High cost per click.
Low search volume.
Unqualified leads.
B2B marketers face endless challenges when trying to generate results through paid search.
Learn how to make paid search work to drive better B2B leads.
Prequalify users with ad copy
A challenge for many B2B search campaigns is that keywords by themselves do not fully describe the user’s intent.
For example, a managed IT service provider might want to target strictly enterprise-level organizations, but not every qualified prospect will include the word “enterprise” in their search query.
You can target more general keywords like “hosted IT services” to grow your network while encouraging the right people to click.
However, ad copy may specify “Enterprise Managed IT Services”.
If you only serve businesses with more than a certain number of employees, you can mention it directly in the ad or include it in a callout extension.
For example, “For a business with more than 100 employees”.
Also, including pricing in your copy can be an effective way to deter clicks from people who can’t afford your service.
For example, “From $500 per month” will help deter searchers who are unwilling or unable to spend at least $500 per month.
tiered audience
Even though keyword intent may be vague, audience targeting can help you target your ads to the people you want to reach.
It’s often best to use a combination of first- and third-party audiences in your campaigns.
First-party audiences need your own data.
You can use Customer Match to upload a list of prospects to target individuals who may initially express interest in your business after choosing to subscribe to a newsletter, download a white paper, or attend a webinar.
Another benefit of these audiences is that you can create lookalike audiences that you can also overlay into campaigns to reach people with intersecting characteristics.
also, Create a remarketing audience From website visitors, don’t forget to layer these into campaigns, even if it’s just observations.
and Manual biddingyou can bid on these people when set to watch only to be more competitive for search queries from people who may have already expressed interest in your business.
With automated bidding, stratifying these audiences shows Google intent. This shows that you think these people are important for getting bid signals.
Third-party audiences include several options on the Google and Microsoft side, with B2B-oriented in-market audiences allowing the most precision.
In-market audiences indicate through their search and browsing behavior that they are buying a specific product or service directly.
IT companies can target enterprise software and network systems and services.
B2B accounting firms can target the commercial financial services sector.
Restaurant supply stores can locate Commercial & Industrial Products > Food Service Equipment.
Countless other options exist for audiences directly related to multiple B2B niches.
You can also reach LinkedIn audiences for other B2B tiers of Microsoft Advertising.
In particular, use industry targeting to reach people in the specific field you want to pursue.
Find keywords related to real problems
B2B marketers can be notorious for only wanting to target highly specific technical keywords related to their products.
However, the person facing the problem the product solves may not even know the product exists.
For example, a client I work with offers board meeting software.
Only a small percentage of people search directly for keywords like “board meeting software.”
However, more people are searching for keywords like “how to improve board meetings” or “how to share board minutes” — all of which can be solved with relevant software.
Use tools such as Google Keyword Planner, answer the publicand also ask Identify the problems people are asking and use your ad to show how your product or service provides a solution.
Also, keep an eye on your own search terms report to identify keywords you can pull into your ad group with more tailored ad copy.
Don’t forget the landing page
Landing pages are essential for any niche and any campaign, but there are a few things you should keep in mind when it comes to B2B campaigns.
Ideally, you’ve used ad copy to prevent the wrong people from clicking, but you should continue that theme in your landing page copy.
Use your copy to suggest the right business size, job role, and potential budget for your ideal client.
Additionally, form settings are critical to balancing the right people with not unnecessarily preventing contacts from submitting forms.
Include enough form fields to ensure people are serious enough to give you their contact information, while allowing you to review their company details without asking for unnecessary information.
For example, job title and company name might be a reasonable question, but do you really need them to specify a city and state to download a white paper?
Asking for a phone number to get a quote at the top of the funnel can also be daunting, as many people don’t like getting a sudden call when they’re in the early stages of research.
Also, include a signal of trust using the logos and quotes of other businesses in your company.
B2B buyers want to see similar businesses trust your services.
Optimize for the right conversion actions
As ad platforms push advertisers to use automated bidding in campaigns, getting accurate conversion data into platforms is more important than ever.
Also, be aware that you’re optimizing around the conversion actions most relevant to getting qualified leads.
For higher funnel campaigns, you can choose conversion actions like asset downloads or webinar registrations to optimize for higher volume requests.
However, for lower funnel campaigns, you may be more concerned with demo requests, trial registrations, and sales inquiries, and should choose these as your campaign’s conversion actions.
Additionally, sending back offline conversion data via Salesforce integration or offline conversion import can provide additional signals to optimize around qualified leads.
Finally, attaching value to specific conversions (even if it’s just a rough metric of value based on your data) and optimizing for conversion value can help Google differentiate between low-return, high-funnel conversions, and high-return low-funnel conversions.
Test B2B PPC!
If you’ve been skeptical about paid search for B2B, or if you’ve been struggling to make campaigns work for your business, it might be time to try optimizing again for success.
Consider real customer problems Consider keywords and ad copy wordingzeroing your audience layer on the right leads, keeping your landing page focused on the right personas, and ensuring the right conversion tracking setup.
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Featured image: Golden Sikorka/Shutterstock
