sales-b2b-advertising

What this skill does

# B2B Account-Based Advertising

Help the user plan and execute account-based B2B advertising campaigns — display, social, retargeting, and connected TV. This skill is tool-agnostic but includes platform-specific guidance for ZoomInfo MarketingOS, Demandbase, 6sense, Terminus (now DemandScience), RollWorks, LinkedIn Ads, and Google Ads (B2B targeting).

## Step 1 — Gather context


If `references/learnings.md` exists, read it first for accumulated knowledge.

Ask the user:

1. **What's your advertising goal?**
   - A) Build awareness at target accounts (top-of-funnel ABM)
   - B) Accelerate pipeline — engage accounts already in-cycle
   - C) Retarget website visitors who didn't convert
   - D) Support outbound campaigns with air cover
   - E) Re-engage churned or dormant accounts
   - F) Promote content/events to a target account list
   - G) Not sure — need a B2B ad strategy

2. **What channels are you considering?**
   - A) Display / programmatic ads
   - B) LinkedIn Ads
   - C) Facebook / Meta (B2B targeting)
   - D) Connected TV (CTV)
   - E) Google Ads (search or display)
   - F) Multiple / all channels
   - G) Not sure — recommend channels

3. **What ABM/advertising platform do you have?**
   - A) ZoomInfo MarketingOS
   - B) Demandbase
   - C) 6sense
   - D) Terminus (DemandScience)
   - E) RollWorks
   - F) LinkedIn Campaign Manager only
   - G) Google Ads only
   - H) None — evaluating options
   - I) Other — describe it

4. **How are you defining your target audience?**
   - A) Named account list (specific companies)
   - B) Firmographic criteria (industry, size, revenue)
   - C) Intent signals (accounts researching relevant topics)
   - D) Website visitors (retargeting)
   - E) CRM segments (pipeline stage, lifecycle)
   - F) Combination of the above

## Step 2 — Strategy and platform reference

**Read `references/platform-guide.md`** for B2B vs B2C comparison, campaign types, audience building, budget framework, attribution, and platform-specific guidance (ZoomInfo, Demandbase, 6sense, Terminus, RollWorks, LinkedIn, Clay, AdRoll, Reddit Ads, Google Ads).

*You no longer need the platform guide details — focus on the user's specific situation.*

## Step 3 — Actionable guidance

### Launching your first ABM ad campaign
1. **Define your target account list** (TAL) — start with 200-500 accounts max
2. **Choose 1-2 channels** — LinkedIn + display is the standard starting point
3. **Create 3-5 ad variants** — test problem-focused vs solution-focused creative
4. **Set a 90-day pilot budget** — commit enough budget to reach statistical significance
5. **Align with sales** — tell SDRs which accounts are seeing ads, adjust outbound timing
6. **Measure account-level** — don't judge B2B ads on clicks; measure pipeline influence

### Creative best practices for B2B
- **Lead with the problem**, not your product — "Still managing compliance in spreadsheets?"
- **Use specific numbers** — "Reduce audit prep time by 73%" beats "Save time on audits"
- **Match creative to intent stage** — awareness (industry trends) → consideration (case studies) → decision (demo/pricing)
- **Personalize by segment** — different creative for different industries, company sizes, or personas
- **Keep it simple** — B2B display ads have 1-2 seconds of attention. One message, one CTA.

### Metrics to track
- **Account reach** — % of TAL that saw at least one ad impression
- **Account engagement** — website visits, content downloads from ad-exposed accounts
- **Pipeline influence** — $ pipeline created at ad-exposed accounts
- **Cost per engaged account** — total spend / accounts that showed engagement
- **Lift vs control** — engagement rate of ad-exposed accounts vs unexposed (if you have a holdout group)

## Gotchas

1. **Don't judge B2B ads by click-through rate** — B2B display CTR is typically 0.05-0.1%. That's normal. Measure account-level engagement and pipeline influence instead.

2. **Small account lists need larger budgets per account** — targeting 100 accounts with $1,000/mo means $10/account/mo, which isn't enough for meaningful reach. Either increase budget or expand the list.

3. **LinkedIn matched audiences require 300+ matches** — if your uploaded account list has fewer than 300 LinkedIn-matched companies, the audience is too small to run. Supplement with firmographic targeting.

4. **Intent signals lag by 1-2 weeks** — intent data from platforms like ZoomInfo, Bombora, or 6sense is aggregated weekly. Don't expect real-time intent triggering for ad campaigns.

5. **Sales-marketing misalignment kills ABM ads** — if SDRs don't know which accounts are seeing ads, they can't reference campaigns or time outreach. Share the target account list and campaign messaging with sales before launch.

- **Self-improving**: If you discover something not covered here, append it to `references/learnings.md` with today's date.

## Before recommending a specific platform skill

This skill covers a strategy domain across many platforms. **Before pointing the user to any specific platform skill** (any `/sales-{platform}` listed in `## Related skills`, e.g., `/sales-mailshake`, `/sales-klaviyo`, `/sales-apollo`), read that platform skill's actual `SKILL.md` first. The 1-line description in `## Related skills` is enough to *identify* a candidate — it's not enough to *commit* to it or to write a prompt that invokes it well.

**How to read it:**
- If `~/.claude/skills/{skill-name}/SKILL.md` exists locally, `Read` it.
- For `sales-*` skills, `WebFetch` directly from this repo: `https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sales-skills/sales/main/skills/{skill-name}/SKILL.md` — e.g., for `sales-mailshake`: `https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sales-skills/sales/main/skills/sales-mailshake/SKILL.md`.
- For non-`sales-*` skills (third-party), look up `{org}/{repo}` in `~/.claude/skills/sales-do/references/skill-sources.md` if installed and fetch the same `skills/{skill-name}/SKILL.md` path under that repo.

**After reading,** ground your recommendation in something concrete from the SKILL.md (its scope, a sub-flow, its `argument-hint` shape, or a "Do NOT use for..." negative trigger). Align any generated invocation with the platform skill's `argument-hint`. If the platform skill turns out not to fit the user's situation, swap to another or handle the question here directly rather than recommending a poor fit.

## Related skills

- `/sales-6sense` — 6sense platform help (display ads, LinkedIn audience sync, retargeting, contextual targeting — advertising integrated with ABM intent data)
- `/sales-zoominfo` — ZoomInfo platform help (for MarketingOS-specific setup)
- `/sales-intent` — interpreting buying signals and prioritizing accounts
- `/sales-account-map` — mapping buying committees at target accounts
- `/sales-cadence` — coordinating outbound sequences with ad campaigns
- `/sales-prospect-list` — building target account lists for advertising
- `/sales-funnel` — funnel strategy (ads feed the top of the funnel)
- `/sales-clay` — Clay platform help (enrichment, audience building, Ad Sync)
- `/sales-adroll` — AdRoll platform help (RollWorks ABM, display retargeting, ecommerce integration)
- `/sales-reddit-ads` — Reddit Ads platform help (subreddit targeting, community-based B2B ads, Lead Gen Ads)
- `/sales-retargeting` — Retargeting strategy across all platforms (consumer and B2B)
- `/sales-do` — Not sure which skill to use? The router matches any sales objective to the right skill. Install: `npx skills add sales-skills/sales --skill sales-do`

## Examples

### Example 1: ABM air cover for outbound
**User says**: "We're launching an outbound campaign to 300 target accounts. How do I run ads to warm them up before our SDRs reach out?"
**Skill does**: Recommends starting display + LinkedIn ads 2-4 weeks before SDR outreach. Build audience from the account list, create brand awareness creative, run for 2-3 weeks, then launch outbound. Share the TAL and campaign messaging with SDRs so they can reference the ads