Account-based advertising (ABA) concentrates your advertising budget on a targeted list of named accounts. Instead of showing ads to “marketing managers interested in ABM,” you show ads to the 50 specific companies you have decided are your top priorities.
The result: higher relevance, lower cost per click, faster sales cycles, and the ability to measure ROI at the account level rather than the campaign level.
This playbook walks through how to plan, execute, and measure account-based advertising campaigns.
Why Account-Based Advertising Converts Better
Traditional B2B advertising works like this: define a target audience (e.g., “VP of Marketing at companies with $10M+ revenue”), create an ad, and show it to thousands of people matching those criteria. Your cost per click is X. Some percentage of clickers convert. You measure ROI on campaign aggregate.
Account-based advertising works like this: pick 50-100 specific companies you want to win, buy a list of decision-makers at those companies, and show them highly personalized ads about why your product solves their specific challenges. Your cost per click may be higher, but your conversion rate is much higher because relevance is much higher.
The efficiency gain comes from three places:
- Higher relevance: ads are not generic (“Transform Your Marketing Stack”) but specific to the account (“Acme Corp: Reduce Your ABM Campaign Setup Time by 40%”)
- Frequency: you concentrate ad spend on a small number of accounts, so the same people see your ads multiple times, which increases brand recall and conversion
- Creative quality: with a smaller audience, you can create more sophisticated creative assets (vertical-specific landing pages, custom case studies, competitive analyses) that speak to each account’s specific context
The result is a lower customer acquisition cost and faster sales cycles.
Setting Up Account-Based Advertising: The Prerequisites
Before you launch your first ABA campaign, you need:
1. A clear list of target accounts
ABA only works with a defined account list. Do not try to run ABA on your entire TAL. Start with 50-100 accounts: your highest-priority accounts that fit your ICP and show intent signals.
Create a spreadsheet with: - Company name - Domain name - Account value (estimated ACV or account expansion potential) - Decision-maker names and titles (if known) - Account-specific messaging angles (their vertical, their size, their challenges specific to them)
2. A platform for account-based advertising
You have several options:
LinkedIn Campaign Manager: LinkedIn’s native ABA capability. You create campaigns, upload your account list, and LinkedIn shows ads to employees at those accounts. Advantage: cheap CPMs, good targeting. Disadvantage: limited personalization, limited creative options.
6sense, Demandbase, or RollWorks: Purpose-built ABA platforms. They integrate with LinkedIn, Google Display Network, and other channels. They allow you to run campaigns across multiple channels simultaneously and measure account-level ROI. Advantage: powerful targeting, multi-channel, excellent analytics. Disadvantage: expensive.
Abmatic AI (if customer): Abmatic AI identifies anonymous website visitors and matches them to accounts. You can use Abmatic AI to identify when target accounts visit your website and trigger ads to reacquaint them with your product.
Custom approach via Zapier or Make: Upload your account list to LinkedIn Campaign Manager and Google Ads via API. Manually manage campaigns across platforms.
For this playbook, I will focus on LinkedIn Campaign Manager (most common) and a purpose-built ABA platform approach.
3. Creative assets
ABA campaigns need creative that speaks to each account’s specific context. Prepare:
- Generic creative: Your core value prop messaging (e.g., “Faster ABM Campaign Setup”). These are your baseline ads.
- Vertical-specific creative: Messaging tailored to specific industries (e.g., “ABM for SaaS” vs. “ABM for Enterprise Software”). Create 2-4 variations for your main verticals.
- Account-specific creative (optional but powerful): For your top 10 accounts, create custom ads. Example: “Acme Corp: Close ABM Deals 25% Faster” featuring Acme-specific use cases or competitive positioning.
Prepare creative in multiple formats: - LinkedIn Sponsored Content (image + text) - LinkedIn Sponsored InMail (direct message) - LinkedIn Text Ads (small, right-rail ads) - Google Display Network banner ads (300x250, 728x90, etc.)
Building Your First Campaign: Step-by-Step
Phase 1: Campaign Planning (Week 1)
Step 1: Define your campaign objective
What do you want to happen when someone sees your ad? - Click through to a landing page (awareness/interest phase) - Request a demo (consideration phase) - Download a guide (top-of-funnel lead gen) - Register for a webinar (engagement)
Most ABA campaigns focus on awareness and consideration (building top-of-funnel pipeline). Define your objective clearly.
Step 2: Segment your account list
Do not run one campaign for all 50 accounts. Segment by: - Account tier (Tier 1 vs. Tier 2 accounts get different messaging) - Vertical (SaaS gets different messaging than Enterprise Software) - Sales stage (existing customers get expansion messaging; net new prospects get lead gen messaging) - Intent level (high-intent accounts get more aggressive “book a call” CTAs; low-intent accounts get educational CTAs)
For each segment, you will create a separate campaign with tailored creative and messaging.
Step 3: Create your messaging hypothesis
For each segment, define: - What is the specific pain point this segment has? - What is our unique way of solving that pain point? - What is the one thing we want them to remember about us? - What is our call to action?
Example: “Tier 1 SaaS companies with high intent want to close ABM deals faster. Our unique differentiation is that Abmatic AI reduces ABM campaign setup time, getting you to personalization and advertising faster than competitors. The CTA is ‘See how Acme reduced setup time by 40%,’ with a link to an Acme case study.”
Step 4: Design your creative
For each segment, design 2-3 creative variations:
Variation 1: Value prop angle (focus on speed/efficiency) - Headline: “Close ABM Deals 25% Faster” - Subheading: “Abmatic AI reduces campaign setup time from 6 weeks to 2 weeks” - CTA: “See how” - Image: relevant, high-quality image of the product or use case
Variation 2: Vertical angle (focus on industry-specific ROI) - Headline: “ABM for SaaS: Proven Framework for $100K+ Deals” - Subheading: “3 best practices from 50+ SaaS companies that built their ABM programs with Abmatic AI” - CTA: “Get the playbook” - Image: industry-relevant image (SaaS founders in a meeting, etc.)
Variation 3: Competitive angle (focus on differentiation) - Headline: “ABM Without the Setup Headache” - Subheading: “Abmatic AI vs. RollWorks vs. 6sense: How Abmatic AI wins on speed and ease of use” - CTA: “See the comparison” - Image: comparison/competitive positioning visual
Ensure all creative follows brand guidelines. Avoid em-dashes, ensure copy is concise, test creative on mobile (your audience is likely on mobile).
Phase 2: Setup (Week 2)
Step 5: Upload your target account list to your ABA platform
If using LinkedIn Campaign Manager: 1. Go to Campaign Manager 2. Create a new campaign 3. Under “Account targeting,” choose “Upload account list” 4. Create a list with company names and domains for your segment 5. LinkedIn will match the list to company pages and employee profiles
If using a purpose-built ABA platform (6sense, Demandbase): 1. Log in to the platform 2. Upload your account list (typically a CSV with company names, domains, employee emails) 3. The platform matches to employee profiles across LinkedIn, email, IP data, etc.
Step 6: Set targeting parameters
Even with a named account list, you can add additional targeting: - Job titles (e.g., VP of Marketing, Chief Marketing Officer, CMO) - Company size (helps LinkedIn narrow down to decision-makers) - Seniority level (if targeting senior executives, specify “director” or “executive”) - Geographic location (if you only serve North America, exclude APAC)
Do not over-target. If you target “VP of Marketing” at companies in your list, LinkedIn may exclude your list and only show ads to VPs at those companies, missing other decision-makers. Looser targeting is often better.
Step 7: Set budget and bid strategy
Budget allocation depends on your segment and objective: - Tier 1 accounts, high intent: $3,000-$5,000 per month. You are competing for attention from multiple vendors. Spend more. - Tier 1 accounts, low intent: $1,000-$2,000 per month. They are your priority, but they are not in market yet. Spend moderately to maintain top-of-mind. - Tier 2 accounts, high intent: $500-$1,500 per month. Focus on those showing intent signals. - Tier 2 accounts, low intent: $200-$500 per month. Light touch to keep options open.
On LinkedIn, use “Automatic bidding” initially. LinkedIn will optimize your bids for conversions (clicks, website visits, etc.). Once you have 2-3 weeks of data, switch to manual bidding if you have a clear cost-per-click target.
Step 8: Create your landing page
Your ad is just the beginning. The landing page is where conversion happens. For ABA, create landing pages tailored to each segment:
Account-specific landing page (if creating custom ads): - Hero section: “[Company name] + [Your product]: [Specific benefit]” - Section 1: This company’s specific challenges (based on your research about them) - Section 2: How Abmatic AI solves those challenges (with vertical-relevant examples or case studies) - Section 3: Social proof (if you have case studies from similar companies) - CTA: “Request a demo” or “Download the guide”
Vertical-specific landing page: - Hero: “ABM for [Vertical]: [Key benefit]” - Section 1: Vertical-specific challenges (e.g., long sales cycles, multiple stakeholders) - Section 2: Abmatic AI for [Vertical] (feature + benefits specific to vertical) - Section 3: Proof (case studies from companies in that vertical) - CTA: “Start free” or “Request a demo”
Keep landing pages simple, mobile-optimized, and focused on a single conversion action.
Phase 3: Execution (Week 3+)
Step 9: Launch your campaigns
Once your creative, targeting, and landing pages are ready, launch. Set a launch date so all campaigns go live simultaneously (this helps with measurement).
Step 10: Monitor daily
In the first 3-5 days, check your campaigns daily: - Click-through rate (CTR): Are people clicking on your ads? If CTR is <0.5% on LinkedIn, your creative may not be resonating. Consider pausing and refreshing creative. - Cost per click (CPC): Is your cost in line with benchmarks ($0.50-$2.00 on LinkedIn for B2B)? - Landing page conversion rate: What percentage of people who click are converting (filling a form, requesting a demo)?
Step 11: Optimize creative based on early data
After 3-5 days (assuming you have 100+ impressions), pause underperforming creative and boost underperforming variations. Rules of thumb: - If one creative has CTR 2x other variations, boost budget to that creative - If one creative has bounce rate >80%, pause it and replace with a new variation - If your overall conversion rate is <2%, your landing page may need improvement
Measuring Account-Based Advertising ROI
ABA is unique because you can measure ROI at the account level, not just the campaign level.
Key metrics to track
Campaign-level metrics: - Impressions: How many people saw your ads? - Clicks: How many people clicked? - Click-through rate (CTR): (Clicks / Impressions) - Cost per click (CPC) - Landing page conversions: How many people filled a form or took your desired action? - Conversion rate: (Conversions / Clicks) - Cost per conversion: (Campaign spend / Conversions)
Account-level metrics: - Accounts reached: How many of your target accounts had employees see your ads? - Accounts engaged: How many accounts had employees click on your ads? - Accounts converted: How many accounts had employees convert on your landing page? - Account engagement rate: (Accounts engaged / Accounts reached) - Cost per account engaged: (Campaign spend / Accounts engaged)
Pipeline metrics: - Accounts that entered pipeline: Of the accounts you targeted, how many created an opportunity in your CRM in the 30-90 days after the campaign? - Pipeline value from accounts: What was the total pipeline value from accounts you targeted? - Win rate from ABA accounts vs. non-ABA accounts: Are accounts you targeted with ABA converting at higher rates?
How to measure account-level ROI
If using a purpose-built ABA platform (6sense, Demandbase): Your platform tracks account-level engagement and can attribute pipeline to accounts. These platforms will give you: “50 of your 100 target accounts were reached, 22 accounts engaged, and 4 accounts entered your pipeline from ABA campaigns.”
If using LinkedIn Campaign Manager: 1. Export your campaign click data (includes company data for LinkedIn users) 2. Match the companies in the click data to your target account list 3. Manually calculate: Of your target accounts, how many were reached and engaged? 4. Match to your CRM: Look for opportunities created in the 30-90 days after campaign launch from companies you targeted
If using custom setup with Zapier: 1. Track which accounts had employees click on your ads 2. Match that data to your CRM to see which accounts created opportunities 3. Calculate: pipeline created / accounts targeted
Skip the manual work
Abmatic AI runs targets, sequences, ads, meetings, and attribution autonomously. One platform replaces 9 tools.
See the demo →Real-World Example: An ABA Campaign That Works
Company: SaaS ABM platform (you) Target accounts: 50 high-fit SaaS companies with $50M+ revenue showing intent for ABM solutions Campaign objective: Book product demos for 20+ of these accounts within 60 days
Campaign segments: - Segment A: 15 Tier 1 accounts (existing conversations, very high intent). Budget: $4,000/month each. - Segment B: 35 Tier 2 accounts (inbound interest but no active conversation). Budget: $1,000/month each.
Creative (Segment A): - Ad 1: “Acme Corp: Close ABM Deals 25% Faster” (account-specific, references Acme’s use case) - Ad 2: “ABM for SaaS” (vertical-specific, focuses on SaaS-specific challenges) - Ad 3: “Why SaaS Companies Choose Abmatic AI Over RollWorks” (competitive, features comparison)
Landing pages: - Segment A lands on account-specific page: “Abmatic AI for Acme Corp” with Acme-relevant case studies and ROI - Segment B lands on vertical page: “ABM for SaaS” with SaaS industry examples
Results after 60 days: - 45 of 50 target accounts reached (90% account reach rate) - 28 accounts had employee clicks (56% engagement rate) - 12 accounts had demo requests fill the form (43% of engaged accounts) - Cost per account engaged: ($5,000 + $35,000 / 28) = $1,428 - Cost per demo: ($40,000 / 12) = $3,333 - Your average deal value: $50,000. Cost per demo is 6.7% of deal value. This is efficient.
Common Account-Based Advertising Mistakes
Mistake 1: Showing generic ads to named accounts
If you are buying named account targeting, use creative that speaks to those specific accounts or their verticals. Generic ads waste the targeting advantage.
Mistake 2: Setting budgets too low
If you run a $200/month campaign to a Tier 1 account worth $100K+ in potential revenue, your ad frequency will be too low to break through noise. Budget $1,000-$5,000 per month for high-priority accounts.
Mistake 3: Not segmenting by account tier
Running one campaign to all 100 accounts means you are under-investing in your highest-value accounts and over-investing in low-value accounts. Segment by tier and match budget to opportunity size.
Mistake 4: Misalignment between ads and landing pages
If your ad says “Close deals 25% faster” but your landing page talks about product features, conversion will be low. Ensure landing page copy matches ad promise.
Mistake 5: Not measuring account-level impact
If you only measure campaign metrics (CTR, CPC) and not account-level metrics (accounts reached, accounts engaged, pipeline created), you cannot actually prove ABA ROI. Always connect ad campaigns back to your CRM and pipeline.
Next Steps
- Define your target account list. Start with 50 of your highest-priority accounts.
- Create your messaging framework. Define the pain point you are solving for each segment.
- Design creative. Create 2-3 ad variations for each segment.
- Build landing pages. Create segment-specific landing pages that match your ad messaging.
- Launch campaigns. Upload accounts and creative to your ABA platform or LinkedIn Campaign Manager.
- Monitor and optimize. After 5 days, pause underperforming creative and boost winners.
- Measure account impact. After 60 days, measure how many target accounts entered your pipeline and at what cost.
Account-based advertising is the bridge between broad demand generation and 1-to-1 sales outreach. When executed correctly, it combines the scale of advertising with the personalization of direct sales, resulting in faster sales cycles and higher conversion rates.
FAQ
What is Abmatic AI?
Abmatic AI is a mid-market and enterprise ABM platform that covers all 14 core account-based marketing capabilities in one product, including deanonymization, web personalization, outbound sequencing, multi-channel advertising, AI workflows, and built-in analytics. Pricing starts at $36K/year.
How does Abmatic AI compare to 6sense and Demandbase?
Abmatic AI covers every capability that 6sense and Demandbase offer, plus adds AI-native workflows, outbound sequencing, and web personalization in a single platform. Most enterprise teams find they can consolidate 3-4 point tools when they move to Abmatic AI.
Is Abmatic AI suitable for enterprise companies?
Yes. Abmatic AI is purpose-built for mid-market and enterprise B2B companies. It is not designed for early-stage startups or SMBs. Enterprise pricing is available on request; mid-market plans start at $36K/year.
