If there’s one truth in life (and in B2B marketing), it’s this: Data and metrics should always inform decisions. One of the reasons account-based marketing has reached popularity in the last few years is because it gives clear results—communicating to the sales and marketing teams, as well as other stakeholders, that the marketing strategy is working (or not working, and there’s some adjusting to do).
But how exactly should ABM results be measured and tracked? What qualifies a “successful” campaign? How can you tell if your efforts are actually worth it? This is where the fun comes in: ABM technology and strategies give way to real-time, informative results. Below, learn about five KPIs marketers and sales teams use to measure ABM success—and how they better inform strategies across the board.
1. ENGAGEMENT
Engagement, the buzz word thrown around by those in the industry and digital worlds that oftentimes feels hypothetical or non-measurable. But that isn’t the case with ABM.
Simply put, engagement is key when measuring ABM success; a more engaged account is automatically more valuable in the funnel than a non-engaged account. Tracking whether your conversions elicit further engagement is a crucial metric, as is whether the content you’ve delivered is significantly increasing your target’s likelihood of becoming an MQA. This is a measurement that should be continually tracked over time.
Engagement also serves as an important middle-of-funnel measurement that:
- Tells the sales team which accounts are on the road to becoming customers, and when it’s the opportune time to strike
- Lets the marketing team know where to continue their efforts or spend more time
- Indicates potential revenue
2. MARKETING QUALIFIED ACCOUNTS (MQAs)
SQLs or MQAs… how do you know which one to measure? Let’s break it down. With ABM, your data sheets will include a smaller set of accounts (versus leads), with more precise data than what you’d find in conventional marketing analytics tools. But that doesn’t mean you necessarily need to ignore traditional leads; ABM just encourages focusing on more qualified accounts, that way effort is conserved for accounts more likely to be pushed down the pipeline and convert. For an account to identify as an MQA, it must meet a certain level of engagement (see above) that indicates it is ready for a sale.
ABM just encourages focusing on more qualified accounts, that way effort is conserved for accounts more likely to be pushed down the pipeline and convert.
3. COVERAGE & REACH
Do you already know people within the targeted organization? Are the right contacts already in your database, and do you have enough data on each account? Are you adding new people or engaged people during the ABM process? That’s coverage.
Reach, which can also be referred to as awareness, is about making sure the accounts you’re interested in know about you and what you’re selling. You can define a minimum threshold for reach, like having an account spend at least three minutes on your site. If you’re seeing growth in coverage and reach, then you know your marketing activations are working.
4. PIPELINE SPEED
This is where the cohesive marketing and sales teams will really shine: You’ll want to measure the timeline or speed of an account moving down the funnel. How long did the process take—from first engagement to opportunity to conversion? With ABM, you can’t expect this KPI to be one you turn around the next day with a sale to show your stakeholders. Pipeline speed (also known as velocity) will help you report to higherups during the process, showing where you are and where you will be in a certain timeframe.
5. ROI
Three letters representing the Holy Grail of business: return on investment. According to research by Altera Group, 97% of businesses using an ABM approach saw higher ROIs than with any other marketing strategy (one of the reasons it’s grown in popularity over the last few years). A high ROI results from the fact that ABM has never been about the volume of conversions, but rather about the quality of conversions—allowing your business to get a greater ROI on a smaller amount of work.
One of the reasons account-based marketing has reached popularity in the last few years is because it gives clear results—communicating to the sales and marketing teams, as well as other stakeholders, that the marketing strategy is working (or not working, and there’s some adjusting to do). Here, you’ll learn about five different metrics you can use to measure your ABM campaigns: engagement, MQAs, coverage and reach, pipeline speed, and the ever-important ROI.