Why we repositioned Vector around building ad audiences

We had a positioning problem, and it was showing up everywhere.

Prospects kept comparing us to companies we didn't consider competitors—partners like UserGems and Common Room. Sales personas were booking demos when we knew our product was built for marketers. We were being lumped into a crowded space we wanted no part of.

But more importantly, we were hearing from marketers. We felt their pain. In a world of sweeping change—AI, site traffic cannibalization, zero-click search—they're upside down. The entire market seems to be innovating for sales: automation, signals, Clay, outbound at scale. To the chagrin of marketers everywhere and the craft they are so passionate about.

And we realized: nothing is being built for marketers in a way that actually helps get out from under these pressures.

Think about it. Marketers have gotten incredible at personalization across every channel. Your emails are personalized. Your website adapts to visitors. Your outreach is tailored. But your ads—often your most expensive channel—are still running on black box targeting where you have no idea who's actually seeing them.

Here's what pushed us over the edge: we felt ourselves being dragged down the sales path. Our customers started shifting toward outbound motions. And frankly, those customers weren't seeing success with us.

So today, we're calling our shot: to create the tools marketers will rely on to thrive in this new era. Starting with driving pipeline through hyper-personalized targeting and knowing who's engaging (even if they never convert). Vector Boo.0, if you will.

This wasn't a decision we made out of fear. It came from listening to marketers, realizing we had already built something that could actually solve their problems, and focusing the business only on that.

Let me walk you through how we made that decision.

The pattern we couldn't ignore

When we analyzed our customer base, the story was crystal clear: customers using Vector for marketing weren't just succeeding—they were thriving. They were happy, seeing real ROI, and growing with us.

The customers who were struggling? They were trying to use Vector for sales and outbound motions. And honestly, we weren't serving them well because that's not what we built the product to do.

Our customer success team couldn't establish repeatable processes because they were context-switching between wildly different use cases. Product and engineering were scattered across disconnected feature requests. We needed focus.

The data pointed to one use case that was working exceptionally well: building contact-level ad audiences.

Why "contact-based marketing platform" wasn't cutting it

We originally positioned Vector as a "contact-based marketing platform" - like account-based marketing, but at the individual contact level. It made sense to us internally, but the market heard something different.

The problem? ABM has deep associations with sales motions. When we said "contact-level," people heard "perfect for cold outreach!" But that's actually not the best use of hyper-specific contact data.

The data pointed to one use case that was working exceptionally well: building contact-level ad audiences.

Here's what we learned: when you know "Sarah from Acme Corp visited your pricing page," the natural instinct is to email Sarah immediately. But there's a much more powerful play: add Sarah to a targeted ad audience and stay top of mind while she's researching solutions.

We also discovered that "intent" isn't what marketers thought it was. Someone reading an article about a topic you care about doesn't mean they're sales-ready. But it does mean they're a perfect candidate for your ad campaigns.

Finding our one thing (thanks, Stripe)

There's an anecdote from our repositioning work that stuck with me: Stripe is known for payments, even though they now sell 20+ other products. If you ask anyone what Stripe does, their immediate answer is “payments.” Every company needs to be known for one thing.

For Vector, that one thing is building ad audiences.

And not just any ad audiences—contact-level ad audiences. While every other platform makes you rely on black box native targeting where you cross your fingers and hope the algorithm gets it right, Vector lets you build audiences from real people visiting your site, clicking your ads, and researching your competitors.

That's our superpower. That's what we needed to own.

What Vector is now

Vector is the only way to build ad audiences by name.

Here's what that means in practice:

• Build from website visitors: Turn anonymous traffic into named contacts, then push them into ad audiences. A more discerning alternative to traditional retargeting.
• Build from people who click your ads: See exactly who's clicking your ads but not converting, and build ad audiences from them to move them closer to purchase.
• Build from competitor research: Identify people researching relevant topics and your competitors so you can build audiences from them and hit them with an ad in response to their research.

No more black box targeting. No more "lookalike audiences" where you hope for the best. You know exactly who sees your ads because you built the audience by name.

Pricing that actually makes sense

One of the most exciting changes (Yes, I just called pricing changes exciting. Founder life is wild.) was completely rebuilding our packaging. We went from three disparate packages to two clear options:

Reveal identifies who is on your site and clicking your ads. If you want to understand who your marketing is reaching and reveal the people behind your traffic, start here.

Target connects contact-level data across your stack to build dynamic ad audiences that refresh automatically. When you're ready to turn that intelligence into precision advertising, this is your upgrade path.

There's now a much clearer story for which package makes sense for which marketing teams—and a natural growth path as your advertising strategy matures. 

No more black box targeting. No more "lookalike audiences" where you hope for the best. You know exactly who sees your ads because you built the audience by name.

What this means for you…

If you're a current Vector customer using us for ad audiences: Get ready for us to get even better at what you already love. Our entire product, engineering, and go-to-market teams are now laser-focused on making your ad targeting more powerful.

If you're using Vector for sales use cases: We've removed features that supported outbound and sales motions because we want to be honest—we weren't delivering the value you deserved there. We can help you find better alternatives that are built for what you need.

If you're a demand gen marketer not using Vector yet: Welcome. You now have a platform built specifically for your ads strategy. Build audiences with surgical precision, reveal who your ad spend is actually reaching, and stop wondering if your targeting is working.

… and why this matters now

We stripped out the features and use cases that weren't working. We rebuilt our pricing and packaging around advertising value. We rewrote our entire website and positioning.

This was absolutely a real pivot that affected every department. But here's what made it exciting rather than terrifying: we weren't pivoting away from failure. We were pivoting toward what was already working and doubling down on where we could deliver exceptional value.

Sometimes growth means saying no to good opportunities so you can focus on great ones.

We’re no longer trying to be a contact-level everything platform. We're the platform for building contact-level ad audiences—and if you're a demand gen marketer tired of black box targeting, we built this for you.

Ready to see the new Vector? You can get started with Reveal right now. And you can grab time with our team to get a demo of Target. Either way, we’re excited to show you what happens when you control and know who's seeing your ads.