Account Based Marketing Retargeting: How to Increase Your Deal Value

If we had a dollar for every time an account executive said: “I’d rather be in B2C,” we’d be building a house on Mars. B2B buyer cycles are notoriously long; you have to convince an average of 11 stakeholders, and getting past the gatekeeper is a medal-worthy feat.

Retargeting sometimes feels like the easiest option. Just like marketing handle it. The problem is, traditional retargeting wasn’t made for B2B, where your website visitor often isn’t the person who can sign off on the deal.

Enter: account-based retargeting. Finally, a way to reach the right people and increase your deal value!

You may be familiar with accounts based marketing. This tactic relies on ABM as its foundation.

1. Why You Should Care about Account-Based Retargeting

Account-based retargeting rests on three pillars:

1. Know who you’re advertising to

2. Display the right ad with the right message at the right time

3. Feel the advertising returns on your deal value

Simply put, you don’t cast a wide net (that ultimately catches no one). Instead, you choose the right net for the right fish. 

Forget guesswork and retargeting ad budgets wasted on assistants, not the key decision-makers.

With ABM, if you’re retargeting the CEO, you can send a case study their way. Retargeting the end users? You’ll show demos and proof that they will use your product or service.

If you do it right, ABM can increase your revenue by 208%.


Business2Community

2. How to Deliver Results with Account-Based Retargeting

Target the Right Stakeholders

Standard retargeting is cookie-based: someone visits your website and gets a little cookie they carry along with them. When you launch a retargeting campaign, that cookie displays your ad on the available platform.

In contrast, account-based retargeting allows you to target audiences based on:

  • Company size
  • Company industry
  • Role
  • Seniority

(And more.)

If you have first-party data (e.g., a list of accounts from your CRM), you can add more parameters to tailor your campaigns based on the audience segment. Learn more about how to find and segment accounts-based marketing targets.

Personalize Your Messaging

“Increase your revenue” is a generic message we see in 99% of B2B ads. Everything points to revenue, but specific roles have specific pain points:

  • Project managers want to control dependencies smoothly
  • Sales development representatives want to increase their telesales conversions
  • Chief Technology Officers want to reduce the company’s tech debt

With standard retargeting, you’d have to opt for a catch-all value proposition that resonates with no one. But with AB retargeting, you can relate to different teams and convince them your product (or service) is the right fit.

Check out some of these accounts based marketing examples for personalization tips.

Automatically Get Everyone on the Same Page

There’s always Ann from Finance or John from Sales Ops in a B2B pitch meeting, the technical buyers with the power to veto decisions.

The economic buyer loves your proposal, the user buyers are roaring to get started, and then – your technical buyer raises their hand.

Objections, enter stage right.

Account-based retargeting can help you address objections early on, so everyone comes to the meeting ready to sign off on the deal.

Objections, exit stage left.

Stay Top of Mind for Qualified Leads and Existing Customers

Finally, a quick note for maximizing deal value when you’re not in the middle of signing it.

If you have a highly-qualified lead, it pays to retarget them. Retargeting builds credibility, especially if the ads contain valuable resources that prove your company’s ability to deliver. Not to mention you can retarget using marketing automation to save you time and hassle.

Similarly, don’t leave your existing customers to the Customer Success department. Instead, work with them, Sales, and Marketing to identify key value propositions that will increase your key accounts’ Lifetime (Deal) Value.

3. How to Create an Account-Based Marketing Retargeting Strategy and Increase Your Deal Value

Step 1. Know Your ICP’s Evaluation Process


Gartner

What does your ideal customer’s evaluation process look like? Who is involved, and what are their objections?

For example, if you’re a software vendor and your ideal customer is a tech company, your prospects’ evaluation process might look something like this:

  • The Head of Product (the economic buyer) needs to track user insights and prioritize new features
  • Their assistant researches tools
  • You hold a demo for two Product Managers (the user buyers)
  • You send a proposal to the Head of Product
  • CTO reviews the specifications and has concerns (the technical buyer)
  • Finally, the company lets you know they’d like to start with your basic plan (even though they should be on the enterprise plan)

Let’s look at their objections:

  • The economic buyer wants to know you can help them
  • The user buyers want to know they can use your product on a day-to-day basis
  • The technical buyer wants to make sure you meet their requirements or (in software) engineering specifications

Can you think of one or two ways to address those objections earlier in the funnel?

Step 2. Map Your Retargeting to Key Stakeholders

Who can you convince on the go, and whose words hold the most weight?

When you articulate the evaluation process, find your most important stakeholders.

Then, list:

  • Their purchasing criteria
  • Their objections
  • Ways your offer helps overcome their challenges and achieve their business goals

Your buyers might be hyper-focused on your solution because you offer a feature other products don’t. Perhaps they need your level of support to strengthen your team.

Their critical purchasing criteria might include the pricing, which is a matter of value. If AB retargeting convinces them of your worth, pricing objections won’t be insurmountable.

Finally, know who to retarget.

You don’t have to retarget user buyers in every campaign. However, you should focus on the economic and the technical buyer, the stakeholders who traditionally have sway over the deal value.


Spotonvision

You’ll soon scale up your account-based retargeting, but pilot it on a list of your key prospects. Can you spot the similarities between their purchasing processes and their objections?

Perfect!

Step 3. Start Talking to Other Teams to Prepare an Account-Based Retargeting Campaign

The most successful account-based retargeting campaigns prove that you can walk the walk and talk the talk, using content types such as:

  • Case studies specific to the key accounts’ use case
  • Whitepapers specific to your accounts’ challenges
  • Buyer’s guides verbalizing how your solution outshines competitors
  • Blog posts explaining your experiences in resolving the key prospects’ challenges
  • Webinars and on/offline events raising the key decision-maker’s awareness of your value

Don’t forget about other ways to (organically) retarget your accounts:

  • Email sequences
  • Organic social
  • Outreach

Unfortunately, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to account-based retargeting. Start with the highest-impact initiatives, and expand.

Step 4. Define Your Account-Based Marketing Metrics

Before you launch a campaign, be that paid advertising or organic, align your Sales and Marketing teams around the same metrics.

Typically, you’ll assess your account-based retargeting success with the following metrics:

  • Revenue attributed to accounts
  • Sales velocity changes
  • Deal close rate
  • Content engagement
  • Return on investment
  • Return on advertising spend

Quantitative metrics are your North Stars but don’t forget about qualitative metrics. Make a note of the retargeted prospects’ objections and awareness level. Assess the impact of your retargeting campaigns on the ground.

When you notice a specific metric has shifted significantly, dive deeper. For example, track engagement for each content type (including ads).

Understand why it works so well. Then, double down and multiply your success.

4. How to Increase Your Lifetime Deal Value with Account-Based Retargeting

Account-based retargeting is simply another form of consultative selling and marketing. Yes, you have to work the pipeline until a fantastic deal comes out.

But the value doesn’t end there. 89% of buyers describe the salespeople they do business with as their advisors. Your accounts still expect you to care about their results and offer help.

ABM Retargeting Prioritizes Work for Your AEs and CS Teams

Manual outreach takes time. Often, sales teams are too busy to manually check in with every account that has potential. Plenty would turn out to be happy with their existing plans.

But an account-based retargeting campaign can assist, driving only the most relevant conversations. 

For example, you could retarget a list of your key accounts by their projected ramp-up value to make sure they upgrade on schedule. Then, when they engage, an AE could follow up.

Similarly, you can use retargeting to deliver on the goals promised in the sales process. If user adoption is a key purchasing criterium, retarget user buyers intensively in the first 30 days from signing the contract and then schedule a follow-up meeting.

Consider Website Personalization

HubSpot is famous for personalizing its website messaging depending on visitors’ interests during previous visits. And personalization works; marketers see a 19% uptick in sales.

While you don’t have to launch such an ambitious campaign, you can configure your first-party data to trigger relevant content for the account.

For example, if you offer services to tech and real estate companies, assign an industry parameter to every contact. When they visit your website, serve the content that matches their industry.

A real estate stakeholder would get a whitepaper about housing trends, and the tech stakeholder would get a whitepaper on infrastructure security.

Account-Based Retargeting: Get the Best out of Your Deals

In an impersonal world where it feels like we are all constantly bombarded by generic value propositions, account-based retargeting reaches out to B2B stakeholders and says:

“I understand what you’re dealing with. Here’s how I can help.”

Your revenue growth starts with a list of accounts.

Then, account-based retargeting takes it to the next level. 

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