When it comes to account based marketing, its definition in recent years has become grey. New techniques have transformed it from a strategy used by the few for only the largest prospects, to the many for a much larger group of prospects.
Most of the statistics out there come from the traditional definition of account based marketing rather than its newer scaled up cousin. I have therefore separated out stats specifically related to this Scaled Account Based Marketing (ABM) approach.
With more stats still coming in, we will continuously update this page.
(Last updated: November 2023).
You are welcome to use any of the stats from these pages, we would appreciate a link back.
The Buzz
If you are looking for social proof, there are plenty of marketers that already believe in account based marketing.
- 93% of B2B marketers worldwide say that ABM is “extremely” or “very” important to their overall marketing efforts (SiriusDecisons, Jan 2018)
- 60% of companies plan to invest more or significantly more in ABM in the next 12 months. (Sirius Decisions, Jan 2018)
- ABM takes time. Whilst 23% of marketers saw significantly higher ROI within 2 years, 55% did after 2 years. (ITSMA and ABM Leadership Alliance Account-Based Marketing Benchmarking Survey, Jul 2017)
- Account based budgets are rapidly expanding, with companies increasing spend by 41% in 2019. Due to early successes, organisations are doubling down on 2019 account-based investments. Budgets are focused on expanding current programs and extending account based into new segments (TOPO, Jan 2019)
- 56% of marketers strongly believe that personalised content is key to ABM success whilst 43% of marketers strongly believe that the key to ABM success is advanced data management (Forrester, September 2019)
- 36% of businesses spend more than 50% of their marketing budget on an ABM approach and 53% looking to increase their spend in the coming year (Inbox Insights, May 2019)
- B2B marketers continue to put ABM as a priority in their marketing strategies, with an average 28% of marketing budget spent on ABM, and 71% of companies will increase their ABM budget in 2023 (ABM Leadership Alliance, December 2022)
Why Account Based Marketing (ABM)?
- 89% saw an improvement in conversion rates of pipeline to closed deals for ABM accounts versus non-ABM accounts (Sirius Decisions Jan 2018)
- 91% stated that they saw a higher average deal size for ABM accounts versus non-ABM accounts (Sirius Decisions, Jan 2018)
- While the volume of content published continues to increase, new topic areas are getting rapidly saturated with content. (Content Trends Report 2018, Buzzsum, Mar 2018)
- Respondents indicate that account based improves customer lifetime value (80%), improves win rates (86%), and delivers higher ROI (76%) than a traditional go-to-market approach (TOPO, Jan 2019)
- Organisations with a strong Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) achieve 68% higher account win rates (TOPO, Jan 2019)
- 62% of Marketers surveyed say that they can measure a positive impact since adopting ABM (Forrester, September 2019)
- ABM demonstrates successful maturity as 55% of marketers rated their ABM as “established” compared to just 43% in 2018 (Forrester, September 2019)
- The vast majority of marketers report that ABM is well worth their investment, with 80% claiming somewhat higher returns and 64% claiming significantly higher results compared to other marketing activities (Inbox Insights, May 2019)
- About two-thirds (65%) of marketing professionals would describe their ABM strategy somewhat successful at achieving the primary objectives set for it. And a further 22% describe it as the very best in class (Acsend2, July 2020)
Customer Success and Account Based Marketing
- 77% of B2B marketers believe ABM has driven greater success for their target accounts (ITSMA, Nov 2018)
- 45% of respondents with less than three years of ABM experience in their organisations are seeing at least double the ROI from ABM (ITSMA, Nov 2018)
- 80% of companies with three years or more ABM experience are seeing at least double the ROI from ABM (ITSMA, Nov 2018)
- Most companies see higher ROI with ABM compared to other types of marketing, 71% say ABM ROI is higher than traditional marketing initiatives (ITSMA, Dec 2019)
- 80% of marketers say they have seen higher deal sizes with ABM compared to previous efforts (Inbox Insights, May 2019)
- 44% of marketers say that their target account revenue was generated from ABM programs (Acsend2, July 2020)
- 76% of companies see higher ROI with ABM than with other types of marketing with 50% saying somewhat higher and 26% saying significantly higher (ABM Leadership Alliance, September 2020)
- 62% of ABM leaders deliver superior business outcomes with their ABM programs (ABM Leadership Alliance, December 2022)
Scaled Account Based Marketing (ABM)
- 29% have integrated Demand Gen and Account Based Marketing processes to streamline marketing efforts (DemandGen Benchmark Survey 2017)
- WP Engine used the Terminus account-based advertising platform to generate 28% more new opportunities from target accounts (Terminus). As a result of their ABM campaign, WP Engine saw:
- Engagement from 93% of accounts on their target list.
- A 59% increase in open rates (from 27% to 43%)
- A 29% increase in reply rates (from 4.9% to 6.3%)
- 80% of ABM Marketers use 1-on-1 email outreach to communicate with accounts (2017 State of Account Based Marketing Survey, FlipMyFunnel)
- 71% of ABM marketers use phone calls or social media to communicate with accounts (2017 State of Account Based Marketing Survey, FlipMyFunnel)
- Annual contract value (ACV) saw a 171% uplift after implementing ABM programmes (TOPO, Nov 2016)
- As ABM matures, marketers are choosing to focus on fewer accounts: In 2019, 56% say they actively target 99 or fewer ABM accounts, compared to 47% who said the same in 2018 (Forrester, September 2019)
Account Based Retention
Account Based Marketing strategies do not just apply to successfully closing customers. It equally applies after the sale is closed.
- 42% of marketers say that target account engagement are the most helpful measure of the success of an ABM program (Acsend2, July 2020)
- 71% of marketers say that they have seen a measurable business improvement in customer relationship (e.g., account engagement, relationship strength, breadth and depth of relationships) with their ABM program (ABM Leadership Alliance, September 2020)
Sales and Marketing Alignment
- Organisations with tightly aligned sales and marketing functions experience 36% higher customer retention rates and 38% higher sales win rates (SalesProfs, Jan 2016)
- Companies are 67% better at closing deals when sales and marketing teams are in sync (Marketo, 2017).
- Companies that optimise the marketing/sales relationship grow revenue 32% faster (Aberdeen Group, Mar 2016)
- 90% of respondents believe that alignment between sales and marketing is better with account based GTM versus traditional GTM (TOPO, Jan 2019)
- 66% of ABM programs have significantly improves sales and marketing alignment (ABM Leadership Alliance, December 2022)