Persona Mapping Framework

Persona Mapping - Framework

How to identify, segment, and target personas within ABM accounts. Mapping personas to their jobs-to-be-done (JTBDs), pain points, and messaging.

The Persona Mapping Principle

ABM targets accounts, but people buy - not companies. Persona mapping answers:

1. Who at the target account should see your ads?
2. What do they care about? (JTBDs, pain points)
3. How should messaging differ by persona?
4. When should BDRs reach out to which persona?

Identifying Personas

Step 1: Analyze Your Closed-Won Deals

Look at your CRM data for closed-won deals:

Step 2: Map the Buying Committee

Most B2B deals involve 6-10 stakeholders. Map the roles:

Step 3: Define Persona Attributes

For each persona, document:

Persona Enrichment with Clay

Custom Properties to Enrich

When building contact lists in Clay, enrich beyond standard fields:

Persona Assignment Rules

Create rules in Clay to auto-assign personas:

IF title contains "Product Manager" OR "PM" OR "Head of Product" OR "VP Product" OR "CPO":
  → Persona = "Product"

IF title contains "UX" OR "UI" OR "Designer" OR "Design Lead":
  → Persona = "UX/Design"

IF title contains "Marketing" OR "Growth" OR "PMM" OR "Demand Gen":
  → Persona = "Marketing"

IF title contains "CTO" OR "VP Engineering" OR "Engineering Manager":
  → Persona = "Engineering"

IF title contains "CEO" OR "COO" OR "Founder" OR "General Manager":
  → Persona = "Executive"

IF title contains "Customer Success" OR "CX" OR "Support":
  → Persona = "Customer Success"

Persona-Based Messaging

Messaging Matrix

Messaging by ABM Stage

LinkedIn Targeting by Persona

Two Approaches

Approach 1: Contact List Upload (More Precise, More Expensive)

1. Find specific contacts at target accounts in Clay/Apollo
2. Enrich with email
3. Upload to HubSpot as marketing contacts
4. Sync to LinkedIn via HubSpot Ad Audiences
5. Create separate campaigns per persona list

Pros: Very precise targeting Cons: Expensive (Clay credits + HubSpot marketing contacts cost), complex to manage

Approach 2: Company List + LinkedIn Native Filters (Recommended)

1. Upload company list to LinkedIn (via HubSpot company list sync)
2. Use LinkedIn Campaign Manager's native filters to target personas:
   • Job Function: Product Management, Design, Marketing, etc.
   • Seniority: Director, VP, C-Suite
   • Job Title keywords: specific titles

Pros: Cheaper, simpler, leverages LinkedIn's data Cons: Less precise (LinkedIn's job function mapping isn't perfect)

LinkedIn Persona Filters

Minimum Audience Rules

• Minimum matched audience: 300 LinkedIn members per campaign
• Smaller audiences = higher CPMs (more expensive)
• At later ABM stages (Interested, Considering): persona lists may be too small to run separately
• Solution: Combine personas at later stages, differentiate via ad content instead of targeting

Persona Prioritization

Which Personas to Target First

When Budget is Limited

With $10K/month (one campaign group effectively):

1. Don't split by persona. Target all personas in one campaign group.
2. Differentiate through content. Create ads that speak to different JTBDs within the same campaign.
3. Use LinkedIn filters to exclude irrelevant roles (e.g., exclude HR, Finance, Legal from initial campaigns).
4. Prioritize by JTBD/intent instead of persona.

Campaign Naming Convention (for Intent Tracking)

Structure

[Campaign Name] - [Persona] - [Ad Type] - [JTBD/Intent] - [ABM Stage]

Examples:

• Q1-Analytics - PM - Image - User-Activation - Awareness
• Q1-Analytics - UX - Video - Session-Replay - Interested
• Q1-Analytics - All - TLA - Industry-Trends - Awareness

Why Naming Matters

When ZenABM/Fibbler pushes engagement data to HubSpot, the campaign name is how you extract:

• Which persona engaged (for outreach targeting)
• Which intent/JTBD they cared about (for message personalization)
• Which ABM stage content resonated (for campaign optimization)

Notion Database for Asset Management

Track all ad assets in a Notion database with properties:

• Persona
• Ad Type (Image, Video, TLA, Carousel, Text)
• Asset Description / JTBD
• ABM Stage (Awareness, Interested, Considering)
• ABM Campaign Name
• Status (Brief Done, Design In Progress, Ready, Launched)
• Owner
• Designer Assigned
• Performance Notes

Use formula fields to auto-generate campaign names from properties, ensuring clean naming that flows through to intent detection.

Project Management: Asset Creation Workflow

Process

1. ABM Manager defines campaign brief
   → Persona, intent, stage, messaging angle

2. Content owner writes ad copy brief
   → Headline, intro text, CTA, visual direction

3. Brief → Notion database (assigned to designer)

4. Designer creates visual assets
   → Follow LinkedIn's current image, headline, and intro-text specs for each ad format

5. ABM Manager reviews + approves

6. Assets uploaded to LinkedIn Campaign Manager
   → Correct campaign group, campaign, naming convention

7. Track in Notion: launched date, performance notes

Volume Expectations

Critical: Volume of ads must follow the budget math - each ad needs enough daily spend to generate 3-4 clicks, so don't create more ads than your budget can effectively serve.

Measuring Persona Effectiveness

Metrics by Persona

What to Do with the Data

By Ivan Falco - Frontal