How to set up conversion funnels in Heap for account based marketing

If you’re running account-based marketing (ABM) and you want to know which companies are actually moving through your sales funnel—not just which random users clicked a button—this guide’s for you. We’ll walk through how to set up conversion funnels in Heap that are actually useful for ABM, spot the common pitfalls, and keep things practical.

Why Regular Funnels Aren’t Enough for ABM

Most analytics tools (including Heap, out of the box) track individual users. That’s fine for ecommerce, but in B2B, you’re usually selling to accounts—companies or teams—where multiple people are involved. If you only look at user-level conversions, you’ll miss the bigger picture.

ABM funnels tell you things like: - Which target accounts are showing real buying signals? - Where do accounts drop off in the sales process? - Which marketing activities actually move accounts through the funnel?

If you’re still counting “leads” and not accounts, you’re not measuring what matters for ABM.

What You Need Before You Start

Don’t waste time tweaking filters until you’ve got the basics in place. Here’s what you need:

  • Heap is installed. Obvious, but worth saying. Make sure it’s capturing the events you care about (page views, signups, demos, etc).
  • Accounts are identified. Heap needs a way to know that “jane@acme.com” and “bob@acme.com” are part of the same company. Usually, this means sending an account_id or similar property with each event.
  • Events are named and consistent. No point building funnels if your events are a mess. Clean up your naming first.
  • A short list of real ABM target accounts. Don’t analyze everything—focus on the companies you’re actually targeting.

If you don’t have these, pause here and get them sorted. Everything else depends on it.

Step 1: Make Sure Heap Knows Who Belongs to Which Account

This is the #1 thing people get wrong.

Heap tracks users by default, not accounts. You need to pass account info with every tracked event.

How? - Add an account ID to every event. Usually, this means modifying your Heap tracking code or using Heap’s identity API to send a property like account_id whenever a user is identified. - Pick a stable, unique value. Don’t use a company name string, or you’ll end up with “Acme Corp”, “Acme Corporation”, and “acme corp” all as different accounts. Use a database ID if you have one. - Backfill if needed. If you’re just now adding this, you may have to update old data, or at least know that old events won’t be grouped right.

Pro tip: If your salesforce or CRM has account IDs, use those. Don’t reinvent the wheel.

Step 2: Define the Key Events in Your Funnel

Don’t get fancy. What are the 2–4 steps that actually matter for an account moving from “target” to “customer”? For most ABM, it’s something like:

  1. Account engaged: Someone from the account visits a key page, downloads a whitepaper, or attends a webinar.
  2. Account qualified: Someone requests a demo, or hits a lead score threshold.
  3. Opportunity created: Sales logs an opportunity in CRM.
  4. Deal closed: Account becomes a customer.

In Heap: - Find or create events that map to these funnel stages. - If possible, use events that are automatically tracked or reliably triggered by user actions. - Don’t try to track every little click or scroll. Focus on actions that actually signal progress.

What to skip: - “Impression” or “email opened” events—these are noise for ABM. - Events that only some users trigger (unless they’re required for all accounts).

Step 3: Build an Account-Based Funnel in Heap

Here’s where the magic—or the headache—happens.

  1. Go to Funnels in Heap.
  2. Start a new funnel.
  3. Add your events, in order.
  4. For each step, use the events you defined above.
  5. Set the grouping to “account_id” (or whatever account property you’re using).
  6. This is critical. Without this, Heap will default to user-level funnels.
  7. In Heap’s funnel builder, look for “group by” or “conversion group” and pick your account property.
  8. Apply filters to focus on ABM accounts.
  9. If you have a list of target accounts (maybe via a property or segment), filter to them.
  10. Don’t waste time looking at the whole universe.

Reality check: Heap’s UI can be a little wonky here, and not every feature is available in every plan. If you can’t group by a custom property, talk to your Heap admin—or, frankly, consider if Heap is the right tool.

Step 4: Test and Debug Your Funnel

Before you trust the numbers, make sure the funnel actually works.

  • Pick a few known accounts (maybe your own company, or a test account).
  • Walk through the funnel yourself (trigger the events, see if they show up as expected).
  • Check the data: If you see weird drop-offs or no data, double-check:
  • Are events firing correctly?
  • Is account_id being sent every time?
  • Are you using the right casing and IDs?
  • Look for duplicates: If “Acme” shows up three times, your account property isn’t standardized.

Heap’s debugging tools are… okay, but not amazing. You may have to export data or use Heap’s event explorer to really see what’s going on. Don’t assume it’s right—verify.

Step 5: Analyze What Matters (and Ignore the Rest)

Now you’ve got your funnel. But don’t fall into the trap of endless slicing and dicing. For ABM, what matters is:

  • How many target accounts are moving between stages?
  • Where are accounts getting stuck?
  • Which marketing actions correlate with progress?

Look for trends, not just totals. If you see a bunch of accounts dropping off after “demo requested,” maybe your follow-up process is broken—not your marketing.

What to ignore: - Vanity metrics (total site visits, downloads from non-target companies). - Overly granular steps (every button click). - User-level conversions (unless you’re troubleshooting).

Step 6: Share Funnel Insights with Sales (In Plain English)

Don’t just email a dashboard and call it a day. Take 10 minutes to write a plain-English summary for your sales team:

  • Which accounts are moving fastest?
  • Who’s stuck—and where?
  • Are there accounts engaging but not converting?

Sales doesn’t care about the tool. They want to know who to call.

Pro tip: If you can export a list of “stuck” accounts, do it. That’s gold for outbound.

What Works, What Doesn’t, and What to Skip

What Works

  • Clean, consistent account IDs. If you get this wrong, nothing else works.
  • Focusing on 3–4 meaningful funnel stages.
  • Tight filters on target accounts. Don’t boil the ocean.

What Doesn’t

  • Tracking 20+ micro-events. You’ll drown in data and never get insight.
  • Relying on Heap’s “auto-grouping” to figure out accounts. Be explicit.
  • Expecting Heap to fix messy CRM/account data. Garbage in, garbage out.

What to Ignore

  • “Industry best practices” that don’t fit your sales cycle.
  • Complex custom scripts (unless you really need them).
  • Any metric your sales team doesn’t care about.

Keep It Simple, Iterate, and Move On

You don’t need a perfect ABM funnel in Heap to get value. Start with a few clear steps, make sure your account data is solid, and keep the focus on what helps sales win deals. The best way to improve your funnel is to use it, spot the gaps, and tweak as you go. Don’t overthink it. The goal is insight, not analytics for analytics’ sake.

Now get back to helping sales close. The funnel’s just a tool—don’t let it become the work.