10 Examples of Account Based Marketing Done Right: Plays to Copy
The best ABM campaigns connect a named account’s problem to useful proof, then give sales a reason to follow up. These examples show how GumGum, Snowflake, Dialpad, GitLab, and other teams approached that work. You’ll get practical adaptations, a small-team pilot, and a scorecard that separates attention from sales progress.
Last updated: October 2026
Quick Answer
Strong examples of account based marketing done right include GumGum’s comic for T-Mobile, Intridea’s billboard for Ogilvy, Snowflake’s account-relevant content hubs, and GitLab’s public ABM operating model. The lesson is not to personalize everything. Choose accounts deliberately, address the buying group’s problems, coordinate channels with sales, and measure the next commercial step. A meeting, an event registration, and closed revenue are different outcomes.
Which ABM examples are worth adapting?
A billboard can earn a meeting. A content hub can support an evaluation. Choose the play by the obstacle in the account, not by how memorable the creative looks.
| Company | Objective and approach | Defining tactic | Published outcome | Likely work involved |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GumGum | Executive access; individual account | T-Man and Gums comic for T-Mobile | Attention and meeting; later customer win reported | Original creative |
| Intridea | Open a conversation; individual account | Billboard opposite Ogilvy | Meeting | Placement and creative |
| Snowflake | Scale relevant account experiences | Content hubs and coordinated distribution | Meetings and opportunities | Content selection and setup |
| PitchBook | Prioritize likely buyers | Account selection before paid distribution | Visits and engagement | Data and targeting |
| Dialpad | Support enterprise growth | Persona-specific advertising | Visits, closed-won revenue, deal speed | Role-based messages |
| Personify | Build buying-group support | Role-specific ads and content | Engagement and marketing-sourced revenue | Stakeholder mapping |
| Salsify | Generate event interest | Ads, email, and sales outreach | Registrations | Invitation coordination |
| Invoca | Generate conference meetings | Apple Watch incentive | Meetings and pipeline goals | Gifts and logistics |
| Metrikus | Improve outreach timing | Hiring and topic triggers | Relevant targeting and outreach | Ongoing research |
| GitLab | Run a repeatable program | Public account-planning procedures | Operating model | Ownership and process upkeep |
What makes this ABM rather than personalized outreach?
ABM starts with a finite account list and a shared sales and marketing plan. Putting the prospect’s logo on a landing page personalizes an asset. It does not explain why that account should buy.
- One-to-one: research and proof built around an individual account’s situation.
- One-to-few: accounts grouped around a shared problem, with reusable proof and account-specific context.
- One-to-many: named-account distribution at scale, with clear rules for sales follow-up.
Useful personalization answers different people’s questions. The operational user wants to see the workflow. The technical evaluator asks how it fits the stack, while the finance lead asks what changes economically. Match your sales enablement content to those questions, not just their job titles.
GumGum and Intridea: earn attention at one account
GumGum: make the creative demonstrate the value
GumGum targeted T-Mobile and its then-CEO John Legere, whose public enthusiasm for Batman inspired the comic “T-Man and Gums.” The campaign appeared in coverage during 2017. Its clever detail was the sidekick: Gums brought image-recognition marketing technology into the story, connecting the creative to GumGum’s product.
The printed comic and social exposure earned executive attention and a meeting. Later accounts describe T-Mobile becoming a customer. Those are separate milestones.
The practical adaptation is a relevant workflow concept, followed by an invitation to discuss where it could run. Executive enthusiasm opens the door; the account owner still needs to involve the people who will evaluate and use the product.
Intridea: put the message where it will be seen
Intridea’s 2011 campaign placed “Ogle this, Ogilvy” on a billboard opposite Ogilvy’s Manhattan office, paired with a URL. The billboard and destination page prompted a call to arrange a meeting, not a signed contract.
For a smaller team, replace the placement with a useful prototype sent directly to the relevant group. Arrive with a discovery question and a delivery example. A provocative headline gets awkward quickly if the next conversation has no substance.
Copy the relevance, not the stunt I would not commission a comic before knowing who would handle the response. Creative spending makes sense when the account’s potential value supports it and someone owns the next conversation.
Snowflake, PitchBook, and Dialpad: reuse intelligently
Snowflake: assemble content instead of starting over
Snowflake assembled account-relevant hubs from existing assets, then coordinated sales outreach and paid distribution. Buyers received selected material rather than a generic resource library.
A later AdRoll customer account reports scaled reach and growth in SDR-booked meetings. Keep that snapshot separate from the earlier content-hub program rather than combining their results.
Build a shared collection for each use case, then let the account owner select the proof. An unrelated industry report tells the buyer the personalization stopped at the heading.
PitchBook: select accounts before buying attention
PitchBook’s 2020 program analyzed account data to prioritize a smaller target list. Digital ads and LinkedIn carried relevant content to those accounts. The case account reports increased target-account visits and active engagement.
Borrow the order of operations: rank accounts, get sales agreement, then buy distribution. A company can resemble your best customer on paper while lacking the team or problem your product serves. Give engaged accounts an owner before the ads run.
Dialpad: personalize around the buyer’s job
Dialpad used persona-oriented ads and relevant feature pages for enterprise accounts whose sales, service, and internal-communications teams had different needs. Engagement informed rep follow-up. The case account reports increased visits, closed-won revenue growth, and faster closing.
Reuse the product story, but change the workflow and objection by role. A service leader needs evidence about customer conversations, not an internal-collaboration pitch. The rep should continue the topic the stakeholder explored instead of restarting with the company overview.
Personify, Salsify, Invoca, and Metrikus: act on interest
Personify: cover the buying committee
Personify targeted member-based organizations with account- and persona-relevant content. Engagement context informed sales conversations; published accounts describe engagement growth and marketing-sourced revenue results.
Map the operational champion, technical evaluator, and budget owner. If only the champion responds, ask what the evaluator needs next. Repeated visits from the same enthusiastic user do not mean the committee agrees.
Salsify: coordinate event outreach
For a New York event, Salsify coordinated marketing messages, display ads, personalized email, and sales follow-up around named accounts. The published account describes registrations exceeding the event goal. Registrations are not attendance.
Agree on the invitation list together and remove registered contacts from invitation reminders. Afterward, an attendee deserves a conversation about the session. A no-show should receive useful material, not a message saying it was great to meet them.
Invoca: attach the incentive to a business conversation
Invoca offered Apple Watches around scheduled meetings with prospects attending Dreamforce 2015. Historical accounts describe meeting generation and exceeding lead-generation and pipeline goals, without a numerical pipeline result.
Put qualification, gift-policy checks, and meeting ownership ahead of the incentive. The rep should know the likely use case before accepting the booking. Otherwise the calendar fills with people who want the watch.
Metrikus: use triggers to improve timing
Cognism’s account of Metrikus describes hiring signals and smart-building topic triggers, combined with personalized outreach and LinkedIn advertising to relevant stakeholders.
The useful lesson is timing, not certainty about purchase intent. A sustainability vacancy can justify asking about reporting priorities; it cannot tell you whether a software budget exists. The account owner must validate the problem.
GitLab: turn individual plays into an operating model
The GitLab ABM handbook exposes the work behind campaigns: account tiers, ownership, handoffs, and reporting. It is an operating example rather than a single campaign success story.
Borrow the discipline of recording who acts when an account engages. Otherwise, an alert can sit between marketing and sales while each team assumes the other replied.
Focused account work
Use it when contract value and buying complexity justify research. The owner needs a credible problem hypothesis and a plan for reaching the right people.
Cluster-level reuse
Use it when accounts share a workflow or business problem. Reuse the demonstration while changing the stakeholder context and next question.
Lighter account-aware marketing
Use it when deal value or follow-up capacity is limited. Relevant content can be a better investment than bespoke pages nobody maintains.
Launch a small-team pilot with useful product proof
For this illustrative pilot, assume a workflow SaaS vendor targeting accounts with onboarding-handoff or approval-tracking problems. Sales owns each account; product marketing owns the proof. The goal is a qualified conversation about a real workflow, not a pile of demo views.
Agree on accounts and the account brief
Record fit, business trigger, stakeholders, problem hypothesis, relevant proof, owner, next action, and success metric. Sales confirms the list and checks for existing opportunities.
Build proof around the shared workflow
Create an introductory video and an interactive workflow for each cluster. Show the user completing a handoff, give the evaluator relevant technical detail, and explain the proposed business benefit to the budget owner.
Coordinate distribution and follow-up
Use a shared outreach sequence. The account owner handles replies and stops scheduled messages when a conversation starts. Marketing records which assets each account received.
Review progression and decide what changes
Inspect stakeholder coverage, held meetings, objections, and accepted opportunities against the starting position and similar accounts outside the pilot. Keep useful assets and revise weak problem hypotheses.
Package the hypothesis in a product one-pager. The product demo guide helps keep the workflow focused; the demo video guide covers the introductory recording.
| Touch | Owner and channel | Useful next step |
|---|---|---|
| Trigger-led introduction | Account owner; email | Ask whether the workflow problem is relevant |
| Context | Account owner; LinkedIn | Share an observation without repeating the pitch |
| Product proof | Account owner; video link | Show the relevant workflow |
| Self-guided exploration | Account owner; interactive demo link | Invite the appropriate evaluator to explore |
| Focused follow-up | Account owner; email or call | Discuss the unresolved question |
Sample outreach
Your hiring page mentions expanding the onboarding team. Is ownership between sales and implementation becoming harder to track? I put together a workflow showing how an accepted handoff becomes an assigned implementation task. If that is relevant, I can send it over.
Deckoholic can capture an interactive workflow and record a polished demo video through the same Chrome extension. Share links or website embeds, then use HubSpot contact-timeline activity as follow-up context. Its optional AI host answers questions and moves through demo steps; with Calendly connected, it can offer real open slots and book a meeting.
Keep cash spending separate from staff time. Tools, distribution, and production belong in the budget alongside research, recording, outreach, and review hours. Set the ceiling from realistic deal contribution and conversion expectations.
A useful handoff says the champion explored approval routing and requested technical detail, with a recommendation to invite the evaluator. Follow up around that question. Do not open by announcing that you watched someone browse.
Measure account progression, not just activity
Agree on the denominator before launch. Otherwise marketing reports engaged contacts while sales reports accounts, and both teams think the other missed the goal. A demo CTA click provides context; an accepted opportunity requires a sales decision.
| Metric | Definition and formula | Practical guardrail |
|---|---|---|
| Engaged-account rate | Accounts meeting the engagement threshold ÷ targeted accounts | Define qualifying behavior before launch |
| Buying-group coverage | Relevant stakeholder roles engaged ÷ stakeholder roles mapped | Track within each account |
| Held-meeting rate | Target accounts with a held qualified meeting ÷ targeted accounts | Exclude bookings that never happened |
| Opportunity rate | Target accounts with an accepted new opportunity ÷ targeted accounts | Separate existing opportunities |
| Revenue-based campaign return | (Attributed revenue − total campaign cost) ÷ total campaign cost | Include labor; assess profit-based return separately |
Separate sourced pipeline from influenced pipeline. Sourced means the program originated the opportunity under your agreed rule; influenced means an existing opportunity received campaign activity. Neither is revenue.
Compare progression with the account’s baseline and similar accounts outside the campaign. Then inspect the conversations. A meeting about implementation constraints tells you more than another visit to the pricing page.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a simple example of account-based marketing?
Choose a named account with a relevant business trigger, map the people involved in buying, and send proof of a workflow that addresses the likely problem. Coordinate with the account owner. The ABM element is the shared account plan and commercial objective, not putting the company’s name into an email.
What is the difference between 1:1, 1:few, and 1:many ABM?
One-to-one ABM builds around an individual account. One-to-few groups accounts with similar problems and reuses relevant assets. One-to-many distributes messages across a larger named list. The difference is the depth of research and customization, not whether sales participates. Every approach needs ownership and a clear next step.
Can a small B2B SaaS company do ABM without an enterprise platform?
Yes. A CRM, an agreed account list, relevant proof, and disciplined follow-up can support a focused pilot. Choose accounts the team can research and serve properly. Consider additional tools when identifying accounts, distributing content, or reporting becomes the constraint, rather than buying a platform before agreeing on the campaign.
How much should you spend on an ABM campaign?
Base the budget on expected deal contribution, realistic conversion expectations, and staff capacity. Separate cash spending from research, content, and sales hours. Bespoke creative can make sense for a valuable strategic account; shared proof is usually more practical for clusters. A cheap campaign can still consume substantial staff time.
What metrics show that an ABM campaign is working?
Track engaged accounts, buying-group coverage, held qualified meetings, accepted opportunities, and eventual revenue. Use views and CTA clicks to diagnose asset performance, not to declare commercial success. Keep denominators consistent and separate new opportunities from existing ones that received campaign activity. Compare progression with the account’s starting position.
How can personalized demos support ABM?
A relevant demo turns a problem hypothesis into something the buyer can inspect. Use a short video to introduce the workflow, an interactive demo for exploration, and a focused conversation for unresolved questions. Change the proof by stakeholder role. An operational user, technical evaluator, and budget owner rarely need the same walkthrough.
Summary
- Choose an ABM play by the account’s obstacle and potential value, not by the creative’s novelty.
- Personalize the business problem, stakeholder proof, and next step before changing logos or company names.
- Reuse workflow assets across account clusters while giving sales clear ownership of each conversation.
- Treat attention, registrations, meetings, opportunities, and revenue as separate outcomes.
- Include staff time in campaign costs and judge success through account progression.
About the author
Kinshuk Snehi
Founder of Deckoholic
Kinshuk has a strong background in product marketing, customer onboarding, and the growth function across B2B SaaS. He has been part of an early-stage company's journey from zero to multi-million-dollar revenue, building demand generation, customer acquisition, and retention from the ground up, and has run interactive demos and product tours in production. He writes here about interactive demos, product-led growth, and go-to-market.
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