--- title: "What is B2D marketing? | daily.dev Ads glossary" url: https://business.daily.dev/glossary/b2d-marketing/ description: "B2D (business-to-developer) marketing is marketing to developers as the buyers or decisive influencers of a product, rather than to executives. It treats the developer's hands-on evaluation as the sale and builds around proof: docs, free tiers, benchmarks and community." lastUpdated: "2026-10-20" llmsTxt: https://business.daily.dev/llms.txt --- ## What is B2D marketing? B2D (business-to-developer) marketing is marketing to developers as the buyers or decisive influencers of a product, rather than to executives. It treats the developer's hands-on evaluation as the sale and builds around proof: docs, free tiers, benchmarks and community. Also called: Business-to-developer marketing. The term exists because developer tools are bought bottom-up. A developer finds a tool, tries it, uses it in their work, and the team and the budget follow. The person a vendor needs to convince is the one who will run the code, and that person wants evidence, not a deck. B2D differs from classic B2B in three ways: the buyer is the user, so the evaluation is technical; trust is built between peers, so community and open source carry more weight than analyst reports; and interruption fails, so the channels are the ones developers choose to read. A B2D motion typically runs awareness in developer channels, a free tier or trial a developer can start alone, activation support through docs and community, and sales only at the point of expansion. Product, developer relations and marketing share the funnel more than in most B2B companies. ## How does a B2D sale actually happen? Bottom-up. A developer has a problem, finds a tool through a search, a feed, a newsletter or a colleague, tries it on their own, and uses it in their work. A second developer on the team adopts it. Someone needs a team plan, then SSO, then an invoice, and procurement arrives last to formalise what the team already uses. That order changes who marketing talks to. The person to convince is the first developer, and the proof that convinces them is technical: docs, a free tier, a benchmark with its method, a GitHub repo with recent commits. The executive deck comes at the end, if at all. ## How is B2D different from B2B marketing? - **The buyer is the user.** The evaluation is hands-on, not a demo. - **Trust comes from peers.** Community, open source and other developers' write-ups outweigh analyst reports and case studies. - **Interruption fails.** The audience blocks ads and skips pitches; the channels are the ones developers choose to read. - **Specifics win.** A claim a developer can verify beats a positioning statement. - **Sales enters late.** At expansion, with usage data, rather than at the top of the funnel. B2B instincts applied to developers produce gated whitepapers, demo-request buttons and LinkedIn targeting by title. Each is a tell that the vendor has not met its users. ## Which channels work for B2D marketing? Documentation and technical content found through search; developer communities and open-source presence; newsletters developers subscribe to; native placements inside developer feeds such as daily.dev, where targeting is by the stack developers read about; developer relations; and conferences for category definition. Paid search catches intent for named problems. LinkedIn reaches engineering managers, which matters at expansion, less at adoption. Rank them by whether the developer chose to be there. The channels where they did are where the message is read. ## How do you measure B2D marketing? By adoption, in order: reach in developer channels, visits, sign-ups, activation (a first working result), weekly active developers, team adoption, expansion revenue. Leads are a B2B measure; in B2D a "lead" is a developer who has not tried the product yet, which is the least interesting state they can be in. Attribute over weeks and by cohort. Developers see a post, read the docs a week later, and sign up from another device. Cost per activated developer by channel is the number to manage. **Common mistakes** - Gating the docs or the pricing behind a form. - Targeting by job title when the adopter is whoever has the problem. - Reporting leads to a board that should be hearing activations. - A "book a demo" button where a "start free" button belongs. **How developers experience it** - They decide in the trial, not in the meeting. - A vendor who shows the price and the limits is a vendor they can recommend. - They adopt tools their peers use, and tell peers about tools that worked. ## On daily.dev daily.dev is a B2D channel by construction: the people reading are developers, the targeting is the stack and seniority they read about, and the formats are [In-Feed Ads](https://business.daily.dev/feed.md) and [Newsletter Ads](https://business.daily.dev/email.md) rather than banners. ## B2D vs B2B vs B2C marketing | | B2D | B2B | B2C | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | **Who you convince** | The developer who will use it | A budget holder or committee | The consumer | | **How they evaluate** | Hands-on: docs, free tier, code | Demos, references, RFPs | Reviews, price, brand | | **Sales cycle** | Self-serve first, sales at expansion | Sales-led from the start | None | | **Trust source** | Peers, open source, proof | Analysts, case studies, relationship | Brand and social proof | | **Ads that work** | Native posts in developer feeds and newsletters | Search, LinkedIn, events | Social, video, display | ## Go deeper - [B2B developer marketing strategy: channels and metrics](https://business.daily.dev/resources/b2b-developer-marketing-strategy-channels-metrics-technical-audiences.md) - [The B2B developer marketing playbook](https://business.daily.dev/resources/complete-b2b-developer-marketing-playbook-saas-teams.md) - [Mapping the bottom-up buying journey](https://business.daily.dev/resources/developer-marketing-funnel-mapping-bottom-up-buying-journey.md) Related terms: [Developer marketing](https://business.daily.dev/glossary/developer-marketing.md) | [Developer-led growth](https://business.daily.dev/glossary/developer-led-growth.md) | [Developer audience platform](https://business.daily.dev/glossary/developer-audience-platform.md) ### Frequently asked questions **What is the difference between B2D and B2B marketing?** In B2D the developer who uses the product is the buyer or the decisive influencer, the evaluation is hands-on, and trust is earned through peers and proof. B2B marketing more often targets a budget holder who evaluates through demos and references. **Who is the buyer in B2D?** Usually a developer or engineering lead who adopts the tool first; procurement and leadership come in when usage spreads and a contract is needed. Marketing to the first adopter is the work. **Which channels work for B2D marketing?** The ones developers choose: documentation, technical content, open source and community, developer newsletters, native placements in developer feeds, and conferences. Targeting by stack beats targeting by job title. **Does B2D marketing need a sales team?** At expansion, yes: to turn a team's usage into a contract with the security, compliance and billing an organisation needs. At the top of the funnel, a sales team mostly gets in the developer's way. **What should a B2D landing page contain?** What the product does in one sentence, a quickstart or a working example, the price and the limits, and a way to start alone. A demo request belongs on the enterprise page, not the front door. [All terms](https://business.daily.dev/glossary.md) | [Explore your options](https://business.daily.dev/schedule/?ref=glossary-b2d-marketing) | [How pricing works](https://business.daily.dev/pricing.md)