Measuring Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is vastly different from traditional lead generation. Since you're targeting specific, high-value accounts rather than casting a wide net, your standard 'cost-per-click' metrics won't tell the full story of your success.
In this guide, we’ll walk through how to build a measurement framework that actually proves your ABM efforts are driving revenue for your Australian business.
Why ABM Measurement is Different
If you’ve spent years looking at Google Analytics or Facebook Ads Manager, you’re probably used to 'volume' metrics: how many clicks, how many leads, how many downloads.ABM is about quality over quantity. You might only be targeting 20 specific companies in Brisbane. If you get 500 clicks from random people, that’s a failure. If you get 5 clicks from the CEOs of those 20 companies, that’s a massive win. This guide will help you shift your mindset from 'how many' to 'who'.
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Prerequisites: What You’ll Need Before Starting
Before we dive into the steps, make sure you have the following ready:- A Defined Target Account List (TAL): A list of the specific companies you are targeting.
- CRM Access: (Salesforce, HubSpot, or even a well-organised Excel sheet if you're just starting out).
- Alignment with Sales: You need to be on the same page as your sales team about what a 'qualified' account looks like.
- An ABN: If you're using LinkedIn's Matched Audiences (highly recommended for Aussie B2B), you'll need your business details verified.
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Step 1: Define Your "Three Tiers" of Metrics
Most people get stuck because they try to measure everything at once. From our experience at Local Marketing Group, the best way to keep your sanity is to categorise your metrics into three tiers.- Relationship/Coverage Metrics: Are we reaching the right people within the account?
- Engagement Metrics: Are those people actually interacting with us?
- Outcome/Business Metrics: Is this activity turning into money?
Step 2: Measure Account Coverage (The "Who")
This is the most basic level of ABM measurement. You need to know if you actually have the data for the people you want to reach.- What to look for: If you are targeting a large mining firm in Perth, do you have the contact details for the Head of Operations, the CFO, and the Procurement Manager?
- The Metric: Percentage of Target Accounts with complete contact data.
- Screenshot Description: In your CRM, you should see a dashboard showing 'Target Accounts' vs 'Accounts with Identified Contacts'. It usually looks like a bar chart where you want the two bars to be as close as possible.
Step 3: Track "Account Awareness"
Before an account engages, they need to know you exist. This is where we look at top-of-funnel activity specifically filtered by your Target Account List.- How to do it: Use LinkedIn Campaign Manager or Google Display Network to see 'Account Reach'.
- The Australian Context: Since our market is smaller, you might find that your 'impressions' are quite low. Don't panic! 1,000 impressions served specifically to the decision-makers at Atlassian or Rio Tinto is worth more than 1,000,000 impressions served to the general public.
Step 4: Measure Deep Engagement (The "What")
This is where the interface gets a bit fiddly, but it’s the most important part. You want to see if multiple people from the same company are visiting your site.- Look for 'Intent' signals: Are they spending time on your pricing page? Are they downloading your whitepapers?
- The Metric: Account Engagement Score. You can manually calculate this by giving points (e.g., 1 point for an email open, 5 points for a website visit, 10 points for a webinar attendance).
Step 5: Monitor Pipeline Velocity
ABM should, in theory, speed up your sales process because you are dealing with better-qualified prospects from the start.- How to measure: Compare the 'Days to Close' for your ABM accounts versus your non-ABM (inbound) leads.
- Why this matters: In Brisbane's tight-knit business community, word travels fast. If your ABM is working, you'll often find the 'Discovery' phase of your sales call is much shorter because the prospect already trusts your brand.
Step 6: Calculate Deal Size (ACV)
Are your ABM efforts landing bigger fish? Usually, the answer is yes, because you've specifically targeted high-value accounts.- The Metric: Average Contract Value (ACV).
- Compare: ABM Deal Size vs. Average Deal Size.
- Observation: It's common to see ABM deals being 25% to 50% larger than standard leads because you've had the time to multi-thread (talk to multiple stakeholders) and build a more comprehensive solution.
Step 7: The "Win-Rate" Comparison
This is the 'mic drop' metric for your quarterly reporting.- The Calculation: (Number of ABM Wins / Total ABM Opportunities) vs. (Number of Non-ABM Wins / Total Non-ABM Opportunities).
- What to expect: You should see a significantly higher win rate for ABM accounts. If you don't, it usually means your sales and marketing teams aren't aligned on the follow-up process.
Step 8: Post-Sale Measurement (Expansion)
ABM doesn't end when the contract is signed. In fact, for many Aussie SaaS or service businesses, the real money is in the upsell.- Metric: Net Retention Rate or Account Expansion Revenue.
- Example: If you landed a contract with one department of a national company (like Wesfarmers), are you successfully using ABM to move into their other subsidiaries?
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Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Measuring 'Leads' instead of 'Accounts': If you tell your Sales Director "we got 50 leads," they’ll ask about quality. If you say "we have 80% engagement from our top 10 target accounts," they’ll get excited.
- Ignoring the 'Dark Social' factor: A lot of B2B decisions happen in private Slack groups, over coffee in Eagle Street Pier, or on LinkedIn threads. You can't track everything, so look for trends rather than perfect data.
- Short-term thinking: Don't pull the plug on an ABM campaign after 30 days. In Australia, B2B relationships take time to build.
Troubleshooting Common Issues
"Our website traffic from target accounts is zero!"- Check your IP filtering. If your target accounts are using VPNs (very common in corporate environments), your tracking software might not recognise the company name.
- Solution: Focus more on LinkedIn engagement and direct email clicks, which are tied to specific identities rather than IP addresses.
- This is the classic ABM friction point. Marketing thinks 'engagement' equals 'intent'.
- Solution: Refine your 'Engagement Score'. Maybe a whitepaper download isn't enough to trigger a sales call. Maybe they need to attend a demo or a lunch-and-learn first.
- Google removed the 'Service Provider' and 'Network Domain' dimensions a while ago.
- Solution: You'll need a third-party tool like Leadfeeder, Clearbit, or Albacross to de-anonymise your traffic. It’s an extra cost, but honestly, you can’t do serious ABM without it.
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Next Steps
Now that you know how to measure success, it's time to refine your strategy:- Audit your current CRM data: See how many 'Target Accounts' you actually have contact details for.
- Set up an 'ABM Dashboard': Whether it's in HubSpot or a simple Google Sheet, get your Tier 1, 2, and 3 metrics in one place.
- Schedule a Monthly Alignment Meeting: Sit down with your sales team and go through the account engagement together.
If you're finding the technical setup of ABM tracking a bit of a headache—or you're not sure which Australian companies should be on your list—we can help. Reach out to the team at Local Marketing Group at https://lmgroup.au/contact and let’s get your ABM engine running properly.