Account-based marketing (ABM) isn’t another marketing buzzword anymore. And in recent times, it’s become the fastest way for revenue teams to combine their sales and marketing teams and budgets and go after targeted accounts. 

No more spray-and-pray marketing tactics. 

If you’re still on the fence about ABM, we’ve curated 65 account-based marketing statistics that show you the benefits, challenges, and future of account-based marketing in 2022.

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65 account-based marketing stats you should know

General account-based marketing statistics

• 67% of brands leverage account-based marketing (HubSpot, 2021)
• In 2021, 70% of marketers used account-based marketing, compared to 55% in 2020 (HubSpot, 2021)
• In 2020, 61% of companies surveyed in 2020 had a full ABM program in place or were in the midst of a pilot program. Nearly a third (27%) thought about getting started in the next six months. (DemandBase, 2020) 
• 94.2% of organizations say they’ve currently got an ABM program (Terminus, 2020)
• 61% of B2B marketers report that ABM is essential to their overall marketing objectives (IDG, 2021)

• High-performing B2B marketers dedicate 18% of their budgets to ABM, versus 14% for underperformers (Salesforce, 2020)
• In 2020, 91% of companies with 1,000 employers or more had a full ABM program in place (48%), are running a pilot (23%), or planning to get started in the next six months (20%). (DemandBase, 2020)
• Budgets dedicated to ABM have increased year on year by 40%, from 20% in 2019 to 28% in 2020. (DemandBase, 2020)
• 15% of companies will increase their ABM budget in 2022 (ITSMA, 2021)
• 63% of the most effective marketing programs in 2020 rely on account insight to support their ABM efforts (ITSMA, 2020)
• On average, companies allocate 37% of their budget to their ABM programs (DemandBase, 2021)
• Only 28% of companies share ABM responsibilities throughout an entire team (IDG, 2021)
• 32% of companies under $100 million ARR dedicate more of their total marketing budgets to ABM compared to 21% of companies with over $1 billion ARR (ITSMA, 2020)
• 29% of marketers target 101-500 accounts with an ABM strategy (DemandGen, 2020)
• 70% of B2B marketers say that the principles of ABM are influencing the way companies do marketing today (ITSMA, 2021)
• 55% of marketing professionals use ABM for both new revenue and existing customer expansion revenue (DemandBase, 2021)
• 86% of marketers get information about their accounts from three significant sources: social media (65%), their database (62%), and IT publishers (60%). (IDG, 2021)

• Two-thirds of ABM programs today are in the earliest phases of development, with just 20% of them in expansion mode and only 13% being fully embedded in marketing and corporate strategy (ITSMA, 2020)
• Despite the pandemic, 44% of companies maintained their current and original AMB budget. 26% of companies increased their budget, but 30% had to cut back on spending (ITSMA, 2020) 
• 58% of organizations integrated their traditional demand gen. and ABM strategies to streamline their marketing efforts (DemandGen, 2021)
• 49% of marketers say that ABM plays a significant role in making their company more customer-centric (ITSMA, 2021)
• The four best metrics for measuring ABM performance are: revenue generated from target accounts (56%), target account engagement (36%), Marketing Qualified Leads (34%), and win rate (28%). (Ascend2, 2021)
• 42% of companies early in their ABM journey look at ABM as a lead generation strategy rather than as an account engagement strategy (Terminus, 2020)
• The top three goals for ABM programs are creating new opportunities for sales (53%), generating more revenue from existing customers (42%), and identifying new target accounts (35%). (Ascend2, 2021)
• Identifying target contacts, creating custom content, and researching tactics are the top three tactics used by marketers within an ABM program (HubSpot, 2021)
• 41% of marketers say that Lifetime Customer Value and an account's financial information are the two most important metrics to track for ABM (Ascend2, 2021)
• 43% of ABM programs are more than three years old, but less than five years old (Salesforce, 2020)
• 61% of organizations report that customer retention and expansion are a vital part of their ABM program (Terminus, 2020)
• 63% of marketers are already using intent/behavior signals (an 8% increase from 2019), with 28% indicating they plan to incorporate them (DemandGen, 2021)
• Most companies run one type of ABM, but 36% have a blended strategy (ITSMA, 2020)
• In an Ascend2 survey, 28% of respondents say that ABM programs are managed by the marketing department, with another 19% saying that a sales department runs these programs. Another 15% have an ABM-specific role taking charge of the programs (Ascend2, 2021)
• In 2021, 76% of companies experimented and expanded their ABM programs, up from 58% in 2020 (ITSMA, 2021)‍

Account-based marketing ROI statistics

• Of companies with complete ABM programs in place, 63% report at least a 25% ROI, and 46% report at least a 50% return (DemandBase, 2020)
• 79% of active ABM adopters have been successfully generating ROI (Terminus, 2020)
• 76% of respondents report higher ROI with ABM than with other tactics. (ITSMA, 2020)
• 94.2% of respondents now have an active ABM program (up from 77% in 2019) (Terminus, 2020)
• DemandBase reports an average increase in ACV of 33% for ABM closed-won opportunities (DemandBase, 2021) 
• 87% of B2B marketers said that the ROI of ABM initiatives outperforms other marketing investments (IDG, 2021)
• IDG estimates that 91% of marketers in the Asia region in general, and China in particular, rated their ABM efforts as highly successful (IDG, 2021)
• 96% of marketers report that the average contract value of their ABM campaigns is more significant than $51,000, with nearly one-third estimating an average of more than $100,000 (IDG, 2021)

Account-based marketing benefits statistics

• 75% of marketers use ABM for customer marketing (up from 38% in 2020) as it helps increase their client retention rates (Terminus, 2020)
• 40% of B2B marketers report improvement in brand equity and perception (ITSMA, 2021)
• 73% of companies noticed an improvement in account engagement since they implemented an ABM approach (ITSMA, 2021)
• Mature ABM programs now account for 79% of all sales opportunities (vs. inbound marketing, outbound marketing, etc.). (Terminus, 2020)
• 82% of B2B marketers state that ABM dramatically improves the alignment between marketing and sales at their company. (LinkedIn, 2019)
• 86% of organizations say that an ABM approach has helped them increase their win rates (TOPO, 2019)
• 61% of marketers say that ABM has significantly improved marketing and sales alignment at their companies (ITSMA, 2021)
• 73% of respondents indicated that ABM has greatly exceeded their expectations, stating efficient use of marketing resources (53%), better sales and marketing alignment (51%), and greater ROI (37%) as some of the significant benefits they’ve seen (DemandGen, 2020)

Account-based marketing challenges stats

• For companies with complete ABM programs in place, the three biggest challenges are data quality issues (53.29%), lack of budget (32.93%), and lack of alignment with sales (31.14%). (DemandBase, 2020)
• According to ITSMA, 37% of respondents cite tracking and measuring ABM results as a critical challenge, while 30% report educating sales on the process and value of ABM as a leading difficulty (ITSMA, 2020)
• IDG reports that 36% of respondents cite prioritizing accounts as their primary challenge, while 35% report creating and reaching target account lists as a critical difficulty (IDG, 2021)
• Only 36% of companies executing ABM programs consider their sales and marketing teams tightly aligned (DemandGen, 2021)
• HubSpot reports that 45% of marketers running ABM programs struggle to deliver a personalized customer experience (HubSpot, 2021)

The state of account-based marketing technology

• Only 25-39% of respondents use content syndication, sales automation, third-party data, and attribution and reporting software. (ITSMA, 2020)
• Over 70% of companies in the ITSMA survey use a CRM (ITSMA, 2020)
• 80% of organizations use three or more tools in their ABM efforts (IDG, 2021)
• 68% of ABM programs use automation tools (Salesforce, 2020)
• 27% of companies prioritize dedicated ABM platforms, while 24% and 21% prefer marketing automation tools and predictive analytics tools, respectively (IDG, 2021)
• Less than 25% of companies have developed a mature technology stack to support their ABM programs (ITSMA, 2020)

• The top three tools companies use to target accounts are social media analytics (72%), website analytics (65%), and CRM platforms (40%). (HubSpot, 2021)
• Only 46% of marketers are satisfied with the tools they use for their ABM programs (Salesforce, 2021)
• 95% of tech companies use analytics and reporting tools for their ABM program (LinkedIn, 2019)

The future of account-based marketing statistics

• About 34% of marketers are in the planning stages of implementing an ABM strategy in the future (Ascend2, 2021)
• On the state of their ABM budget, 48% of marketers expect a moderate increase in the year ahead, 11% say that their budget will increase significantly, 37% say that their budget will remain the same, and only 4% of respondents say that they'll decrease their budget (Ascend2, 2021)
• One-third of marketing vice presidents plan to grow investment in ABM campaigns by 30% (IDG, 2021)
• 86% of ABM leaders and B2B marketers will invest more money in tools, campaign templates, and processes to scale ABM programs (ITSMA, 2021)
• In the future, there will likely be a smaller percentage of mature ABM programs, but more programs overall (Terminus, 2020)
• 80% of marketers intend to increase their ABM budget, and 38% plan to grow that budget 10% or more in the next 12 months (LinkedIn, 2019)
• In late 2020, 42% of surveyed marketers said that the pandemic had changed their ABM objectives. Of those marketers, 49% said they shifted their objectives to focus more on growing business with existing accounts (ITSMA, 2020)

Make account-based marketing work for you

ABM takes some work to implement successfully. But as these stats show, the effort is worth it. A successful ABM program guarantees revenue growth, generates new business, and fosters customer retention.