Tired of wasting time on the wrong leads? Do sales and marketing struggle to align their efforts? Need a way to personalize outreach at scale?
Running an account-based marketing (ABM) strategy without the right tools can easily waste resources, miss high-value opportunities, and fall short of engagement goals. Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be that way. We’ve handpicked the top ABM platforms to help you target the right accounts, streamline sales and marketing collaboration, and scale with ease.
What to Know Before You Start
Keep these factors in mind when choosing the right ABM tool for your organization, team, and needs:
- Set Clear Objectives: Clearly define what you want to achieve with ABM—whether it's account engagement, revenue growth, or sales alignment. Your tool needs to match your specific goals.
- Ensure Seamless Integration: Make sure the ABM platform integrates with your existing CRM, marketing automation tools, and sales platforms. Integration is key to avoiding data silos and streamlining workflows.
- Focus on Scalability and Personalization: Choose a solution that can grow with your needs and deliver personalized engagement at scale.
What are Account-Based Marketing Tools?
Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is a B2B strategy that targets specific high-value accounts, rather than a broad audience. By focusing on key accounts, ABM allows for personalized campaigns that engage and nurture the companies most likely to drive revenue.
ABM platforms streamline this process by integrating tools for targeting, engagement, and measurement, making it easier to align sales and marketing efforts.
What Should You Look For in an ABM Tool?
The right ABM tool will depend on your specific needs and strategy. But the best ABM tool for you should:
- Streamline your operations, saving you time (and thus money)
- Make it easy to scale your ABM strategy as needed
- Improve team communication and collaboration
When evaluating potential ABM platforms, be sure to consider these four factors:
1. Integration
It’s crucial that the ABM tool that you choose integrates well with your existing tools. This is key for automating processes and delivering personalized experiences effectively at a larger scale.
Choose an ABM platform that easily syncs with your current customer relationship management (CRM) systems, marketing automation platforms, and other essential sales and marketing technologies.
2. Reporting & Analytics
Determine if the ABM tool offers reporting and analytics that meet your team's needs. In general, an effective ABM tool should let you:
- Evaluate and measure the effectiveness of your campaigns
- Analyze the impact of your ABM efforts on sales and marketing
- Generate tailored reports to track your progress.
3. Customer Support
Reliable customer support is essential, especially during the onboarding process.
When assessing a tool, look at the support options it offers. Does the platform provide easily accessible resources for quick solutions to common problems, do they offer support emails or live chat for more in depth questions?
4. Data Quality
At the end of the day, the success of your ABM campaigns depend on the quality of the data.
High-quality data provides valuable insights into sales, marketing trends, and customer behaviour. This helps you:
- Accurately segment your target audience,
- Tailor outreach efforts with greater personalization,
- Analyze both past and real-time data.
Quality data quality lets you make more informed decisions, refine your marketing and sales strategies, and gain a clearer understanding of where each account stands in their buyer’s journey.
To help you save time and make a well-informed decision, we've curated our top 5 ABM tool recommendations, each offering unique strengths. This will enable you to simplify your processes and select the best option for your organization, no matter its size or goals.
Platform Overviews
Here are my top picks for ABM software, each chosen for its unique strengths and ideal use cases to help you identify the best fit for your specific needs.
Why these 5 made the list:
- HubSpot – Best for an all-in-one solution with easy integrations and user-friendly tools, ideal for businesses of all sizes.
- RollWorks – Best for small businesses and startups, offering affordable, scalable ABM with solid targeting capabilities.
- Demandbase – Best for large enterprises needing advanced personalization, scalability, and alignment between sales and marketing.
- 6sense – Best for AI-powered predictive analytics and actionable insights that help identify and target high-intent accounts.
- Terminus – Best for account-based advertising and multi-channel engagement, offering strong capabilities for targeted ads across platforms.
1. HubSpot
Best for: All-in-one ABM and CRM integration, with easy-to-use features and seamless integrations, ideal for businesses of all sizes. HubSpot combines a powerful CRM, marketing automation, and AI-driven lead scoring, to offer a great all-around solution. It’s ideal for businesses of all sizes looking for a comprehensive, easy-to-use platform that supports sales, marketing, and service teams with seamless integration.
Key Features:
- Full-fledged CRM: A robust CRM that centralizes account data and provides a holistic view of every customer interaction.
- Email Marketing Management: Automates and personalizes email outreach to target accounts.
- Multi-Channel Attribution: Tracks engagement across various channels, helping to identify the most effective touchpoints.
- Lead-to-Account Matching: Ensures that leads are automatically associated with the right accounts for streamlined outreach.
- Lead Scoring: Helps prioritize leads by assigning them scores based on interactions and engagement.
- Sales Pipeline Management: Visualizes the sales process from lead to close, making it easier to track progress and bottlenecks.
- Workflow Automation: Automates processes across marketing, sales, and service teams.
- Team Management: Offers task assignments and tracking for better collaboration.
Integrations:
- Integrates with over hundreds of platforms, including Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, Slack, Google Analytics, WordPress, Shopify, and many others.
- Zapier integration allows for further automations and custom workflows across additional apps without coding.
Ease of Use:
- HubSpot is widely known for its user-friendly interface, making it a popular choice for small to mid-sized businesses. Its drag-and-drop functionality simplifies tasks like setting up workflows or managing email campaigns.
- Setup and onboarding are generally straightforward, and HubSpot offers in-depth tutorials and guides to help teams get started quickly.
Data Quality:
- Real-time data synchronization across your CRM, marketing, and sales tools ensures accuracy in reporting and decision-making.
- HubSpot’s data enrichment tools help fill in gaps in account information by automatically updating and enriching data with the latest contact and firmographic info.
- High-quality data allows for effective segmentation of target accounts, personalized outreach, and better lead-to-account matching.
Reporting & Analytics:
- HubSpot provides robust reporting capabilities, offering pre-built and customizable dashboards that help teams track key ABM metrics such as account engagement, lead conversion, and revenue growth.
- Multi-channel attribution helps identify the most successful touchpoints across email, social media, ads, and other marketing channels.
- Advanced reporting tools enable marketers to generate detailed reports for sales teams and executives, aligning both teams around ABM goals.
Customer Support:
- HubSpot offers a variety of support options, including live chat, email support, phone support (for higher plans), and an extensive knowledge base.
- Users can access free resources, such as training videos, webinars, and a community forum.
- The HubSpot Academy offers certifications and in-depth courses to help users get the most out of the platform.
Pros:
- User-Friendly Platform: Its intuitive design is ideal for teams of all technical skill levels.
- Built-In CRM and Email Marketing Tools: These features are seamlessly integrated into the platform, allowing for unified account management.
- Regional Campaign and Team Segmentation: Provides strong support for businesses running campaigns across different regions.
- Strong Reporting Capabilities: Offers detailed, customizable reporting with multi-channel attribution.
Cons:
- Limitations in the Free Version: While HubSpot offers a free plan, its features are very limited, especially for ABM-focused functionalities.
- Pricing Can Increase Quickly: The cost of using more advanced features and larger contact lists can rise substantially, which may not suit smaller businesses with limited budgets.
Ideal For:
Small to medium-sized B2B companies looking for an all-in-one ABM platform with built-in CRM, email marketing, and strong reporting capabilities.
Pricing:
Starts at $800/month + $45/month for additional seats. Costs can increase with the addition of advanced features and customization options.
2. Rollworks
Best for: Small to mid-sized businesses looking for affordable, scalable account-based marketing solutions with robust targeting and engagement capabilities. RollWorks is affordable, scalable, and provides AI-powered targeting and segmentation, making it accessible for companies just getting started with ABM. This makes it a great choice for small businesses or teams with limited budgets.
Key Features:
- Account Targeting: RollWorks provides advanced targeting capabilities that allow users to create segments based on firmographics, technographics, and intent data, helping to focus on high-value accounts.
- Account-Based Advertising: Facilitates programmatic ad delivery across channels such as display, social media, and mobile to ensure consistent engagement with target accounts.
- Sales and Marketing Alignment: RollWorks provides insights and dashboards that align both sales and marketing teams, ensuring they focus on the same target accounts.
- Journey Stages: The platform helps map accounts through different journey stages (awareness, engagement, decision) to track and optimize engagement over time.
- Account Identification: Identifies anonymous visitors on your website, matching them to target accounts for more personalized follow-up and engagement strategies.
- CRM and Marketing Automation: Integrates with major CRMs and marketing automation tools to streamline workflows and ensure all account data is synchronized.
Integrations:
- RollWorks integrates seamlessly with major platforms like Salesforce, HubSpot, Marketo, Eloqua, and Google Analytics.
- It also offers integration with LinkedIn and Facebook for paid social media campaigns, ensuring accounts are engaged across multiple platforms.
- Ease of Use:
- RollWorks is known for its intuitive interface, making it easy for small to mid-sized businesses to get started with ABM strategies.
- Setting up account segments, campaigns, and personalized ads can be done without heavy technical expertise, but for deeper customizations, users might require some onboarding or training.
Data Quality:
- RollWorks provides high-quality intent and firmographic data to help segment and target the right accounts effectively.
- Its account identification capabilities allow businesses to uncover anonymous web visitors and match them with high-value accounts for precise targeting.
- The platform ensures accurate and updated data synchronization with CRM systems, allowing for better decision-making and account engagement.
Reporting & Analytics:
- RollWorks offers robust reporting dashboards that allow teams to track the effectiveness of account-based campaigns, advertising performance, and pipeline contribution.
- The platform provides detailed insights into account engagement and journey stages, making it easier to identify bottlenecks and optimize campaigns.
- Multi-touch attribution enables teams to measure which touchpoints are contributing most to conversions.
Customer Support:
- RollWorks offers comprehensive customer support through email, live chat, and phone (based on the plan).
- Users have access to a knowledge base, on-demand webinars, and community resources to help with self-service support.
- Onboarding and training sessions are available for teams looking to optimize their ABM efforts using the platform.
Pros:
- Affordable and Scalable: RollWorks is one of the more cost-effective ABM platforms, making it ideal for small to mid-sized businesses.
- Strong Account Targeting and Personalization: Provides advanced targeting and segmentation tools that help focus on the right accounts.
- Cross-Channel Engagement: Supports ads across multiple platforms, including web, social, and mobile, providing a cohesive experience for target accounts.
Cons:
- Limited Advanced Features: While RollWorks is great for small to mid-sized businesses, larger enterprises may find it lacks some advanced features and deeper customization available in other ABM platforms.
- Ad Budget Requirements: To fully leverage its account-based advertising capabilities, users need to allocate sufficient budget for paid media, which might be a concern for smaller businesses with tight marketing budgets.
Ideal For:
Small to mid-sized B2B businesses looking for an affordable, easy-to-use ABM platform that supports cross-channel engagement and strong account targeting.
Pricing:
RollWorks offers tiered pricing based on the scale of use and features required. Contact sales for custom pricing.
3. Demandbase
Best for: Comprehensive account-based marketing solutions with AI-driven insights and personalization, ideal for large enterprises. Demandbase is perfect for large enterprises looking for robust AI-driven insights, personalization, and account identification. It’s built to scale, with powerful features that support complex account-based strategies and large volumes of account data.
Key Features:
- Account Identification: Demandbase helps identify and prioritize accounts with AI-driven intent signals, enabling teams to focus on high-value prospects.
- Personalization: Offers web and content personalization tailored to specific accounts, delivering customized experiences across digital touchpoints.
- AI-Driven Insights: Uses AI to analyze engagement data and provide actionable insights for improving campaigns and driving higher conversions.
- Targeting & Advertising: Facilitates account-based advertising across channels, including display ads and retargeting, based on behaviour and intent data.
- Sales Enablement: Provides sales teams with insights on account activities, intent, and engagement levels to enhance follow-up strategies.
- Marketing Automation: Integrates with major automation tools to streamline workflows and manage multi-channel campaigns effectively.
Integrations:
- Demandbase integrates with key tools such as Salesforce, Marketo, HubSpot, Eloqua, Google Analytics, and many more.
- The platform also supports Slack for collaboration, and LinkedIn for advertising and account engagement.
Ease of Use:
- Demandbase’s user interface is comprehensive, but may require training to fully utilize advanced features like AI-driven insights and web personalization.
- The platform offers well-designed dashboards that provide a high-level overview, but the depth of features can make initial onboarding challenging for some teams.
Data Quality:
- Demandbase excels in providing high-quality intent and engagement data, helping businesses identify in-market accounts based on real-time behaviour and intent signals.
- The platform is designed to enhance the accuracy of account data, continuously updating information as new intent data is gathered. This ensures personalized marketing efforts are based on up-to-date account insights.
Reporting & Analytics:
- Demandbase’s reporting and analytics capabilities are highly customizable, offering detailed insights into account engagement, campaign performance, and revenue attribution.
- The platform provides AI-driven insights into which accounts are most likely to convert, helping marketing and sales teams focus on the most valuable leads.
- Multi-touch attribution allows for an in-depth analysis of how different channels and touchpoints contribute to conversions.
Customer Support:
- Comprehensive support is available, with options including email, live chat, phone support, and access to dedicated account managers for premium plans.
- The platform also offers a knowledge base, community resources, and on-demand training materials to help users leverage all features.
- Personalized onboarding and implementation support are available for enterprise customers, ensuring a smoother experience for larger teams.
Pros:
- AI-Driven Insights: Provides highly accurate account insights and predictive analytics for more effective targeting.
- Comprehensive Personalization: Offers web and content personalization tools to create tailored experiences for target accounts.
- Strong Account-Based Advertising: Excellent for delivering personalized ads across multiple digital channels, based on account behaviour and intent.
Cons:
- Steeper Learning Curve: While powerful, Demandbase’s more advanced features like AI and personalization require a higher level of expertise and may take time to master.
- Pricing: The platform can be expensive, particularly for smaller teams or businesses with limited budgets.
Ideal For:
Enterprise-level B2B companies looking for AI-driven insights, personalization, and account-based advertising to target high-value accounts and improve ABM campaign performance.
Pricing:
Available upon request. Pricing for Demandbase is customized depending on the size of your business and the specific features required. Contact sales for a quote.
4. 6sense
Best for: Predictive analytics and identifying in-market accounts using AI, helping businesses focus on high-intent prospects for better engagement. 6sense excels in using AI to predict buyer behaviour and identify high-intent accounts, making it perfect for companies focused on predicting future sales opportunities.
Key Features:
- AI-Powered Predictive Analytics: 6sense uses AI to predict buyer behaviour and identify accounts that are most likely to convert, helping teams focus on the most valuable prospects.
- Intent Data: Tracks buyer intent signals to identify when accounts are researching solutions or preparing to make a purchase decision.
- Account Identification: Helps uncover anonymous web visitors and connects them with known accounts to provide actionable insights.
- Multi-Channel Engagement: Enables engagement across email, ads, social, and web for seamless ABM campaign execution.
- Sales and Marketing Alignment: Provides sales and marketing teams with a unified view of account data, ensuring they are working towards the same goals.
- Pipeline Management: Helps visualize where accounts are in the sales funnel and predicts deal outcomes based on data-driven insights.
Integrations:
- 6sense integrates with major CRMs like Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics, as well as marketing automation tools like Marketo and HubSpot.
- Other integrations include platforms like LinkedIn, Google Ads, and Demandbase to enhance multi-channel engagement and insights.
Ease of Use:
- While 6sense is feature-rich and highly effective, the platform has a steeper learning curve compared to more user-friendly options like HubSpot. Teams will need training to fully utilize its predictive analytics and intent data capabilities.
- The dashboard is intuitive but may require expertise to set up workflows and fully leverage the predictive features.
Data Quality:
- High-quality data is the backbone of 6sense, with a strong focus on real-time intent data and account identification, which helps provide highly accurate insights for targeting.
- The platform’s AI-driven insights ensure that sales and marketing teams have access to updated, reliable data on account behaviours, including anonymous website traffic.
Reporting & Analytics:
- 6sense excels in predictive analytics, offering insights into account behaviour, funnel progression, and deal outcomes.
- The platform offers customizable reporting dashboards, allowing teams to monitor performance metrics, campaign effectiveness, and engagement data at a granular level.
- Multi-touch attribution helps track the most impactful touchpoints along the buyer’s journey, allowing teams to focus their efforts where they matter most.
Customer Support:
- 6sense provides comprehensive customer support, including dedicated account managers for larger clients, training resources, and live support.
- Training materials, webinars, and documentation are also available to help teams make the most of the platform’s more complex features, especially for predictive analytics and intent data.
- Users on premium plans have access to phone and live chat support, while lower-tier plans may have limited support options.
Pros:
- AI-Powered Predictive Analytics: Helps identify high-intent accounts before they enter the sales cycle.
- Intent Data: Tracks buyer behaviour and provides real-time insights on when accounts are ready to engage.
- Strong Sales and Marketing Alignment: Provides both teams with detailed insights and predictive models to guide strategy.
- Multi-Channel Engagement: Offers the ability to engage accounts across various channels, from email to ads and social media.
Cons:
- Steeper Learning Curve: Requires training to fully understand and utilize its advanced predictive analytics and intent data features.
- 6sense tends to be on the higher end of ABM tools, which may not be suitable for smaller companies or teams with limited budgets.
Ideal For:
Mid-to-large B2B enterprises looking to leverage predictive analytics and intent data to identify and engage high-value accounts before they enter the sales cycle.
Pricing:
Pricing for 6sense is customized based on the size of the business and the specific features required. Contact sales for a quote.
5. Terminus
Best for: Multi-channel ABM engagement and account-based advertising, delivering personalized campaigns across digital platforms. Terminus is ideal for businesses focused on multi-channel advertising with personalized ads driven by AI, helping teams engage accounts through targeted ad delivery across digital channels.
Key Features:
- Account-Based Advertising: Terminus excels in programmatic advertising, allowing users to target accounts across multiple digital channels, including display, social media, and retargeting.
- Multi-Channel Engagement: Terminus supports email, web, chat, and ads, ensuring a cohesive and personalized experience for target accounts across channels.
- Account Identification & Insights: Provides detailed insights into account activity, including anonymous website traffic and engagement metrics, to help identify potential high-value accounts.
- Sales Alerts: Sends real-time alerts to sales teams based on account engagement, ensuring timely follow-ups with interested prospects.
- Web Personalization: Offers dynamic web personalization for different accounts, helping tailor content and messaging based on visitor data and account segment.
- Salesforce Integration: Seamless integration with Salesforce ensures that marketing and sales teams are aligned and working from the same account data.
Integrations:
- Terminus integrates with major platforms like Salesforce, HubSpot, Eloqua, and Marketo.
- Other integrations include Google Analytics, LinkedIn, and Slack, allowing teams to extend their ABM efforts into various communication and advertising channels.
Ease of Use:
- Terminus is user-friendly, with a straightforward dashboard that makes managing multi-channel campaigns easier.
- The platform’s drag-and-drop functionality simplifies setting up campaigns, though more advanced advertising and personalization features may require additional training.
Data Quality:
- Terminus provides high-quality intent and engagement data, allowing users to segment audiences effectively and tailor marketing efforts to the most engaged accounts.
- The platform also excels at anonymous visitor identification, uncovering accounts that are interacting with your website but haven’t yet converted, giving sales teams the ability to act on previously hidden opportunities.
Reporting & Analytics:
- Terminus offers comprehensive reporting and analytics, including detailed insights into advertising performance, account engagement, and website behaviour.
- Users can create custom dashboards to track metrics specific to their ABM strategy, such as account-based engagement, pipeline velocity, and advertising ROI.
- Multi-touch attribution helps teams understand which touchpoints are driving the most value, providing better insight into the entire customer journey.
Customer Support:
- Terminus offers solid customer support, with dedicated account managers for larger customers and a comprehensive knowledge base for self-service support.
- Phone, email, and live chat support are available depending on the pricing plan, with higher-tier customers getting more personalized support.
- The platform also offers ABM strategy consultations to help businesses optimize their campaigns.
Pros:
- Multi-Channel Campaign Execution: Terminus excels in delivering consistent and personalized experiences across multiple channels (ads, email, web, chat).
- Strong Account-Based Advertising Capabilities: Programmatic advertising and retargeting across social, display, and other digital channels are well-supported.
- Sales Alerts for Timely Follow-Up: Real-time sales alerts help sales teams engage with accounts at the right time, based on their level of engagement.
Cons:
- Pricing Can Be Expensive: Terminus is on the pricier side, particularly for smaller businesses that may not need all the features offered.
- Complex Setup for Advanced Features: While the platform is user-friendly, setting up advanced personalized advertising and web experiences can take time and require training.
Ideal For:
Mid-to-large B2B companies focused on multi-channel engagement, particularly those looking to leverage account-based advertising as part of their ABM strategy.
Pricing:
Pricing for Terminus varies depending on the specific features and scale of use. Contact sales for a custom quote.
Final Recommendations
HubSpot:
- Best Overall
- Best for Integrations
- Easiest to Use
RollWorks:
- Best for Small Businesses
- Best for Startups
Demandbase:
- Best for Large Enterprises
- Best for Sales & Marketing Alignment
- Best for Personalization
- Most Scalable
6sense:
- Best for AI-Powered Analytics
- Best for Predictive Insights
Terminus:
- Best for Advertising
- Best for Multi-Channel Engagement
Side-by-Side Comparison Table
Drive Growth with the Right ABM Tool
Choosing the right ABM tool depends on your business specific needs and goals. Each platform excels in different areas, so be sure to test them with demos to find the perfect fit.
Ready to take your ABM strategy to the next level? Let’s chat.
We’re here to help you choose and implement the best ABM platform and strategy, delivering long-term, scalable results for your business.
FAQs
What is an ABM tool, and how does it work?
An ABM (Account-Based Marketing) tool helps businesses target specific high-value accounts, personalize campaigns, and align sales and marketing. It integrates data, tracks account engagement, automates outreach, and provides insights for decision-making.
What key features should I look for in an ABM tool?
Look for features like account targeting, AI-powered analytics, multi-channel engagement, sales and marketing alignment, personalization, custom reporting, and CRM integration.
How do ABM tools integrate with existing CRM systems?
Most ABM tools integrate seamlessly with CRM systems like Salesforce, HubSpot, or Microsoft Dynamics, syncing data, tracking engagement, and automating workflows for consistent data sharing between marketing and sales teams.
Can ABM tools be used for small businesses or startups?
Yes, ABM tools like RollWorks offer scalable, affordable solutions designed for smaller teams, allowing them to efficiently target high-value accounts without enterprise-level complexity.
How do ABM tools use AI and machine learning?
ABM tools use AI and machine learning to analyze account behaviour, predict engagement, and recommend personalized content, helping optimize targeting and decision-making.
How do ABM tools help align sales and marketing teams?
ABM tools provide shared dashboards, real-time insights, and collaborative workflows, allowing sales and marketing teams to work together on high-value accounts with consistent data and communication.