos across your business; 2) enrich your audiences with behavioural signals, identity, and filling in the blanks; 3) package your audiences in ways that appeal and resonate with advertisers and marketers; 4) deliver campaigns across all channels, both on and off your platform.

Consumers are multichannel, chronically online, and overexposed to advertising. B2B publishers and event producers hold the keys to well-targeted and highly performant advertising and marketing, but need help getting there.

P: The dominant model for monetising newsletters is still sponsorship-based, measuring success by deliveries and opens. You describe this as a real problem. Why is that model holding publishers back, and who’s responsible for changing it?

AMW: Those metrics were the gold standard for more than a decade, but they are a vanity trap now. Privacy and technology evolution create “ghost” clicks and signal loss. Business models built on those behaviours are destined to fail.

Newsletters are inherently an engagement tool and can drive high-value behaviours. We think there is a future where newsletters become part of a larger engagement strategy, where publishers sell access to intent. Of course, that requires change across the board: from brands and agencies still asking for the media kit and rate card, to creative packaging and confident selling from media organisations.

P: When a publisher combines rich audience data with sophisticated ad serving technology in their newsletters, what becomes possible that wasn’t before? Can you give a concrete example?

AMW: Absolutely! It’s a powerful, revenue-creating combination. Here’s a great example. We had a client with a massive audience list tied to a daily newsletter. The audience was broad and undefined. They did an amazing job selling out the inventory, but the advertising was also very undefined.

Based on testing, we saw that subdividing the large audience into four better-defined audiences and versioning the advertising led to great results all around. They were getting advertising that was more relevant to the four audiences, generating better engagement overall, and seeing increased performance when the audience-to-advertiser match was on point. Opening this opportunity created a 3X increase in revenue.

P: You’re launching a self-service portal that lets advertisers access publisher audience segments for off-platform campaigns. What’s the thinking behind that, and what does it say about where the relationship between B2B publishers and big platforms like LinkedIn or Google is heading?

AMW: I’ve seen studies saying anywhere from 80–96% of B2B advertising dollars bypass B2B media entirely. Brands and agencies are spending those dollars directly in Google, Meta, and LinkedIn, and overspending on the wrong targets. Big tech loves watching B2B brands pour money into their platforms chasing after subpar audiences.

PublisherConnect allows brands to create their own accounts, choose high-value audiences from gold-standard B2B media partners, already connected to their preferred digital channels (Google Display, YouTube, Meta, LinkedIn, CTV/OTV, audio,etc.) set their budget, load their creative, deploy their campaign, and receive their reporting. All in one application.

What it says about the relationship between big tech and B2B publishers is: if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. Every B2B media company has its limits, the number of customers they can serve, the amount of inventory they have, their share of the market is all finite. There is a path to using these platforms to expand market share, reach more customers, and deliver better, more performant campaigns. Clawing back even a few cents of every dollar spent directly in the big tech platforms can be life-changing for these media companies.

P: If you were advising a mid-size B2B publisher who wants to start monetising their audience more effectively, what’s the one thing you’d tell them to do first?

AMW: Stop renting your audience’s identity and start owning it. The one thing you must do first is unify your fragmented data into a single, persistent asset.

In the B2B world, your data is likely scattered — some in an email service provider, some in a subscription system, some trapped in website cookies, and some sitting in an event registration database. Until those silos are connected, you don’t have an audience. You have a collection of spreadsheets.

***

To stay ahead of where B2B audience monetisation is heading, follow AnnMarie Wills and Leverage Lab, and keep an eye on Passendo for more conversations with the people shaping the future of publisher revenue.