How to review your ABM efficiency

What’s the point in running an ABM campaign and not analyzing its efficiency?

I've written this week’s newsletter as a brush-up on the various parts of a campaign, one has to check when reviewing their ABM efficiency

1. Target Account Selection

Was your account selection on point? Reviewing the accuracy of your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is essential.?

• Account fit: Did the selected accounts match your ICP?
• Decision-maker accuracy: Were the right stakeholders engaged within each account?
• Refining Criteria: How can the selection criteria be improved for future campaigns?

This review allows you to fine-tune your targeting strategy, helping you focus on accounts that can find most success from your use-case.

2. Personalization and Engagement

Of course, personalization is key in ABM. These help show how personalized your content truly was:

• Engagement metrics: How did personalized content perform? Look at email open rates, click-through rates, and engagement with personalized ads.
• Content relevance: Was the messaging tailored effectively to each account’s needs?

By assessing the level of engagement for personalized content, you’ll gain insights into how well your messaging resonates with your target accounts and where improvements can be made.

3. Channel Performance

Not all channels deliver the same results. As part of your review, you should evaluate:

• Top-performing channels: Which channels (LinkedIn, email, calls, ads, webinars) delivered the best engagement?
• Underperforming channels: Were there any platforms that fell short of expectations?
• Multi-channel success: Did your multichannel approach work? Were decision-makers engaging across different touchpoints?

Understanding the performance of each channel helps you focus your efforts where they’re most impactful in future campaigns.

4. Sales and Marketing Alignment

ABM requires a strong partnership between sales and marketing. When reviewing your completed activities, look at:

• Team collaboration: Were sales and marketing aligned in their goals, strategies, and communication?
• Lead handoffs: Was the process for passing qualified leads from marketing to sales frictionless? What is the MQL to SQL conversion rate?
• Feedback loop: Were the feedback from sales used to optimize marketing efforts?

Effective alignment ensures that the handoff from marketing to sales is smooth, driving conversions and better outcomes.

5. Relationship Building

ABM focuses heavily on building long-term relationships with key accounts. Evaluate:

• New relationships: Did you establish connections with new decision-makers?
• Stakeholder reach: Were multiple decision-makers within each account engaged?
• Nurturing: How well did you nurture existing relationships throughout the campaign?

Relationships are the backbone of ABM success. The more deeply you engage with key decision-makers, the higher the likelihood of conversion.

6. Content and Messaging Performance

Content relevance is critical in ABM. When reviewing your content strategy, ask:

• Impact of content: Was your content (case studies, white papers, webinars) relevant and engaging for your target accounts?
• Content format: Which content formats (e-books, videos, blogs) drove the most engagement?
• Personalization success: How did personalized content perform versus generic content?

High-quality, tailored content is crucial to driving meaningful engagement with your accounts.

7. Account Engagement and Progression

Track how target accounts moved through the buying journey. Consider:

• Account progression: Did accounts advance through the sales funnel?
• Engagement increase: Was there an upward trend in engagement over time?
• Conversion success: How many accounts converted into sales meetings, proposals, or deals?

By analyzing account progression, you can better understand how well your strategies are moving key accounts towards conversion.

8. Revenue and ROI

ABM should ultimately drive revenue growth. Evaluate:

• Revenue impact: What revenue was generated from ABM accounts?
• Long-term relationships: Did the campaign yield long-term clients?
• Cost-effectiveness: How did the ROI of ABM compare to your overall marketing efforts?

Measuring the revenue impact and ROI will help you assess the financial success of your ABM campaign.

9. KPIs and Metrics

Review the campaign’s key performance indicators (KPIs). Look at:

• Conversion rates: Did the campaign hit your target conversion rates?
• Engagement metrics: How engaged were the target accounts?
• Cost-per-account: How did the cost of targeting each account compare to other marketing activities?

By reviewing KPIs, you can identify successes and areas that need improvement.

10. Scalability

Can successful strategies be scaled? Ask:

• Automation opportunities: Can any parts of the campaign be automated for future scalability?
• Tools: Are there tools that can help you scale personalized efforts to more accounts?

Identifying scalable strategies ensures that you can maintain a high level of personalization while increasing your account base.

Have I missed something in this review guide that you think is absolutely essential? Would love to know in the comments.

I’ll go deeper into some of these sections in the following newsletters.