The short answer
Account based marketing tools fall into six jobs: account and contact data, intent data, account-based advertising, personalization and content, orchestration (CRM and sequencing) and measurement. Enterprise platforms such as 6sense and Demandbase bundle several of these. Smaller teams usually run a lean stack instead: a CRM, a contact database, LinkedIn ads, a per-account content tool and a sequencer.
On this page
- All-in-One ABM Platform vs a Lean ABM Stack
- ABM Tools by Category: The 6 Jobs in an ABM Stack
- Account Data and Intent Tools
- ABM Platforms and Advertising Tools
- Personalization and Content Tools for ABM
- A Lean ABM Stack You Can Run This Quarter
- How to Choose Account Based Marketing Tools
- Build an ABM landing page for any target account in three steps
- FAQ
Key takeaways
Buy for the gap: Most ABM programs stall on one missing job: the right accounts, a timing signal or content per account. Fix that first.
Platforms bundle, stacks combine: 6sense and Demandbase bundle data, intent and ads. A lean stack combines tools you mostly already own.
Intent ranks, it doesn't explain: Intent data tells you which accounts to look at. It rarely tells you what to say to them.
Content is the usual bottleneck: Ads and lists scale easily. Writing something specific for every named account is where most ABM teams fall behind.
All-in-One ABM Platform vs a Lean ABM Stack
| All-in-one ABM platform | Lean ABM stack | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Large target lists with a dedicated ABM, marketing ops or RevOps owner | Small teams running ABM on a few dozen to a few hundred named accounts |
| Core job | Find in-market accounts, run account-based ads and coordinate plays | Pick accounts, research them, build per-account content and run sales outreach |
| Examples | 6sense, Demandbase, AdRoll ABM (formerly RollWorks) | CRM, contact database, LinkedIn ads, per-account content tool, sequencer |
| Intent data | Built in, often combined with third-party intent sources | Optional; public signals plus your own website and email data |
| Content per account | Ads and web personalization by segment or account | Pages, one-pagers, decks and emails written per account |
| Who runs it | A platform owner with integrations into CRM and ad channels | The AE or SDR, with marketing support |
Based on each vendor's website, October 2026. Categories, not rankings.
ABM Tools by Category: The 6 Jobs in an ABM Stack
Every ABM program has to do the same six jobs, whatever the logos on the slide. Sort tools by job and the market gets much easier to read. If you haven't set the strategy yet, start with the ABM strategy steps and buy tools after.
| Job | What it answers | Example tools |
|---|---|---|
| Account and contact data | Who fits, and who works there? | ZoomInfo, Apollo, LinkedIn Sales Navigator |
| Intent data | Who is researching our category right now? | Bombora, G2 Buyer Intent, TrustRadius, intent inside ABM platforms |
| Account-based advertising | How do we stay visible to the buying group? | AdRoll ABM, Demandbase, 6sense, LinkedIn Ads |
| Personalization and content | What does each account see? | Mutiny, Hyperise, Vidyard, Dock, Edithly |
| Orchestration | Who does what, and when? | HubSpot, Salesforce, Outreach, Salesloft, Clay |
| Measurement | Is it creating pipeline? | CRM reporting, platform dashboards |
Most teams already own half of this. A CRM, a sequencer and a contact database cover data, orchestration and basic reporting. The gaps are usually timing signals and content per account.
Account Data and Intent Tools
Data tools tell you who fits. Intent tools try to tell you who is shopping. They're different purchases, and confusing them is a common ABM buying mistake.
- Contact and company databases. ZoomInfo and Apollo sell large B2B contact and company databases, and both now add buying signals and AI agents on top. LinkedIn Sales Navigator adds account alerts and AI account insights on LinkedIn's own network.
- Third-party intent. Bombora describes itself as "a data company, not a platform." Its Company Surge data comes from a co-op of B2B publishers and brand sites, and flags accounts reading more than usual about a topic.
- Second-party intent. G2 Buyer Intent and TrustRadius turn research on their review sites into signals, such as an account comparing you with a competitor.
- Enrichment and workflow. Clay pulls from many data sources, runs AI research agents and pushes the results into your other tools.
Intent ranks accounts; it doesn't write the message. Read sales intent signals before you buy, so you know what first, second and third party data can and can't tell you.
ABM Platforms and Advertising Tools
The big platforms bundle data, intent, ads and orchestration so marketing and sales work one list. They earn their keep on large target lists with someone to run them.
- 6sense positions itself as an ABM platform powered by revenue intelligence. It combines its own intent data with first- and third-party data, and adds AI email agents and workflow tools.
- Demandbase pitches itself as an ABM platform for sales and marketing, using AI to analyze signals, accounts and buying-group activity, with its own advertising.
- AdRoll ABM (formerly RollWorks) combines multichannel account-based ads with buyer-intent signals and CRM alignment.
- DemandScience merged with Terminus in 2024, and terminus.com now redirects there. It offers B2B data, intent-driven campaigns and ABM programs.
- LinkedIn Ads lets you target an uploaded list of companies, which is often the first ABM ad channel small teams try.
Ask who will own it before you sign. A platform without an owner becomes an expensive dashboard. If no one has hours a week for it, a lean stack wins.
Personalization and Content Tools for ABM
This is where ABM turns into something a buyer actually sees. It's also where most programs run short, because ads scale with budget and content scales with hours.
- Mutiny now describes itself as a sales assistant for customer-facing work that builds personalized decks, interactive landing pages and deal rooms, including 1:1 ABM pages.
- Hyperise personalizes images, video landing pages and website content for outreach.
- Vidyard and Sendspark cover personalized video, from rep-recorded messages to AI-personalized versions at scale.
- Dock builds buyer workspaces and deal rooms for active opportunities.
- Edithly writes per-account landing pages, one-pagers, pitch decks, emails and call scripts from each account's website, on your brand.
Match the tool to the tier. One-to-one accounts deserve bespoke ABM landing pages and decks, while one-to-many accounts can live with segment-level website personalization. For a wider view of this category, see sales personalization tools.
A Lean ABM Stack You Can Run This Quarter
You can run real ABM on 50 accounts with tools most teams already pay for. This is the stack small B2B teams usually start with.
| Job | Lean option | What to add later |
|---|---|---|
| Account selection | ICP in your CRM, plus a list from your contact database | Intent data to rank the list |
| Research and timing | Each account's website, careers page and news | A signals or enrichment tool |
| Ads | LinkedIn Ads targeting your company list | An ABM ad platform |
| Content | A per-account landing page or one-pager per Tier 1 account | Website personalization for Tier 2 |
| Outreach | Your sequencer, with the account's page in the message | Multi-threaded plays per buying group |
| Measurement | Accounts engaged, meetings and pipeline per tier, in your CRM | Platform attribution |
Start narrow and prove it. Pick 20 to 50 accounts, run one quarter, and measure meetings and pipeline by account. The one to one ABM guide shows how to budget the top tier.
How to Choose Account Based Marketing Tools
Pick tools by the gap that is costing you meetings today, not by the longest feature list. Run every vendor through the same five questions.
1. Which ABM job does this do: data, intent, ads, content, orchestration or measurement?
2. How many of our [number] target accounts can it actually cover?
3. Who on our team owns it, and for how many hours a week?
4. Does it write back to [our CRM], or create another place to check?
5. What will we see in 90 days: more accounts engaged, more meetings or more pipeline?
Run a pilot on accounts you know. Give each tool ten accounts your team understands well. If its output surprises you in a bad way on familiar accounts, it will mislead you on unfamiliar ones.
Close the content gap last, but don't skip it. Lists and intent tell you where to aim; something written for each account earns the reply. Edithly for account-based marketing covers that piece, building the page, deck, one-pager and outreach from each target account's website, ready to send from your own inbox or sequencer.
How Edithly does it
Build an ABM landing page for any target account in three steps
Edithly is the content layer of a lean ABM stack. Paste a target account's website and it builds an on-brand landing page around that company's business, with a share link and a view count.
- 1
Click the Landing Page tile
Open your product's Home and pick Landing Page. Your offer, proof points and brand are already in your playbook from when you added your product.
- 2
Enter the target account
Add the company name and website. Optionally add the contact's name, their LinkedIn and a note on the initiative you want to lead with.
- 3
Click Generate landing page
Open the page, check it, then copy the share link into your email, LinkedIn message or ad follow-up. The link shows how many times it has been viewed.
Website
Ready
- Built for Acme
- Their priorities
- How you help
- Proof
- Call to action
- Copy link
- By hand
- 1 to 2 hours per account for research, copy and design
- With Edithly
- A couple of minutes per account, plus your review
Frequently asked questions
What are account based marketing tools?
They are the software teams use to pick target accounts, spot which ones are in market, reach them with ads and personalized content, coordinate sales and marketing outreach and measure account-level results. Some vendors bundle several of these jobs into one platform; others do one job well and plug into your CRM.
What is the best ABM platform?
It depends on your list size and who will run it. 6sense and Demandbase are full platforms with intent data, ads and orchestration, best suited to teams with someone to run them. AdRoll ABM (formerly RollWorks) centers on account-based advertising. Small teams often get further with a lean stack than with a platform they can't staff.
Do you need an ABM platform to do account based marketing?
No. ABM is a strategy: pick a small set of accounts and treat each one as a market of one. You can run it with a CRM, a contact database, LinkedIn ads, a way to create per-account content and a sequencer. Platforms help most when the list is large and you need intent data to prioritize it.
What is the difference between ABM tools and intent data?
Intent data is one input into ABM: signals that an account is researching a topic. ABM tools cover the whole program, from account selection to ads, content, outreach and reporting. Many ABM platforms include intent data, and providers such as Bombora sell it on its own.
Is Edithly an ABM platform?
No. Edithly is the content layer: paste a target account's website and it builds an on-brand landing page, one-pager, pitch deck, cold email or call script around that account. It doesn't provide intent data, contact data or ad buying, and it doesn't send messages. It sits next to your CRM, contact database and sequencer.