If you’re serious about account-based marketing (ABM), then you need the right tools to execute personalised, data-driven campaigns.
In this guide, we break down what you should consider for your ABM tech stack. First, we’re going to start with what’s in ours. 👇
Here’s what Cognism’s ABM tech stack looks like
1. Cognism: for data and compliance-first list-building
For us, Cognism is the bedrock of our high-performing ABM strategy. With global B2B data, verified contact information (including mobile numbers), and GDPR/CCPA compliance, it’s a go-to source for accurate targeting.
Our internal marketing team has scaled an ABM program that’s driven over $700K in pipeline by using Cognism as the primary tool in the tech stack.
With no reliance on a shiny new six-figure platform, we found that Cognism’s data and the existing tools we had in place were already enough.
Try us out with zero strings attached. Get your free Cognism data sample today:
How it fits into our ABM strategy:
- Identify and segment your target accounts, whether your campaigns are 1:Many, 1:Few or 1:One.
- Filter out companies based on company name, industry, HQ location, headcount, revenue, technology, intent, and much more.
- Signal data to use in your campaigns and to sync with sales, e.g., if you notice champions have started at a new company or the accounts on your lists have been searching for your solution.
- Company research with Cortext AI, to personalise your landing pages with information on the target accounts’ business model, competitors, strategy, direction, and intent signals.
- Data enrichment to update your CRM and other marketing systems with fresh, reliable, and compliant data.
Notable integrations with CRMs and marketing platforms:
- Cognism integrates with all major CRMs like Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive and many more.
- Integrate with Zapier to marketing platforms such as Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign and many more.
- An API to refresh your many other systems or data warehouses.
2. LinkedIn Ads: for precise B2B targeting and engagement
LinkedIn Ads deserves a dedicated place in your ABM tech stack, especially if your ICP includes decision-makers at mid-market to enterprise-level companies.
While it’s not a standalone ABM platform, LinkedIn’s native targeting capabilities make it a highly effective ABM advertising channel when paired with platforms like Cognism.
LinkedIn’s real strength in ABM is its firmographic targeting. You can do this by job title, company name, industry, seniority, and even group membership.
Plus, with matched audiences, you can upload your Cognism-enriched contact lists and deliver ads directly to target buyers at named accounts.
How it fits into our ABM strategy:
- Upload target account lists enriched by Cognism for hyper-relevant display campaigns.
- Deliver custom ad creatives by industry, persona, or deal stage.
- Use lead gen forms pre-filled with user info to increase conversion rates.
- Amplify reach in multi-channel orchestration strategies.
Notable integrations with CRMs and ABM platforms:
- Native integrations with HubSpot, Marketo, and Salesforce.
- Compatible with Cognism lists via CSV upload or integration with marketing automation tools.
- No direct support for Outreach or Salesloft, but workflows can push leads to sales with enrichment.
3. ChatGPT: for scalable 1:1 ABM landing page creation
While ChatGPT isn’t a classic ABM tool, it has become a game-changer for operational scale, especially when combined with Cognism’s AI account research.
This pairing cuts ABM landing page creation time from 3 hours to under 30 minutes, allowing demand gen teams to deliver 1:1 personalisation at scale.
Using a CustomGPT workflow tailored to ABM campaigns, marketers can auto-generate high-converting landing pages personalised to each account.
How it fits into our ABM strategy:
- Start with Cognism Cortex AI to gather real-time account insights.
- Feed the research into the CustomGPT landing page prompts.
- Generate 1:1 copy with references to competitors, ICP pain points, and buyer-specific tech stack.
- Scale your ABM plays without scaling headcount.
Notable integrations or usage stack:
- Powered by Cognism Cortex AI + CustomGPT.
- Deploy via HubSpot, WordPress, or Webflow.
- Distribute via LinkedIn Ads and Cognism-powered outbound.
4. Salesforce: for unified account management
Salesforce is our CRM and key to our ABM operations. It ensures sales and marketing alignment while providing a single source of truth for all account and contact data.
Its advanced lead-to-account matching and opportunity management capabilities make it indispensable for targeting and converting high-value accounts.
Using Salesforce integrated with Cognism’s enriched data, we can automatically route leads to the right sales reps, align SDR outreach with active ABM campaigns, and measure revenue impact at the account level.
👉 Explore our Salesforce-native integration.
How it fits into our ABM strategy:
- Syncs Cognism’s GDPR and CCPA-compliant B2B data directly into Salesforce.
- Orchestrates account prioritisation with ICP-fit and intent insights from Cognism Cortex AI.
- Aligns sales plays with marketing campaigns via shared account dashboards.
- Enables full-funnel attribution and pipeline velocity tracking for ABM programs.
Notable integrations or usage stack:
- Cognism data enrichment directly inside Salesforce CRM.
- Automated lead routing for follow-up.
- Salesforce Dashboards and Dreamdata for multi-touch attribution.
5. Pardot: for ABM campaign automation
Pardot helps Cognism run highly targeted ABM campaigns through personalised nurture sequences, automated workflows, and dynamic content across emails.
Combined with Cognism’s enriched contact data and intent signals, Pardot ensures we engage the right buyers at the right time with the right message.
How it fits into our ABM strategy:
- Leverages Cognism’s verified contacts and Cortex AI insights to build hyper-targeted nurture lists.
- Automates account-specific email campaigns aligned to buying stages.
- Uses scoring and grading to prioritise MQLs for SDR follow-up.
- Integrates with Salesforce for seamless lead handoff and closed-loop reporting.
Notable integrations or usage stack:
- Cognism enrichment feeding Pardot audience segments.
- Salesforce sync for pipeline management and reporting.
- LinkedIn Ads and custom ABM landing pages distributed via Pardot campaigns.
The four essential categories of tools for your ABM tech stack
You don’t need a ton of tools to do ABM. In fact, you might just already have what you need.
But you do need the right mix of tools across four core functions: identifying the right audience, engaging them effectively, measuring what matters, and ensuring everything works seamlessly together.
Here’s how to structure your stack:
- Audience building and selection.
- Engagement and orchestration.
- Reporting and attribution.
- Automation and integration.
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Now, let’s look at each in more detail, including examples of the tools you’ll find in each category.
Audience building and selection
Identify, segment, and prioritise the accounts and buying committees that matter most.
These tools help you define your ideal customer profile (ICP), source compliant B2B contact data, monitor buying intent, and focus on in-market accounts.
Tool types include:
- Data and enrichment platforms (e.g. Cognism, ZoomInfo, Clearbit).
- Intent data and predictive platforms (e.g. Cognism, 6sense, Bombora).
- Technographic and firmographic targeting tools (e.g. Cognism, ZoomInfo, Apollo).
Key capabilities:
- GDPR and CCPA-compliant global data.
- ICP-fit scoring and segmentation filters.
- Real-time intent signal tracking.
- Technographic profiling and competitive intelligence.
Engagement and orchestration
These tools enable you to activate personalised, multi-channel campaigns across digital ads, email, website content, and outbound channels.
This is where strategic targeting turns into practical execution.
Tool types include:
- ABM campaign orchestration platforms (e.g. Terminus, RollWorks, HubSpot).
- Digital advertising platforms (e.g. LinkedIn Ads, Meta Ads, Programmatic via Demandbase).
- Personalisation and content generation tools (e.g. ChatGPT, CustomGPTs, Mutiny, Triblio).
Key capabilities:
- Account-based display and social ads.
- Dynamic landing page personalisation.
- Email sequences aligned to account-level insights.
- 1:1 landing page creation at scale using AI workflows.
Tip:
Use Cognism’s Cortex AI with a CustomGPT prompt to generate fully personalised ABM landing pages in under 30 minutes.
Reporting and attribution
Track account engagement, campaign performance, and revenue impact.
This layer provides the insights you need to optimise your ABM strategy and demonstrate ROI to stakeholders.
Tool types include:
- ABM reporting and analytics platforms (e.g. Dreamdata, Bizible, GA4).
- CRM-native reporting tools (e.g. Salesforce Dashboards, HubSpot Reports).
Key capabilities:
- Account-level campaign engagement tracking.
- Funnel velocity analysis and conversion reporting.
- Multi-touch attribution.
- Dashboard views for both marketing and sales teams.
Automation and integration
This is what connects your ABM tech stack into a single, functioning ecosystem.
These tools help you automate workflows, sync data across platforms, and ensure marketing and sales alignment.
Tool types include:
- CRM and marketing automation platforms (e.g. HubSpot, Salesforce, Marketo, Pardot).
- Data sync and workflow tools (e.g. Zapier, Segment, Workato).
- Enrichment and lead routing integrations (e.g. Cognism + Salesforce native sync).
Key capabilities:
- Lead-to-account matching and routing.
- Workflow triggers for MQLs and sales tasks.
- Data enrichment in real time.
- Seamless integration with sales engagement platforms like Outreach or Salesloft.
Tip:
Automate pipeline workflows by integrating Cognism’s enriched data directly into Salesforce, HubSpot and many other CRMs.
Common pitfalls to avoid
Even the most carefully planned ABM tech stack can fall short if it isn’t implemented correctly.
Here are the three biggest pitfalls to avoid when building and scaling your stack:
Overcomplicating the tech stack
It’s easy to get caught up in adding new tools, but too many platforms can create more problems than they solve.
As we mentioned at the start, Cognism didn’t grow its tech stack to do ABM; we just used what we already had.
Why it happens:
- Trying to adopt every “must-have” ABM tool on the market.
- Poor evaluation of actual business needs.
- Lack of internal expertise to manage complex integrations.
How to avoid it:
- Start with the core four categories (as mentioned above) before expanding.
- Conduct regular audits to retire underused tools.
- Prioritise solutions that integrate natively with your existing CRM and marketing automation platform.
- Focus on depth of adoption rather than breadth of tools (what are the other use cases for them internally outside ABM?).
Poor integration between systems
Your ABM tech stack should operate as a connected ecosystem. If tools don’t communicate effectively, you’ll face data silos, inconsistent reporting, and misalignment between marketing and sales (the opposite of what you’re trying to achieve).
Why it happens:
- Selecting best-of-breed tools without considering integration.
- Relying too heavily on manual data transfers.
- Lack of an integration roadmap during implementation.
How to avoid it:
- Choose tools that natively integrate with your CRM and marketing automation platform.
- Use middleware (e.g., Zapier, Workato, Segment) to bridge any gaps.
- Document a data flow map to ensure visibility across marketing and sales.
- Establish a cross-functional operations owner (RevOps, Marketing Ops, or Sales Ops) responsible for maintaining integrations.
Neglecting your data hygiene
In ABM, the quality of your data directly determines the quality of your results.
Poor data hygiene leads to mistargeted campaigns, bounced emails, and inaccurate reporting.
Why it happens:
- Relying on outdated or incomplete contact databases.
- Lack of clear ownership for data maintenance.
- Not enriching data with intent and technographic insights.
How to avoid it:
- Implement a regular data enrichment process with tools like Cognism.
- Set rules for duplicate management, GDPR compliance, and field standardisation.
- Sync marketing and sales platforms in real time to avoid inconsistencies.
- Train teams on the importance of clean data and make hygiene part of KPIs.
Wait, what is an ABM tech stack anyway?
An ABM tech stack is the collection of software tools that help B2B marketers identify high-value accounts, personalise outreach, align with sales, and measure impact across the funnel.
It typically includes platforms for:
- Contact and account data.
- Intent signals.
- Advertising and personalisation.
- Campaign orchestration.
- Analytics and reporting.
How is an ABM tech stack different from a traditional MarTech stack?
A traditional MarTech stack is typically designed to support broad-based demand generation, such as lead capture, nurture, and scoring across a wide funnel.
An ABM tech stack, on the other hand, is built for precision and personalisation.
Key differences include:
- Audience focus: MarTech targets many leads, while ABM stacks focus on a carefully selected list of high-value accounts.
- Personalisation: ABM requires tools that deliver 1:1 or 1:few personalisation at scale (dynamic landing pages, tailored ads, customised email sequences).
- Sales alignment: In ABM, sales and marketing share the same stack for account insights and campaign execution, rather than working in silos.
- Measurement: Instead of lead volume, ABM stacks measure account engagement, pipeline velocity, and revenue impact.
👉 In short: A MarTech stack casts a wide net. An ABM tech stack uses a spear.
How do I measure ROI with my ABM tech stack?
Measuring ROI in ABM is about revenue impact, not vanity metrics. Focus on KPIs that tie marketing activity directly to pipeline growth and closed-won deals.
Core ROI metrics for ABM:
- Account engagement scores: Are target accounts engaging with content and showing intent?
- Pipeline velocity: How quickly do engaged accounts progress through the funnel?
- Deal size and expansion revenue: Are ABM accounts generating larger contracts or upsells?
- Multi-touch attribution: Which campaigns and channels contribute most to conversions?
- Sales and marketing alignment KPIs: Response times, SDR activity, meeting-to-opportunity conversion.
What role will AI play in the ABM tech stack?
AI is no longer optional; it’s the engine driving modern ABM. Here’s how it’s evolving tech stacks:
Smarter targeting
- AI predicts which accounts are in-market using real-time intent signals.
- Example: Cognism’s AI tracks ICP-fit accounts by likelihood to buy through signals like job changes, M&A, and funding rounds.
Hyper-personalisation at scale
- AI tools like CustomGPTs can generate 1:1 landing pages, email sequences, and ad copy tailored to each account.
- What once took hours can now be achieved in minutes.
Predictive analytics and optimisation
- AI identifies which campaigns and content are most likely to accelerate deals.
- Example: HockeyStack’s Odin for AI-powered attribution highlights where to double down on your budget.
The size of the tech stack isn’t what matters
Many teams struggle with ABM because their tools are disconnected, their data is unreliable, and personalisation feels out of reach.
The solution isn’t more technology but the right mix working in sync. With a clean, connected stack, your sales and marketing teams can finally focus on what matters: building relationships with the accounts most likely to convert.
👉 Explore how Cognism can help you simplify ABM. Get your data sample today.