37% of marketers use a one-to-few method of account-based marketing, compared with 21% a year ago.

The findings, published in B2B Marketing’s 

2019 account based marketing report

 suggested the shift is because one-to-few ABM – where you target a smaller number of accounts with a similar profile – allows marketers to spread the cost and risk across multiple accounts instead of focusing on a single deal. 

In last year’s 

B2B Marketing 2018 census

, the one-to-one approach was the most 

popular ABM method

. This did rise slightly from 28% to 32% this year, although has now been overtaken by one-to-few. Over the past two years, the number of marketers practising one-to-many accounts has dropped significantly from 27% to 7%.

Andy Bacon, lead advisor for B2B Marketing’s ABM Head-Start Programme, said: “One-to-one clearly requires more

intensive investment per account.

I do see more organisations adopting ABM but in many cases, the annual revenues and lifetime value cannot justify the high level of investment required to execute one-to-one.”

The survey of more than 300 B2B marketers also found the remaining 24% of practioners haven’t decided which ABM method will work best for them. The B2B Marketing 2019 account based marketing report covers the typical cost of ABM and how long it takes to hit ROI, using practical models, case studies and feedback to improve ABM processes.