ABM Examples: 20 Real Account-Based Marketing Campaigns

The short version

The best ABM examples share three traits: a named, finite account list; a message built for that list rather than a segment; and a measurable outcome the team was willing to publish. The 20 campaigns below range from a single comic book that won one telecom account to programs running personalised paid media against thousands of accounts. Read them for the pattern, not the punchline: almost every one comes down to fewer accounts, more specific message, sales involved from day one.

Three of the 20 are public case studies published by Metadata.io, which sponsors this site (see disclosure). They are listed under the same format and with the same caveats as everyone else's.

All 20 ABM examples at a glance

Tiers follow the ITSMA convention we explain in What is account-based marketing: 1:1 (strategic), 1:few (cluster) and 1:many (programmatic). For how these plays map to tooling, see ABM strategy and the best ABM tools for 2026.

1:1 examples: one account, one campaign

1. GumGum's comic book for T-Mobile

GumGum, a computer-vision ad-tech company, wanted T-Mobile as a customer and knew its then-CEO John Legere was a vocal comic fan. GumGum's team wrote and illustrated a comic, "T-Man and Gums", in which Legere is the superhero, printed 100 copies and sent them to T-Mobile and its agencies. Legere tweeted about it and T-Mobile took the meeting. MediaPost's 2017 coverage is the cleanest public account (source 1). Lesson: at the 1:1 tier, the creative cost of a single asset is trivial compared to the contract, so spend on relevance rather than reach.

2. Intridea's billboard across from Ogilvy

Intridea, a small Washington-area development shop, rented a billboard directly opposite Ogilvy & Mather's New York office with the copy "Ogle this, Ogilvy" and a URL. The original 2011 post on Intridea's blog is no longer live; the Internet Archive holds the company site from the period (source 2). The stunt landed a meeting and became one of the most-cited early ABM examples because it demonstrates that the "audience" in a 1:1 play can be a single building.

3. Northrop Grumman and the Commonwealth of Virginia

This is the textbook ITSMA example. In the early 2000s Northrop Grumman pursued Virginia's statewide IT infrastructure outsourcing contract, awarded through the Virginia Information Technologies Agency in 2005 and worth roughly $2 billion over ten years (public record, source 3). The pursuit combined a long-run account plan, executive relationship mapping, local-presence investments and positioning against incumbents. ITSMA used it in its early ABM training as the model for "pursuit marketing": a multi-year, one-account effort where marketing and sales share a single plan.

4. Snowflake's 1:1 content experiences at scale

Snowflake's ABM team built individually-targeted content hubs for hundreds of named accounts, each assembled from existing assets and personalised by account, then drove those accounts to the hubs with LinkedIn ads and sales outreach. Both LinkedIn (source 4) and Uberflip (source 5) published customer stories on the programme. The interesting part is operational: Snowflake treated 1:1 personalisation as an assembly problem (templated hubs, reusable assets) rather than a creative one, which is what let it apply a 1:1 tactic to a 1:few-sized list.

5. O2's tiered ABM programme

O2, the UK mobile operator, ran a tiered enterprise ABM programme that produced bespoke "state of the account" reports for target organisations, identifying savings and modernisation opportunities specific to each. The programme was recognised in ITSMA's Marketing Excellence Awards and is documented through Momentum ITSMA (source 6). It shows the 1:few middle tier working: research-heavy, account-specific deliverables that still reuse a repeatable format.

6. Fujitsu's ABM function

Fujitsu is one of the most-referenced enterprise ABM programmes in ITSMA's body of work, having built a dedicated ABM function across its strategic accounts in the UK and then globally. ITSMA's published research and awards material covers it (source 6). The takeaway for buyers is structural rather than tactical: Fujitsu funded ABM as a standing team with named account marketers, not as a campaign.

7. The ITSMA founding cohort

ITSMA (now Momentum ITSMA) coined the term "account-based marketing" in 2004 after research with services firms including Accenture, HP and Xerox, which were already running one-account marketing plans for their largest clients (source 6). Those programmes predate every platform in this directory, which is worth remembering when a vendor pitches ABM as a software category.

1:many examples: platform-driven programmes

8. DocuSign's industry personalisation

DocuSign identified several hundred target enterprise accounts, grouped them into six industries and served industry-specific messaging, testimonials and content on its website to visitors from those accounts, using Demandbase's account identification and personalisation. Demandbase's original customer story has been retired from its current site; the Internet Archive copy is the best surviving source (source 7). DocuSign reported material lifts in page views and pipeline from the targeted accounts. This is the reference case for web personalisation as an ABM tactic.

9. Personify's account-based display

Personify, an association-management software vendor, used Demandbase to identify target accounts visiting its site and run account-targeted display against a defined list, then measured engagement lift versus untargeted traffic (archived Demandbase case study, source 8). It's a small-company version of the DocuSign play and a useful example of 1:many ABM without a large budget.

10. BlackLine's account-based advertising

BlackLine, a financial-close software company, ran account-based advertising through Demandbase aligned to a named list agreed with sales, and reported it as a driver of engagement in target accounts (archived Demandbase case study, source 9). BlackLine has spoken publicly about its ABM programme at Demandbase events; the archived page is the written record.

11. Thomson Reuters

Thomson Reuters ran ABM across enterprise accounts using Demandbase account intelligence and advertising, and appeared as a Demandbase reference customer (archived case study, source 10). The relevance for buyers is the scale: a very large, multi-division seller using account identification to prioritise which of thousands of accounts marketing should spend on.

12. Payscale's account-based display

Payscale used Terminus to run display advertising against a target account list and reported increases in page views, time on site and opportunity creation from those accounts. Terminus was acquired by DemandScience in 2024 and its customer-story library has been removed; the Internet Archive holds the original page (source 11).

13. Salsify's air cover for outbound

Salsify, a product-experience-management vendor, used Terminus to run ads to accounts its sales development team was actively prospecting, so that outbound calls landed on people who had already seen the brand. It is the clearest published example of the "air cover" pattern most 1:many programmes now use (archived Terminus case study, source 12).

14. Robin's multi-channel ABM

Robin, a workplace-scheduling SaaS, ran a Terminus programme combining account-based display, email signature marketing and sales alerts, and published results on engagement and opportunity rates from targeted accounts (archived Terminus case study, source 13). A good mid-market template: modest list, several coordinated channels, sales notified when an account lights up.

15. Invoca's ABM ads and sales handoff

Invoca, a call-tracking vendor, used account-based advertising to warm target accounts before SDR outreach and reported improved meeting rates from engaged accounts (archived Terminus case study, source 14). Notable for tracking the handoff metric (meetings booked from engaged accounts) rather than ad metrics.

16. Terminus running ABM on itself

Terminus documented its own use of its platform for years, including its "one-to-many" advertising programme, direct mail to target accounts and its tiered account list, in blog posts and its published book on ABM. The original content is archived (source 15). Vendors eating their own cooking is a useful sanity check when evaluating any platform on this site.

17. GitLab's public ABM handbook

GitLab publishes its entire marketing handbook, including its account-based marketing section: how it tiers accounts, which tools it uses, how it hands engaged accounts to sales and how it reports (source 16). It is the only example on this list where you can read the operating procedures rather than a summarised result, which makes it the most useful single link on the page for a team building its first programme.

Metadata.io public case studies (sponsor, disclosed)

Metadata.io sponsors this site. These three are its public case studies, included because they are documented examples of paid-media ABM on named account lists. We link the pages and describe the play; we do not repeat their figures here, and readers should treat them the way they would treat any vendor-published result.

18. Monte Carlo

Monte Carlo, a data-observability company, used Metadata to run paid campaigns against target account lists across LinkedIn and other channels, with the platform handling audience building, experiment rotation and lead enrichment into the CRM (source 17). The play is 1:many paid ABM with automated creative and audience testing rather than manual campaign management.

19. Eightfold

Eightfold, a talent-intelligence platform selling to large enterprises, used Metadata for multi-channel paid programmes against named enterprise accounts, tying spend back to pipeline in the CRM (source 18). Useful as an enterprise-seller example where the account list is small and the deal sizes are large, so per-account ad cost matters less than coverage.

20. Webex Events (Cisco)

Webex Events, a Cisco business unit, used Metadata to run account-targeted paid campaigns with a small team, replacing manual campaign operations across ad platforms (source 19). It's an example of a large-company team using an execution platform rather than a full-suite ABM platform; see our Metadata.io vs 6sense comparison for how those two shapes differ.

What the 20 examples have in common

The list came first. Every example starts from a named list, whether it's one company (GumGum, Intridea, Northrop) or a few thousand (DocuSign, Thomson Reuters). None started from a persona.

Sales was in the room. In the 1:1 cases the seller often originated the idea. In the 1:many cases (Salsify, Invoca, Robin) the measured outcome was a sales outcome: meetings, opportunities, engaged accounts handed over.

The channel was chosen for the account, not the budget. A billboard, a comic, a bespoke report, a personalised web page, a LinkedIn campaign. The channel followed from where the specific buyer would notice.

The published metric is usually engagement, not revenue. Be sceptical of that. Most vendor case studies report lifts in page views, time on site or "engaged accounts". Only a few (Northrop's contract, GumGum's signed customer, some of the Demandbase and Terminus stories) report a closed outcome. Our ABM metrics page explains which numbers are worth publishing.

Vendor pages rot. Nine of the 20 original sources are now only available through the Internet Archive, mostly because of acquisitions (Terminus by DemandScience) and site redesigns (Demandbase). If a vendor's case study matters to your decision, save a copy.

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