The inversion from audiences-as-inputs to audiences-as-outputs is where alot of ABM programs are quietly dying right now. Watched a team spend six months building a 3k account TAL, only to realize their signal data was showing actual buying behavior from ~200 accounts they'd completely ignored. The hard part isnt technical, its getting teams to accept that thier carefully curated lists might be wrong, and that decay models matter more than precision targeting. Platforms optimizing to feedback loops instead of frozen CSVs makes total sense when you frame it as training algos, not buying media. That shift alone changes budget allocation, campaign structure, and how you staff marketing ops.
Thanks for the thoughtful comment and this picks out a number of key threads.
These over bloated TALs, where more accounts is seen as better, often combined with a KPI of penetrating as many accounts as possible is a major problem when it comes to linking ABM programs with pipeline. It means a staggeringly small % of media spend lands on accounts which are in market, and as a result the program doesn’t work for pipeline. Yet really less than 10% of the campaign budget will be spent targeting accounts which the program could realistically influence
The inversion from audiences-as-inputs to audiences-as-outputs is where alot of ABM programs are quietly dying right now. Watched a team spend six months building a 3k account TAL, only to realize their signal data was showing actual buying behavior from ~200 accounts they'd completely ignored. The hard part isnt technical, its getting teams to accept that thier carefully curated lists might be wrong, and that decay models matter more than precision targeting. Platforms optimizing to feedback loops instead of frozen CSVs makes total sense when you frame it as training algos, not buying media. That shift alone changes budget allocation, campaign structure, and how you staff marketing ops.
Thanks for the thoughtful comment and this picks out a number of key threads.
These over bloated TALs, where more accounts is seen as better, often combined with a KPI of penetrating as many accounts as possible is a major problem when it comes to linking ABM programs with pipeline. It means a staggeringly small % of media spend lands on accounts which are in market, and as a result the program doesn’t work for pipeline. Yet really less than 10% of the campaign budget will be spent targeting accounts which the program could realistically influence