Weekly ABM/ABX Insights - Why Traditional Targeting Strategies Are Falling Flat (and What to Do About It)

Edition #34 | Published April 21, 2025

Are you still targeting buyers based on industry, job title, and company size? Does your ICP still look like a basic spreadsheet filter exercise? You’re not alone, but you might be getting left behind.

The most forward-thinking B2B teams are moving beyond outdated targeting strategies and into a new era of AI agent powered, signal-driven targeting strategies. This week, we’re spotlighting the voices shaping the future of ABM and revenue growth, diving into emerging trends like ABM Audio Ads, GTM/ABX Unique Signals Identification by AI Agents, and much more. 

🚀 The Pulse: Must-Know Industry News

🎧 ABM Goes Audio

Madison Logic just launched ABM Audio Advertising. Your future customers are listening, literally. 75% of Americans stream audio monthly, and 70%+ of B2B buying groups - prefer podcasts and audio content. Audio is now a strategic ABM channel to engage full buying committees where they stream and scroll.

Pro Tip: Audio offers low competition and high engagement, making it a must-have in your multichannel ABM motion. I ran a quick test last week using headliner to repurpose a podcast clip into an audio-style sponsored ad on LinkedIn - and the engagement was noticeably higher than our usual static creative. 

🔥 Outbound Cadence Meets Ad Precision

Ads can now be integrated into your outbound cadence to warm up out-of-market accounts and turn them into in-market buyers. With Salesloft x Influ2 Integration, marketers can now run contact-level ads triggered by outbound sequences.. Just like emails from a cadence reach a prospect's inbox, ads will pop up in their social media feeds on a specified day. This blend of sales engagement + intent-based advertising is pure ABX gold.

📊 Executive Social Engagement as a Signal

Imagine tracking which decision-makers from your top accounts are engaging with your executives’ posts on LinkedIn. Sounds like a top-tier ABM tactic, right? With Clay’s new integration with LinkedIn Community API, you can monitor company mentions, sentiment, and individual reactions, giving you a deeper understanding of how execs from top accounts engage and perceive your brand pre-opportunity.

🤖 HubSpot Doubles Down on AI in GTM

HubSpot is turning its AI assistant vision into reality by acquiring Dashworks. Dashworks connects data from across your stack (docs, emails, apps), and by combining it with HubSpot’s Breeze Copilot, marketers and sellers can now ask questions in natural language and get rich, contextual answers. 

🎙 Voices of Influence: Insights from Industry Icons

GTM Alpha: Unique data + Unique plays + GTM engineering (by Clay's GTM Innovation)

In today’s crowded market, surface-level targeting won’t cut it. Teams need unique data signals, real-time triggers, and constant experimentation to stay competitive. This is one of the best ABX insights I recently read. A very refreshing perspective! 

My Top Takeaways:

• ABM is about custom signals that reveal real buying intent. Tools like Clay’s AI agent uncover hidden insights at scale. 

• The next evolution is GTM Engineering (foundation of successful ABM/ABX execution): building internal teams focused on unifying sales ops, data enrichment, and play deployment. 

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📌 Top teams now run GTM like product development - with hypotheses, data inputs, and continuous play optimization. 

🔥 What’s Trending: Hot Picks This Week

🧠 HubSpot SVP says websites may become obsolete as AI Agents handle discovery - your data must be AI-readable, omnichannel, and verifiable, because that’s what agents will prioritize when making decisions.

📉 Only 45% of CMOs exceed exec expectations, says Gartner - those seen as cross-functional innovators drive real business impact. 

🔦 Case Study: How StarTree Achieved a 3.17x Conversion Rate Boost in Pipeline Generation

StarTree faced a familiar ABM challenge: too many irrelevant contacts, not enough actionable intent data. They flipped the script based on this newly featured case study by Influ2 by building personalized and dynamic Ads journeys with funnel-stage content (love this!) that target only buyer persona-fit contacts in their ABM accounts, and triggered real-time ad engagement alerts to Sales. 

🔁 The result? 3.17x lift in conversion rates from influenced opportunities.

This is how true sales-marketing alignment + contact-level personalization scales the pipeline. 

Full Case Study →

🛠 Martech Spotlight: Cool Tools & Innovations

• Clay’s Signal Hub: Your new favorite toy for real-time ABM signals all centered into one Hub. Marketers can have full control over the frequency and cost of signals!

• Brand24 & Sprout Social: Monitor target account’s social interactions across the web. Pretty cool! 

📚 Knowledge Vault: Must-Read Resources

• Cognism’s ABM PlaybookL: They just achieved the highest marketed generated revenue in a single quarter in Cognism history, and this playbook is one of the key drivers. This behind the scenes look will give you tactical insights you can act on. 

• Top B2B Buyer Personas of 2025: Smartest marketers are shifting from static persona decks to dynamic persona activation—using real-time data, behavioral insights, and content targeting to engage buyers on their terms.

• Real AI vs. Fake Automation: Cut through the hype. Understand what makes an AI solution actually smart.

⚡ Execution Tips & Tricks for ABM Success

• Buyers not acting after reading your content? Try video sales letters as follow-up touchpoints to boost your conversion at a fractional cost of a SDR follow up, and more personalized. They scale authenticity without the SDR price tag.

• Running LinkedIn ABM ads? Start with carousel insights, then retarget with document ads that dive deeper. Here’s why it works.

🎤 ABM Insider: Must-Attend Events

• Buyer Intent Secrets: Crack the Code to B2B Sales Success (9am PT, April 24) Join Demandbase's Jay Tuel & Informa TechTarget's Dara Such as we pull back the curtain on buyer intent

• Fixing ABM’s Fatal Flaws (10am, PT, April 24) Learn how to uncover hidden buyer intent signals, align Sales + Marketing, and integrate AI agents into your workflows.

• 2025 Campaign Optimization Series (April 22–24) Discover AI-driven campaign strategies and hyper-personalized execution tactics.

• G2’s AI in Action Roadshow A half-day deep dive on real-world GTM applications of AI in NYC and SF.

💬 Quote of the Week

“The same person who approves the PO for your SaaS company also binges Selling Sunset. In B2B, we’ve gotten into this habit of acting like people are so different. This artificial separation makes our marketing feel stiff—and ineffective.”

— Heike Young, Head of Content, Microsoft

“Buyers don’t want to jump through hoops just to understand your product, get pricing, or book a demo. They expect an intuitive experience where they can self-educate and move forward in their journey on their own terms.”

— Alice de Courcy, CMO at Cognism

“Ignoring the decision-making unit is one of the biggest reasons deals fall apart. These decisions are rarely made by one person. Even if a contact is leading discussions, there’s usually a group behind them......if those people aren’t part of the conversation early, the risk of internal objections grows.”

— Spencer Romenco, Chief Growth Strategist at Growth Spurt (via HubSpot) 

🧠 Ready to revamp your strategy? Check out our past editions or let’s chat.

🎯 Until next time—stay bold, stay targeted.

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