Today's post is an excerpt from The MFS Guide to B2B PPC - A Strategic Approach to B2B PPC.
Before we get into the detail of setting up your PPC campaigns, it is worth outlining some B2B PPC best practices that you should keep in mind.
B2B PPC Best Practices
1. Every Day is a Learning Opportunity
We mentioned the “win or learn” mantra earlier on in this guide and it will be extremely relevant throughout your PPC journey. It is unlikely that every PPC campaign you run will be a rip-roaring success, but every campaign will present invaluable learning moments. Take the time to assess each campaign or analyze active campaigns periodically from a strategic standpoint and consider what insights you can glean. Consider what you are doing well in PPC, what you could do better, and what you would like to change for your next campaign. Additionally, you should consider how your PPC program aligns with your overall company direction and do so on an ongoing basis. Ask yourself if there is anything you have learned from your PPC campaigns that could be used to inform or update your broader marketing strategy.2. Always be Testing
One of the most important aspects of B2B PPC is testing. All the main digital platforms come with A/B testing functionality which you can use to increase the effectiveness of your ads on an ongoing basis. You can run tests on different aspects of your ads like headlines, copy, image, and CTAs to improve key metrics like cost per click (CPC), cost per lead, etc. These tests are the bread and butter of the modern PPC pro.3. Think About Keyword Intent
As you weigh up the keywords you want to target, you need to consider the intent behind each keyword search. Think about why someone might type a particular keyword or phrase into google and what they would most likely be looking to achieve. Some search terms will come with a high volume and will quickly eat through a Google Ads budget. If the intent of the user is informational or unrelated to your product, this ad would be a total waste of expenditure.Some of the keywords with the highest level of user intent will be long tail keywords - those longer searches that will be lower in volume but higher in relevance to your product or service. There will be an element of intuition in figuring out user intent - it is not an exact science. There are some tools however that you can use to help you analyze keyword search intent. SEO tools like Semrush come with keyword analysis features that categorize keywords into one of four keyword types namely commercial, informational, transactional, and navigational. Some other clues on user search intent can be found on Google’s Keyword Planner - where you can see the competition and average CPC associated with a keyword.
Additionally, your campaign data will give you valuable insights into user intent - a high number of clicks that eat up budget but don’t turn into leads or opportunities is a telltale sign that keyword search intent is unrelated to your product.
4. Fine-Tune Your Audience Targeting
While the targeting options vary on each digital platform, they are all relatively in-depth and will give you ample opportunity to fine-tune your audience selection. Taking what you know about your ideal customer and persona as your starting point, you can then build out the targeting criteria for your ads. Most platforms will also give you the option to include negative keywords so you can ensure valuable budget is not being wasted on ads that are irrelevant to the user. Similarly, you will be able to review your analytics to see that your ads are only being shown to the right audience. LinkedIn ads, for instance, will give you an overview of the job titles that are clicking your ads. If there are job titles in there you do not want to target, then you can update your negative filtering to make sure they are excluded.5. Incorporate Some Social Proof
Marketing tactics might come and go, but social proof remains all powerful. If you can share some relevant customer case studies or quotes in your ads, they can be a powerful way to pique the prospective buyer’s interest. Nobody wants to lose ground to competitors and if a target company finds out that a competitor of theirs is benefiting from your product, they may well want to learn a bit more about your company.6. Add Some Data Points
Again, if there are some relevant data points or statistics you can share, that can be a quick way to grab a prospect’s attention. Remember, with PPC, you will only have a headline and a small amount of text to get the prospect’s attention. If there is a particularly interesting data point that you have on hand, it is well worth a shot including it in some of your PPC ads.7. Speak Your Buyer's Language
Following on from our previous point about catching your prospect’s attention - it is important to use tailored language that is specific to your target buyer. With PPC, the opportunity window is relatively small - so it needs to be maximized. Test out various headlines and ad copy to see what resonates and remember to tailor your message to the target buyer persona you have selected in the ad set up.8. Use a Clear CTA
Think about what you are trying to achieve with each of your ads and add a clear CTA. You can test various elements of your CTA too to improve the effectiveness of your ad - trying out different button colors and CTA text.9. Select Your PPC Platform Wisely
PPC continues to expand and there are many platforms for B2B companies to choose from. Deciding which platform or platforms to target is a considerable task in itself and you should take the time to try and learn which platforms your target buyers use. Google - given its ubiquity - is a relatively safe bet. In a B2B context, LinkedIn is a good option - you can literally see if your target buyers have a presence on the platform. Elsewhere, Reddit continues to give more prominence to ads and has seen ad revenue soar. Depending on the nature of your product, other social media sites like X, Instagram, Facebook, Tik Tok, Snapchat, and others have advanced advertising capabilities and may be suitable for your situation.10. Plot Your Buyer's PPC Journey
We hear a lot of talk about the famous buyer’s journey today, but in this instance we are only concerned with the buyer’s PPC journey. Our advice here is not to run ads in isolation. Instead, you should plot out the exact route you see your buyer taking. Do you want to bring the prospect to your website to help build awareness of your product, or do you want to turn the prospect into a lead and get them on a sales call? You may well have different journeys in mind for different ads, but it is important you work out exactly what you want to achieve with each ad and how you plan on achieving it.11. Identify the Key Metrics
PPC is an area within which you can quickly get lost in a sea of data. Digital advertising platforms today all come with significantly detailed analytics and you will be able to track important metrics such as conversion rate, cost per click, click through rate, and more. But, the ultimate metric is revenue and you will need to go beyond the platform-specific metrics and assess your own sales data to really understand the success of your PPC program. Some of the key metrics to focus on here will be PPC ROI (the return on investment of your PPC program) and PPC cost per acquisition (what it costs to acquire a customer via PPC). Metrics such as clicks, impressions, etc. will give you some visibility into the early stages of the buyer’s PPC journey, but unless you can link these to successful closed won opportunities, they will be of little interest to anyone on the executive team.This post is an excerpt from the MFS Guide to B2B PPC: A Strategic Approach to B2B PPC. If you would like to read more you can access the guide in full here. If you have a marketing challenge you are looking for support with, feel free to reach out today - we’d love to talk with you about what you’re trying to achieve with your B2B marketing and how we might be able to help.