LinkedIn ABM for mid-market B2B — the playbook we actually use

LinkedIn is the most expensive channel most of our B2B clients run. It’s also the only one where the buyer actually shows up self-identified. Used well, it’s a pipeline engine. Used poorly, it’s a very expensive way to pay LinkedIn’s margin.

The four-layer account

Every LinkedIn ABM program we run has the same four layers:

1. Named-account prospecting. Your target list — the accounts you’d open champagne for. Small budgets, custom creative, high-touch follow-up.
2. ICP prospecting. Companies that look like your named list but you haven’t flagged yet. Bigger budgets, more automated.
3. Intent retargeting. People who’ve engaged with the ads or visited the site. Sequenced messaging, not the same ad on repeat.
4. Closed-won lookalikes. Your existing customers, modeled for net-new accounts. Often the best-performing cohort in the account.

What the weekly read looks like

We grade every LinkedIn program on three numbers: cost per engaged account, pipeline sourced, and pipeline influenced. If a campaign isn’t moving at least one of those, it goes on a 2-week plan or gets killed.