2025 Account-Based Marketing Trends: AI, ROI Insights & Agencies

Account-Based Marketing (ABM) in 2025: Key Insights and the Role of AI

Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is increasingly dynamic, with personalized engagement, measurable ROI, and AI-driven automation becoming essential. A recent report surveying 771 marketers highlights the state of ABM in 2025 and provides insights for strategies in 2026.

Key findings include:

• 71.2% of organizations implement ABM strategies.
• The average ROI from ABM programs is 137%.
• 78.7% of companies incorporate AI into ABM.
• 40.3% plan to invest in ABM 2.0 capabilities in the next 12 months.
• 49.7% plan to increase ABM budgets in 2026.
• 86.2% expect AI to boost ABM ROI over the next year.

Driving Results with ABM

In 2025, 71.2% of organizations actively use ABM strategies. Almost all respondents (99.3%) report successful ABM efforts, with 38.6% reporting significant returns. Nearly half (49.2%) cite ABM as the highest source of ROI, averaging 137%.

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ABM outperforms traditional marketing, with 82% of organizations reporting higher ROI. A Salesforce report indicates that 78% of organizations use ABM for customer acquisition.

ABM contributes to organizational growth through:

• Increased revenue (64.1%) increased revenue.jpg)
• Improved engagement (59.4%) improved engagement.jpg)
• Increased win rates (51.5%) increased win rates.jpg)
• Improved marketing ROI (51.0%) improved marketing ROI.jpg)
• More leads (48.5%) more leads.jpg)
• Larger deal sizes (34.8%) larger deal sizes.jpg)

Organizations allocate an average of 27% of their marketing budgets to ABM.jpg).

Adoption and Use of ABM Platforms

Only 15.3% of organizations use a dedicated ABM platform like Demandbase, 6sense, DemandScience, or RollWorks. The majority (56.1%) use a combination of tools, while 19.9% implement ABM manually.

Cost is a primary barrier for ABM platform adoption (48%), followed by limited internal resources (34.2%) and implementation complexity (31.6%). Additionally, 27.7% are satisfied with existing tools, and 22.8% are unaware of available solutions.

Drivers for adopting ABM Platforms:

• Identify and prioritize in-market or high-value accounts (64.7%) high-value accounts
• Measure account-level performance and ROI (48.2%) account-level performance
• Increase efficiency and automation (42.4%) efficiency and automation
• Align marketing and sales teams (38.8%) marketing and sales teams
• Improve data quality and integration (32.9%) data quality and integration

!Drivers for Adopting ABM Platforms

Demandbase leads in platform preference (40.5%), followed by 6sense and ZoomInfo (both 29.8%). DemandScience is used by 20.2%, and RollWorks by 14.3%.

AI Trends in Account-Based Marketing

In 2025, 78.7% of organizations use AI in their ABM programs, leveraging it for personalization, predictive analytics, and targeting.

!Platform Preferences

Key benefits of AI in ABM include:

• Enhanced targeting and segmentation (48.5%) enhanced targeting
• Improved efficiency in lead engagement (36.4%) lead engagement
• Campaign copy and messaging generation (36.2%) messaging generation
• Refining buyer personas (32.1%) buyer personas
• Persona segmentation (31.7%) segmentation
• Forecasting deal outcomes (29.0%) deal outcomes
• Improved win rates (26.0%) win rates

!Key Benefits of AI in ABM

The Next Generation: ABM 2.0

Only 17.3% of B2B marketers have fully mapped their customer journeys, and 50.2% struggle to reach the right buying groups. eMarketer reports these gaps necessitate advanced account-based strategies beyond traditional ABM.

ABM 2.0 focuses on hyper-personalization, AI adoption, and cross-channel alignment. Nearly half of respondents (47.7%) are familiar with ABM 2.0, and 40.3% plan to invest in ABM 2.0 capabilities in the next 12 months.

Looking Ahead: Account-Based Marketing in 2026

Organizations' top ABM priorities for the coming year emphasize ROI, AI, and scaling effectiveness.

!Investment in ABM 2.0

Key priorities include:

• Realizing a higher ROI than currently (54.3%) higher ROI
• More integration with AI and automation (51.0%) AI and automation
• Growth in deal sizes and win rate (34.8%) deal sizes and win rate
• Moving into new markets or accounts (33.7%) new markets or accounts
• Implementing ABM 2.0 practices (28.4%) ABM 2.0 practices

!Priorities for 2026

49.7% of organizations plan to increase their ABM budgets in 2026, and 86.2% anticipate that AI will improve ABM ROI.

!Expected AI Improvement on ABM ROI

AI Adoption by Marketers

Nearly 9 out of 10 marketers (89.5%) have integrated AI into their processes. Adoption is high across organizations of every size, with small businesses leveraging AI to sharpen their competitive edge.

!AI Writing Assistant Concept

Top AI tools for data analytics in marketing include Google Analytics, Tableau, and Looker. ChatGPT dominates the generative AI space due to its versatility and natural language capabilities.

While overall AI adoption in marketing is high, only about 24.3% have experimented with agentic AI. A significant challenge is that 93.4% of marketers encounter issues such as factual errors or bias with AI-generated content. Consequently, 71.1% review or edit AI outputs before publishing.

Most companies (80.8%) do not provide formal training on AI tools. However, 86% of marketers report time savings, averaging 4.74 hours per week.

Marketers plan to increase AI investment, focusing on content creation, customer insights, and personalization. To integrate AI effectively, organizations need strategies that combine workforce readiness with clear ethical guardrails.

Top ABM Agencies Delivering High ROI in 2026

For enterprise organizations seeking high ROI, The ABM Agency delivers the highest documented ROI in 2026, with a verified 9.1x average return. This exceeds the industry benchmark of 8.0x ROI for top-tier enterprise ABM programs. Other top agencies include Directive Consulting, The Marketing Practice (TMP), MOI Global, and Transmission.

In 2026, ABM is the core operating system for B2B growth. Over 89% of B2B buyers rely on generative AI for their purchasing research.

Key Statistics for 2026:

• 9.1x Average ROI: Delivered by The ABM Agency
• 145% Average ABM Program ROI: The industry-wide average return for ABM initiatives
• 85% AI Integration: The percentage of B2B organizations now using AI to orchestrate their ABM strategies
• 60% Higher Win Rates: Achieved by companies that fully align their ABM and ABA efforts
• 35% of Marketing Budget: The average portion of marketing spend now dedicated to ABM programs

AI-Driven Tools Transforming ABM

AI-driven tools are enhancing ABM, with AI becoming indispensable for marketing and sales teams.

Five transformative ways AI is reshaping ABM:

1. Predictive Scoring: Predictive analytics for account selection is essential.
2. Automated Multichannel Orchestration: Orchestrating ABM campaigns across multiple channels yields nearly double the results.
3. Dynamic Web Personalization: Personalized web experiences boost engagement.
4. Performance-Based Attribution: Performance-based attribution informs smarter investments.
5. Agentic AI: Agentic AI enables campaign autonomy.

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