We all know that paid traffic is the best and the quickest way to generate leads. But the problem is that PPC campaigns for B2B differ from PPC for B2C. Key similarity being, that SERP is cluttered with too much information and you need to find a way to attract attention. Just because you are dealing with B2B doesn’t mean you should be highly sophisticated. Remember that your product/service ultimately ends being useful to a human being.
The B2B campaigns pose a different set of challenges from B2C campaigns and these challenges are reflected in the marketing and advertising strategy. Although, there are a lot of similarities between the two when it comes to executing the campaigns.
This complete PPC guide for B2B lead generation will teach you exactly how to develop and execute your strategy for maximum lead generation which is implemented by top PPC marketing agencies. We’ll cover everything from selecting the right keywords to writing effective ad copy.
Competitor Understanding and Keyword Research
Proper keyword research is the first step towards designing PPC campaigns. Competitive understanding and keyword research will uncover two important things
- The right keywords to use for your campaigns
- Uncover what your competitor is doing right or wrong
Generate a list of possible Keywords
When a business is generating relevant keywords for their web pages, they must be specific in mind. A keyword such as “analytic software” may have a high search volume but the competition to rank on this software is much more. Hence you should be specific with your USP’s. Study the landing pages you are driving traffic to. What is the page trying to convey?
As a marketer, you need to go inside the minds of a business owner and think how would they search the term. I personally recommend you to use highly specific keywords instead of inviting irrelevant traffic to your website.
Using Keyword Research Tool
Once you have a general idea of what your keywords be, it’s time to use some tools to uncover other hidden opportunities.
You put the seed keyword within the tool and it provides you with variations used by your target audience in various search engines.
You can also use the tool to uncover the keywords which your competition is ranking for. This way you can plan to target specific keywords to gain an edge over your competitor.
Setting a Thoroughly Planned PPC Campaigns
Once you finalized a set of keywords you move to design good PPC campaigns. A planned PPC campaign is necessary, whether you are a B2B marketer or B2C marketer. By structuring your campaigns, you not only can monitor your campaigns but also optimize it for maximum benefit.
Campaign Structure
Here are the top things to consider when designing your PPC Ad campaign –
- Products/Service
- Your targeted Geographical location
- Performance and bidding
- Branded keywords and generic terms
- The timing of your offerings
- Keyword match types
The common advertising campaign used in PPC marketing is “search campaign” only. The other less used forms included
“Call Only”: To receive phone calls
“Display Network”: Uses display ads to market your product/service across various google partnered platforms.
Remarketing: To engage users who are already exposed to your brand.
All these tactics can be leveraged but some campaigns are highly relevant for a business. For example: If you are a business with no website, you should probably use call-only feature.
Targeting is extremely important for B2B businesses. Since the product/service you market solves a highly specific problem, you need to target only those audience members who are more likely to buy your product. For example: If your product cost some lakhs of rupees for subscription, you should probably not target small scale businesses.
Also, if you are serving a specific demographic say your local area or state, there is no point in running a full countrywide campaign.
Keeping an Eye on Quality Score
According to Google, A quality score is a measure of how Good is your Ad, keyword used and landing pages. The amount of money you are willing to pay when a user clicks can be drastically reduced by having a good quality score. You are more likely to score a ten if your ad copy, keywords and landing pages are aligned properly.
Creating a Memorable Ad Copy
You have created a perfect ad structure and selected the best keywords. Now it’s time to create a memorable ad copy to grab maximum user attention.
The first thing to remember while writing a memorable ad copy is to know the user intent. What is your user more likely to search on the search engine. Their intent and what information are they trying to find?
Understanding user intent will drive your writing and landing page design efforts.
If someone is in the awareness stage of the sales cycle you cannot send them a product and sales-related pages. Instead, send them an e-book or a blog post and give them detailed information about your service.
Creating Actionable CTA’s
Now you have their attention. It’s time to make them take some form of action on your website. Your Ad copy must have compelling CTA’s which should make user exactly what you want to do.
Creating Attractive Landing Pages
As discussed before, the click takes the user on a landing page. But what next?
Landing pages are the last step of the PPC journey. Each campaign must have a landing page tailored to what the searcher is looking for. Do this, and you’ll increase Quality Score and conversions.
Your landing page must be simple and elegant. Think of your user as an 8-year-old boy and drive him to take actionable steps. Too much-cluttered landing pages will distract users from the actual actionable goal.
When building forms, use minimum fields as possible. You are likely to see less friction with fewer form fields. Especially when the audience is in the primary stage of knowing your brand, they won’t feel comfortable sharing too much information.
Add testimonials to entice the user to fill the landing page forms.
Analyze and Optimize
You have complete Adword setup and you have already launched your campaign. Now it’s time to analyze and optimize your efforts. No matter what precautions you take, you will always find a way to optimize your current marketing campaign. Integrate your Google Ads account with Google Analytics. This way you can measure PPC performance alongside other useful metrics.
Conclusion
B2B lead conversions are a bit hectic compared to B2C lead conversions. But nonetheless, it is about understanding your customer and creating an add which specifically solve their problem.
With Google making drastic changes to its platform, PPC will be a more desirable strategy for most B2B marketers. Hence get out there and make your mark.
