The best way to choose an Account-Based Marketing (ABM) agency is to test how it will prove pipeline impact, who owns the account-level numbers, and what the company holds on to when the engagement ends. An agency is a good fit for a team that lacks the experience or capacity to run ABM alone. In-house fits a team that already runs plays and reports pipeline at the account level.
The most common reason a company goes looking for a new ABM agency is a program that produces activity without provable pipeline. Impressions rise, intent scores rise, and meetings get booked, while the CMO still can’t say what ABM added to revenue. In Forrester’s 2022 State of ABM survey of 155 B2B marketers, 26% ran programs Forrester classed as “non-ABM initiatives.” In Momentum ITSMA’s 2023 benchmark study, only 52% of respondents (N=208) said their company measures ABM return on investment (ROI).
The Imaginarium is a B2B, creative-driven performance agency and a partner across go-to-market (GTM). We practice an operating-model approach to ABM, which we call Performance ABM. It ties ABM activity to pipeline and revenue through shared account-level KPIs. Campaign-based ABM reports channel and campaign metrics, which describe activity but leave pipeline impact unproven.
Key takeaways
- ABM fits a company with high-value deals, a named account list small enough to serve individually, and several decision-makers in every purchase.
- The Imaginarium is a B2B creative-driven performance agency that practices Performance ABM, an operating model that ties ABM activity to pipeline and revenue through shared account-level KPIs.
- ABM programs fall short when they operate as targeted lead generation with an ABM label, a pattern Momentum ITSMA’s 2023 study describes.
- An agency fits a team that lacks ABM experience or needs capacity faster than hiring allows. In-house fits a team that already runs plays and reports pipeline at the account level.
- A hybrid model suits teams in between. The company owns the account list and the measurement model, and the agency supplies strategy, creative, and media.
- The most reliable test of an ABM agency is whether it can show account-level pipeline reporting from a real engagement.
- Common red flags in a proposal are an unnamed delivery team, fees tied to a percentage of media spend, long lock-in terms, and no plan for attributable pipeline reporting.
- A good ABM pilot proves the measurement model works as well as the campaign.
Is ABM the right move for your company?
ABM fits a company when three conditions hold. Deal values are high enough to justify account-level investment. The target list is small enough to name, research, and serve individually. Each purchase involves a buying committee, which is a group of people with different roles and risks who sign off on a deal.
When one of the three conditions is missing, demand generation is often the better investment. Demand generation aims broad campaigns at everyone who matches a profile. ABM and demand generation can also run side by side, with ABM on the named accounts and demand generation on the rest of the market.
Readiness matters as much as fit. Forrester’s analysis of its 2022 survey describes “non-ABM initiatives” as programs with limited budget, thin access to data, siloed teams, and no best-fit account list. These programs try to cover more accounts than their resources allow, and they struggle to win executive sponsorship or buy-in from sales. Forrester recommends assessing readiness before starting, setting the ABM strategy before making technology purchases, and securing sponsorship from sales and marketing leadership.
Five readiness checks apply before choosing a vendor:
- Sales and marketing agree on the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), the description of the companies most likely to buy and stay.
- A Target Account List (TAL) exists, and sales has reviewed it.
- A sales leader and a marketing leader sponsor the program.
- The budget covers the number of accounts on the list.
- Someone owns account-level reporting.
An agency fits best when most of these checks pass, and the gap is experience or capacity. When most fail, the first piece of work is the ICP, the account list, and sales alignment, whoever does it.
Why do ABM programs stall?
Two studies describe how ABM programs fall short of their promise. Forrester’s 2022 State of ABM survey and the 2023 Momentum ITSMA and ABM Leadership Alliance benchmark study report these findings:
The Momentum ITSMA sample draws on members, clients, and contacts of Momentum ITSMA and the ABM Leadership Alliance, mostly at B2B technology and business services companies.
The Imaginarium reads these findings as a measurement problem. Programs stall when teams run activity without shared goals or account-level KPIs above it, and a new agency or platform added to that structure inherits the same gap. We call the activity-led version Performative ABM, and the version built on shared enterprise goals and account-level KPIs is Performance ABM. The Performative ABM vs. Performance ABM playbook covers the difference in full.
What does an ABM agency do?
An ABM agency designs and runs ABM programs, which focus marketing and sales efforts on a defined list of high-value accounts instead of a broad audience. Most agencies cover some mix of the following:
- ICP and TAL development
- Account selection and tiering
- Messaging and creative for account segments
- Media across channels such as LinkedIn, programmatic (automated ad buying), connected TV (CTV), and email
- Sales enablement and handoff support
- Reporting and attribution
Tiering sets the depth of each program. 1:1 programs build custom experiences for one strategic account, 1:few programs serve a cluster of similar accounts, and 1:many programs serve a larger segment. Scope varies by agency. The useful comparison is what each agency measures and what it leaves behind.
Campaign-based vs. operating-model ABM agencies
ABM agencies sit on a spectrum with two models at the ends. A campaign-based ABM agency starts with a channel plan and a campaign calendar, and each team keeps its own metrics. Success is reported as impressions, click-through rate, marketing-qualified leads (MQLs), and booked meetings. An operating-model ABM agency, sometimes described as systems-based, starts with enterprise pipeline and revenue goals. It builds shared account-level KPIs for marketing, sales development, sales, and customer success, then designs plays, measurement, and handoffs from those goals.
Most agencies land somewhere between the two columns. The rows show where a given proposal falls.
Which ABM agency model fits which company?
A campaign-based ABM agency fits when the goal has an end date, and the company’s team already owns measurement. Typical cases include:
- A launch into a new segment or vertical with a defined budget and window
- A single event, product launch, or competitive push
- A team that needs creative and media capacity under an existing measurement model
- Leadership that wants a fast read on whether named accounts respond to a message
The trade-off appears at the review. Campaign metrics describe activity, and the company’s internal team connects that activity to pipeline.
An operating-model ABM agency fits when the question has moved from “does ABM work?” to “how do we run it across the business?” Typical cases include:
- Marketing, sales development, and sales reporting on different metrics, which turns the quarterly review into a debate about whose numbers count
- A CMO who must report ABM to the board in account and pipeline terms
- A pilot that worked and now needs to scale across regions, segments, or business units
- Data in several systems with no account-level view
- A first test of ABM that has to prove pipeline impact, with no account-level measurement in place yet
The Imaginarium practices an operating-model approach for B2B companies that need a single account-level measurement model across marketing, sales development, sales, and customer success.
Should you hire an ABM agency, build in-house, or use a hybrid model?
An ABM program belongs in-house when the team already runs plays and reports at the account level, and the gap is a specific skill. An ABM agency fits when nobody has run a multi-channel ABM program, when capacity is needed faster than hiring allows, or when an outside team needs to run goal alignment between sales and marketing. Four questions settle the decision:
- Expertise. Has anyone on the team run a multi-channel ABM program?
- Speed. Does leadership expect results within two quarters?
- Control. Does the company need to own data, account lists, and workflows day to day?
- Measurement. Can the team report pipeline at the account level today?
A hybrid model is common. The company’s team owns the ICP, the TAL, and the measurement model, and the agency supplies strategy, creative, and media execution. This split keeps knowledge of the accounts inside the company.
Teams that build the operating model without outside experience can stall in four places:
- A goal-alignment session that ends as a pleasant conversation and a slide deck instead of a decision
- A KPI audit that surfaces a long list of metrics nobody agrees to retire
- A play library that grows to dozens of entries, none with a defined trigger
- A measurement framework built by the analytics team in isolation and ignored by sales
Outside experience helps most when the people running the program are also the people being asked to change how they work.
What are the red flags in an ABM agency proposal?
Five red flags are worth checking in any ABM agency proposal:
- Unnamed delivery team. The pitch features senior leaders, but it doesn’t name the people who will do the work, which is a pattern buyers call bait-and-switch staffing.
- Fees tied to a percentage of media spend. The agency earns more as spend rises, whether or not pipeline does.
- Long lock-in terms. A long minimum commitment with no performance review or exit clause leaves the company without recourse if results lag.
- No attributable pipeline reporting. Results arrive as impressions, clicks, and MQLs, with no account-level view of pipeline.
- No account-selection method. The target list comes from a platform default instead of the company’s revenue data and sales input.
A proposal with none of these flags still needs the eight questions below.
Eight questions to ask an ABM agency before you sign
These eight questions separate agencies that report activity from agencies that report pipeline. A strong answer names a specific process, metric, or example from a real engagement.
- How do you decide which accounts we target? A good answer describes a TAL built jointly with sales and reviewed quarterly, with the ICP grounded in the company’s revenue data.
- What goals do you start from? A good answer starts with enterprise pipeline and revenue targets set with sales leadership before any channel is chosen.
- Which KPIs will marketing, sales development, and sales share? A good answer names account-level metrics, such as account engagement score, progression from awareness to active pipeline, ABM-influenced pipeline, and revenue from target accounts.
- How do you report results, and to whom? A good answer produces a view the CEO and CFO can read in pipeline and revenue terms.
- Who will do the work day to day? A good answer names the team, their seniority, and the share of their time on this account.
- What do we own when the engagement ends? A good answer names the KPI framework, the play library, the measurement model, the data, and the account lists, all documented and stored in the company’s systems.
- What are the exit terms? A good answer states the minimum term, the notice period, and a scheduled performance review.
- What happens when a play underperforms? A good answer identifies which account type, play, and stage is stalling, then changes the play at the next review.
An ABM agency that can’t answer questions 2, 3, and 6 with specifics is probably running targeted advertising and calling it ABM.
What does an operating-model ABM engagement include?
An operating-model ABM agency opens with five questions before it plans a campaign:
- What is the business trying to achieve?
- What does success look like at the pipeline and revenue level?
- Which accounts, if moved, would create the most meaningful impact?
- What plays, across which teams, would move them?
- How will the team know whether any of it is working?
The answers set the KPIs, plays, measurement, and handoffs. Engagement then moves through five steps in a fixed order, from enterprise goals down to team activation. Programs struggle most often when they reverse that order and start from channels.
- Define goals at the enterprise level. Sales leadership, revenue operations, and often the CEO agree on target segments, required pipeline, the mix of new logos and expansion, and the time frame.
- Build a unified KPI framework. The goals translate into account-level KPIs every team shares.
- Design the play architecture. Each play maps to a goal and an account stage.
- Build the measurement framework. The framework defines what is tracked, at what level of detail, how often, and in what format, before activation begins.
- Activate across teams within a shared scaffold. Each team runs its own plays inside the operating model, with documented handoffs.
An ABM play is a defined, repeatable sequence of actions across one or more functions, built to move a specific type of account toward a specific goal. A mature play library covers awareness, consideration, pipeline acceleration, expansion, and renewal. Each play has an objective, a trigger, a sequence of actions across the relevant teams, and a measure of success. A play without a defined outcome is an activity.
How long does ABM take, and what does it cost?
ABM results arrive in a predictable order. Engagement in target accounts shows first, followed by pipeline influence, and revenue arrives on the timeline of the sales cycle. A pilot shorter than one full buying cycle can show engagement but cannot show closed revenue. Leading indicators and review dates work best when agreed before launch.
ABM agency fees vary with scope. These factors set the price:
- Number of accounts and how they are tiered
- Channels and media the agency manages
- Volume and type of creative
- Data, platform, and integration work
- Measurement and reporting build
- Sales enablement and handoff support
Platform licenses, media spend, and creative production often sit outside the retainer, and a proposal should state what is quoted separately. The Imaginarium scopes and prices each engagement at the proposal stage, after we understand the company’s accounts, systems, and goals.
What should an ABM pilot prove?
An ABM pilot works best with a small account list, a fixed window of one to two quarters, and a definition of success agreed in writing before launch. The definition depends on the model:
- Campaign-based pilot. The pilot proves whether target accounts respond to the message and channels. Success looks like engagement from the right buying committee members, meetings booked, and early opportunities created.
- Operating-model pilot. The pilot proves ABM can produce pipeline for the company, and it builds the measurement to show it. Success looks like pipeline goals and shared KPIs agreed upfront, account-level engagement and early pipeline reported from the CRM, and a clear read on which plays moved which accounts.
The Imaginarium runs pilot engagements for companies that need to test a go-to-market motion before they scale it. The pass criteria belong in writing before the first campaign launches, under either model.
How should an ABM agency report results?
An ABM agency should report at the account and pipeline level. Five account-level KPIs give every team the same currency:
- Account engagement score
- Progression rate from awareness to active pipeline
- ABM-influenced pipeline
- Conversion rate at each stage
- Revenue from target accounts
Team-specific metrics still matter. Meetings booked remain the right measure for sales development, and engagement remains the right measure for marketing. Both become inputs to the shared account view. Boards read ABM best in account and pipeline terms, and a team that knows which plays move which account types at which rates can model next year’s expected output instead of reporting only last quarter’s numbers.
How can a company score its ABM program?
The Performance ABM scorecard rates ten dimensions from 0 to 2, for a total out of 20. A dimension scores 0 when the practice is absent, 1 when it is partial, and 2 when it is fully in place. The total places a program in one of four bands:
The ten dimensions are goals, shared KPIs, play design, measurement, execution, ICP and TAL ownership, signals (intent data and account behavior used to prioritize outreach), handoffs, visibility, and optimization. Goals and shared KPIs are the foundation. When those two score low, strength in the other eight cannot fully compensate. A high tooling score also cannot offset low scores in strategy and measurement, because a platform enables performance only after goals, KPIs, and plays exist. The playbook has the scoring criteria for each dimension.
Frequently asked questions
How much does an ABM agency cost?
ABM agency cost depends on scope: the number and tiering of accounts, the channels managed, the volume of creative, the data and integration work, and the reporting build. Platform licenses, media spend, and creative production often sit outside the retainer. A proposal should itemize what is quoted separately.
How long does ABM take to show results?
Engagement in target accounts shows first, pipeline influence follows, and revenue arrives on the timeline of the sales cycle. A pilot shorter than one full buying cycle can show leading indicators but not closed revenue. Agreeing on leading indicators and review dates before launch gives each review a defined question to answer.
What is the difference between ABM and demand generation?
Demand generation aims campaigns at a broad audience that matches a profile, and measures leads. ABM starts with a named list of accounts and measures progress at the account level. The two can run side by side, with ABM on the named accounts and demand generation on the rest of the market.
Should I hire an ABM agency or build ABM in-house?
An ABM agency fits a company where nobody has run a multi-channel ABM program, or where capacity is needed faster than hiring allows. In-house ABM fits a company whose team already runs plays and reports account-level pipeline. A hybrid model suits teams in between, with the company’s team owning the ICP, TAL, and measurement model and the agency supplying strategy, creative, and media.
Should a company hire an ABM agency or add SDR headcount?
SDR headcount and an ABM agency solve different problems. More sales development representative (SDR) headcount adds outreach capacity. An ABM agency adds account selection, messaging, media, and measurement design. Forrester’s 2022 survey analysis lists the lack of a best-fit account list among the traits of “non-ABM initiatives,” and Momentum ITSMA’s 2023 study names aligning with sales among the top ABM challenges. A team weighing the two should first check that sales and marketing agree on the account list and share account-level goals.
Should a company choose a full-service ABM agency or a point-solution vendor?
A point-solution vendor, such as an ABM platform, an intent data provider, or an advertising tool, supplies one capability and leaves strategy, creative, and measurement design to the company’s team. A full-service ABM agency supplies strategy, creative, media, and measurement design across the program. A point solution fits a team that already has a defined account strategy and the skills to use the tool. A full-service agency fits a team that needs the strategy and execution built. A hybrid is common, with a platform supplying data and an agency supplying strategy and creative.
Do I need an ABM platform, or can an agency replace one?
A first ABM program can run on a company’s existing CRM and advertising platforms. An agency supplies strategy, creative, media, and measurement design, and a platform supplies data and orchestration. Forrester advises setting the ABM strategy before making technology purchase decisions. A platform placed on weak goals and KPIs produces sophisticated-looking confusion.
Why does ABM fail to produce pipeline?
ABM fails to produce pipeline when it operates as targeted lead generation without shared goals, a best-fit account list, or sales buy-in. Momentum ITSMA’s 2023 study found that many programs deploy ABM as little more than targeted lead generation, and Forrester’s 2022 survey classed 26% of respondents’ programs as non-ABM initiatives. The fix starts with the ICP, the account list, and shared account-level KPIs before any new channel or tool.
How do I know an agency is doing ABM and not demand generation with an ABM label?
Four signs separate ABM from demand generation with an ABM label. The agency asks about goals and readiness before budget, builds the account list with the company’s sales team, reports at the account level, and agrees on shared KPIs with sales. Targeted advertising aimed at an account list is one tactic within ABM, and it does not make a program ABM on its own.
What is the difference between a campaign-based and an operating-model ABM agency?
A campaign-based ABM agency runs time-boxed programs and reports campaign metrics such as impressions, clicks, and meetings booked. An operating-model ABM agency, sometimes called systems-based, builds a shared account-level measurement model with common KPIs for marketing, sales development, sales, and customer success. The Imaginarium is an operating-model ABM agency.
What are Performative ABM and Performance ABM?
Performative ABM uses the right platforms, runs known plays, and speaks the ABM vocabulary. Each team can show it is doing its job by its own metrics, but the missing piece is an architecture of shared goals and KPIs connecting those activities to pipeline and revenue. Performance ABM is The Imaginarium’s operating model for ABM. It starts with enterprise goals and shared KPIs, then cascades into strategy, operations, data architecture, media, and creative.
Where to start
The scorecard in this guide shows where a program’s goals, KPIs, plays, measurement, and handoffs stand today. The Performative ABM vs. Performance ABM playbook adds the scoring criteria for each dimension. Reading the score next to the red flags and the eight questions gives a company a way to test each proposal.
Contact us for a second opinion on an agency proposal, or to scope a pilot of the operating-model approach.
