Time to read: 7 minutes
Paid advertising for B2B brands requires a different approach than traditional consumer campaigns. While ecommerce or local services often rely on targeting a single user looking for a product to buy instantly or someone to call to fix a leak, B2B campaigns target the managers, engineers, and executives looking for long-term partners.
Paid search for B2B is the fastest way to test new markets, launch specialized services, and get in front of buyers at the top of search results. Because B2B products and services are typically a higher sales value, it might just take one new customer to get a return on investment from your annual ad budget.
PPC for B2B Can Be Tough, But It Can Be Worth It
Here are a few industry statistics that show how important targeting is:
- 61% of B2B marketers use paid ads to distribute their content to target accounts (Content Marketing Institute)
- The average conversion rate for business landing pages is 2.35% (Writer’s Block)
- Paid traffic from high-intent searches converts 50% better than general organic search traffic (Moz)
- 90% of B2B buyers use search engines to research suppliers when they start looking (Kurve)
- 52% of B2B ad campaigns lose money by sending traffic to a generic homepage instead of a specific service page (Findstack)
- 77% of top-performing B2B teams use continuous A/B testing to lower their cost-per-lead (WifiTalents)
- Adding personalized details to a B2B landing page increases buyer intent by 5% (Rank Tracker)
- 89% of corporate buyers say that detailed case studies are the most trusted content on a supplier’s website (Testimonial Hero)
High-Level Advice for Beginners Managing B2B Paid Campaigns
We want to give some advice for those just starting or taking over their PPC marketing efforts. Below are a few things we’ve outlined that you should keep in mind,
But First, Start By Checking Your Lead Tracking
Tracking B2B leads is a little harder than simply measuring online sales. A successful campaign needs to connect ad accounts directly to the active sales pipeline.
To help, connect your ad accounts with your CRM (like HubSpot) to filter out spam and non-corporate email domains. By looking at which keywords actually lead to real quotes and revenue, it is much easier to ensure your budget is spent on the phrases that make money.
Here are a few quick links to guides on connecting your CRM to your ad accounts:
Don’t Expect Closed Deals Overnight
B2B sales don’t happen overnight. Your sales cycle is much longer than the average mom-and-pop shop down the street. The buying process often takes months because it involves multiple departments, engineering approvals, and strict budget reviews. Your paid strategy needs to account for this delay.
Campaigns should be structured to maintain consistent visibility throughout this extended evaluation process. Instead of expecting a sale on the very first click, use a strategy that captures the initial inquiry, provides the technical documents prospects need for internal reviews, and keeps the brand top-of-mind while the buying committee makes its final choice.
Build Landing Pages That Appeal to Corporate Buyers
Corporate buyers are often looking for solutions from office desks, manufacturing floors, or job sites. Landing pages need to load fast and show technical data clearly without making users struggle with complicated menus on mobile screens. Also, keep the language professional and not overtly salesy.
Layouts should be designed specifically for business decision-makers. That means removing distracting animations and hidden menus. Make sure capacity charts, industry certifications, and clear contact options are front and center so busy professionals can verify capabilities in seconds.
Keep a Close Eye on Underperforming Campaigns
If current campaigns are generating low-quality leads or wasting your budget, do routine audits of the account by looking into tackling things such as:
1. Separating Commercial Buyers from Everyday Users
Review your keyword lists to ensure ads aren’t bidding on terms used by retail shoppers or DIY-ers. Instead, try shifting your strategy away from broad terms and focus only on phrases that show a real intent to buy.
- Organize keywords into separate ad groups based on specific capabilities and services.
- Analyze regional search volume and cost-per-click trends to focus spend on the most profitable geographic areas.
- Check competitors to see which phrases they are buying to find market gaps they might be missing.
- Set up the right keyword match types to control exactly how the budget is used:
- Exact Match: Shows ads only when a user types in your exact service or capability.
- Phrase Match: Captures close variations that include important details, like locations or specific business requirements.
- Broad Match: Used rarely in B2B to prevent ads from showing for unrelated consumer searches.
- Build a strong negative keyword list from day one to block ads from showing for terms like “jobs,” “salary,” “training,” “guide,” “affordable,” and “free.”
2. Improving Quality Scores to Lower Cost-Per-Click
Google rewards highly relevant landing pages with better quality scores. By making sure ad copy matches the landing page content exactly, it is possible to improve ad positions while lowering the overall cost-per-click.
3. Choosing the Right Platforms for the Audience
Different ad networks work best at different stages of the sales process. Split budgets based on how the target audience researches vendors:
- LinkedIn: Great for reaching new prospects based on their specific job titles, engineering specialties, or company size.
- Facebook: Used primarily for remarketing to stay in front of people who have already visited the website.
- Instagram: Good for visual businesses to show off facility operations, custom manufacturing work, or completed projects to past site visitors.
4. Checking Landing Pages Against Buyer Questions
As we mentioned earlier, your landing pages need to speak to corporate folk who need to know information straight away, or they may click off. Your landing pages should answer these basic questions right away:
- Do you showcase different capacities, production limits, and industry certifications?
- Can a visitor easily fill out a form that gets sent to your sales team?
- Is the copy written in plain, professional industry language?
- Are there unnecessary elements on the page, like generic stock photos or pop-up boxes?
TLDR: Four Quick Changes You Can Make Today
- Create Service-Specific Landing Pages: Don’t send all ad traffic to one page. Build separate landing pages for individual services so the headline matches exactly what the user searched for.
- Highlight Production Capabilities: Update ad headlines and text to feature details buyers look for, such as lead times, quality standards, and minimum order requirements.
- Compress Technical Images: Slow landing pages hurt performance. Compress large equipment photos and blueprints into modern, efficient formats like WebP or PNG. For instructions, check out the guide on how to increase page load time.
- Remove Unused Tracking Scripts: Outdated marketing tags and old tracking codes slow down sites. Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to find and remove code that is no longer needed.
Let Our B2B PPC Agency Help You Lower Your CPC
As a full-service B2B digital marketing agency, we have worked hands-on with businesses across a wide variety of industries. Visit our dedicated PPC pages to learn more about how we can help your business:
