The 2024 Strategy Guide and Landscape of B2B Agencies with ABM Capabilities

This report serves as an in-depth guide for ABM practitioners to reference when selecting an agency. It evaluates the state of B2B agencies in the context of ABM, offers strategy guidance, and presents a comprehensive landscape of B2B agencies with niche capabilities to support ABM.

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This report serves as an in-depth guide for ABM practitioners to reference when selecting an agency.

By Matt Steffen

Contributors: Chandler Martin, Davis Potter

This report articulates why outsourcing ABM to agencies that specialize in this specific GTM function is superior to adding ABM to the list of functions that a large, integrated agency of record supports. It then provides guidance for how to select the best-fit agency partner(s) to meet the unique needs of an organization. Finally, it identifies key categories of B2B agencies that operate in the ABM space, providing a framework for the reader to build their own shortlist of agencies to consider working with around a subset of unique parameters. It also links to a directory featuring a comprehensive list of carefully screened agencies deemed to have adequate capabilities to support ABM.

This report is needed now more than ever. In the current economic climate, organizations are reducing hiring and instead choosing to outsource more work to agencies. In fact, the majority of the agencies we surveyed for this report state that their leadership anticipates demand for ABM services from its clients and eithe

Report Overview

Increasing Significantly

Remain About the Same Increase Somewhat

Decrease Somewhat

2% 9%

51%

38%

prospects to either increase significantly or increase somewhat in 2024.

In 2024, your agency’s leadership anticipates demand for ABM services from its clients and prospects to*:

*45 of the 47 agencies surveyed responded to this question. Survey participants also had the option to select “decrease significantly” or “unsure”. 0% of respondents selected either of these two options.

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Most B2B marketing agencies are largely unversed in and/or underequipped to handle the nuances of ABM. Even worse, many agencies claim to support ABM but fall short.

Additionally, an agency may support ABM in certain scenarios, but not as it is practiced within your organization. Successfully selecting an agency to partner with for ABM requires a firm understanding of your organization's distinct ABM strategy and an ability to discern the nuanced capabilities of prospective ABM agency partners to ensure alignment. This report is here to help.

If ABM is being piloted or the scope of an organization’s ABM program is limited to online programmatic advertising, partnering with an agency may not be necessary. More specifically, if a program revolves solely around the use of one of the major ABM platforms - Anteriad, Demandbase, Madison Logic, TechTarget Priority Engine, Terminus, or 6Sense - leveraging the support of the solution provider’s managed and professional services team is often sufficient. The managed and professional services offered by these organizations typically include creative, data management and analysis, campaign planning and execution, reporting, and more.

However, if an organization chooses to execute Growth ABM outside the digital channels supported by ABM platforms or any form of Enterprise ABM, which ABM platforms fail to adequately support, working with a qualified agency is essential. (See page 4). analysis

Do Your ABM Efforts Demand a Dedicated Agency?

So, You Do Need an ABM Agency. Now What?

Before setting out to evaluate agencies, determine your high-level strategy. Most importantly, and as a first step, establish a firm understanding of the two major ABM subtypes, Enterprise ABM and Growth ABM, and whether your organization will deploy just one of the two or both. Each is a very distinct strategy, requiring adherence to distinct frameworks.

If there will be a focus on Enterprise ABM, drill down further to its distinct subcategories: 1:1 ABM, 1:Few ABM, and deal-based ABM (AKA pursuit marketing). Not all agencies will be able to support all three of these distinct ABM motions.

Once a foundation of the deployment models is established, there are many other questions you should be asking within your own organization, including but not limited to:

? What human and technological resources will be available within our own organization? What resources are lacking and must be provided by the agency?

? Will we primarily leverage existing campaign assets or content or need to build from scratch?

What outcomes are expected?

? Will the ABM program be digital-first or dependent on manual processes?

Enterprise ABM encompasses both the 1:1 and 1:Few approaches, requiring a distinct go-to-market (GTM) strategy supported by extensive multi-touch campaigns tailored to a single account or small cluster of accounts.

Growth ABM operates as a 1:Many framework, specifically designed for engagement of the entirety of a target account list. This methodology involves scoring and prioritizing accounts, and then segmenting accounts into tiers, often three in number.

The assigned tier dictates the extent of personalization and tactical eligibility an account receives, thereby optimizing resource allocation and ensuring the most tailored efforts are made where they matter most.

Once you can answer most or all the questions listed above, draft an ABM charter. With the ABM charter in hand, you will be ready to screen potential agency partners.

A note of consideration: some agencies may propose delegating the initial development of your strategy. While collaborating with an agency to lay the groundwork for your ABM program may be convenient, it comes with a potential drawback. Agencies may be inclined to suggest a strategy aligned with their expertise, rather than necessarily the optimal fit for your organization. Doing the work to define your high-level strategy before approaching potential agency partners is a proactive step to ensure your organization’s needs are at the forefront and your ABM program is set up for success.

If you need help with defining the high-level strategy and preparing an ABM charter, work with a separate and independent consulting firm specializing in ABM, such as the Inflexion Group.

Once your high-level strategy and basic requirements are defined, partner with an agency that can offer ongoing strategic support. Fortunately, 87% of the agencies we interviewed claimed to support their clients with strategy “very frequently.”

? Which channels will the agency need to support?

Will it be a global effort requiring localization support?

Is expertise in specific industry verticals important?

Beware of the Behemoths

Especially within larger organizations, there is often a push to consolidate vendors, including agency partners, to achieve economies of scale. This leads to signing with one or two agencies of record (AOR), usually global conglomerates. These behemoth agencies are almost always ill- equipped for ABM.

Most mega-size agencies underprioritize ABM since large brand campaigns, media buys, and events are much more profitable and fall within their comfort zones.

This report emphatically advocates against outsourcing ABM to the vast majority of conglomerate-size agencies (e.g., Wunderman Thompson, Doremus, Publicis). Denstu, however, through its acquisition of Merkle in 2021, offers one notable exception to this rule. Havas, with its acquisition of Ledger Bennett in February 2024, may offer a second exception if it keeps Ledger Bennett’s ABM team in place.

According to our research, within the full landscape of B2B marketing agencies that support ABM globally, 91% have 500 employees or fewer.

Selecting the wrong agency can be detrimental. Even an award-winning agency with glowing reviews might be a great choice for many organizations, but not yours.

Every ABM Program is Unique. Thankfully, There is An Agency Out There For Every Use Case

9% of the agencies we surveyed focus solely on the Enterprise ABM deployment models.

34% of the agencies we evaluated focus solely on the Growth ABM deployment model.

An agency must execute on your organization’s distinct strategy, have experience and resources to support the flavor of ABM your organization favors, excel in the proper channels and geographies, and understand the buyers you target. There is no “best ABM agency”, but rather the best-fit agency to meet your goals. In fact, chances are, there are multiple agencies that could adequately meet your needs. Sifting through the abundance of options is a challenge.

Thankfully, we did much of that work for you.

We conducted extensive desk research to identify a list of B2B agencies that demonstrated an ability to support ABM. If the agency demonstrated adequate capabilities, we then invited it to complete a survey. While only 19% of the agencies we surveyed focus exclusively on ABM, all consider ABM their primary competency or a significant competency, even when it’s not their sole focus. The information gathered from this survey facilitated the categorization of the agencies and the identification of each agency’s unique differentiators as they align to common use cases.

ACCESS THE AGENCIES DIRECTORY

57% of the agencies we analyzed support both Enterprise ABM and Growth ABM.

68% of the agencies we reviewed focus almost exclusively on executing ABM in digital channels.

26% of the agencies we evaluated claimed that they use AI in service to their customers very frequently.

21% of the agencies that completed the survey claimed that they support their clients with purpose-driven ABM very frequently.

Two of the agencies we assessed focus solely on account research and insights for Enterprise ABM.

A decision on an agency partner is typically multi-dimensional. To dig deeper into the full directory of 47 agencies we evaluated in depth for the purposes of this report, click below.

Additional agencies are also listed by name only that did not participate in the survey but do demonstrate sufficient capabilities to support ABM.

https://research-hub.forgex.ai/agency-marketplace

SCHEDULE A GUIDANCE SESSION

Need More Help? Book a Guidance Session with a ForgeX Expert

The ForgeX team is available to help you translate your unique requirements into strategic decisions. Work with us to:

The report was developed using research methods reflecting standard best practices of an analyst firm, involving extensive desk research by ABM experts, interviews with agency leadership, and/or the review of survey data collected directly from the agencies listed in the report.

Develop a shortlist of best-fit agencies

Evaluate RFP responses

Draft RFPs

Agencies Who Participated in the Survey Include:

2X ABMA Agent3 Alcamo Marketing Apparent The Axle Agency BOL BrightVision Business Brainz Clarify Digital Litmus Elevated Third GNW Consulting Gravity Global Green Hat Green Thread Harte Hanks Heinz Marketing Hunter & Bard Infinityn International InsideUp Invalshoek Inverta Just Global Khronos Ledger Bennett, a Havas Company Man Digital The Marketing Practice Merkle, a Dentsu Subsidiary Metia Group MOI Global Park and Battery Pipeline IQ Punch! B2B Quarry S2M

(In alphabetical order on pages 7 & 8)

https://meetings.hubspot.com/davis42?uuid=da4d9fc2-baba-45e9-99cd-aa22b320764b

Agencies Who Participated in the Survey Include:

SeeResponse Spear Marketing Group Strategicabm Transmission TwoGether UviaUs Winbound Wob AG - BBN Germany xGrowth XPROMOS Marketing Mastery Zubia People & Business

The 2024 Strategy Guide and Landscape of B2B Agencies with ABM Capabilities

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