Guides
How to see your whole market before you spend a dollar on ads or outbound: what to map, what to do with it, and what it costs to build yourself.
Start here
- What is TAM? Map your market before you spend on itTAM is every company and buyer that could buy from you. Here is how to map it as a real list, not just a number, before you spend on ads or outbound.
- TAM vs SAM vs SOM for B2B go-to-marketWhat TAM, SAM and SOM mean, how to calculate each bottom-up for a B2B company, and how to turn your serviceable market into a list of real accounts.
- How to define your ideal customer profile (ICP)A practical way to define your B2B ideal customer profile from your best customers and won deals, with an ICP template and how it differs from a buyer persona.
- How AdsGTM works: who it’s for, the process and what you getWho AdsGTM is for, what happens from the 30-minute kickoff to delivery in 72 hours, every deliverable you receive, pricing, revisions and Slack support.
Your lists
- Marketing-ready TAM: the 95% to warm up before they buyMost of your market isn’t buying this quarter (the 95:5 rule). How to use your Marketing-ready TAM with ads, content and events so they know you first.
- Sales-ready TAM: in-market accounts, and how they differ from MQLsWhat makes a contact Sales-ready, how intent-based readiness compares with MQLs, SQLs and BANT, and why these accounts should get your reps’ first hours.
- What’s in your list: firmographic, contact and intent dataFirmographic, technographic, contact and intent data explained, with every field you get in an AdsGTM master list and how each one is used.
- Account scoring: how fit and intent decide who to reach firstHow to score accounts on ICP fit and intent strength, why rule-based lead scores fall short, and how AdsGTM tailors scoring and priority tiers to your offer.
Data
- Intent data and buying signals: what they are and where they come fromWhat intent data is, the buying signals that actually predict purchases (web research, competitor engagement, search), and the generic signals that don’t.
- B2B data accuracy: verification, bounce rates and data decayWhy B2B contact data decays, what hard and soft bounces mean, how catch-all emails and verification work, and what a healthy bounce rate looks like.
- B2B data compliance: GDPR, CCPA and cold outreachIs cold email legal? How GDPR legitimate interest and CCPA apply to B2B contact data, outreach and ads, and how AdsGTM and Contactlevel handle compliance.
Use cases
- LinkedIn ads for B2B: warm up your market before outboundHow to run LinkedIn and paid social ads to the exact people in your TAM with Contactlevel, using thought leader ads and branded content to warm them up.
- Outbound to in-market accounts: email, LinkedIn and cold callingHow to work your Sales-ready list across LinkedIn outbound, cold email and cold calling, with sequences that reference what each account is researching.
- Sales and marketing alignment starts with one listWhy sales and marketing drift apart, and how one shared master list, split into Sales-ready and Marketing-ready, gets both teams working the same accounts.
Build vs buy
- B2B lead lists: build vs buyShould you build your B2B lead list, buy one or have it built? What a good list contains, what it costs, and what to check before you spend a dollar on it.
- What it really costs to build your TAM in-houseA line-by-line cost of building a 50,000-contact TAM yourself, with October 2026 prices for data, enrichment, verification, intent data and contractor hours.
- What is a GTM engineer? Hire, train or outsourceWhat a GTM engineer does, the skills and salary involved, and when to hire one, train someone in-house or bring in a GTM agency instead.
- Clay pricing explained: plans, credits and total costHow Clay’s plans and credits work, what a typical list-building workflow uses, and how to budget for the people and tools around it.
- ZoomInfo pricing and alternativesWhat ZoomInfo costs, how its plans and seats are priced, what to negotiate, and alternatives for teams that need a list more than a database.
- Clay vs Apollo vs ZoomInfo: which fits your teamHow Clay, Apollo and ZoomInfo differ, who each one suits, and when a managed TAM build from a GTM agency is a sensible first step.
