Precision ABM Strategy for New Target Audience Acquisition via Google DV360

Client Overview

Blackstone is the world’s largest alternative asset manager, with over $1 trillion in assets under management spanning private equity, real estate, credit, and infrastructure. The firm serves institutional investors, sovereign wealth funds, pension systems, and family offices globally. As Blackstone expanded into newer strategies – including energy transition infrastructure and growth equity – the marketing team identified a gap: a significant pool of mid-market institutional allocators and regional pension funds had limited prior engagement with the firm’s digital properties. Reaching these untapped accounts required a structured ABM program built specifically for audience acquisition rather than re-engagement.

Campaign Objective

The campaign’s central aim was to build awareness and generate qualified engagement from a net-new target audience of institutional allocators who had no prior digital interaction with Blackstone. This audience included mid-tier pension funds, endowments, and insurance company investment arms that met Blackstone’s minimum allocation thresholds but had not yet entered the firm’s CRM as active prospects. DV360’s programmatic ABM tools served as the primary vehicle for reaching named accounts at scale across multiple geographies.

Beyond initial engagement, the campaign sought to establish Blackstone’s thought leadership positioning among these new accounts. Sustained exposure to research-driven content would position the firm as a trusted source of market intelligence, creating a foundation for relationship development by the institutional sales team. The marketing team tracked content consumption depth as a leading indicator of future allocation interest.

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Audience & Targeting

The target audience was built from the ground up rather than drawn from existing CRM records. Blackstone’s institutional sales team provided a named account list of 1,200 organizations that met specific criteria: minimum $500M in investable assets, active allocation to alternative investments, and no recorded engagement with Blackstone’s digital content within the prior 18 months. This list became the campaign’s foundation.

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Platform & Channels

Media ran exclusively on a curated allowlist of 84 financial and institutional investment publications. Contextual targeting restricted delivery to editorial content covering alternative investments, portfolio construction, and macroeconomic analysis. Blackstone’s compliance team reviewed every placement domain before campaign launch to confirm alignment with the firm’s regulatory requirements around investment marketing.

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Creative and Formats

Creative followed a three-phase sequential framework aligned with institutional due diligence. Phase one introduced Blackstone’s market outlook and macro insights. Engaged users moved to phase two with deep dives into private credit, real estate, and infrastructure. Phase three focused on conversion, offering webinar invites, one-on-one briefings, and access to gated performance reports.

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Geo-Focus

Six markets defined the campaign footprint: the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Australia, and the United Arab Emirates. The US and UK offered the largest pools of institutional capital for Blackstone to grow share of wallet. Germany and Japan provided access to major pension and insurance investors, while Australia and the UAE targeted sovereign wealth and superannuation funds expanding into private markets.