ABM Tactics for B2B SaaS: Plays for Every Funnel Stage
TL;DR: ABM tactics are the specific plays you run against named accounts at each stage of the buying journey. This guide lists 20 tactics across five stages: awareness, engagement, consideration, decision and expansion. Each one comes with a short "how to run it." The core idea: reach the whole buying group, not just the company logo, and match the tactic to where the account is today.
Part of the ABM Hub: ABM Strategy: Step-by-Step Playbook | ABM Best Practices | ABM Campaign Examples
Most B2B SaaS teams don't struggle to understand account-based marketing. They struggle to know what to actually run on Monday morning.
The buying group is the reason. A typical B2B purchase involves a team of about 10 people, and 94% of buying groups rank their preferred vendors before they first contact sales (6sense, 2025). If your brand isn't familiar to that group before the shortlist forms, the best sales call in the world comes too late.
That is what ABM tactics are for. This guide skips the theory and lists the plays: 20 tactics, sorted by funnel stage, each with a short "how to run it." Pick the stage your target accounts are in, then run the matching plays.
ABM tactics vs ABM strategy: what's the difference?
Your ABM strategy decides which accounts to target and why. Your ABM tactics are the specific plays you run to move those accounts forward. If you haven't set the strategy yet, start with our step-by-step ABM strategy playbook, or read what account-based marketing is for the basics.
One principle shapes every tactic below: accounts don't sign contracts, people do. The best plays reach the whole buying group, not only the company logo. That is the idea behind person-based ABM.
Before you run any tactic: get the account list right
Every tactic in this guide assumes you already have a clear ideal customer profile and a target account list. For most B2B SaaS teams, 50–100 accounts is a good place to start: small enough to personalise, big enough to build pipeline. If your ICP still needs work, use our ICP framework for ABM and our guide to target account lists sales will actually work.
ABM tactics by funnel stage
ABM isn't one tactic. It's a set of plays that change as an account moves from "never heard of you" to "signed customer." Use the table to find the stage, then jump to the tactics for it.
Funnel stage | Account status | Primary tactics | Key metrics |
|---|---|---|---|
Awareness | Cold target accounts | Person-level ads, executive thought leadership, connected TV, event targeting | Account reach, frequency per decision-maker |
Engagement | Showing interest | Warm LinkedIn outreach, retargeting, persona-based content, website personalisation | Engaged accounts, contacts engaged per account |
Consideration | Actively evaluating | Role-specific proof, ROI tools, multi-threaded outreach, intent triggers | Meetings booked, stakeholders engaged |
Decision | In an active deal | Pre-meeting air cover, objection content, executive-to-executive outreach, direct mail | Deal velocity, win rate |
Expansion | Existing customer | New-stakeholder ads, cross-sell plays, champion programmes, adoption content | Net revenue retention, expansion pipeline |
Awareness tactics: get known before the shortlist forms
Run person-level ads to the buying group. Target named decision-makers at your target accounts, not everyone who works there. How to run it: upload your contact list, not just company names, and serve ads across LinkedIn, Meta, Google and programmatic display. Hey Sid's Always On does this as a managed service.
Publish executive thought leadership. Buyers trust people more than logos. How to run it: have one or two leaders post on LinkedIn every week about the problems your ICP faces. Authority Builder handles this done-for-you.
Add connected TV for senior buyers. CTV reaches executives outside the office, in a lean-back moment. How to run it: use IP-based targeting for your top-tier accounts and keep the video under 30 seconds. See our CTV for ABM guide.
Target events your accounts attend. Trade shows put your buying groups in one place. How to run it: geofence the venue and run ads to attendees before, during and after the event. More in our geofencing guide.
Engagement tactics: turn familiarity into interaction
Send warm LinkedIn outreach. Connection requests land better once people have seen your brand. How to run it: reach out only to contacts who have had ad impressions for a few weeks, and keep the first message about them, not your product. Precision Connect automates this.
Retarget engaged accounts. Someone from a target account visited your site. Don't let them go cold. How to run it: build a retargeting audience from target-account visitors and show them the next logical piece of content. See our B2B retargeting guide.
Map content to each persona. The CFO and the IT lead want different things. How to run it: create one ad and one asset per key role, and rotate creative every 6–8 weeks to avoid ad fatigue.
Personalise your website for target accounts. A visitor from a target account should see their industry and their problem. How to run it: swap the hero line and case study based on the visiting company. See B2B website personalisation.
Consideration tactics: help the whole group build the case
Give each role its own proof. How to run it: send case studies to champions, ROI evidence to finance, and security and integration documents to IT. Don't send one deck to everyone.
Offer an ROI calculator or business case template. Your champion has to sell you internally. How to run it: give them a simple, shareable tool with numbers they can edit for their own company.
Multi-thread the account. Deals with only one contact are fragile. How to run it: identify at least three stakeholders per account and make sure each one has seen your brand before sales reaches out.
Act on intent signals fast. How to run it: when an account researches your category, visits your pricing page or reads a competitor comparison, raise ad frequency and alert the account owner the same week. See our intent data guide.
Decision tactics: keep the deal moving
Give every meeting air cover. How to run it: when a demo is booked, increase ad frequency to every stakeholder in that deal for the next two weeks. More plays in our ABM pipeline acceleration guide.
Answer objections before they're raised. How to run it: ask sales for the three most common objections, then turn each into a short ad or one-pager for the stakeholders who raise it.
Set up executive-to-executive contact. How to run it: have your CEO or a senior leader send a short, personal note to their counterpart at the account once a deal reaches the proposal stage.
Send direct mail to tier 1 deals. How to run it: send something useful and relevant to the deal, timed to a key meeting, not a branded mug. See our ABM gifting and direct mail playbook.
Expansion tactics: grow the accounts you already have
Reach new stakeholders inside current customers. How to run it: map the teams that don't use you yet and run person-level ads to their leaders.
Run cross-sell plays. How to run it: show customers proof from similar companies that bought a second product or plan.
Build a champion programme. How to run it: give your best users early access, content to share, and a reason to talk about you inside their company.
Push adoption content. Customers who use more features renew and expand. How to run it: target users with short how-to content for the features they haven't tried. See our account expansion guide.
How the tactics work together
No single tactic carries ABM. The plays work because the same people see your ads, read your leaders' posts and then get a relevant message from your team. Hey Sid's Influence Loop runs these three together: Always On for ads, Authority Builder for thought leadership and Precision Connect for outreach, all aimed at the same named decision-makers. For real examples, see 7 ABM campaigns that worked.
How to tell if your tactics are working
Judge each tactic by the stage it serves, not by clicks. Awareness tactics should raise reach and frequency among your decision-makers. Engagement and consideration tactics should raise the number of stakeholders engaged per account and the meetings booked. Decision tactics should show up in deal velocity and win rate. Revenue impact takes longer, so track these leading signs first. For the full set of metrics, see ABM metrics that matter, and for proving revenue impact, our ABM attribution guide.
4 tactic mistakes to avoid
Targeting logos instead of people. Ads served to "anyone at Company X" mostly reach people with no say in the purchase. Target the named members of the buying group instead.
Letting creative go stale. When the same people see the same ad for months, they stop noticing it. Refresh creative every 6–8 weeks.
Running one tactic alone. Ads without outreach build awareness but rarely meetings. Outreach without ads reaches people who have never heard of you. Run them together.
Using the wrong tactic for the stage. A demo invite to a cold account wastes the touch. Match the play to where the account is today.
For the program-level mistakes, like weak sales alignment or no clear owner, see our ABM best practices.
Putting it all together
Good ABM tactics are matched to the stage, aimed at people rather than logos, and run together across channels. Start small: pick your top 50–100 accounts, identify the decision-makers at each, and run the awareness tactics first. Add engagement and consideration plays as accounts warm up, and save the decision plays for live deals.
ABM works best as one part of a wider go-to-market plan. To see how it fits with your other channels, read our complete B2B SaaS marketing playbook. To plan spend across these tactics, see ABM budget planning.
FAQ
What ABM tactics work best for small teams?
Start with the tactics that run themselves once set up: person-level ads to your buying groups, weekly LinkedIn posts from one leader, and warm outreach to people who have seen your ads. These three cover awareness and engagement without a big team. Add decision-stage tactics like direct mail only for your most valuable deals.
Which ABM tactics work at the bottom of the funnel?
Pre-meeting air cover, objection-handling content, executive-to-executive outreach and direct mail for tier 1 deals. The goal at this stage isn't awareness. It's keeping every stakeholder in the deal confident and moving.
How many ABM tactics should we run at once?
Three to five is enough for most B2B SaaS teams. Run at least one tactic per stage your accounts are in, and make sure ads, content and outreach reach the same people. Running more tactics badly is worse than running fewer well.
What's the difference between ABM tactics and ABM strategy?
Strategy decides which accounts to target and why. Tactics are the specific plays you run against those accounts, like person-level ads or warm outreach. For the strategy side, see our step-by-step ABM strategy playbook.
How much do ABM tactics cost to run?
It depends on the tactics and the number of accounts. Enterprise ABM platforms often cost $50,000–$100,000+ a year before ad spend. A managed Hey Sid pilot for 50–100 accounts runs $1,900–$4,150 a month and covers ads, thought leadership and outreach. See ABM software pricing for a full breakdown.
Ready to run these ABM tactics without managing five tools? See how Hey Sid runs person-level ads, thought leadership and warm outreach to the same decision-makers. Book a demo and start building pipeline from the accounts that matter most.
