Account-based marketing (ABM) is all about focus: pick the right companies, get their attention, and prove you’re worth their time. But here’s the catch—most teams have no real idea if their target accounts are actually engaging, or just getting blitzed with emails they never open. If you’re running ABM campaigns and want to know who’s biting (and who’s ghosting you), this guide is for you.
I’ll walk through how to track account engagement in Propensity without getting lost in vanity metrics or wasting a bunch of time on dashboards nobody checks. Honest take: a lot of what’s out there is fluff. You need the signals that actually move deals forward.
Why Tracking Account Engagement Actually Matters
Let’s get this out of the way: tracking engagement isn’t just for reporting up the chain. It’s how you figure out if your tactics are working, which accounts are heating up, and where to double down. Without it, you’re flying blind.
The reality:
- Most “engagement” metrics are noise (looking at you, email opens).
- ABM is about accounts, not just leads or contacts.
- You need signals that point to real interest—not just clicks from bots or interns.
Step 1: Get Your Account List Straight
Before you even open Propensity, double-check your target account list. Garbage in, garbage out.
What works: - Narrow it down. Too many accounts and your “engagement” numbers get spread thin. Focus on your top 50–200, max. - Align with sales. Don’t track accounts nobody cares about.
What to skip: - Tracking every possible lead. You’ll drown in noise. - Relying on one person’s “gut feel” about target accounts.
Pro tip:
Make sure your CRM or spreadsheet is cleaned up—no duplicates, right company names, and the right contacts mapped to each account.
Step 2: Connect Propensity to Your Data Sources
Propensity lives or dies on the data you feed it. If you skip this, the rest is pointless.
Plug in these basics: - CRM (Salesforce, HubSpot, etc.) — for account and contact data. - Marketing automation (Marketo, HubSpot, Pardot) — for campaign activity. - Website analytics (Google Analytics, Segment) — to track visits and behaviors. - Ad platforms (LinkedIn, Google Ads) — if you’re running targeted ads.
What works: - Automated syncs—manual uploads get stale fast. - Mapping contact emails to accounts so web visits and email clicks tie back to the right company.
What’s overrated: - Integrating every tool you own just because you can. Start simple.
Step 3: Define What Counts as “Engagement”
This is where most teams chase their tails. Not every click means someone cares. Here’s how to set up meaningful engagement signals in Propensity:
Skip these vanity metrics: - Single email opens (easy to fake or trigger by accident) - Likes on social posts from random users - Form fills from generic “info@company.com” addresses
Track what matters: - Multiple website visits from the same account (especially high-value pages) - Engagement from your key personas (not just anyone at the company) - Repeat actions: Multiple webinar signups, multiple content downloads, or repeated ad clicks - Sales touchpoints: Meetings booked, replies to outreach, or direct chat conversations
In Propensity: - Set up scoring rules for these actions (e.g., a demo request = 10 points, a whitepaper download = 2 points). - Make sure scores roll up to the account level, not just the individual.
Pro tip:
If you only track MQLs, you’re missing the point—ABM is about account momentum, not just leads.
Step 4: Build Your Engagement Dashboard—But Keep It Simple
Propensity can spit out a lot of data, but don’t try to track 20 metrics at once. You want a dashboard that answers two questions: 1. Which accounts are actually getting warmer? 2. Which ones are going cold?
What to include: - Accounts with the biggest change in engagement score (up or down) - Top engaged accounts this week/month - “Dark horses”: Accounts suddenly showing activity after being quiet
What to skip: - Weekly reports nobody reads - Overly complex attribution models (they’re rarely accurate and eat up time)
Pro tip:
Set up alerts for big changes—like if a cold account suddenly spikes in engagement. That’s where sales should jump in.
Step 5: Align With Sales—And Actually Act on the Data
The best engagement tracking is useless if nobody does anything with it. Here’s how to make sure your work pays off:
Sync up weekly:
- Review top engaged accounts with sales.
- Ask: “Did you see this spike? Did anyone reach out?”
Share context, not just numbers:
- “Acme Corp visited our pricing page 3 times in the last week and downloaded the RFP checklist.”
- Not: “Acme Corp has an engagement score of 17.”
What works: - Quick, regular check-ins (not giant monthly meetings) - Giving sales one or two accounts to focus on, not a list of 50
What usually flops: - Sending engagement reports by email and hoping someone reads them - Tracking engagement for reporting’s sake, with no follow-up
Pro tip:
If sales says the engagement scoring isn’t helpful, dig in—maybe you’re tracking the wrong actions, or the score weights are off.
Step 6: Iterate and Ignore the Hype
No engagement model is perfect out of the box. Here’s where most teams get stuck: overcomplicating things, chasing every new metric, or trusting the platform’s “AI insights” without question.
What to do: - Revisit your scoring every quarter—drop what isn’t predictive, double down on what is. - Gut-check “hot” accounts with sales feedback. Are those really the ones that close?
What to ignore: - Black-box engagement scores with no transparency (if you don’t know what’s behind the number, don’t trust it). - Shiny platform features that don’t map to your real sales process.
Quick Checklist
- [ ] Account list is clean and focused
- [ ] Propensity is connected to all key data sources
- [ ] Engagement signals are clear and meaningful
- [ ] Dashboard tracks account-level changes, not just individual leads
- [ ] Sales and marketing actually review and act on the data
- [ ] You revisit and refine the setup regularly
Keep It Simple and Keep Moving
You don’t need a PhD in analytics or a six-figure tech stack to track real engagement in Propensity. Focus on a few signals that matter, make sure sales actually cares, and don’t get seduced by flashy dashboards. Start small, stay honest about what’s working, and tweak as you go.
Any tool is only as good as the actions it enables. So keep your tracking simple, your team aligned, and your eyes on the accounts that matter most. That’s how you get ABM results that aren’t just numbers on a screen.