Account-based marketing (ABM) is a strategic approach to business-to-business (B2B) marketing that focuses sales and marketing resources on targeted accounts rather than scattering efforts across many potential leads. The goal is to create tailored messaging and experiences for key accounts that will resonate and convert into sales.
What are the benefits of ABM?
There are several key benefits that make ABM an attractive strategy for B2B companies:
- More personalized – With ABM, companies can craft personalized messaging, offers, and experiences specifically for targeted accounts rather than relying on broad, generic campaigns.
- Higher conversion rates – Since messaging is customized and relevant, ABM tends to convert leads at a higher rate compared to traditional demand generation tactics.
- Larger deal sizes – By focusing on strategic accounts, ABM helps companies land and expand key enterprise deals that have higher customer lifetime value.
- Enhanced sales and marketing alignment – Sales and marketing teams have to work closely together with ABM to coordinate account-based efforts, improving collaboration.
- Measurable ROI – Companies can clearly see the impact of ABM efforts on pipeline and revenue from targeted accounts.
Why use LinkedIn for ABM?
With over 740 million members worldwide, LinkedIn is a prime channel for executing account-based strategies for several reasons:
- Professional network – LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network, making it easy to identify and connect with key decision makers.
- Targeting options – LinkedIn offers robust options for targeting advertising and content very precisely based on company, job role, groups, and more.
- Company/employee data – Detailed company pages and employee profiles provide valuable insights for persona development and messaging.
- Content hosting – Long-form posts and multimedia content can be hosted natively on LinkedIn to reach targeted accounts.
- Retargeting – Audiences that engage with content can be re-targeted with ads across devices.
- Metrics and reporting – LinkedIn campaigns provide detailed metrics on content engagement, lead generation, and pipeline contribution at the account level.
Key elements of an ABM strategy on LinkedIn
Here are some of the main elements to include in an effective account-based marketing strategy on LinkedIn:
Identify target accounts
Conduct research using sales insights, ideal customer profiles (ICPs), and tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator to identify and prioritize high-value accounts with the greatest revenue potential. Avoid targeting too many accounts to maintain focus.
Create personalized campaigns
Develop customized LinkedIn ad campaigns and content aimed specifically at personas from your priority accounts by highlighting relevant products, services, and messaging.
Engage with LinkedIn ads
Serve targeted Sponsored Content and Text Ads to your ideal audience at target accounts to raise awareness and prompt engagement.
Create relevant content
Develop long-form posts, articles, e-books, case studies, and other content assets relevant to your target accounts to share on LinkedIn and drive downloads.
Connect with decision makers
Use tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator to directly connect with relevant decision makers, influencers, and experts at target accounts via personalized outreach and InMail messages.
Run retargeting campaigns
Retarget website visitors, content viewers, and leads from your target accounts using LinkedIn’s Website Retargeting and Matched Audiences features.
Leverage insights and analytics
Review account-level campaign analytics in LinkedIn Campaign Manager to optimize your approach and demonstrate quantifiable pipeline and revenue impact from your ABM program.
Best practices for ABM success on LinkedIn
When executing an account-based strategy on LinkedIn, keep these best practices in mind:
- Coordinate tightly with sales – Make sure marketing and sales teams are aligned on target accounts, messaging, and playbooks.
- Personalize everything – Tailor all creative, offers, messages, and experiences specifically for each priority account.
- Focus on high-impact accounts – Resist widening your focus too much; more targeted efforts drive better results.
- Make content worth sharing – Develop content that influencers at your accounts will see value in sharing.
- Use visibility wisely – Be thoughtful about controlling visibility settings on ads and posts to avoid unwanted disclosure.
- Monitor engagement signals – Track opens, clicks, site visits, and other signals of engagement at each account.
- Be persistent and patient – Moving high-value accounts takes time; maintain targeted outreach over an extended time frame.
- Review, optimize, improve – Continuously refine your ABM strategy based on data and insights into what’s resonating best.
Key LinkedIn advertising options for ABM
LinkedIn offers several ad formats that can be highly effective for account-based programs:
Ad Format | Description | Benefits |
---|---|---|
Sponsored Content | Native, in-feed posts that look like regular LinkedIn posts | Organic, native format; works for awareness & engagement |
Text Ads | Highly targeted text ads displayed on the right rail | Strong targeting capabilities; drives traffic |
Dynamic Ads | Highly personalized ads with dynamically populated content | Maximizes relevance; prepopulates forms |
Message Ads | Sponsored InMail messages that reach the inbox | Direct access to the inbox; starts conversations |
Conversation Ads | Sponsored messages driving conversations with sales reps | Direct contact with sales reps; schedules meetings |
Each ad type brings different strengths for engaging targeted accounts. Used together, they allow you to reach stakeholders across an organization in a coordinated, trackable way.
Best practices for content in an ABM strategy on LinkedIn
Content is a powerful component of account-based programs on LinkedIn. To maximize impact, follow these content best practices:
Align content to account needs
Make sure all content directly addresses pain points, challenges, and goals specific to your target accounts. The more relevance, the better the engagement.
Mix formats and types
Develop a variety of content assets – long-form posts, articles, e-books, infographics, case studies, videos, etc. – tailored to accounts.
Promote sharing
Encourage target account stakeholders to share content internally by highlighting relevant value messages.
Repurpose and refresh
Repurpose content and give it new life by updating posts, creating summaries, and promoting across channels.
Make content interactive
Include calls-to-action, polls, quizzes, links, downloads, and other interactive elements to boost engagement.
Have sales follow up
When stakeholders from target accounts engage with content, have sales follow up to continue the conversation.
Measure engagement
Analyze who from target accounts is viewing, downloading, commenting, and sharing content to refine your approach.
Key metrics and KPIs for LinkedIn ABM
To assess the impact of your LinkedIn ABM efforts, be sure to track these key performance indicators (KPIs):
- Account engagement – Views, clicks, shares, comments, reactions by target accounts
- Content engagement – Downloads, reads, time on page for content assets
- Lead quality – Relevance, seniority, conversion rate for sales-qualified leads (SQLs)
- Sales conversations – Outreach, emails, calls, meetings booked with target accounts
- Pipeline influence – Target account opportunities created, progressed, or closed
- Revenue contribution – Closed/won deals & expanded business from target accounts
Monitoring these metrics helps demonstrate the business impact from ABM programs on LinkedIn and highlight areas for optimization.
Challenges of implementing ABM on LinkedIn
While highly effective, executing account-based marketing on LinkedIn also comes with some potential challenges including:
- Resource requirements – ABM takes significant time, staff, content creation, and budget investment to do well.
- Long sales cycles – Moving enterprise deals takes patience; expect an extended timeframe to convert accounts.
- Scattered stakeholders – Touching all relevant contacts at an organization requires expanded outreach.
- Coordinating teams – Close cross-functional collaboration is a must for ABM success.
- Limited scale – A focused approach on selected accounts limits overall reach and impressions.
- Account identification – It can be difficult to define and research the best accounts to target.
- Measuring influence – Tying revenue directly to ABM can be ambiguous if sales/CRM systems lack account-level tracking.
Despite these challenges, companies willing to commit the required resources and take a methodical approach find that the heightened focus and personalization of ABM delivers significant returns on LinkedIn and other channels.
Tools for executing ABM on LinkedIn
Some recommended tools for executing effective account-based marketing strategies on LinkedIn include:
LinkedIn Sales Navigator
LinkedIn’s premium sales tool provides valuable account research capabilities, lead recommendations, automated outreach tools, and account-level analytics.
LinkedIn Matched Audiences
This ad targeting feature allows you to re-engage people from target accounts who have visited your website by uploading company lists.
LinkedIn Campaign Manager
LinkedIn’s campaign management platform provides robust targeting options and reporting on LinkedIn ad metrics by account.
LinkedIn Elevate
Elevate allows brands to share employee posts and amplify their reach, helpful for getting content in front of targeted accounts.
CRM tools
Integrating sales/CRM systems with LinkedIn Campaign Manager provides a closed loop to track pipeline and revenue from ABM programs.
Marketing automation platforms
MAPs like Marketo and Eloqua help automate customized messaging and experiences across channels for key accounts.
Attribution tools
Multi-touch attribution helps quantify LinkedIn’s impact alongside other channels on pipeline and revenue from targeted accounts.
Case study: Microsoft’s LinkedIn ABM program
A standout example of ABM success on LinkedIn comes from Microsoft. By implementing a coordinated account-based strategy, Microsoft achieved impressive results:
- 467% increase in marketing influenced pipeline from targeted accounts
- 8.5x higher conversion rate compared to non-targeted accounts
- 91% of pipeline influenced by marketing came from targeted accounts
- 12.5x greater deal size from targeted accounts
Microsoft executed its ABM program on LinkedIn using targeted ads, content promotion, and Sales Navigator for buyer insights and outreach. This hyper-targeted approach underscored the power of Account-Based Marketing on LinkedIn.
Conclusion
More selectivity and focus on high-value accounts is critical for B2B marketing success. Executed strategically on LinkedIn, account-based marketing delivers personalized experiences that resonate with decision makers, convert leads efficiently, and drive substantial pipeline growth from prioritized accounts. Companies willing to dedicate the resources to do ABM right will reap significant rewards on LinkedIn and other digital channels.