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How to Measure ABM Strategy Success: 5 Considerations

  • - Rene Asis
  • 3 min read

B2B sales and marketing executives are constantly looking for ways to prove that campaigns are reaching prospects at their existing accounts. Over the years, the inherent challenge has been that marketing platforms, data providers, and services have catered to consumer-based marketing use cases. With an ABM platform, B2B marketers can now deliver at the account level and reach decision-makers and buying committees. Now, it’s time to ensure your campaign is performing with ABM measurement. 

Key Considerations for ABM Measurement

Here are the key things to consider in your ABM platform and program for ABM measurement to ensure you’re optimizing customer engagements to increase sales pipeline:

  • Measurability by channel: When choosing channels for your ABM campaign, ensure that you’re able to measure whether or not you’re reaching your target personas and accounts within each channel. This goes beyond ABM targeting to also include where prospects may also interact with your products. 
  • Core metrics: Consider what KPIs are important for you to measure from an account-based viewpoint. All standard media metrics like clicks, impressions, and activities should be accessible at an account or company level, as well as by persona or role. For example, you could measure the success in reaching an IT decision-maker from your target account list. The metrics you’re getting should provide key insights or actionable items that sales or your marketing organization can employ.
  • Audience analytics: ABM measurement can help you better understand and develop your core list of target audiences. Ensure you’re able to measure beyond your ABM target audiences to specific audiences. Being able to glean these insights will help you optimize and get the most value out of your ABM campaigns, as well as refine your research on what content interests which audience.
  • Addressability: Impending browser updates are also creating a tide change within the ad tech ecosystem. Walled gardens are also getting higher, so it’s key that your ABM program is both addressable and measurable, withstanding these industry shifts.  
  • Return on investment (ROI): Bringing digital marketing signals together with CRM data, like an account’s sales stage and/or revenue value, enables you to see how each of your media events contributed to those opportunity stages and revenue values. These data points are the most important attributes to any ABM campaign.

Advanced ABM Measurement Capabilities

As you expand your ABM campaign into other channels, you may consider isolating your tests to understand the impact. Also test optimizing your messaging to target accounts. Consider the various types of advanced measurement available, based on where you’re seeing the most engagement with your brand or products. Here are some advanced ABM measurement metrics to consider at the account level, and some examples of each: 

  • Pipeline attribution:
    • Account leads connected to media exposure
    • Contribution to revenue wins by account, media, or channel
  • Multichannel engagement:
    • Search, display, or native exposure tied to engagement
  • Unique user reach and frequency across device:
    • Total amount of personas reached from a company and their frequency of media exposed to those personas before engagement
  • Audience and buying committee attribution:
    • View roles and aggregate them to a buying committee, then to a purchase

For more advanced ABM strategies, building a personalization program or requiring deeper integrations with your CRM enables you to better understand the full attribution of all marketing efforts and review where to integrate all those events.

If you’re interested in how LiveRamp can help you advance your ABM practice and make sure you’re measuring against what matters in your ABM campaigns, reach out to [email protected] to learn more.