Account-Based Marketing Examples: 6 Campaign Patterns You Can Run
Short answer. The most useful account-based marketing examples are repeatable campaign patterns, not one-off brand stories. Six cover most situations: a named-account launch, competitor displacement, expansion into an owned account, event follow-up, dark-account warm-up and committee multithreading. Each pairs sales and marketing on the same list and is measured in accounts engaged, not leads.
Updated 15 Oct 2026.
What makes a good account-based marketing example?
A pattern you can copy, not a story you can only admire. Most lists of account-based marketing examples retell famous brand campaigns that reveal nothing about the list, the budget or the follow-up. More useful is the campaign pattern: a named situation, the play that fits it, and the numbers that tell you whether it worked. Every pattern below assumes the basics of account-based marketing are in place: a chosen account list, sales and marketing working it together, and measurement at the account level.
What are the six ABM campaign patterns?
1. Named-account launch
When to use it. You are entering a new market, territory or segment, and the accounts that matter have never heard of you.
The play. Choose the accounts before any campaign runs. Marketing makes you familiar inside those companies with content and advertising aimed only at them; sales follows with researched outreach to three to five people per account, every channel pointed at the same names.
What to measure. Target accounts showing engagement, conversations opened and meetings booked inside the list, not impressions or form fills.
2. Competitor displacement
When to use it. A rival serves accounts that fit you better, and renewal windows or public frustration give you a way in.
The play. Build a list of accounts running the competitor, prepare honest switch-cost content, and time outreach to contract windows and trigger events rather than running it on your calendar.
What to measure. Engaged accounts from the competitor list, evaluations opened and deals won where the incumbent was displaced.
3. Expansion into an owned account
When to use it. You serve one team inside a large company and the growth is next door. The cheapest opportunities are usually closest to home: cross-selling, up-selling and deeper use of what you already sold.
The play. Map the buying committee beyond your champion, ask your contact for forwardable introductions to sibling teams, and point marketing at the other business units with proof drawn from the work you already did there.
What to measure. New stakeholders engaged, new business units in pipeline and revenue per account over time.
4. Event follow-up on named accounts
When to use it. A trade show, webinar or roundtable put people from your target accounts in the room.
The play. Agree before the event which named accounts matter. Afterwards, follow up per account rather than per badge scan: reference the actual conversation, bring the next stakeholder in, and keep the account warm with marketing while sales books the next step.
What to measure. Target accounts met, follow-up conversations held and meetings booked from the event list.
5. Dark-account warm-up
When to use it. Accounts you chose carefully are ignoring outreach, and pushing harder is making it worse.
The play. Stop asking for meetings. Run a patient presence instead: useful content, thoughtful comments, advertising to the account and small relevant gestures, until a trigger event gives you a genuine reason to approach again.
What to measure. Engagement signals from inside the account, first replies and accounts moved from dark to active.
6. Committee multithread
When to use it. Deals hang on one contact and stall the moment that contact goes quiet.
The play. Map the decision-making unit, give each role its own message, and open second and third threads through introductions and direct outreach while marketing keeps the whole account warm. Digitap.ai built its programme on this logic and hit 150% of its annual target: 144 buying-committee conversations opened inside its named accounts, against a target of 96. The Digitap case study has the detail.
What to measure. Stakeholders engaged per account and buying-committee conversations opened, not just meetings.
How do you measure any of these campaigns?
ABM cannot be judged by a single number, so define a small set of KPIs up front. Six carry most of the signal: pipeline growth, revenue growth, return on the programme, deals closed, conversion rate of target accounts from engaged to opportunity to customer, and sales cycle length, segmented by lead source, buyer size and product before you act on it.
Why this works better on named accounts
Every pattern above depends on the same foundation: a named account list that sales and marketing both work. On an anonymous lead pool, a campaign ends when the campaign ends. On named accounts, each play compounds: the launch builds familiarity the displacement play uses, the event follow-up surfaces stakeholders the multithread play needs, and every touch adds to a record of the account rather than evaporating with a lead. Conversion then means committees engaged, not forms filled.
Frequently asked questions
What are some examples of account-based marketing campaigns?
The repeatable ones: a named-account launch into a new market, competitor displacement timed to renewals, expansion into an account you already serve, event follow-up on chosen accounts, patient warm-up of unresponsive accounts and multithreading a buying committee. Each pairs sales and marketing on one list with account-level measures.
What does ABM mean in sales?
ABM stands for account-based marketing, a strategy that focuses sales and marketing effort on specific high-value accounts. ABM teams work closely with sales to identify, target and engage those accounts together, instead of marketing generating anonymous leads and handing them over.
Is ABM only for B2B?
ABM was built for B2B, where several stakeholders decide and accounts are worth individual attention, and that is where it delivers. The underlying idea, concentrating effort on your most valuable customers, can inform other models, but the full methodology assumes business buyers.
How many ABM campaigns should you run at once?
As few as your team can run properly. One pattern on one tier of accounts, measured for a quarter, teaches more than three run thinly. Add a second pattern once the first has a routine: list agreed, roles clear and numbers reviewed by sales and marketing together.
Keep reading
- What is ABM in marketing? A plain-English definition
- How to build an ABM strategy in 7 steps
- Pipeline Coverage Calculator
Want this run on your key accounts? Intandemly is an account-based selling company: a platform and a consultant who work your named accounts with you. Talk to us