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TLDR
- A HubSpot target account is a company record with the Target account property set to True. It needs Marketing Hub or Sales Hub Professional or Enterprise.
- Decide the criteria, the ICP tiers and who owns the list before you tick a single box. A target list without rules turns into a list of everyone.
- Use target markets to find fit companies, the Ideal customer profile tier property to rank them, and buying roles to map the people inside each account.
- Reps work target accounts in the sales workspace. Marketing reaches the same accounts through company segments and LinkedIn ad audiences.
- Track pipeline, activity and coverage on the Analyze tab of the target accounts page, and watch the "no buying roles" report most closely.
HubSpot Target Accounts helps sales and marketing focus on the same priority companies. But marking companies as target accounts is only useful when both teams agree on which accounts qualify, who owns them and how to follow up.
This guide explains how to choose the right accounts, set them up in HubSpot, manage them across sales and marketing, and measure the pipeline they generate.
What are target accounts in HubSpot?
A target account in HubSpot is a company record marked as a priority for both sales and marketing, by setting the Target account company property to True. Once a company carries that flag, it shows up on the target accounts index page, in the sales workspace filters, in the default ABM segments and in the target account reports.
HubSpot ships three default properties for account-based work, and they do different jobs (HubSpot Knowledge Base):
| Property | Object | What it answers |
|---|---|---|
| Target account | Company | Is this account on the list? (True or False) |
| Ideal customer profile tier | Company | How good a fit is it? Tier 1 is the strongest fit, Tier 3 is acceptable but lower priority |
| Buying role | Contact | What does this person do in the deal? For example Decision Maker, Budget Holder or Blocker |
The Target account property identifies priority companies. The ICP tier ranks them by fit, while buying roles identify the people involved in a purchase. You need all three to organize account-based work effectively.
Which HubSpot plans include target accounts?
Target accounts are available on Marketing Hub Professional or Enterprise and Sales Hub Professional or Enterprise (HubSpot Knowledge Base). A few parts need more than the plan:
| Feature | What it needs |
|---|---|
| Target accounts index page and reports | Marketing Hub or Sales Hub Professional or Enterprise |
| Editing target account properties | The Edit companies permission |
| Adding net-new companies HubSpot recommends | Breeze Intelligence credits |
| Account overview and the sales workspace | An assigned Sales Hub Professional or Enterprise seat |
| Research with the prospecting agent | Sales Hub Professional or Enterprise, plus the prospecting agent permission |
| Target markets | All HubSpot products and plans |
Marketing Hub users can manage and report on target accounts, but reps need the appropriate Sales Hub seat to use the sales workspace. Check your team's access before setting up the process.
Decide the list before you build it
Before adding accounts to HubSpot, sales and marketing need shared criteria for choosing them. Without clear rules, each team may prioritize different companies, making the target account list less useful.
This alignment matters. In a 2025 Gartner survey of 243 chief sales officers, 49% said sales and marketing had very different definitions of a qualified lead (Gartner, 2025). Agree on the criteria before building the list.
Agree on five things before setting up target accounts:
- Fit criteria. The firmographics that make an account worth pursuing: industry, employee range, revenue, country, the tech it runs. These map almost one to one onto HubSpot's market criteria, so write them in the same terms.
- Tier definitions. What separates Tier 1 from Tier 2 from Tier 3, in rules a workflow can check. "Strategic" is not a rule. "Revenue above $50M in SaaS or fintech, running Salesforce or HubSpot" is.
- Size of the list. How many accounts your reps can actually work. A list should match capacity, not ambition. If six reps can run real plays on 25 accounts each, Tier 1 is about 150 accounts, not 1,500.
- Who can add or remove an account. One owner, usually RevOps or the head of demand, with a simple request path for reps. Everyone else can see the list but not change the flag.
- Review cadence. When the list is checked and what moves an account off it: closed won, disqualified, or no engagement after a set number of plays.
Here is what tier rules can look like once they are written down. Treat the numbers as an example, not a benchmark:
| Tier | Example rule | Effort it gets |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 | Core industry, revenue above $50M, uses a CRM you integrate with, at least one known Decision Maker | Named rep, personalized plays, 1:1 ads and events |
| Tier 2 | Core industry, revenue $10M to $50M | Rep-owned sequences, 1:few campaigns by industry |
| Tier 3 | Adjacent industry or missing data | Programmatic ads and nurture, reviewed each quarter |
A focused list also helps keep outreach relevant. Gartner found that 73% of B2B buyers actively avoid suppliers that send irrelevant messages (Gartner, 2025).
At Elefante, we start account-based marketing projects by reviewing the existing inbound and outbound processes. That helps us agree on account criteria and ownership before creating HubSpot properties or workflows.
How to set up target accounts in HubSpot
Follow these five steps to set up HubSpot target accounts: define markets, configure ABM properties, automate ICP tiers, add target accounts and assign buying roles.
1. Define your target markets
A market in HubSpot is a saved set of company criteria that HubSpot matches against its own company database and your CRM (HubSpot Knowledge Base). Go to Settings > Data Management > Markets > Create new market.
- Criteria include industry, company keywords, employee range, country, state or region, city, web technologies and revenue.
- A company must meet at least one criterion in every category you select. Choosing "Accounting" and "Energy" plus "France" returns accounting or energy companies in France.
- You can exclude values inside a category, which is useful for cutting out segments you have already decided not to sell to.
- Each user can have up to 20 markets. Build one market per segment you sell to, not one per campaign.
Your saved markets should reflect the account criteria sales and marketing agreed on.
2. Adjust the ICP tier and buying role properties
HubSpot creates Ideal customer profile tier and Buying role as default properties. Open them in Settings > Properties and change the option labels and descriptions to match your written tier rules. You can add buying roles that fit your sales process, such as Technical Evaluator or Procurement, but the default values cannot be deleted.
Add a clear definition to each tier's property description so future team members can understand how accounts are ranked.
3. Set the ICP tier with a workflow
Manually assigned tiers can become inconsistent as the account list grows. Use the workflow template HubSpot provides: go to Automation > Workflows > Create workflow, open the Templates tab and choose Update company properties based on defined criteria. The template sets the tier from annual revenue, and you can extend it with industry and country (HubSpot Knowledge Base).
If fit depends on more than three or four fields, build a company score property instead and let the workflow set the tier from score ranges. We did a version of this for Krisp, where ICP fit is one of five parts of a lead score that syncs from HubSpot to Salesforce.
4. Add your target accounts
Go to Sales > Target Accounts and click Choose target accounts (HubSpot Knowledge Base).
- In CRM: pick from all companies or from a list, and switch on Filter by companies in my target markets to see only fit accounts. Only companies with a known company domain name can be selected.
- Net-New Companies: HubSpot recommends companies from your markets that are not in your CRM yet, up to 100 at a time. Adding them uses Breeze Intelligence credits.
You can also set the Target account property through a bulk edit, import or company workflow. For ongoing programs, a workflow can automatically mark companies as target accounts when they meet your Tier 1 or Tier 2 criteria.
5. Map buying roles on every Tier 1 account
Open the Buyer Committee tab for each Tier 1 account, add associated contacts and assign their buying roles. If you have not identified a Decision Maker or Budget Holder, prioritize researching those contacts. HubSpot also provides a report to help you find target accounts without buying roles.
Free resource: The ABM Checklist covers the resources you need for an end-to-end account-based campaign, from ICP focus to booking meetings. Use it next to this setup so the list and the plays are built together.
How to manage target accounts day to day
Sales and marketing should use the same target account list, with clear responsibilities and regular reviews. HubSpot gives each team tools to manage its part of the process.
How reps work target accounts in the sales workspace
Reps with a Sales Hub Professional or Enterprise seat see target accounts in the sales workspace (HubSpot Knowledge Base). HubSpot moved every account to the updated sales workspace on April 27, 2026, so older screenshots and guides may not match what your team sees.
Sales workspace filters help reps identify accounts that need attention:
- No decision maker: accounts where nobody is tagged in a decision role. These need research before outreach.
- No activities: accounts nobody has touched. On a well-sized list, this view should be close to empty.
- No open deals: accounts with activity but no pipeline yet.
From an account, a rep can read the Breeze summary, run the prospecting agent for research, and act on contacts in the buyer committee: enroll them in a sequence, write an email, call or book a meeting. Reps can save their own views with extra filters, which is worth doing for Tier 1 only.
How marketing reaches the same accounts
Marketing works the list through segments and ads (HubSpot Knowledge Base):
- HubSpot creates default contact segments in the Account Based Advertising folder, including contacts with any buying role and contacts associated with target accounts.
- With a connected LinkedIn Ads account, a company segment audience can sync all target accounts, or one ICP tier, to LinkedIn.
- The account overview shows marketing what sales sees: activities, contacts, deals and the pages contacts from that account have viewed.
Use ICP tiers to create different LinkedIn audiences. For example, you can run personalized campaigns for Tier 1 accounts and broader campaigns for Tier 3 accounts.
A weekly rhythm that keeps the list honest
| Who | What they do each week | Where in HubSpot |
|---|---|---|
| Reps | Clear their "No activities" and "No decision maker" views for Tier 1 | Sales workspace |
| Marketing | Check which target accounts engaged with campaigns and pass the hot ones to the owner | Account overview, segments |
| List owner (RevOps or demand) | Approve adds and removals, check the workflow is tiering new companies correctly | Target accounts index page |
| Sales and marketing leads | Review target account pipeline together, once a week or every two weeks | Analyze tab |
For Flex, a Series A fintech, Elefante rebuilt ABM and outbound processes to connect sales, marketing and customer success in one system. Flex grew ARR from $5M to $25M over six months. This is a client example, not a guaranteed result of using target accounts.
How to track target accounts in HubSpot
The Analyze tab on HubSpot's target accounts page includes seven built-in reports (HubSpot Knowledge Base). Use them to track contact coverage, sales activity and pipeline.
| Question | Report on the Analyze tab | What to look for |
|---|---|---|
| Are we covered? | Target accounts with no buying roles | Tier 1 accounts with zero contacts in a buying role |
| Are we covered? | Target accounts by industry | Whether the list still matches the segments you chose |
| Are we working them? | Activity totals on target accounts | Notes, meetings booked, sales emails sent and replies |
| Are we working them? | Target account sales activities | The monthly trend by activity type |
| Are we working them? | Target account totals by rep | Reps who own target accounts but are not working them |
| Is it producing pipeline? | Open target account pipeline | Deals by stage and value |
| Is it producing pipeline? | Closed target accounts | Close dates and values |
Start with account coverage and activity. If important buying roles are missing or no one is contacting the accounts, address those gaps before evaluating pipeline results.
Build the comparison HubSpot does not give you
HubSpot's default reports focus on target accounts. To compare them with other accounts, create a custom report under Reporting > Reports > Create report. Use Companies and associated deals, then segment the results by the Target account property and ICP tier.
The four numbers worth putting on one dashboard:
- Coverage: share of Tier 1 accounts with at least one Decision Maker or Budget Holder.
- Engagement: share of target accounts with a meeting in the last 90 days.
- Pipeline created: new deal value from target accounts this quarter, by tier.
- Win rate and deal size: target versus non-target accounts.
If Tier 1 accounts are not performing better, review your selection criteria, outreach, buying role coverage and sales process. The results can help you see whether the issue is account fit or execution.
To use the data outside HubSpot, open a report's three-dot menu and select Export unsummarized data.
Common mistakes with HubSpot target accounts
These common setup and management mistakes can make target account reporting less reliable:
| Mistake | What it looks like | The fix |
|---|---|---|
| Flag set during an import | Hundreds of accounts marked True with no tier and no owner | Reset the flag, then let a workflow set it from the tier rules |
| One list per team | Marketing's ad audience and the reps' call list do not overlap | One owner for the Target account property, one list everyone reads |
| Tiers by opinion | Tier 1 is whatever the loudest rep asked for | Tier rules written into property descriptions and a workflow |
| No buying roles | Accounts on the list, but nobody knows who signs | Use the "No decision maker" view and treat it as a research queue |
| Dirty company data | Duplicates and missing domains, so accounts cannot be selected or matched to markets | Clean and deduplicate companies before you build the list |
| Never reviewed | Closed won and dead accounts still on the list a year later | A set review date and exit rules |
Accurate company data is important for target account selection. In Validity's 2025 survey of 602 CRM users, 76% said less than half their CRM data was accurate and complete (Validity, 2025). Check for duplicates and missing domains before adding accounts.
Limits to know before you start
- Only companies with a known company domain name can be chosen as existing target accounts.
- Each user can have up to 20 markets.
- Net-new recommendations show up to 100 companies at a time and use Breeze Intelligence credits.
- The rep view and account overview need a Sales Hub Professional or Enterprise seat.
- The built-in reports do not compare target accounts with the rest of your pipeline. You build that yourself.
When you do not need target accounts
A formal target account program may be unnecessary if you mainly handle small, quick inbound deals. Lead scoring and clear sales handoffs may be more useful. Target accounts are better suited to larger deals that involve several decision-makers and proactive outreach.
How Elefante RevOps helps
Elefante helps teams choose target accounts, configure HubSpot and build the sales and marketing workflows needed to engage them.
- Account-Based Marketing: we map how your inbound and outbound run today, then build the signal capture, enrichment, segmentation and activation workflows behind the target list. As Clay partners, we implement the enrichment workflows and launch the campaigns. Teams typically see faster activation of inbound intent within the first 30 to 60 days.
- HubSpot Implementation: if the company data under your list is the real problem, we fix the data model, properties and automation first, so the tiers and workflows have something reliable to read.
We begin with a 45-minute assessment of your current setup. We then provide a written scope, timeline, fixed price and the three biggest risks we identify. If the project is not a good fit, we will explain why.
Want a target account list both teams trust?
Book a 45-minute assessment to review your HubSpot setup, ICP tiers and ABM workflows. We will outline the scope before work begins.
HubSpot target accounts FAQs
How do target accounts work in HubSpot?
A company becomes a target account when its Target account property is set to True. It then appears on the target accounts index page, in the sales workspace views, in the default ABM segments and in the target account reports, so sales and marketing work from the same list.
Which HubSpot plan do I need for target accounts?
Marketing Hub Professional or Enterprise, or Sales Hub Professional or Enterprise. Reps need a Sales Hub Professional or Enterprise seat to work target accounts in the sales workspace, and adding net-new companies uses Breeze Intelligence credits.
How do I mark a company as a target account in HubSpot?
Go to Sales > Target Accounts and click Choose target accounts, or set the Target account property to True on the company record, through a bulk edit, an import or a company workflow. To remove an account, set the property to False.
What is the ideal customer profile tier in HubSpot?
It is a default company property that ranks how well an account fits your ideal customer profile. Tier 1 is the strongest fit and Tier 3 is acceptable but lower priority. You can edit the tiers and set them automatically with a workflow.
What are buying roles in HubSpot?
Buying role is a default contact property that records the part a person plays in a deal, such as Decision Maker, Budget Holder or Blocker. A contact can hold more than one role, and you can add your own roles.
How many target accounts should I have?
As many as your reps can work with real plays. Start from capacity: the number of reps multiplied by the accounts each can personally work. That usually means a much shorter Tier 1 list than teams expect.
Can I sync HubSpot target accounts to LinkedIn Ads?
Yes. With a connected LinkedIn Ads account, a company segment audience can sync all your target accounts, or a single ICP tier, to LinkedIn.