Most B2B Advertising Wastes Money On The Wrong Companies
Traditional B2B ads cast a wide net, reaching thousands of companies you'll never close. You pay per click and hope prospects fit your ICP, measure vanity metrics like impressions, and watch budget burn on unqualified traffic.
Explore our ABM sales enablement guide for more strategies.
Account-based advertising flips the approach: target 200 best-fit accounts, reach every stakeholder at those accounts on LinkedIn/Google/Programmatic, measure account impact on pipeline.
Many B2B teams find it significantly more efficient than traditional broad-audience advertising.
The Account-Based Ads Approach
1. Define Your Account List
Start with 100-300 best-fit accounts (your TAL). Make it specific:
- Firmographic: Size, revenue, growth trajectory
- Technographic: What tools they use (identify via ZoomInfo, Apollo, Clearbit)
- Intent signals: Hiring, funding, website behavior (via Bombora, G2, first-party)
- Buying signals: Job postings for roles related to your solution
This is your advertising target list.
2. Build Audience Lists on Each Platform
LinkedIn: - Create Account Matched Audiences from your account list - LinkedIn lets you upload company names and reaches decision makers at those accounts - Set targeting: roles (CTO, VP Sales), industries, seniority
Google (DV360, Google Ads): - Create Custom Intent Audiences for your accounts - Google matches your account companies to their users - Add keyword targeting for category (not competitor names, but "ABM platform", "account orchestration")
Programmatic (6sense, Demandbase): - These platforms have built-in account matching - They reach your accounts across the entire internet (display, native, video) - They can add intent data (buying signals) to your account targeting
3. Create Account-Specific Creative
Don't use generic creative.
For account-based ads: - Executive ads (aimed at economic buyers) - ROI, revenue impact, competitive advantage - Technical ads (aimed at technical buyers) - Integration, security, deployment - Team ads (aimed at end users) - Productivity, ease of use, team impact
Same account, different messaging by role.
Dynamic creative variation: - Use company name when possible (personalized ads typically outperform generic alternatives) - Reference their industry or use case when possible - Call out their current stack if known ("Easier than [Competitor]")
4. Set Up Conversion Tracking
Account-based ads should measure:
- Awareness: Impressions, reach, frequency within accounts
- Engagement: Clicks, video views, website visits from those accounts
- Consideration: Content downloads, demo requests, pricing page visits
- Conversion: Trial signups, meetings booked, sales conversations
Track by account. You want to see: "This account saw 12 ads, visited our site 3 times, and now they're in our sales pipeline."
5. Measure Account Impact
Instead of traditional ad metrics (CTR, CPL), measure:
- Accounts reached: How many of your 200 target accounts saw your ads?
- Account engagement: What % of reached accounts visited your site?
- Account pipeline: What % of reached accounts are now in sales pipeline?
- Account influence on deals: How many deals in pipeline had prior ad exposure?
For example: track how many of your target accounts saw ads, what percentage visited your site, how many entered pipeline, and how many deals had prior ad exposure. This tells you whether ads are actually moving accounts forward.
6. Optimize Frequency and Spend
Account-based ads are not about impressions. They're about coverage.
Frequency guidelines: - Research suggests a handful of impressions per account per month is a reasonable starting point - Too few: account forgets message - Too many: account gets annoyed
Spend allocation: - Allocate budget to ensure all 200 accounts see ads regularly - Don't blow budget trying to get 100 impressions to 10 accounts - Spread budget across the full account list
Platform Comparison
| Platform | Best For | Reach | Frequency Control | Account Matching | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Executive/leadership targeting | Good | Yes (native) | Yes (Account Matched Audiences) | Varies by bid | |
| Broad awareness, category keywords | Excellent | Limited | Yes (Custom Intent) | Varies by bid | |
| 6sense | Intent + account matching | Good | Yes | Yes (native) | Usage-based |
| Demandbase | Intent + account + ads | Good | Yes | Yes (native) | Enterprise |
| Programmatic (other) | Scale and frequency | Excellent | Yes | Limited | CPM varies |
Skip the manual work
Abmatic AI runs targets, sequences, ads, meetings, and attribution autonomously. One platform replaces 9 tools.
See the demo →The Account-Based Ads Stack
- LinkedIn Ads - Primary for executive and influencer targeting
- Google Ads (Search + Display) - Broad awareness, category keywords
- Programmatic advertising (6sense, Demandbase, or DV360) - Account reach across internet
- Email marketing - Synchronized with ad campaigns
- ABM orchestration (Abmatic AI, Terminus) - Coordinates ads with email, calls, CRM
Monthly budget varies widely based on account list size, platforms, and bid competition.
Common Mistakes
1. Targeting Too Broad
If you target "all SaaS companies," you're not doing account-based ads. You're doing traditional demand gen ads. Account-based ads target specific companies.
2. Using Generic Creative
"Try our software" ads don't work. "See why [Company] chose us" ads do.
3. Not Coordinating With Sales
Sales should know when accounts are being targeted. Ideally, sales reaches out to warm accounts that just saw ads.
Combining ads with email and calls reinforces the message across multiple touchpoints.
4. Measuring Wrong Metrics
Clicks and impressions are vanity metrics. Measure account impact: did this account enter pipeline?
5. Giving Up Too Early
Account-based ads take 60-90 days to show pipeline impact. Most teams kill campaigns at 30 days.
Red Flags
- You're measuring CTR instead of account pipeline impact - Wrong metric
- Sales doesn't know which accounts are being targeted - Disconnect
- You're targeting 5,000 accounts - That's not account-based, that's demand gen
- You have generic creative - Won't work
- Your account list never updates - Account-based requires monthly list refreshes
Next Step
To start account-based ads:
- Define your 200 account list (use TAL)
- Upload to LinkedIn (Account Matched Audiences)
- Create 3-5 account-specific creative variations
- Set budget for 6-12 impressions per account/month
- Coordinate with sales (let them know when accounts are being targeted)
- Measure account pipeline impact (not clicks, not impressions)
Start with LinkedIn (easiest). Add Google and programmatic when you want scale.
Abmatic AI helps you define account lists, coordinate ads with email and sales motion, and measure account impact on pipeline.
Book a demo and we'll help you set up your first account-based ad campaign.
