9 Mistakes to Avoid When Creating New ABM Plays

Article at a Glance

What are ABM plays?

ABM plays are repeatable programs designed to engage specific target accounts and move them closer to a deal. Instead of one-off campaigns, effective ABM plays create structured ways for Sales and Marketing to reach the right companies with the right message.

Why do so many ABM plays fail?

Most teams don’t fail because ABM doesn’t work. They fail because the first plays are built on weak foundations, like unclear targeting, lack of alignment, or unrealistic expectations around timing and results.

What does a good ABM play look like?

Strategic ABM plays usually include a clear target segment, a valuable engagement moment (like a workshop or diagnostic), coordinated outreach across multiple stakeholders, and personalized follow-up.

How do you come up with good ABM campaign ideas?

The best ABM campaign ideas start with a specific problem your target accounts care about. From there, you build a play that helps them solve that problem through useful content, events, or hands-on insights.

What’s the biggest mistake teams make when learning how to do ABM?

Many teams treat ABM like a short-term campaign instead of a repeatable system. Real ABM success comes from running focused plays consistently and improving them over time.

Do you need expensive tools to run successful ABM plays?

Not necessarily. Many successful ABM examples start with simple programs using tools teams already have. Clear targeting, valuable engagement, and strong follow-up matter far more than complex tech.

How many ABM plays should a team run at once?

Most teams should start with just one or two plays. Once you find a motion that consistently creates pipeline, you can expand and layer in additional ABM campaign ideas.

At this point, it seems like almost everyone in B2B has tried ABM.

Back in 2020, about 94% of marketing teams said they were launching an ABM program. But by 2023, only around 22% considered those programs successful.

Which means a lot of teams tried ABM once and never gave it a second shot.

But most of those programs didn’t work out because their first set of ABM plays were built on shaky foundations. Think: rushed targeting, unclear ownership, or treating ABM like just another campaign.

The encouraging part is that these mistakes are both incredibly common and very fixable.

Below, we’ll walk through the most common pitfalls teams run into when launching new ABM plays, along with practical ways to avoid them so your next effort has a much better shot at success.

The Core 4 Reasons ABM Fails

Before we talk about mistakes inside specific ABM plays, it helps to understand the bigger picture.

Across hundreds of organizations, the same four problems show up in ABM again and again.

1. Your Business Isn’t Built for ABM

ABM tends to work best for B2B companies with:

• A sales team
• Longer sales cycles
• Higher contract values
• Clear product-market fit

If your business relies on high-volume, low-touch sales, traditional demand generation might be a better fit. That doesn’t mean you can’t run targeted campaigns, though. It just means ABM isn’t necessarily the right strategy to build your whole motion around.

2. Sales and Marketing Aren’t Aligned

ABM only works when the revenue team is moving together.

If Marketing is running ABM campaign ideas that Sales doesn’t support, or Sales doesn’t follow up on the accounts being engaged, even the best play will stall. Alignment around target accounts, messaging, and follow-up is critical.

3. No One Owns ABM

This is one of the most common issues.

ABM gets added to someone’s job description, but nothing else comes off their plate. Suddenly, the program is competing with paid campaigns, events, content production, you name it.

Without clear ownership and dedicated time, ABM plays tend to stall before they ever become repeatable.

4. ABM Is Hard to Measure

Most marketing systems are built to measure contacts, not accounts.

That means teams often struggle to track things like:

• Account engagement
• Buying committee activity
• Pipeline progression

When the measurement model doesn’t match the strategy, it’s tough to prove progress (even when things are working).

The takeaway: Fix the foundation first. Then your ABM plays have a much better chance of succeeding.

Mistake #1: Trying ABM When Your Business Isn’t Built for It

Let’s start with a quick reality check: ABM isn’t for every business.

It tends to work best when you have those four traits we mentioned above.

Why? Because good ABM plays involve multiple touchpoints across a buying committee. Marketing, Sales outreach, follow-ups, maybe even events or workshops.

That level of effort makes sense when deals are large and complex.

But if your product sells quickly through self-serve or high-volume inbound, ABM can feel like using a flamethrower to light a birthday candle.

Technically effective. Just…a bit much.

Remember: ABM isn’t automatically a successful marketing tactic. It’s a specific go-to-market motion designed for complex B2B sales.

Mistake #2: Starting With Tactics Instead of Targeting

One of the biggest mistakes teams make when learning how to do ABM is jumping straight into tactics.

But in ABM, your strategy includes your account list.

If the list is wrong, even great ABM plays won’t work.

Most teams fall into one of these traps:

1. The Sales Dream List: A wishlist of huge companies you’d love to close.
2. The Executive Mandate List: Leadership decides to target accounts you’ve never sold to.
3. ICP + something random: Adding a trendy filter without real data behind it.

These just lead to ABM campaigns aimed at the wrong accounts.

And in ABM, bad targeting leads to bad results.

Mistake #3: Treating ABM Like a One-Off Campaign

A common pattern with new ABM plays looks like this:

• Run a campaign for 3 months
• If it doesn’t produce meetings, switch account lists
• Repeat with new ABM campaign ideas

But that’s not really ABM.

ABM is a repeatable system of plays designed to engage accounts over time.

The reason is simple: most B2B deals involve long buying cycles and multiple stakeholders. It takes time for accounts to recognize your brand, understand the problem you solve, and move toward a decision.

Strong ABM plays focus on sustained engagement and steady account progression rather than quick wins.

Mistake #4: Only Engaging One Person in the Account

Another common mistake when launching new ABM plays is focusing on just one person in the account.

I myself actually did this in my first ABM attempt. I targeted only CEOs at a list of companies and ran a cold outbound sequence to them.

The results:

• Zero meetings.
• Several companies blacklisted the brand.

Not exactly the dream outcome.

The thing is, B2B purchases almost never happen through a single decision maker. Most deals involve multiple stakeholders across Marketing, Sales, Finance, Operations, and Leadership.

That’s why strong ABM examples focus on engaging several people inside the same account.

Mistake #5: Personalizing Without Permission

Personalization gets talked about a lot in ABM, but there’s an important nuance many teams miss:

Personalization only works when there’s context.

In my first ABM attempt, outreach was technically personalized. But the people receiving it had never interacted with the company before. There was no relationship, request for help, or reason for the message to feel relevant.

When personalization appears out of nowhere, it feels intrusive because the context is missing.

The better approach is to create opt-in engagement moments first. Consider a workshop, diagnostic, or assessment.

Once someone asks for insight, you’ve earned the right to follow up with something tailored. That permission is what makes personalization inside strong ABM plays work.

Mistake #6: Running ABM in Marketing Alone

One of the fastest ways for ABM plays to stall is when they live entirely inside the Marketing team.

ABM is a revenue strategy. That means the entire revenue team needs to be involved, including Sales, Marketing, Customer Success, and Leadership.

Misaligned teams (even if they have the best ABM campaign ideas) struggle to gain traction. Make sure they’re aligned, and ABM becomes a heck of a lot easier to execute and scale.

Mistake #7: Not Having a Dedicated Owner

This is one of the sneaky reasons ABM programs fall apart.

In many organizations, ABM gets added to someone’s role, but nothing else comes off their plate. Suddenly, it becomes 10% of someone’s job, layered on top of everything else.

And when that happens, the program slowly loses momentum.

New ABM plays never get fully launched, and execution gets pushed to the next quarter over and over again.

The fix is easy. Someone needs to own the program.

ABM plays require someone responsible for coordinating teams and keeping the motion moving forward. Without that ownership, ABM tends to stay stuck in planning mode.

Mistake #8: Measuring the Wrong Things

Another common mistake when learning how to do ABM is measuring it like traditional demand generation.

Demand gen often focuses on individual activity, like leads, contacts, and downloads. But ABM is built around accounts instead of individual contacts. What matters most is whether the right companies are moving closer to a deal.

That’s why the right ABM plays focus on signals like:

• Account engagement
• Opportunity creation
• Pipeline progression

This shift changes how teams evaluate success. Instead of asking, “How many leads did we generate?” the better question becomes, “Are our target accounts progressing toward revenue?”

Mistake #9: Overcomplicating ABM With Too Much Tech

Another trap teams fall into is assuming ABM requires a massive tech stack before they can even start.

It’s easy to believe you need expensive platforms and massive data stacks. But some of the most effective ABM examples start much simpler.

In my case, one of the most successful plays came from a straightforward webinar and personalized follow-up. No fancy tools. Just a clear value exchange and thoughtful execution.

Technology can help scale a program later. But at the beginning, ABM success typically comes from simple plays done well rather than complicated tech.

Build One Play That Works

When teams start ABM, they tend to think they need a giant strategy deck and a dozen different programs.

You don’t. Instead of 20 tactics and fancy software, you need one play that works.

One way to engage the right accounts, create value, and start real conversations. Once that ABM play works, you can repeat it and improve it.

If you want help designing your first one, grab the ABM Program Planning Template. It’ll help you turn your ABM campaign ideas into clear, repeatable plays instead of another “we should try this” idea that never launches!