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Account based marketing needs a makeover, and 2025 is the perfect year for B2B marketers to make room for the improvements and innovations needed to stand out in a volatile and uncertain market.
Even today, too many ABM activation platforms have failed to deliver on the promise and potential of ABM. They offer fragmented point solutions, siloed channels, or fragmented measurement frameworks that leave marketers guessing on performance.
The result? ABM strategies that sound good on paper but fall short in practice—often engaging only a fraction of the full buying committee and stalling progress in the sales cycle.
It’s time that we—as an industry and as leaders—deliver on the promise the industry made decades ago: Help B2B marketers reach the right buyers, at the right time, with the right message.
ABM was positioned as the solution to the inefficiencies of mass marketing—a way to deliver personalization and precision at scale. Yet, here we are, 20 years later, and the reality still hasn’t fully caught up with the hype.
Here’s where we find ourselves and where we need to go to truly deliver on that promise.
The buying process is evolving
First, let’s start with the buying committee.
Changes in buying committees are causing friction; and, as leaders in the industry, we should try to smooth the way to reaching the right people. And that starts with understanding who today’s B2B buyers are.
One of the major changes: Modern B2B buying decisions are no longer made by a handful of individuals, they are made by buying groups.
And those groups are larger, more diverse, and more distributed than ever before. Moreover, stakeholders span multiple roles, departments, and regions. They’re consuming content across a range of formats and channels at every hour of the day. And perhaps more important, they expect seamless, personalized engagements that speak to their unique needs and challenges.
Fact: the old way of doing ABM no longer works, and B2B marketers need to pivot and evolve with the times and trends and create a diversified ABM strategy to stay ahead.
So how did we get here?
For all its early promise of ABM, much of the industry is still stuck in legacy thinking—treating the buyer journey as linear, messaging as one-size-fits-all, and engagement as a matter of targeting just one or two key contacts.
That approach no longer reflects the reality marketers face today. If ABM is to truly deliver on its promise, it must evolve to meet the modern buyers on their terms.
My biggest recommendation: stay ahead of changing buyer behaviors and build meaningful connections with the people who matter most.
Accountability starts with real activation
ABM activation platforms must do more than identify target accounts. They need to hold themselves accountable to the original promise of ABM—orchestrating multichannel, data-driven engagement that delivers measurable results.
That means going beyond just email and content syndication and embracing channels that meet prospects where they are today (see Harris Poll insights).
For example, B2B professionals are listening to podcasts on their commutes, while exercising, and between meetings. Audio is not only personal and immersive; it’s also an untapped opportunity to reach stakeholders that traditional digital channels might miss.
And that is exactly why we at Madison Logic recently launched ABM Audio Advertising—to help marketers reach and influence decision-makers through a medium that’s become integral to modern media consumption.
It’s time to close the consensus gap
As today’s B2B buying decisions are made by a complex, diverse group of stakeholders, engaging just your primary contact is no longer enough. From Procurement and Finance to IT, Operations, and executive leadership, each person in the decision-making process plays a critical role in evaluating potential solutions and shaping the final vote.
That complexity has introduced what many marketers now refer to as the consensus gap—the disconnect between engaging one or two key contacts versus reaching and influencing the full committee. And it’s a major reason why opportunities stall or are abandoned.
To close that gap, modern ABM strategies must move beyond one-dimensional targeting and embrace a more comprehensive, data-informed, and multi-threaded approach. That means…
- Prioritizing full buying committee coverage. Successful ABM campaigns map out all relevant personas and roles within a target account and tailor messaging accordingly. It’s not just about the decision-maker—it’s about the influencers, blockers, and end-users, too.
- Harnessing intent data and engagement signals. Marketers must use real-time behavioral insights to understand what topics matter to different stakeholders and where they are in the buyer journey. Doing so allows for precise personalization and smarter content distribution.
- Activating cross multiple channels and formats. Today’s buyers consume information everywhere—email, display ads, social, webinars, connected TV, and audio content. Reaching them across those touchpoints increases visibility and accelerates alignment within the account.
- Orchestrating campaigns with consistency. A unified message across platforms—tailored to each persona—helps reinforce your value proposition and prevent mixed signals that can cause confusion or delay.
- Measuring impact at the account level. True ABM success isn’t just measured in clicks or form fills; it’s measured in account engagement, pipeline progression, and velocity. That requires clear attribution, real-time performance tracking, and agile optimization.
Closing the consensus gap isn’t a one-time tactic—it’s an ongoing strategy that requires alignment across Sales and Marketing, a deep understanding of buying behavior, and the ability to execute with precision and flexibility.
When done right, this modern, committee-centric approach to ABM doesn’t just engage accounts—it builds trust, drives consensus, and accelerates revenue.
It’s time to move from promises to performance
ABM shouldn’t be a buzzword or phrase. It should be a revenue engine.
If ABM activation platforms want to remain relevant, they must hold themselves—and the industry—to a higher standard. That means delivering on three non-negotiables: full buying committee coverage, true multichannel activation, and real-time performance optimization.
That’s the ABM that was promised decades ago, and that’s the one that all clients and customers deserve today.
