We are currently in the process of migrating from Demandbase to 6sense. GitLab team members interested in staying up-to-date with the progress of the migration to 6sense can do so via this epic. If you have additional questions about the project, please reach out in #mktgops or #proj_6sense_implementation in Slack. The 6sense Handbook page can be found here.
Demandbase is a targeting and personalization platform that we use to reach our different audiences based on intent data and our ideal customer profiles. We primarily use Demandbase as a targeting and personalization platform to target online ads to companies that fit our ICP and tiered account criteria. Demandbase has a wealth of intent and propensity to buy data that is married with account engagement indicators to create a wholistic intent mapping for each account. We can compile the intent data by building audiences, groups of target accounts with the most potential to purchase based on our buyer criteria, which we can then leverage for use throughout the funnel in advertising and SDR/sales follow-up. Demandbase also delivers ongoing signals around behaviors and intent to keep our list up to date. This information helps both marketing and sales focus our efforts on the right accounts.
Demandbase One Engagement Platform and Add-On Solution Overview
The following teams have role-based access to Demandbase:
Below are the Demandbase product modules we have access to.
Bookmark the Demandbase Glossary!
We use Demandbase account journey stages to track account progression toward Closed Won in our marketing funnel based on engagement (both anonymous and known) of people at the account. The account journey stages take into consideration all lead, contact, and anonymous person activity, and roll-up that data to the Salesforce account level.
| Stage No. | Stage Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | Non-Qualified Accounts | Accounts without any engagement |
| 02 | Demographic Qualified Account | Accounts with a qualification Score 70+ |
| 03 | Keyword Intent | Intent Strength = High or Med; Activity Date = Last 30 Days |
| 04 | Anonymously Engaged | Accounts with >= 20 total engagement minutes (excluding intent as engagement) (last 3 months) AND <= 1 person engaged (all time) |
| 05 | Engaged with People | Accounts with >=20 marketing engagement minutes (excluding intent as engagement) (last 3 months) AND >= 2 person engaged (all time) |
| 06 | Marketing Qualified Account | Accounts with >100 marketing engagement minutes (last 3 months) AND >3 engaged people |
| 07 | Opportunity - Stage 0 | Accounts with latest open opp in stage 0 |
| 08 | SAO - Stage 1 (Pipeline) | Accounts with latest open opp in stage 1 |
| 09 | Opportunity Stage 2-3 (Pipeline) | Account with open opp in stage 2-3 |
| 10 | Opportunity Stage 4-7 (Pipeline) | Account with open opp in stage 4-7 |
| 11 | Customer (Customer) | Account type = Customer |
| 12 | Former Customer | Account type = Former Customer |
| 13 | Disqualified | Account Type = Authorized Reseller, Partner, Unofficial Reseller, Reseller, Prospective Partner |
Accounts will be given an intent ranking for a keyword or set of keywords in the form of HIGH, MEDIUM, LOW. This tells us that account’s intent strength for the keyword or set of keywords (and ultimately a score for how likely they are to be a good fit for GitLab). Demandbase looks into how many people associated with a company are searching for a keyword or keyword set and then gives it a ranking based on the number of people researching compared to the size of the company. For example, if a company has 10 employees and 4 people are researching a given topic, that would be considered HIGH. However, if a company has 200 employees, that would be considered MEDIUM.
Keywords are words or phrases that we expect interested accounts our our ideal customers (ICP) to research. For example, at GitLab, we would include keywords such as "DevOps, continuous integration, CI/CD, software development, etc"
Demandbase One has two different scoring models. Qualification Score quantifies the likelihood of an account ever becoming a customer, and Pipeline Predict quantifies the likelihood of an account becoming an opportunity in the next 30 days. Currently, the model looks at all closed won in the past 12 months but it is on the Demandbase roadmap to create multiple scoring models, allowing us to create segment account scoring.
Our Qualification Score is built based on our past won deals and how closely a prospect matches that criteria. Qualification Score scores all accounts in the platform between 0-100% and does not change often.
Pipeline predict measures an accounts propensity to buy in the next 30 days eg accounts that are likely to become an open opportunity. This score changes often because it is based on both an account's qualification score and their buying signals (intent, interactions with sales, etc). The score ranges from 0 – 100%.
Demandbase has a 1:1 account match between Demandbase:SFDC so you will often see multiple accounts listed with the same name. This is because there are multiple child accounts associated with a single domain.
For scoring purposes, any KNOWN person's engagement (leads and contacts) will be assigned to the account that they are associated with in SFDC.
UKNOWN person data (intent, keyword search etc by folks who have not filled out a form or identified themselves to GitLab) will be assigned to the account in SFDC with the most contacts. Often, this will not be the parent account so it is important to take that into consideration when looking at intent data for specific accounts.
How can I see all data for a company if we have multiple accounts in SFDC and Demandbase?
Option 1: Account List by Company Name
Create an account list with filter for Account Name = [add all account names as appears in SFDC separated by commas]
- Note: you can use "Switch to text view" to quickly copy and paste account names direct from SFDC if the search mechanism in the DB selector is taking a long time.
Option 2: Account List by SFDC Account ID
Create an account list with filter for SFDC account ID = [all account IDs in the company hierarchy separated by commas]
Access to account and engagement data in Demandbase is dependent on your approval for access to PubLic Sector data in SFDC. This is managed through your assigned view in Demandbase, which is controlled by a script that looks for that level of access based on the Pub Sec Owner? field (API: Pub_Sec_Owner__c) in SFDC. The script looks for any view in Demandbase that has Public Sector in the title.
| Category | Description |
| ——– | ———– |
| Qualification score | matches our ICP |
| Website visitors | how many people are visiting our website from the company |
| DB Intent | onsite and offsite search from the company |
| Inbox data | interactions with Sales |
| CRM data (Salesforce) | meetings, demos, IQM |
| MAS data (Marketo) | interactions with our marketing campaigns |
| Advertising activity | engagement with our Demandbase campaigns |
Engagement Minutes track the amount of time an account spends with GitLab. This allows us to aggregate all of the interactions an account, and all leads and contacts associated with that account, have with us. Being able to combine all of these interactions allows us to better predict who is likely to become a customer. One engagement minute does not equate to an actual minute of time, it is better to think about this as a point system. Similar to lead scoring, each action a prospect at an account takes is given a score or point. For example, a person starting a trial will be given 50 points vs a person who fills out a form for a gated peice of content would get 5 points. All engagement minutes (points) are aggregated to the account level, giving the account an overall engagement minute score.
As ABM is only focused on mid-market and large/enterprise accounts, we consider an account engaged if they have at least 20 points and at least 2 engaged people. A person is considered engaged if they have any engagement minute activity over the last 90 Days.
| Engagement Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Website visits | both known and anonymous website visitors |
| Marketing Automation (Marketo) | Email opens, event attendance, content downloads, etc. |
| Salesforce | Activities, tasks, and campaign membership |
| Email/Calendar | human interactions including email and meetings with Sales |
A person will receive an increase in engagement scoring based on their title.
| Title | Weighting |
|---|---|
| Manager | 100% |
| Director | 125% |
| VP | 125% |
| CXO | 150% |
| All others | 100% |
Demandbase Site Analytics gives you website analytics for people and accounts so you can better evaluate website performance and personalize marketing efforts to them.
Steps for using Site Analytics as well as building an audience from Site Analytics can be found here
A List is a collection of accounts, people, or opportunities based on filters of your choosing (called selectors), similar to Salesforce report.
Account lists follow a naming convention. The name of an audience should tell you who the DRI is (team) and what the list is for. Audience names are editable, so if you are unsure, please name using the following criteria and reach out in the ABM slack if you have questions.
Selectors let you define who or what should qualify for reports, journey stages, lists, filters, audiences, and automations.
You will notice two small icons next to the selectors when you go to add one to a list. The first icon will show you the Salesforce object this feild is coming from (account, person, or opp). The second icon will let you know the field source (Salesforce, Marketo, Demandbase or merged). For example, you will see the blue Salesforce logo if it is a field pulling directly from Salesforce and you will see an arrow if it is merged field. A merged field indicates the information is pulling in from multiple sources. You can hover over the merge arrow icon to see exactly which sources the data is pulling in from. Demandbase prioritizes merged field data in the following order: Salesforce then Demandbase
Field Object Icon
Merged Source Icon
You can find a guide for Field Marketing Lists below as well.
(Team abbreviation) What the list is for Example: (FM) 20200901_SecurityWorkshopIMPORTANT: IF YOU ARE BUILDING A PERSON LIST TO BE PUSHED TO MARKETO - PLEASE ALSO FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS HERE.
Any information or fields in Salesforce will be available in Demandbase. If you are wanting to use a Salesforce filed in your Demandbase list but don't see it in the platform, please ping in the #abmteam slack channel.
Engagement minutes (3mo) >= 10 *Make sure you use the greater or equal to OR less than or equal to symbol. If you use just equal to, you limit the accounts that fit this critera drastically as the scoring varies.Member of list = NAMEOFACCOUNTLISTmatched account name field. Email contains @companyemaildomain. You could then edit the filter logic to say Matched account name = Company Name OR email contains @companyemaildomainSelectors will use AND filters for your criteria to find all people, accounts, or opportunities that meet that criteria. You can edit this in the selector tab of your list. At the top, click the toggle for edit logicselectors in the platform marked as favorites to identify often used and generally trusted sources of data. These will be stared.If you would like to target named accounts with paid display ads, create an issue with the appropriate Demandbase Campaign Request template:
Demandbase has an advertising calculator you can use to estimate budget based on your goals for the campaign.
You can also budget based on the funnel stage of your account list.
| Objective | Budget | Creative/Copy | KPI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top-of-funnel & new market entry | $15–$35 per account | Broad value proposition | Accounts reached, visited & funnel stage progression |
| Generation, Acceleration, Improve close rates, Improve average contract value (ACV) | $35–$75 per account | Tailored value proposition & CTA | Engaged accounts & opportunity generation |
| Customer expansion & retention | $15-$25 per account | product messsaging & case studies | new opportunities, new/increased engagement |
The sizes needed for your ads if you want to launch via Demandbase.
Since Demandbase is an ABM-oriented DSP, it self-optimizes for on-site engagement rather than traditional display metrics like CTR. We can check engagement metrics after two weeks, once the campaign has stabilized from initial launch, similar to learning phases in paid social.
Budget pacing is spread out based on campaign duration, but can rise or dip based on inventory. It will ultimately hit the budget with no overages in the end.
Demandbase is a direct reflection of Salesforce. Any lead, contact, or opportunity in Salesforce will be in Demandbase. Demandbase does not create or have any different leads/contacts than Salesforce aside from the ability to see what actions anonymous visitors are taking if they are associated with an account. As they are anonymous, we have no information for them other than their activity so we cannot target them etc.
There is an integration between DemandBase and Marketo that allows marketers to push people lists from DemandBase to Marketo for targeting. For instructions on how to do this, go to the campaigns and programs page.
Workshops have been the bedrock for the transition to the virtual world for Field Marketing. Since the pivot away from in-person events, our Field Marketing has run workshops with excellent results and with most “selling out” minutes after being released to our general customer base. What we haven’t always been able to do, however, is selectively target prospects/customers who are showing a strong interest in the specific keywords/web searches surrounding the workshop target.
Because the workshops and the ads run for them need a decent runway, the account lists from DB should be pulled ideally 60 days prior to the workshop date. Depending on what the focus of the workshop is, coordination with the Campaigns Team is highly recommended to utilize the MQL’s they may already have for a specific campaign that aligns to the Workshop. Note:this coordination can also be done by pulling in records with a person score of 100+.
Step 1: Build an account list based on the targets for the Workshop.
Selectors:
Template Example: Super East DevOps Virtual Automation Workshop Account List
Step 2: Build the Persons List using the just created account list as your overall and the selectors that are appropriate for the workshop. Those results would then be added to the campaign as “No Action” and enter the Marketo flow.
Selectors:
Template Example: Super East DevOps Virtual Automation Workshop Persons List
Based on past converstion rates of No. of people we've invited to our workshops vs. No. of people who have regsitered, we need to invite ~6,400 people to our workshops to hit our 350 person capacity.
In the US Public Sector, that number increases to 8,800 people.
Conversion details can be found by searching workshop_data_invite_FY22. Note, this information is only available to GitLab team members. Feel free to modify this report if you'd like to understand how many to invite based on different capacities other than the 350 number.
Today within SFDC we can only see what GTM Segment our contacts belong to. With the addition of DB1 to our tool stack, we can see which GTM Strategy both leads and contacts belong to. It is recommended that you build a Campaign Performance report to understand which GTM Strategy each attendee belongs to.
FMMs should be filling out the SDR request template to seek activation from the SDR team. SDR’s should be using the “Sales Nomination” process to add people to the campaign. Since Demandbase pulls from SFDC there is no point in re-running the list to add those people since they are being added based on Sales recommendation. SDR's also now have access to DB so they'll be able to update lists specifically to add prospects based on their accounts.
In order to make a Workshop functional there are a number of teams that have to collaborate. They are (but not limited to):
Each organization mentioned above has its own SLA’s that are factored into the workback document that's detailed out in the workshop section of our handbook.
Direct Mail campaigns are executed primarily between Field Marketing and SDRs. Before deciding to run a direct mail campaign, it is highly recommended that you evaluate your Demandbase data for trends / patterns to determine if you are going to execute a targeted campaign. Example: your data is showing you that your competition is Jenkins so you run a Jenkins direct mail campaign. Or your data is showing you that your accounts are searching for security so you run a security direct mail campaign.
Once you’ve decided to move forward with a direct mail campaign, you will need to create an Account List in Demandbase. You will use it to understand which accounts are interested/potential targets and/or who to advertise your event/tactic towards. You will need this list in order to drill down into a Persons List. Create the Account List 60 days prior to the campaign launch date. Templates for selectors can be found below. Why is your account list important? This data will show you which accounts you need to target and this will also be the list you refer to for ad promotions.
Next you build a Persons List in Demandbase. This will allow you to dive deeper into your account lists on an individual level and/or search for individuals to build a targeted list. You can reference your Account List to assist in building your Persons List. Allow for 60 days prior to the campaign launch date. Templates for selectors can be found below. Why is your persons list important? This data will show you which individuals from your account list are of interest; deeper understanding as to who you should be targeting. This will also be the list you refer to for email invitations.
How do I get the individuals from my persons list into Marketo for email invitations / sends? Training Material Coming Soon (including DB1 toMarketo integration video_).*
Once you've completed your Demandbase account list/ persons list and filled out the FM issue, you will need to notify your SDR manager(s) of the campaign by filling out a SDR Request Issue for a SDR DRI to work with you to not only build out the Outreach sequence template but to ensure that the flow of the campaign is user friendly for the SDR team. Allow for 45 days from SDR Manager(s).
Selectors:
Selectors:
Template - Template is a cloned version of the Security Direct Mailer Campaign Persons List. View the Details panel for more information (issue, SFDC Campaign, etc).
Today within SFDC we can only see what GTM Segment our contacts belong to. With the addition of DB1 to our tool stack, we can see which GTM Strategy both leads and contacts belong to. It is recommended that you build a Campaign Performance report to understand which GTM Strategy each attendee belongs to. Example here.