How To Build a Go-to-Market Strategy with AdRoll: Total Expert Case Study

Every marketer knows the frustration of misalignment. Teams create and run smart, data-driven campaigns, only to lose visibility somewhere between marketing and sales because systems don’t communicate with each other.

That was our experience at Total Expert. We help more than 200 financial enterprises guide people through some of life’s biggest financial decisions with a purpose-built customer engagement platform. Behind the scenes, however, our own go-to-market efforts weren’t always aligned.

What marketing pain points or challenges were you facing that brought you to AdRoll ABM, a product of the AdRoll platform?

Scattered efforts, misaligned targets

Even though our marketing and sales teams were doing great work, the lack of connected systems or a shared view of our ideal customer meant we weren’t always sure we were investing in the same opportunities.

One of our biggest pain points was our legacy platform. It didn't integrate with HubSpot, which is the core of our business. Technically, we were running an account-based model, but it wasn’t very consistent. Our Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) was unclear, manual processes created bottlenecks, and data inconsistencies slowed us down.

The result was widespread inefficiency. The marketing department was spending budget on accounts that the sales team wasn’t pursuing, and the sales team was chasing opportunities that the marketing department wasn’t supporting.

Why did you choose AdRoll ABM?

The catalyst we needed to reframe our ICP

Our marketing team thought it would be a good idea to find a solution that met three very basic criteria:

• It was easy to use
• It offered strong support and service
• It had a direct connection to HubSpot

AdRoll ABM emerged as the best option. The platform’s seamless HubSpot integration was key to our decision: daily data syncs and unified reporting gave us the visibility we’d been missing. The platform also connects directly to LinkedIn, one of our core channels, and its customer support and sales team are top-tier. For a lean B2B marketing team like ours, the combination of ease, integration, and partnership made adopting AdRoll ABM a no-brainer.

We expected AdRoll ABM to fix our previous disconnect. What we didn’t expect was how transformative it would be. AdRoll ABM became the catalyst for a multi-year, company-wide rethink of our Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).

With AdRoll ABM helping us connect the dots, new issues came to light. Some accounts were closing without advertising attribution—not because AdRoll wasn’t hitting them, but because our sales team was targeting accounts outside our ICP. The market had evolved, and our internal parameters hadn’t kept pace.

Using insights from AdRoll ABM, we brought together experts from sales, marketing, and revenue operations to redefine and agree on what “ideal” meant. We created a definitive ICP using what we lovingly call a TAM/SAM structure: Total Addressable Market and Serviceable Addressable Market. This approach segmented our three core industries into two priority tiers, allowing us to prioritize the best-fit accounts while still nurturing those on the outskirts.

For the first time, sales, marketing, and leadership were united around a common vision.

What was your approach to targeting accounts before adopting AdRoll ABM, and how has it changed?

Rebuilding our advertising engine

Once we’d redefined our ICP and account segments, we had to adjust our entire advertising strategy.

Using AdRoll ABM, we rebuilt audiences within the platform and activated budgets based on those priorities. Every campaign is now aligned by industry and tier, ensuring the sales team prioritizes accounts that the marketing team is supporting financially. It’s also easier for teams to evaluate why accounts are closing and use that data to continually refine their focus.

AdRoll ABM’s visibility into Funnels and Journey Stages lets us visualize exactly where accounts are in the buying process and pinpoint where opportunities are stalling. These visualizations are crucial for cross-team communication, and the best way we’ve found to tell the story of performance across the organization.

Through LinkedIn Audience Targeting, we push account lists directly to LinkedIn, ensuring every dollar spent reaches the most relevant prospects. Meanwhile, the Spiking Accounts feature alerts marketing and sales when targets show renewed activity, so no potential customer slips through the cracks.

The platform's HubSpot integration keeps the sales team further aligned, allowing reps to dig into which ads are running, who’s been contacted, and what intent data is surfacing without having to track campaigns manually.

We’ve also streamlined nurture campaigns. By connecting HubSpot automation with AdRoll ABM, we can target nurture sequences based on campaign engagement, creating a more personalized journey. Paid and nurture efforts are more tightly aligned, and engagement is stronger across our audiences.

What results have you achieved for Total Expert with AdRoll ABM?

Targeting accounts with precision and confidence

We’re thrilled with the ROI from AdRoll ABM. This year, 100% of our closed-won deals carried AdRoll ABM attribution, whether through advertising or nurture engagement. We can track multiple touchpoints across every closed account, proving the platform’s impact and making it far easier to justify our budget.

We’ve reached 93% of our priority SAM accounts through AdRoll ABM’s targeted advertising. The platform has become central to our ABM strategy, directly influencing deals and enabling us to connect marketing activities to revenue outcomes.

Probably the most significant shift has been increased efficiency. Audience syncing and uploads save at least five hours a week, and that time compounds. We’ve seen higher open and click rates in our nurture emails, while our advertising performance now consistently matches or exceeds financial services benchmarks.

Most importantly, with a clearer ICP and the organization on the same page, we’re spending money on accounts that actually close.

What has your experience been like partnering with the AdRoll team for your ABM needs?

A stronger backbone for our small and mighty team

Beyond the platform itself, AdRoll ABM’s customer support team has been central to our success. We’ve had the same dedicated rep since day one, and the entire team is communicative and supportive of our initiatives. They’re a true partner, whose strategic guidance and creative support ensure we're getting the most out of the platform.

It’s been a huge time and energy saver, and they're our favorite vendor to work with because they have the same mindset as we do. They're always asking, “How can we make things better?” “How can we be more strategic?” And that's how our team operates, too.

Our business relies on AdRoll ABM every single day. It constantly powers our data flow and audience management, and has truly become the backbone of our paid media strategy.

Discover how AdRoll can help you grow your B2B business with Account Based Marketing and Advertising

AdRoll ABM seamlessly combines a precise B2B audience segmentation and targeting solution with a cross-channel, 1st party demand-side platform into a single application. Powered by InIQ and BidIQ, our AI buyer insight engine and bid optimization engine, AdRoll ABM offers a powerful, yet easy-to-use, platform for B2B marketers to unlock precision to drive pipeline and revenue. Schedule a demo today.