How to choose the right ABM KPIs

How to choose your ABM KPIs

Picking the right ABM key performance indicators is essential. And not just for the usual reasons KPIs matter. Incentivizing the right behaviour is what sets your ABM strategy up for success.

Why?

Because ABM:

• Is different from most other marketing strategies
• Requires real collaboration between sales and marketing teams
• Can get off track quickly without the right goals in place

In this post we'll cover everything your company needs to set the right KPIs for your ABM program.

What are ABM KPIs?

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are specific metrics that let you measure the key elements of a campaign, department, or company. Account-based marketing KPIs work the same way, applied specifically to your ABM campaigns.

ABM KPIs are essential for:

• Setting guideposts for assessing ABM performance and deciding whether your tactics have succeeded
• Communicating goals to employees, team members, and anyone else with a stake in your success
• Defining the end goals towards which your ABM strategy is working

It's worth understanding the difference between KPIs and metrics here. Given the sheer volume of numbers available to account-based marketers, you risk drowning in data without that distinction.

ABM KPIs don't measure anything and everything. They measure only the most essential things that get to the heart of your strategy's success or failure. Accounts closed and return on investment are good examples. Those numbers tell you whether your strategy is working. They belong as KPIs. A social media follower count is nice to have, but it's hard to imagine it being essential to an ABM campaign's success.

Why setting ABM KPIs matters

KPIs matter in any field, but for ABM they're essential. ABM turns a lot of traditional marketing strategy on its head. You can't copy-paste the KPIs you use for standard sales and marketing. Marketing qualified leads, click-through rate, and total website traffic won't tell you much in an ABM context.

ABM is also still relatively new for many teams. That means team members may not fully understand what separates it from other marketing campaigns unless you spell it out. Both factors make well-thought-out KPIs more important, not less.

What to consider when setting your ABM KPIs

ABM takes time

Most account-based marketers agree on this. If you're just getting into ABM, doubling revenue in the first two weeks is not a realistic goal.

ABM is about developing relationships with target accounts, and specifically with the people inside those organizations. You can't make a few phone calls and quickly reel in a major new account.

Promising robust early results to get executive buy-in can be tempting. But given how long ABM takes to generate revenue, that approach usually leads to disappointment. Set yourself up for success by making sure everyone understands the timelines before the work begins.

What's your goal?

Not every ABM strategy is built the same way. Some companies use ABM primarily to retain and upsell existing customers, not to bring in new accounts. That distinction matters a great deal when you're setting KPIs.

Say retention is your goal. Metrics like marketing qualified accounts will likely send your team chasing new customers instead of deepening relationships with existing ones. Churn rate, which shows how many customers were lost in a given period, would be a far better fit. A KPI clearly aligned with your strategy keeps your team pointed in the right direction.

Choosing your targets

ABM is all about targets. Choose the wrong ones and you'll spend your time chasing low-value accounts, which defeats the purpose of doing ABM at all.

There's a strong argument for setting your KPIs before you choose your target accounts, not after. That order lets you build your target account list around your goals rather than retrofitting goals to a list that already exists.

Aligning sales and marketing when setting ABM KPIs

This is a big one.

One of the core benefits of ABM is how it aligns sales and marketing to work toward common goals. In practice, implementing ABM can create friction between the two teams. Sales may wonder whether ABM is just a way for marketing to justify delivering fewer marketing qualified leads.

That's why setting KPIs together matters so much. Agreeing on the metrics you want to target is one of the most effective ways to put sales and marketing on the same page.

Shared KPIs can:

• Ensure alignment by giving both teams a common definition of success
• Create transparency so each department understands what the other is expected to deliver
• Reinforce the value of ABM by tying the KPIs to the specific benefits each team is supposed to gain

Grading your accounts

Not all accounts are equally valuable under ABM. Some are more desirable than others and will require a distinct strategy. That's why grading your accounts before you set your marketing plan is worth the effort.

Start by defining what your ideal customer account looks like. Then grade your accounts into A, B, or C levels based on how closely they match that profile. The grade an account receives should shape the KPIs you set for it.

Best practices for ABM KPIs

Set KPIs for your highest-value accounts

For a standard marketing campaign, this level of detail might feel excessive. For your most important target accounts, it's necessary. If you want to convert them, you need to pay close attention to how you're progressing with each one. Setting account-level KPIs makes that progress visible.

Market to people, not companies

ABM isn't just about marketing to companies. It's about marketing to the specific people inside those companies. Your KPIs should reflect that. Track signals tied to individual contacts and buying committee members, not just company-level engagement.

Build your KPIs around your prospects' pain points

The way to win with ABM is to deliver value. To deliver value, you need to understand where your prospects are struggling. Your KPIs should reflect that. Ask: what pain points do you need to address for this account to move forward? The answers should shape what you measure.

Bringing it all together

Setting the right KPIs is foundational to a successful ABM strategy. But you can't apply a generic framework and expect meaningful results. Your ABM strategy is unique to your team, your targets, and your goals. Your KPIs should be too.