Marketing Leader’s Dilemma: When to Invest in Display Advertising for ABM (Part 2 of 2)

For a marketing leader whose team participates in account-based marketing (or ABM), when does it make sense to get started with online display advertising?

This article tries to answer that important question.

It’s the second in a two-part series. The first article considered the investment dilemma of a chief executive officer (or CEO).

In that scenario, the CEO faced an either-or decision: Should he approve his sales leader’s recommendation to hire new inbound sales reps? Or should he back the bid of his marketing leader to spend roughly the same money on display advertising?

In today’s scenario, we focus on a marketing leader whose company is piloting a new ABM program.

In setting marketing priorities and budgets, when should she consider investing in online display advertising versus other programs and initiatives that support ABM?    

Consider costs, benefits, resource requirements, and risks

With any marketing program or initiative, many priorities compete for the same limited attention, resources, and budget.

In addition to weighing potential costs, benefits, and return on investment, savvy marketing leaders also try to understand and mitigate potential risks.  

With respect to risk, marketing leaders can expect the same level of skepticism, criticism, and second-guessing that greets anything else they suggest.  

But with display advertising, the scrutiny and doubt may be more intense. That’s because online display advertising is less familiar than other marketing channels.

When might our marketing feel confident that her team is ready to start online display advertising?

First meet five criteria

The short answer is, she can feel good about moving forward when she has addressed these five elements for success:

  1. Her management and her marketing team understand and embrace a new set of performance metrics.
  2. She has a plan to put in place the supporting technologies and marketing capabilities she will need.
  3. She can commit enough time, attention, resources, and money for a “minimum viable” program.
  4. Sales leadership is fully on board.
  5. Key stakeholders understand and desire the benefits that only display advertising can provide.  

Let’s look at each of these elements in detail.

Display advertising requires different success metrics

Managers must change their mindset as they shift their marketing strategy from demand generation to account-focused engagement.

In a prior Kwanzoo blog post, Mani Iyer of Kwanzoo explains how to measure the performance of display advertising by using five metrics:

  1. Coverage.​ ​For​ ​the​ ​accounts​ ​you’ve​ ​targeted,​ ​how​ ​many​ ​can​ ​you​ ​reach​ ​through display​ ​ads?
  2. Awareness. ​In​ ​which​ ​of​ ​your​ ​targeted​ ​accounts​ ​is​ ​it​ ​most​ ​important​ ​to​ ​raise awareness​ ​of​ ​your​ ​company​ ​and​ ​your​ ​offerings?
  3. Reach. ​Which​ ​of​ ​your​ ​targeted​ ​accounts​ ​did​ ​you​ ​actually​ ​reach​ ​with​ ​your​ ads?
  4. Engagement. ​Of​ ​the​ ​accounts​ ​you’ve​ ​reached,​ ​which​ ​responded​ ​in​ ​ways​ ​you can​ ​measure?
  5. Impact.​ ​Which​ ​accounts​ ​became​ ​opportunities​ ​or​ ​deals?

Lead generation takes a backseat

It’s easy to underestimate both the importance and the implications of these new metrics.

Note that nowhere do you see any reference to sales leads.  

The shift away from lead-focused marketing will be hardest for companies with well-established lead-generation or demand-generation programs.

The 2017 Demand Generation Benchmark Survey Report by DemandGen Reports, shows the challenge many marketers will face in shifting from lead-gen metrics.

Another benchmark study, the 2017 State of B2B Digital Marketing by DemandWave, found that “delivering quality leads” was the top marketing goal for B2B companies.

For ABM, forget about marketing-qualified leads (MQLs)

As companies begin new ABM programs, the first members of their newly formed team are likely to come from traditional lead-generation or demand-generation roles.

Successful lead-gen marketers focus relentlessly on generating MQLs.

To produce enough MQLs, demand-gen marketers hone their skills in inbound marketing, content marketing, copywriting, search optimization, and conversion optimization.

The goal is almost always the same: to attract new visitors to landing pages where they capture the visitor’s name, email address, and other information.

With ABM display advertising, many of the same skills are still valuable. But the goals change.  

The obsession with leads is no longer appropriate. In fact, it limits success.

Stop asking the wrong questions

At a recent #FlipMyFunnel conference, I met a young marketer who works for a big software company.

His company had been without a CMO for many months. They were dabbling in account-based marketing, apparently without much leadership.   

The fellow had recently begun managing the company’s new program of ABM display advertising, in addition to running its marketing automation system.

He asked other conference attendees about the results they were getting with gated versus ungated content.

His display ads were sending click-through traffic to a landing page. The landing page included a lead-capture form.

Plenty of people were clicking on his ads, he said. But when they arrived at his landing page, almost no one was filling out the form. What was he doing wrong?

Optimize for broad engagement, not individual conversions

In his mind, his conversion sequence was failing. It didn’t generate enough leads to prove it was working.

So his first thought was to optimize his landing page.

If he had fully understood the new metrics of ABM, his goal would have been different. He would be working instead to attract targeted accounts to engage broadly with marketing content.

That’s far more valuable than capturing a single contact name and email address in an account that may not be important to his company.

But he had a hard time accepting it. “Promoting engagement” may feel like a vague goal. It sounds like the old days when marketers thought they were doing their job by “raising awareness.”

He didn’t see that engagement is just as measurable as a new lead. And broad engagement in targeted accounts is more likely to generate revenue.

How would he, a junior marketer, explain this to senior leadership who wanted more and better leads?

Lay the groundwork for a successful program

ABM programs all involve similar steps and stages. Jon Miller of Engagio describes a six-step program in an excellent, free ebook, The Clear and Complete Guide to Account-Based Marketing:

  1. Select accounts
  2. Discover contacts and map to your accounts.
  3. Develop account insights.
  4. Develop account-relevant messages and content.
  5. Deliver account-specific interactions.
  6. Orchestrate account-focused plays.  

Each step may require an investment in technology or purchased services.

Have a plan in place to target and research your accounts

In any ABM program, the targeting of key accounts and contacts is the first and most important step. You must get this right.

So before you undertake a program of display advertising, you’ll want to be sure you have a plan to get all this done properly.

If you haven’t already targeted your accounts, Kwanzoo can help.

Line up the supporting technologies you will need

A variety of other technology vendors and service providers can also help you develop account insights.

In addition, you will need other systems to help you scale your ABM program. You’ll probably need CRM and a marketing automation or email management system.

You may also want a marketing attribution system such as Bizible. And an ABM tracking system such as Engagio.  

Identify all these resources and estimate their cost before you commit to display advertising.   

Plan how you’ll engage your most important accounts

Steps 4 through 6 focus on creating suitable content and sharing it with your targeted accounts and contacts.

The Engagio guide presents your target accounts in the shape of a pyramid.

At the apex of the pyramid are your most important target accounts. The number of such accounts may range from a handful to many dozens.

You will commit the most time, resources, and budget to win these accounts. You will also use more outbound prospecting and do less inbound marketing to win their attention.

Your choice of marketing channels will be more “interruptive” than inbound marketing channels.

You will use direct mail, advertising, cold calling, social selling and other channels rather than search marketing.

You will also provide these apex accounts with your most customized and personalized content.

Plan how you’ll reach your other accounts

As you move down the pyramid, the number of accounts in each tier increases. The potential revenue for winning each account also decreases.

As the number of accounts increases and the value per account declines, you will be less able to provide customized content for each account.

Toward the bottom of the pyramid, you may provide content that’s oriented toward vertical industries or other segments. It will be less personalized and customized to individual accounts.

At lower levels, you may also do more inbound marketing rather than outbound prospecting. Your success metrics may be more like those of traditional lead-gen programs.   

Allocate enough time, money, and resources to succeed  

Before you undertake display advertising, identify the resources you will need to communicate with all the tiers of your pyramid.

Think about the various kinds of content you will provide and the channels through which you will share it.

How will you create, promote, and distribute this content? How much will it cost to do so, and what resources will you need?

Define a ‘minimum viable display program’

I borrowed the idea of a “minimum viable display program” from lean entrepreneurship. Eric Ries, Ash Maurya, and others talk about creating a “minimum viable product” (or MVP). They say you must get your MVP into the hands of customers as fast as possible.

The idea is, you don’t have to wait until everything is perfect before you go to market. It just has be good enough to share. You want to start getting real-world feedback as soon as possible.

You can apply the same idea to your display advertising program. You needn’t have everything perfect at the outset.

Yes, you must satisfy your company’s brand standards. And you must create enough content to appeal to your target audiences.

But that’s all you need for starters. Don’t make your initial efforts more complex than they need to be.

For information about the cost of a minimal display program, go here. For information about what it takes to produce display ads for ABM, go here.

Is Sales willing to share performance data?

Improved sales productivity is one of the most powerful benefits of ABM display advertising.

It’s also key to justifying the cost of advertising.

For information about how ABM display advertising makes sales teams more productive, go here and here.

Your sales team can’t be passive participants in this process. They must be actively involved.

To evaluate how your display program affects sales productivity, you’ll need before-and-after data about their activities and the results they achieve.

Your sales team must be willing to share such information. Without it, you won’t be able to measure one of the key benefits your advertising provides.

When your ads generate interest, will Sales respond?

Shortly after you begin advertising, you’ll identify previously hidden “buying centers” and “hotspots of interest” in their target accounts.

Your sales team must be open to changing their account focus and activity in response to information your display program provides.

They must be willing to go where you tell them they’re likely to find their best opportunities.

Understand the unique benefits of display advertising

Display advertising can deliver results that are impossible to achieve through any other B2B marketing channel.

You can reach highly targeted accounts, without wasting time and money on accounts you don’t care about.

You can focus on specific geographic locations for these accounts. And you can target individuals in specific job functions, with specific titles and levels of seniority.

Then you can custom-tailor your message and your appeals to the accounts and individuals you’ve targeted.

You can to all this without knowing any contact names, email addresses, or phone numbers.

And you can produce measurable results in as little as two or three weeks.

For more about these capabilities, go here and here.  

Before you undertake a display program, sell these unique capabilities to your internal stakeholders.

Get your ducks in a row before you wade in

In summary, display advertising is not the first thing a marketing leader will consider when when starting a new ABM program.

To succeed with ABM display advertising, you’ll want to have other key elements in place.

But once your ABM program is underway, display advertising can greatly improve its effectiveness.  

Before you commit to display advertising, first lay the right groundwork and expectations. Establish the right success metrics. Allocate enough budget and resources. And get your sales team fully on board.

Then you’ll be ready to move forward with confidence.

Within weeks, you’ll be providing benefits you can’t deliver through any other B2B marketing channel or tactic.

Look for future articles in this series to address these topics:

  • Essential elements of effective ABM display ads
  • Common concerns about display advertising
  • Retargeting

If you share your name and email address, we’ll notify you when future articles appear.

If you have other questions about getting started with B2B online display advertising, look for other articles in this series. Here are the links:

Online Display Advertising for Account-Based Marketing: What’s in It for B2B Sales Teams

B2B Display Advertising: Targeting the Exact Groups You Want to Reach

ABM Display Ads: How to Reach Your Ideal Customers Before Your Competitors Do

Inside Display Ads for Account-Based Marketing: From Specs to Creative to Production

Online Display Advertising for Account-Based Marketing: How Much Does It Cost?

CEO’s Dilemma: When to Invest in Display Advertising for ABM (Part 1 of 2) 

About Dave Vranicar

Dave is founder of Redwell B2B, a company that provides consulting, coaching, and content-creation services at the intersection of Sales and Marketing. Redwell’s goal is to help business-to-business companies accelerate revenue growth by helping Sales and Marketing work together as members of the same agile revenue team. Most of Redwell’s clients are tech firms that engage in complex sales involving multiple decision influencers. Content created by Redwell supports both inbound and outbound prospecting, including social selling and account-based marketing and sales development.  

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