What is an ICP?

An ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) describes the type of company or customer that gets the most value from your product or service and for which you are the best solution. The ICP is the foundation of targeted lead generation, cold email and ad targeting.

What goes into an ICP?

For B2B: company size (number of employees, revenue), industry, location, technology use (tech stack), growth rate and the specific challenges your service solves. The more specific the ICP, the more targeted your marketing and the higher the quality of your leads.

ICP versus buyer persona

The ICP describes the ideal company (firmographic characteristics); the buyer persona describes the ideal person within that company (psychographic characteristics). In B2B you use both: the ICP for targeting, the persona for messaging and copywriting.

ICP and campaign effectiveness

The sharper the ICP, the more relevant your cold email and paid ads. A broad ICP leads to budget wasted on people who will never convert.

How do I put together an ICP?

Analyse your best existing customers: what do they have in common in terms of industry, size and challenges? Where did they get the most value from your solution?

Can a company have more than one ICP?

Yes, the ICP can differ per product or service. More at developers.google.com/search.