The value of ABM for integrated campaigns

Digital marketers around the world understand the value of good targeting. It’s crucial whether you’re working in the PPC division, live inside the SEO team, or are focussed on conversion rate optimisation. It’s perhaps surprising then that account-based marketing is often a low priority when it comes to implementing integrated campaigns for clients.

ABM is ideal for developing multi-channel (and particularly B2B) marketing campaigns, complimenting existing strategies, and opening potential for much higher ROI for the client.

In fact, a study conducted by SiriusDecisions shows that 89% of B2B marketers indicated that ABM accounts achieved a higher ROI than non-ABM accounts.

“What we like about ABM for our clients, is that we can leverage data to hyper target the key decision makers inside of a business,” says Stephanie Walters, Senior Digital Strategist at Somebody Digital. “This allows us to disqualify hollow leads and spend more time and budget nurturing those who are actually already in the decision and purchase stage.”

This is a particularly effective strategy when working with B2B clients that have a high-value product, or a long sales cycle.

Meeting customers’ needs where they’re at

Using ABM strategies allows agencies to touch potential leads at varying points along the sales cycle and serve them the right content at the right time to answer their specific questions or needs.

“Because we’re making use of data to drive our account-based marketing, we have insight into where a target is at any given point in the sales cycle, so we can provide them with personalised information that can later inform their buying decision,” adds Walters.

This insight also allows marketers to create a more pleasant experience for a potential customer in the sense that the entire journey can be highly personalised, weeding out any unnecessary messaging and providing them with highly relevant content, with the ultimate goal of conversion.

ABM plays well with others, and in particular with PPC due to its content-heavy nature. 

“ABM is about using the power of data to understand your target audience on a deeper level,” says Cristiano Winckler, partner at Somebody Digital. “By understanding the kind of questions they might ask, or the type of solution they are searching for inside of their business, we can then serve them the right ads and information across PPC platforms, targeting them with individualised messaging.”

Benefits to budget

A natural consequence of an ABM campaign is greater efficiencies when it comes to managing media budgets. Rather than just the “spray and pray” approach of some more traditional marketing methodogies, ABM allows for extremely specific targeting, which means extremely specific spend.

“Because ABM allows you to spend budget on very targeted accounts, companies and individuals it becomes much more cost-effective in driving results,” says Winckler. “This is because you’re not wasting spend on an audience that might not be in need of your products or services, but rather targeting prospects who are more likely to convert”

The proof is in the ROI

Many brands have experienced great success using ABM targeting. Technographics company Datanyze saw open rates on targeted and segmented emails that were 37% higher than their non-ABM emailers. While software company Robin increased traffic to their site by 50% and grew leads by 20% using ABM as a compliment to their ongoing marketing strategies.

“We’ve experienced the power of ABM for ourselves recently when we were approached by Laminar Security to assist with their go-to-market strategy,” says Winckler. “It was a great opportunity to use the ABM approach, because they sell cloud data security, which is a big yet critical investment.”

Somebody Digital used highly targeted data to reach decision makers inside the IT and enterprise space with the Laminar Security offering. ABM marketing complemented the ongoing PPC efforts and was used to underpin an integrated campaign that included live events, webinars, videos, content pieces and more.

“We were astounded by what we saw,” says Walters. “After four months of activity, Laminar saw a 265% increase in MQA movement from the consideration stage to the purchase stage of the sales cycle. Similarly, 40% of accounts that we reached through paid media moved into the buying stage between May and July this year, all while the rate of disqualified contacts consistently dropped.”

It was this campaign that saw Somebody Digital shortlisted for a UK Search Awards this year. “We decided to enter this integrated campaign because we’re particularly proud of the results that we achieved, and we really believe in the level of cloud data security Laminar offers to its clients,” notes Winckler.

“It’s always an honour to be shortlisted for one of these awards, and we hope that we’ll do our clients’ proud when winners are announced on the 30^th of November.”

For more on the impactful and data-driven work Somebody Digital does, take a look at their website.