So you’ve finally decided to implement a B2B PPC campaign.

In today’s world, you shouldn’t have any doubts about the potential power of initiating a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign. The investment is a worthwhile one and although the competition for keywords is fierce, that reason in itself should be why you should start thinking about starting a PPC campaign. Ads are starting to take an increasing amount of valuable real estate space in google search results. Case in point, if I do a quick search for ‘bank account’ in Google, here is what I see right off the get-go:

Before even reaching the organic results, I’m greeted with three enticing ads. For most keywords, this will now be the case further highlighting the importance of Adwords marketing. Now here at Goose Digital, we specialize in digital marketing services to B2B clients, and there is no doubt that we are seeing an increasing amount of our clients investing in AdWords. In fact, a PPC campaign is one of the faster & efficient ways for B2B companies to capture the right leads and generate brand awareness. The best part? Your audience is looking for you, as opposed to the other way around. Here are our the 5 most important B2B PPC factors to keep in mind.

  1. Think from Your Customer’s Point of View

    Regardless of what industry or vertical you’re in, the process of creating a compelling ad will start with putting yourselves in the shoes of your customer. What are some of the main questions, issues, or inquiries your potential prospect and target market are searching for? From a B2B perspective, who are the type of people you should be targeting? Whether it be a Human Resources Director or CTO, be sure your audience aligns with your offerings and have your ad copies and landing pages reflect this. Google AdWords will certainly reward you with a high quality score and ad position without the need to bid more if you follow this structure. If you need some inspiration, it doesn’t hurt to talk to your current customers and ask them what they particularly like about your product, and use the info conveyed to your advantage before you even start your PPC campaign.

  2. Be Patient with Your Audience in B2B

    This is probably one of the bigger differentiators between B2B & B2C marketing. B2B buyers do a lot more comparison shopping and you can expect them to look through at least three or four offerings, which means that they’ll also be scouting your competitor’s services. When you’re talking about purchasing expensive licenses of software, dealing with long-term contracts or any other typical B2B service, companies will want to take their time gaining a better sense of what fits their needs. Obviously, this differs vastly with the B2C market, where consumers take a lot less time making a purchasing decision, as the sales cycle is much shorter. With that in mind, it is critical to generate the right kind of awareness with your ads and landing pages, as well as including relevant information about your company. Chances are your target market isn’t looking to buy right away- so the most important part in the beginning is to generate awareness when trying to acquire the right leads. This can be achieved in multiple ways such as offering free demos, or having case studies and whitepapers in hand with the appropriate landing pages set up.

  3. Do Your Research!

    With all due respect to B2C PPC campaigns, compiling the initial research for B2B customers takes a lot more time mainly due to the fact that B2B products in general are a lot more complex and specific in nature. Understanding the market is critical to your success in running a B2B PPC campaign. A common error we see is the fact that many advertisers miss out on the opportunity to bid on keywords that relate to their product. For example, lets take a look at the keyword ‘batch queuing system’.By doing some research, we’ve learned that batch queuing systems are also known as job schedulers. If you’re client had told you that they only provide batch queuing systems, you would have missed out on an opportunity setting up a dedicated ad group and ad copy for job scheduler type keywords. Of course, you will want to confirm with your client that these terms are synonymous with each other. The same will also apply to two keywords that are seemingly the same and show up in your research, but one keyword may have nothing to do with your customer. In that case, be sure to set up negative keywords so you’re not wastefully spending money on queries you shouldn’t be bidding on. You can check Analytics to see what queries are bringing users to your website, and be sure to adjust your AdWords keyword strategy where necessary.

  4. Relevant Ad Copies Will Go a Long Way

    We touched on ad copy briefly, but we cannot emphasize how important crafting a proper ad is when it comes to people clicking through, also known as your click-through-rate (CTR). Similarly to B2C campaigns, your ads should feature some type of call-to-action. Your call-to-action (CTA) in the B2B realm will differ from your typical B2C CTA’s, due to the differing sales cycles. B2B clients need a lot of information when factoring in a purchase, so marketing material such as case studies or white papers come in handy. As mentioned earlier, B2B buyers initially start off in the research stage and are most likely not in ‘ready to buy mode’ even if they wanted to (due to company approval and other related circumstances). Hence, this is where your case studies and white papers take play in igniting your buyers interest so they can enter your sales funnel. With that in mind, identify who your typical buyer is and write ad copy that is directly targeted towards these groups. It’s also extremely important to constantly test your ads and try out different ad rotations to see which combination can generate the higher number of conversions. Some quick tips that we have noticed across all effective ad copies include:

    -Sitelink & Ad Extensions:
    This is your chance to really influence whether or not someone will click on your ad. By adding additional valuable information, your ads will gain more prominence and ultimately give you more clicks and user interactions. Add some credibility to your company by adding ‘award-winning’ or ‘#1 provider’ type keywords. In addition, you can add direct contact information, links to your social media accounts, and more. Google does a very nice job summarizing the benefits of ad extensions.
    -Inclusion of Ready to Buy Keywords: Furthermore, if your company is known to offer special financing terms or feature quicker than usual quoting processes, be sure to include this in your description lines. Basically, anything that gives you a competitive advantage should be in your ad copy.
    -Answer Customer Pain Points: Need we say more? Your ads should provide a clear message and answer how you can provide the solution your customer needs.

  5. Analyzing Your Results

    After initiating your campaign, figure out which content, ads, ad groups & keywords have led to the greatest number of interactions and conversions. Determine how many people clicked on a certain ad, downloaded marketing material, or requested a demo. Whatever the case may be, pick and choose what to keep and remove those that are under-performing. Ultimately, PPC campaigns should always be analyzed and tweaked to deliver the best possible ROI. As an example, you may choose to consider remarketing to potential prospects who have visited your landing page previously. Regardless, it’s always important to be looking to adapt, especially in today’s information age.

Want to learn more about PPC and how it can help you drive more leads and revenue? Contact us today! Be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn as well. Happy PPC’ing!