B2B buyers scroll past banners like background wallpaper. I do too. Banner blindness is real, and my own habits have shifted to asking AI for answers instead of hunting through blogs. Add bots, malware, and questionable attribution, and the display starts to look like the wrong horse for account-based marketing.
This is a data-backed case for moving from display to a LinkedIn-first ABM strategy, with a look at how ZenABM helps you turn LinkedIn engagement into a pipeline you can prove.
Read on…
Why LinkedIn-first ABM beats display-based ABM: quick summary
In a hurry? Start here.
- Display underperforms on intent: Typical B2B display CTR sits around 0.46% and the Google Display Network averages below 0.5%. Most impressions never become account progress. That makes display a vanity metric in many ABM programs.
- Audiences actively avoid banners: More than 32% of U.S. users block ads, and 54% say they will not click banners. For a finite target account list, that is reach wasted.
- Personalization gap: ABM needs tailored, multi-touch journeys. Generic banners rarely deliver the level of relevance buying committees expect. If your ABM strategy is cold email plus banners, you will be ignored.
- Precision mismatch: Programmatic display scatters impressions. ABM needs surgical coverage of specific accounts and personas. IP targeting struggles with remote work, so you can easily target the wrong people and irritate the right ones.
- LinkedIn fits ABM: Company, title, and industry targeting make it easy to reach decision-makers. Studies show 91% higher conversion rates and up to 208% revenue lifts for LinkedIn-first ABM when executed well.
- ZenABM closes the loop: Connect LinkedIn Ads and your CRM to see who engaged at target accounts, score intent, and attribute revenue. This turns ABM ads into a pipeline you can verify.
Why display-based ABM falls short
ABM focuses on a high-value account list with relevant, timely touches. On paper, display seems helpful because you can target companies and crank up awareness. In practice, display is often the weakest part of an ABM plan.
Banner blindness and distrust
Audiences have filtered out banners for years. Many users no longer see header and sidebar ads at all. CTRs are a fraction of a percent. Even when noticed, banners often trigger distrust and get ignored. Platforms keep adding ways to hide them, which says a lot about the user experience.
For ABM, that is fatal. You have a short list of target accounts and a small buying committee. If they do not see or trust your ads, the channel will not move pipeline.
Minimal engagement, minimal impact
Average display CTR in B2B sits around 0.3–0.5%.
That means more than 99% of impressions do nothing. Clicks can be accidental or curiosity only, not intent. By contrast, LinkedIn or email clicks tend to be rarer but richer, and LinkedIn engagement outperforms display on quality. It is no surprise that 43% of marketers rank display among the least effective channels.
Spray-and-pray ≠ ABM precision
Programmatic display leans on cookies, device IDs, and IPs. With remote work and mobile access, IP-based account targeting can be shaky, so you reach the wrong people and miss the ones who matter. A Syft study puts deanonymization accuracy around 42%.
Data also degrades. Gartner estimates account data accuracy drops by 20% each year as roles change. ABM needs named personas inside named accounts. Display struggles to deliver that level of certainty.
Metrics that do not map to ABM goals
ABM cares about meetings, opportunities, and revenue at the account level.
- Display optimizes for clicks, impressions, CPM, and CTR.
- Those numbers rarely show buying committee progress.
- Fraud and bots pollute the data, so wins are hard to trust.
If you are only tracking vanity metrics, you will misread success and spend more where it does not matter.
LinkedIn-first ABM: why it wins
LinkedIn gives you the right stage, the right audience, and the right controls for ABM.
Precision targeting where it counts
Filter by company, size, industry, title, seniority, skills, and groups. You can even segment by company growth rates.
That lets you target specific companies and roles inside them using profile data, not guesswork. No more hoping an IP lines up. It is why over half of B2B marketers rely on LinkedIn for prospecting.
And 33% of B2B decision-makers research upcoming purchases on LinkedIn. That context matters.
Higher engagement and more trust
Sponsored Content, Sponsored Messages, and Conversation Ads sit inside the feed and inbox where work happens. They feel native. Display often limps at 0.3% CTR, while even conservative LinkedIn benchmarks start around 0.5%. The bigger win is quality of interaction and recall in a professional setting.
Shorter cycles and better ROI
Personalized LinkedIn ABM correlates with 30 to 40% faster cycles, and many programs see 3 to 4X ROI. When ABM is executed on LinkedIn, the path from ad view to meeting is shorter because the right people are already in the right headspace.
In short, spend on LinkedIn ABM tends to come back as revenue, not just reach.
How ZenABM powers a LinkedIn-first ABM program
Here is how ZenABM helps you capture, measure, and act on LinkedIn engagement so marketing and sales move together.
Company-level engagement per campaign using LinkedIn’s official API
ZenABM pulls company-level LinkedIn ad metrics for every campaign, including impressions, clicks, engagements, and spend.
Engagement-based lead scoring and ABM stage tracking
Beyond raw company-by-campaign metrics, ZenABM rolls up historic and recent engagement to score accounts and map them to ABM stages that reflect true buying readiness.
You can customize the thresholds that define each stage.
Automated BDR assignment
ZenABM tracks the ABM stage for each account and auto-assigns hot accounts to BDRs when they hit the interested stage, directly inside your CRM.
Your BDR outreach triggers immediately, without manual checks or Slack reminders.
Two-way CRM integration
Run ABM on LinkedIn while marketing works in ZenABM and MAPs, and sales stays in CRM. ZenABM pushes engagement as company properties to your CRM, and also matches accounts to deals to pull in revenue context.
For the other way of this two-way CRM integration, ZenABM maps engaged companies to open opportunities and pulls deal values.
Plug-and-play ABM analytics and ROI dashboards
Out of the box, you get dashboards that show performance at every layer, from your ABM campaign rollups to LinkedIn campaign groups and individual campaigns.
- Drill into ABM campaigns, LinkedIn groups, and individual campaigns:
- Because ZenABM stores deal values and spend per company and per campaign, you get ROAS, pipeline per dollar, and pipeline trend visualizations:
Intent-based ABM
Many teams buy third-party intent from suites like Demandbase or RollWorks. You can also embed qualitative intent into your own ad structure and let ZenABM read it.
If you sell product management software, run separate campaigns for different intents like product analytics, onboarding, session recording, and all-in-one.
Tag each campaign with intent in ZenABM to surface company-level themes and group accounts by shared interests.
ZenABM also writes intent as a property to your CRM so BDRs know what to lead with.
Funnel-leak analysis
See how many companies sit in each stage and how they move. If accounts jump from aware to interested but stall there, you can find the friction and fix it fast.
Custom webhooks
Use ZenABM webhooks to exchange data with tools across your GTM stack such as Clay and Apollo.io.
Over to you
Display had a run, but for ABM, it burns budget without moving buying committees. LinkedIn-first ABM gives you precision, context, and better signals. With ZenABM you can prove engagement, prioritize accounts, and attribute revenue. Stop paying for disappearing impressions. Invest in campaigns that move accounts forward.
