How to Create a Target Account List

If you’re looking to build a target account list that powers successful account-based marketing (ABM) campaigns and boosts conversions, this guide shows you exactly how to do it.

What is a target account list, and why is it critical to ABM?

A target account list (TAL) is a curated list of high-value businesses that represent your ideal customers.

Unlike traditional marketing approaches that cast a wide net, a TAL focuses your entire go-to-market team’s efforts on the accounts most likely to convert and deliver long-term value.

This precision is exactly why TALs are critical to ABM success. Account-based marketing fundamentally shifts from volume-based to value-based targeting, and your TAL defines which accounts deserve that concentrated investment.

What are the key benefits of having a well-defined TAL?

Enables personalised messaging 

Building TALs allows a level of personalisation that goes beyond simply including a company name in an email.

It enables you to understand:

• Your prospects’ technological environment.
• The regulatory challenges they face.
• The strategic initiatives driving their decision-making processes.

Improves sales and marketing alignment

When both departments work from the same carefully researched list of target accounts, the coordination between them becomes seamless.

Sales and marketing alignment translates into practical benefits:

Marketing can create content that directly supports sales conversations, while sales teams can provide feedback that informs marketing strategy. Both teams can track progress against shared objectives.

Boosts engagement and conversion rates 

Our customers (using Cognism to build target account lists) have seen improvement in connect rates by up to 80%, an increase in pipeline by 40-50%, and conversion rates of around 30%. 

While the results may differ from platform to platform, the principle remains:

Quality targeting delivers measurably better results than broad-based approaches.

Closes high-value deals 

TALs help you identify and prioritise accounts with the highest revenue potential.

Research shows that 91% of companies using ABM increase their average deal size, with 25% achieving increases over 50%.

Improves customer relationships and loyalty

Companies report that 80% of marketers link ABM to improved customer lifetime value. 

When you target accounts that genuinely fit your ideal customer profile, you’re not just improving sales metrics - you’re setting the stage for customers who actually succeed with your product.

These customers provide better case studies, become reliable references, and generate expansion revenue opportunities.

How do you create a target account list?

Creating a TAL that converts requires more than guesswork.

Follow these five strategic steps to build a list that drives measurable results:

1. Define your ideal customer profile

The foundation of any effective TAL begins with a clear understanding of your ideal customer.

This goes beyond basic demographics to include the characteristics that correlate with successful, long-term customer relationships.

Start by analysing your best existing customers. Look for patterns in:

• Company size, industry, and geographic location.
• Technology infrastructure and growth stage.
• Budget cycles and decision-making processes.
• Implementation timelines and success factors.

The goal is to identify the attributes that predict both successful sales cycles and positive customer outcomes.

Your ICP should include firmographic data such as company size, revenue, and location, but also technographic information about the systems and tools your prospects use. 

Cognism provides access to over 20,000 technology data points, enabling you to understand your prospects’ current technology environment and identify integration opportunities or potential challenges.

2. Leverage intent and signal data

Intent data reveals which accounts are actively researching solutions in your category, while trigger events signal changes that might create new opportunities.

Look for signals such as:

• Funding announcements and investment rounds.
• Leadership changes and new hires.
• Technology implementations or migrations.
• Expansion into new markets or locations.
• Merger and acquisition activity.

These events often indicate periods when companies are more receptive to new solutions or more likely to have a budget available for purchases. 

Cognism’s signal suite automatically tracks these types of events across your target accounts, enabling timely outreach when prospects are most likely to be receptive to conversations.

3. Build and enrich your database

The quality of your TAL depends heavily on the accuracy and completeness of your underlying data.

With 20% of B2B revenue loss attributed to poor data quality, investing in data enrichment isn’t optional - it’s essential for campaign success.

Data enrichment ensures your TAL includes:

• Current, verified contact information for key decision-makers.
• Accurate company details and organisational structure.
• Complete stakeholder information and reporting relationships.
• Up-to-date technographic and firmographic data.

Cognism’s enrichment feature can update existing databases automatically, while our API integration ensures your CRM stays current as information changes. This is particularly valuable given that CRM data accuracy typically decays by 30% annually.

Regular data maintenance keeps your TAL current as companies evolve, people change roles, and business priorities shift. Investing in data quality pays dividends in the form of higher connection rates and more effective outreach.

4. Map key contacts within accounts

Successful account-based selling requires you to map the buying committee within each target account.

This means identifying:

• Final decision-makers with budget authority.
• Influencers who impact purchasing decisions.
• End users who will actually use your solution.
• Technical evaluators who assess implementation feasibility.
• Procurement and legal stakeholders involved in contracting.

Create comprehensive contact maps that show:

• Relationships between different stakeholders.
• Their individual priorities and challenges.
• Their role in the evaluation process.

This information enables multithreaded sales, an approach that builds consensus and reduces the risk of deals stalling due to internal politics or competing priorities.

Understanding the buying committee also informs your content strategy, ensuring you have materials that speak to each stakeholder’s concerns and interests.

5. Validate and refine your list

Treat your initial TAL as a hypothesis to test and refine based on real-world results.

Track performance across key metrics:

• Account engagement rates and response levels.
• Conversion from contact to qualified opportunity.
• Sales cycle length and progression velocity.
• Deal size and ultimate revenue generated.
• Customer satisfaction and retention rates.

Use this feedback to adjust your ICP and improve your account selection criteria. If certain types of companies consistently fail to engage, consider removing them from your lists.

If unexpected account types show strong interest, investigate whether your ICP should be expanded.

Regular list validation ensures your TAL remains focused on accounts with genuine potential while eliminating those that are unlikely to convert.

How should you prioritise the accounts on your TAL?

Not every account on your TAL deserves equal attention. Prioritisation ensures you focus resources on the opportunities most likely to generate significant returns.

A three-tier system works well for most organisations. 

Tier 1 - High priority (25% of your list):

• Perfect ICP match.
• Strong buying signals or intent data.
• Existing relationships or warm introductions.
• Immediate budget and need.
• Accessible decision-makers.

Tier 2 - Medium priority (50% of your list):

• Good ICP match with minor gaps.
• Some buying signals or potential need.
• Reachable but not warm contacts.
• Budget likely available within 6-12 months.
• Clear use case for your solution.

Tier 3 - Low priority (25% of your list):

• Partial ICP match.
• Limited buying signals.
• Cold outreach required.
• Future budget or need.
• Longer-term relationship building required.

Use the following criteria to assign account scores:

• Strategic fit: How well the account matches your ICP.
• Revenue potential: Expected deal size and lifetime value.
• Buying signals: Intent data and engagement indicators.
• Competitive landscape: Your position relative to competitors.
• Relationship accessibility: Existing connections and warm introductions.

The weighting of these factors depends on your business model and account-based marketing strategy.

Why should you segment your TAL, and how should you do it?

Effective segmentation enables targeted campaign development while maintaining efficiency across your ABM efforts.

Common segmentation approaches include:

Industry-based segmentation

This works well because companies in similar sectors face comparable challenges and operate under similar constraints.

It allows for industry-specific messaging, case studies, and value propositions that resonate more strongly than generic communications.

Examples:

Technology and software, healthcare, financial services.

Size-based segmentation

This recognises that enterprise accounts require different approaches from mid-market companies.

Larger organisations typically have more complex decision-making processes, longer sales cycles, and different budget considerations.

Examples:

Enterprise (1000+ employees), mid-market (100-999 employees), small business (1-99 employees).

Geographic segmentation

This is useful for companies operating across multiple regions, particularly when local regulations, business practices, or competitive landscapes vary significantly.

Examples:

Domestic vs. international, regional markets, specific time zones.

Use case segmentation

This groups accounts based on how likely they are to use your solution.

Different use cases often require distinct messaging. They may also involve different stakeholders in decision-making, and present distinct implementation challenges.

Examples:

Primary use cases for your solution, specific pain points or challenges, integration requirements.

Account tiering

This works hand-in-hand with segmentation to guide resource allocation. The combination of segment characteristics and tier level determines your approach for each account.

For example:

Tier 1 enterprise accounts in the financial services sector might receive highly customised campaigns addressing regulatory challenges, while Tier 3 mid-market technology companies might enter broader nurturing sequences sharing industry trends.

Dynamic scoring enables accounts to move between tiers as circumstances change. An account showing increased intent signals might move from Tier 3 to Tier 2, triggering more intensive engagement. 

Conversely, accounts that remain unresponsive over time might be moved to lower tiers or removed from active targeting.

What are the common mistakes to avoid while building a target account list?

Even well-intentioned teams can undermine their ABM success by making these critical errors:

Building lists that are too broad

Resist the temptation to include “maybe” accounts in your TAL.

A focused list of 50 high-quality accounts will always outperform a scattered list of 500 marginal prospects. Quality beats quantity every time.

Neglecting data quality 

Outdated contact information and inaccurate company data waste resources and damage your brand reputation.

Invest in data verification and regular enrichment to ensure your outreach reaches decision-makers.

Creating static lists 

Your TAL should evolve continuously.

Accounts that don’t engage after reasonable effort should be moved to nurture campaigns, while new high-potential accounts should be added based on emerging signals and market changes.

Ignoring sales team input 

Sales teams have real-world insights about account accessibility, competitive positioning, and buying readiness that data alone can’t provide.

Hold regular feedback sessions with your sales reps; this prevents marketing from targeting accounts that sales knows are unwinnable.

Focusing only on firmographics 

Company size and industry matter, but behavioural signals often predict buying readiness better than demographics.

Balance traditional criteria with intent data, technology changes, and growth indicators.

What are the best tools for creating your target account list?

Here are the essential platforms for building and managing high-converting target account lists:

1. Cognism

Cognism is a comprehensive data platform that makes precision targeting possible, addressing the core challenge of poor data quality that undermines many ABM efforts.

Key features:

• Sales Companion: Centralised prospecting platform with personalised intelligence for strategic target account list building.
• Data enrichment: CSV and API enrichment to update existing lists with verified, current information.
• Diamond Data®: Phone-verified mobile numbers connecting with decision-makers 3x more than industry average.
• Signal intelligence: Technographic data covering 20,000+ technologies, plus funding alerts and hiring trends.
• AI-powered search: Lightning-fast list building with voice-to-command search capabilities.
• Browser extension: Enhanced prospecting on LinkedIn and corporate sites with direct export to sales tools.
• Compliance framework: GDPR and CCPA compliant with verification against 13 global Do-Not-Call lists.

2. LinkedIn Sales Navigator

LinkedIn Sales Navigator provides powerful search and filtering capabilities, identifying accounts and contacts within the world’s largest professional network.

Key features:

• Advanced search filters for precise account targeting.
• Saved searches and real-time alerts for account changes.
• Relationship mapping and warm introduction identification.

⚠️ Compare Cognism vs LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

3. Apollo.io

Apollo.io combines prospecting capabilities with email verification and automation features in an all-in-one sales intelligence platform.

Key features:

• Large contact database with filtering options.
• Email verification and deliverability tools.
• Sales engagement automation and sequencing.

⚠️ Compare Cognism vs Apollo.io.

4. UpLead

UpLead focuses on real-time data verification with a user-friendly interface designed for building targeted prospect lists efficiently. More suitable for individual salespeople and small teams. 

Key features:

• Email verification and duds replacement.
• Intent data and buying signal tracking.
• Easy-to-use search and filtering interface.

⚠️ Compare Cognism vs UpLead.

5. ZoomInfo

ZoomInfo provides company intelligence and organisational mapping capabilities with extensive B2B data coverage.

Some Cognism customers targeting Europe found that ZoomInfo’s mobile phone data wasn’t enough after using the tool for a while.

Key features:

• Large B2B contact database.
• Proprietary intent data.
• Automation features for list building and maintenance.

⚠️ Compare Cognism vs ZoomInfo.

Ready to build your target account list?

Creating an effective target account list is both an art and a science. It requires the right strategy, tools, and execution to drive real business results.

With the framework and strategies outlined in this guide, you’re equipped to build TALs that fuel successful ABM campaigns and drive revenue growth.

The key to TAL success lies in starting with high-quality, accurate data. Without reliable contact information, company insights, and intent signals, even the best strategy will fall short.

Build your target account list with Cognism’s industry-leading data and tools:

Our platform provides the accurate, compliant, and comprehensive data you need to identify, prioritise, and engage your ideal customers effectively. Click 👇 to talk to us today!