Account-Based Display
What is Account-Based Display?
Account-based display is a targeted digital advertising tactic that serves display banner ads, native ads, and rich media exclusively to employees at specific target companies as they browse websites across the internet. Using IP address matching, cookie-based tracking, and programmatic ad networks, this approach ensures display impressions reach only pre-selected accounts on your target list rather than broad demographic or behavioral audiences.
For B2B SaaS marketing teams, account-based display represents the most scalable account-targeting channel because it reaches decision-makers across the entire open web—news sites, industry publications, general content sites, and any publisher participating in programmatic ad exchanges. Unlike LinkedIn advertising constrained to the LinkedIn platform or email campaigns requiring contact information, display advertising intercepts prospects wherever they browse online, creating persistent brand presence throughout their workday across both professional research and casual browsing contexts.
The technology relies primarily on reverse IP lookup that identifies companies from their corporate network IP addresses, then serves ads through programmatic exchanges whenever employees from those IP addresses visit participating websites. According to Terminus research, display advertising typically delivers 3-5x more impressions per target account than social platforms alone because of broader reach across thousands of websites. Modern platforms combine IP targeting with behavioral retargeting, creating sophisticated campaigns that balance account-level precision with individual engagement patterns.
Key Takeaways
Broadest Account Reach: Display networks access thousands of websites, providing more impression opportunities than platform-specific channels like LinkedIn
IP-Based Company Matching: Technology identifies corporate IP addresses to serve ads exclusively to target company employees during work hours
Brand Awareness Focus: Display excels at awareness and consideration stages, keeping brands top-of-mind throughout research processes
Retargeting Amplification: Combines account targeting with behavioral retargeting to engage accounts that have visited your website
Cost-Efficient Scale: CPM rates for programmatic display typically run 50-75% lower than LinkedIn, enabling larger impression volumes per budget
How It Works
Account-based display operates through IP identification and programmatic ad serving technology:
Corporate IP Address Database: ABM platforms maintain databases mapping companies to their corporate network IP address ranges. When employees browse the internet from office networks or corporate VPNs, their traffic originates from these identifiable IP addresses. Platforms match target account lists against these IP databases to create targetable audience segments.
Account List Integration: Marketing teams upload target account lists containing company names and domains to ABM platforms. The platform matches these lists to known corporate IP ranges, creating audience segments that represent employees at those specific companies. Match rates vary by company size and geography—large enterprises with concentrated office locations match at 70-90% rates, while distributed remote-first companies may match at 30-50%.
Programmatic Exchange Access: The platform connects to programmatic advertising exchanges (Google Display Network, AppNexus, The Trade Desk, etc.) that aggregate inventory from thousands of publisher websites. When someone from a matched corporate IP address visits a participating site, the exchange recognizes them as belonging to a target account and serves your ad instead of a general advertisement.
Real-Time Bidding: Account-based display campaigns participate in real-time bidding auctions where advertisers compete for impression opportunities in milliseconds. Bids are set to be competitive for target account traffic while avoiding spend on non-target visitors. Many platforms use first-price auctions where highest bid wins the impression.
Creative Delivery: Once your campaign wins the auction, display creative is served to the visitor. Creative includes standard IAB ad unit sizes (728x90 leaderboards, 300x250 medium rectangles, 160x600 skyscrapers) as well as native ad formats that match publisher site styles. Advanced implementations rotate creative based on account tier, industry, or previous engagement.
Retargeting Layer: Most programs combine account list targeting with behavioral retargeting—creating segments of people who both work at target accounts AND have visited your website. These high-intent segments receive different creative, often featuring direct conversion offers like demos or trials rather than awareness content.
Performance Tracking: Platforms track impressions, clicks, and conversions at the account level rather than just overall campaign metrics. Reporting shows which specific target accounts have been reached, average impressions per account, engagement rates by account, and website visits from advertised accounts.
Key Features
IP Address Targeting: Matches corporate IP ranges to target account lists for precise company-level impression delivery
Programmatic Exchange Integration: Accesses inventory across thousands of websites through real-time bidding infrastructure
Frequency Capping: Controls impression frequency at account level to avoid oversaturation while maintaining presence
Creative Rotation: Serves different ads based on account tier, engagement history, or A/B testing
Account-Level Analytics: Reports performance by individual account, showing reach and engagement within your target list
Retargeting Combinations: Creates audience segments combining account list membership with website visitation for high-intent targeting
Use Cases
Strategic Account Brand Building
An enterprise software company identifies 75 strategic accounts in early-stage sales conversations and launches display campaigns to build brand awareness while sales teams work relationships. Creative features customer logos from similar companies, industry-specific use cases, and thought leadership content. Ads appear across general news sites (Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch), industry publications (CIO.com, InformationWeek), and general browsing contexts. Over 90 days, campaigns reach 68 of 75 accounts with an average of 32 impressions per account. Sales teams report that prospects increasingly mention the brand unprompted and demonstrate familiarity with capabilities, shortening early-stage education cycles by an estimated 2-3 weeks.
Event Registration Amplification
A marketing automation platform hosts a virtual user summit and wants to maximize attendance from target accounts. They segment their 500-account target list into three tiers based on customer status and opportunity value. Tier 1 (existing customers + hot prospects) sees personalized creative featuring specific speakers and agenda items relevant to their industries. Tier 2 (warm prospects) receives standard event promotion highlighting key themes. Tier 3 (cold prospects) sees general brand awareness ads without event specifics. Display campaigns generate 18,000 impressions across the target list, contributing to 34% registration rate among advertised accounts versus 12% among non-advertised accounts with similar profiles.
Competitive Displacement Campaign
A cloud infrastructure provider identifies 200 accounts currently using a primary competitor based on technographic data. They launch a displacement campaign featuring comparative messaging, customer testimonials about switching, and content addressing common switching concerns like migration complexity and downtime. Display creative runs continuously across business and technology publications, reinforcing messaging over six months. The campaign reaches 156 of 200 target accounts with sustained presence. Combined with targeted sales outreach, the program generates 23 competitive displacement opportunities worth $8.7M in potential ARR, with 7 closed wins attributed partially to the sustained advertising presence.
Implementation Example
Here's a sample account-based display campaign structure:
Creative Strategy Matrix
Tier | Message Focus | Creative Type | Call-to-Action |
|---|---|---|---|
Tier 1 | Customer success stories, ROI data | Animated HTML5 | "See How [Similar Company] Achieved..." |
Tier 2 | Product capabilities, use cases | Static + animated | "Learn More" / "Watch Demo" |
Tier 3 | Brand awareness, category education | Static images | "Discover [Product Category]" |
Retargeting Segment Strategy
Segment | Definition | Creative Focus | Budget % |
|---|---|---|---|
High Intent | Target account + 3+ page visits | Demo request, Free trial | 35% |
Engaged | Target account + 1-2 page visits | Product info, Case studies | 25% |
Cold | Target account, no visits | Brand awareness, Education | 40% |
Success Metrics & Benchmarks
Metric | Target | Tier 1 | Tier 2 | Tier 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Account Reach | 75%+ | 95% | 80% | 70% |
Avg Impressions/Account | 28 | 45 | 30 | 18 |
Click-Through Rate | 0.08% | 0.12% | 0.09% | 0.06% |
Website Visit Rate | 35% | 55% | 40% | 25% |
Cost per Account Reached | $120 | $526 | $125 | $43 |
This framework ensures budget allocates proportionally to account value while maintaining broad reach.
Related Terms
Account-Based Advertising: The broader category encompassing display, social, search, and video targeting
Reverse IP Lookup: Core technology enabling company identification from IP addresses for targeting
Programmatic Advertising: Automated ad buying infrastructure that account-based display uses for inventory access
Retargeting: Behavioral targeting technique often combined with account targeting for high-intent segments
Account-Based Marketing: Overall strategy that display advertising supports as a tactical channel
Demand Generation: Marketing function that incorporates display advertising for awareness and engagement
Target Account List: The foundation account selection that determines display targeting parameters
Brand Awareness: Primary objective that display advertising effectively builds through sustained presence
Frequently Asked Questions
What is account-based display advertising?
Quick Answer: Account-based display is targeted banner advertising that serves display ads exclusively to employees at specific companies on your target list using IP address matching and programmatic ad networks.
Unlike traditional display advertising that targets demographics or interests across all companies, account-based display ensures impressions only reach people at pre-selected target accounts. Using reverse IP lookup technology, platforms identify corporate network IP addresses and serve ads whenever employees from those companies browse websites across the internet. This approach eliminates wasted impressions on non-target companies while creating persistent brand presence throughout the workday.
How does IP targeting work for display ads?
Quick Answer: IP targeting matches corporate network IP address ranges to target companies, then serves display ads through programmatic exchanges whenever employees from those IP addresses visit participating websites.
Companies access the internet through corporate network infrastructure with identifiable IP addresses. ABM platforms maintain databases mapping companies to their IP ranges. When you upload a target account list, the platform identifies relevant IP addresses and creates targetable audience segments. As people from those IPs browse websites participating in programmatic ad exchanges, real-time bidding systems recognize them as target account members and serve your ads. Match accuracy varies by company size and remote work policies—larger enterprises with centralized offices achieve 70-90% match rates.
What are typical CPM rates for account-based display?
Quick Answer: Account-based display CPM rates typically range from $8-$25 depending on publisher quality and targeting specificity, significantly lower than LinkedIn's $30-$100 CPMs for similar B2B targeting.
Premium business publications like Wall Street Journal or industry-specific sites command $18-$25 CPMs. Mid-tier business content networks run $10-$15 CPMs. General programmatic inventory with account targeting averages $6-$12 CPMs. Most blended campaigns average $10-$15 CPMs. According to Terminus benchmarks, this cost advantage enables account-based display to deliver 3-5x more impressions per dollar compared to LinkedIn, making it the most cost-efficient channel for building sustained brand presence across large account lists.
How many impressions per account are needed for impact?
Research suggests 15-20 impressions per person per month creates ad recall, translating to 60-100+ impressions per account monthly when targeting multiple stakeholders. However, budgets often constrain programs to 20-40 monthly impressions per account. At minimum, aim for 12-15 impressions per account monthly to establish any meaningful presence. Strategic accounts in active sales cycles warrant 40-60 monthly impressions for sustained visibility. Programs running below 10 impressions per account typically show minimal impact on awareness or engagement metrics.
Can account-based display work for fully remote companies?
Remote and distributed companies present challenges for IP targeting because employees work from home networks with consumer ISP addresses rather than identifiable corporate IPs. Match rates for remote-first companies often drop to 20-40% compared to 70-90% for office-based enterprises. Strategies to address this include: combining IP targeting with LinkedIn's company association targeting, building contact-based audiences (with consent), using retargeting to capture anyone from target accounts who visits your website, and focusing display efforts on larger companies with office infrastructure while using other channels for remote-first targets.
Conclusion
Account-based display advertising provides the broadest digital reach for target account engagement, intercepting decision-makers across thousands of websites throughout their workday. By leveraging IP address matching and programmatic advertising infrastructure, marketing teams create persistent brand presence that supports sales efforts, builds category awareness, and maintains mindshare throughout extended B2B buying cycles. The cost efficiency of display CPMs compared to platform-specific advertising enables scaled impression delivery across large account lists that would be prohibitively expensive on LinkedIn alone.
Marketing operations teams use account-based display to amplify account-based marketing programs with always-on awareness campaigns that complement higher-touch tactics like direct mail and events. Demand generation teams leverage display's broad reach for top-of-funnel awareness while reserving more expensive channels for bottom-funnel conversion activities. Revenue operations professionals incorporate display exposure data into multi-touch attribution models that demonstrate advertising's pipeline contribution beyond direct response metrics.
As advertising technology evolves and remote work reshapes corporate network patterns, account-based display will increasingly combine IP targeting with alternative identity signals like LinkedIn associations, contact-based targeting, and predictive modeling. Advanced platforms will automatically adjust budgets toward accounts showing engagement patterns and away from non-responsive accounts. Platforms like Saber provide the company intelligence and organizational insights that inform more sophisticated targeting—identifying department-level IP ranges, detecting office locations for geo-targeted campaigns, and signaling when companies show buying intent that warrants increased impression frequency. Teams that master account-based display today position themselves to build efficient awareness and consideration programs that support sales at scale while maintaining the precision and measurement that distinguishes modern account-based strategies from traditional brand advertising.
Last Updated: January 18, 2026
