What an account based marketing agency does and what it should own
ABM flips the funnel.
Instead of generating leads and sorting them later, you agree a named list of companies with sales first, then aim marketing and sales effort at the people inside those companies.
An ABM agency runs that system with you.
In practice that means five jobs: choosing and tiering the accounts, mapping each buying group, building account-level content and offers, running the plays (LinkedIn and programmatic ads, outbound, events, direct mail, sales enablement), and reporting engagement and pipeline by account rather than by lead.
The buying group is why ABM exists.
Gartner found buying groups range from five to 16 people across as many as four functions, and that 74% of buyer teams show unhealthy conflict during the decision.
Demandbase, from its own customer data, puts a typical buying group at 13 to 17 stakeholders.
One contact per account does not move a deal.
ABM agency, ABM consultant or ABM platform: what is the difference?
An ABM agency plans and runs the program: targeting, creative, media, outbound and reporting.
Account based marketing consultants design the strategy, tiers and operating model, then train your team to run it.
An ABM platform (6sense, Demandbase, AdRoll ABM) is software: account identification, intent data, ad delivery and dashboards.
A platform without a program produces dashboards; a program without data produces guesswork.
Most US teams buy one of each, or a firm that covers both.
Enterprise ABM agencies usually mean one-to-one and one-to-few work for a handful of very large accounts, with the account team in the room.
If that is you, see the tiers below and our full guide to account-based marketing strategy.
