Three tiers
| Tier | Size | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 20–50 accounts | Named questions for their exact situation; same-day sales follow-up |
| 2 | 100–300 accounts | Segment questions by industry and size; weekly follow-up |
| 3 | Everyone in your profile | Category questions; nurture and LinkedIn audiences |
What to record for each account
- Industry, size and region.
- Current tools and stack, where known.
- Trigger events: funding, migrations, audits, new leaders.
- Domain and known company names, for matching identified visits.
Turning tiers into questions
- Tier 1: "Migrating from [legacy tool] to the cloud for a 2,000-person insurer".
- Tier 2: "Claims automation software for mid-size insurers".
- Tier 3: "How do insurers speed up claims handling?"
Matching rules
Decide in advance what counts as a hit: domain match, company name match, or parent company. Agree with sales who gets each tier, and how fast.
A spreadsheet layout
| Column | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Company | Name |
| Domain | Matching key |
| Tier | 1, 2 or 3 |
| Industry, size, region | Fit |
| Current tool | Ad group and message choice |
| Trigger | Why now |
| Owner | Who follows up |
| AI signals | Date and question of last AI visit |
Questions
How often should the list change?
Review tiers quarterly. Move accounts up when they engage, down when they go quiet.
Should identified non-target companies join the list?
If they fit the profile, yes. AI often finds good companies you didn't know about.
How big should tier 1 be?
Small enough that sales can follow up personally on every signal: usually 20–50 accounts.
Why AI changes the job of the list
In classic ABM, the list decided who saw ads. In AI channels, ads find buyers by topic, so the list's job moves to two other places: choosing which questions to advertise on, and deciding what to do when an identified company arrives. A list that sales doesn't trust fails at both.
Build it with sales, not for sales
Agree tiers with account owners, include their notes on triggers and current tools, and let them add accounts. When sales sees its own judgement in the list, alerts from it get acted on.
Keep a "discovered" tier
AI often surfaces companies you didn't know. Add fitting companies identified from AI to a "discovered" tier, review them monthly and promote the best into tier 2.
Start here: ChatGPT ads for ABM. More articles in ABM and AI ads.