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When it comes to pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns, such as utilizing a Google AdWords campaign, no single B2B campaign is the same. While many campaigns share similar B2B PPC strategies and utilize the same important elements, there are some important elements to keep in mind for B2B campaigns.
B2B PPC campaigns utilize the same necessary elements:
- Campaigns – The highest level element within a paid search account.
- Ad Groups – The second-highest level element, for organizing keywords, text ads, landing pages.
- Keywords – Keywords to advertise for, adjust bids for, and block (negative keywords).
- Ad Copy – Headline and description text for each search ad.
- Landing Pages – The pages you are promoting in your ads.
- Buyer Persona – The ideal representation of customer/s your targeting.
However, the B2B marketing strategy involved for each of these elements can differ based on a variety of factors. Here’s some brief information regarding the PPC campaign elements above for B2B companies.
Campaigns
No two AdWords B2B PPC campaigns are the same. Search engine marketing and B2B PPC strategy can vary based on your targeted buyer personas, your budget, number of offerings, number of ads to run, landing page capabilities, use of call-tracking, resources for ad creation, management, analysis, and more. At the campaign level, larger B2B companies may want to split up efforts into multiple campaigns and test different campaign types, such as a Google AdWords search network campaign, display network campaign, shopping campaign, etc. Each AdWords campaign has its own budget and settings that determine where your ads appear. You may want to target completely different locations in separate campaigns as well. Additionally, you’ll be able to create campaign groups, see a quick campaign-level overview of clicks, impressions, cost-per-click performance, and other PPC metrics.
Ad Groups
Each of your AdWords B2B campaigns is made up of one or more ad groups. Ad groups are a great way for you to organize your ads by a common theme. For example, many campaigns will organize product or service types into separate ad groups. Planned ad group organization allows you to make quicker observations between performing and non-performing ad groups, and make more efficient ad and keyword copy or bid adjustments. Further, well-organized ad groups that are aligned with your landing pages will improve your quality score – an estimate Google AdWords uses to estimate the quality of your ads, keywords, and landing pages. Higher quality ads, ad groups, and landing pages can lead to lower prices, cost-per-click, and better ad positions.
Keywords
It may take some initial budget and time to test and refine keyword sets for effective B2B PPC advertising. Before confirming keywords to target, research is critical. You’ll want to best align and shape your ads, keywords targeted, and landing page copy in ways that are approachable and understanding to your buyer persona/s. Also, many campaigns ignore some wonderful keyword features to fine-tune targeting and reduce wasteful budget spend, such as implementing the use of strategic negative keywords. These are keywords that you’d rather not have your ad/s appear for and are out of context and irrelevant compared to the keyword phrases your buyer persona/s are likely searching for.
Ad Copy
Compelling and targeted text ads are crucial to optimizing your AdWords PPC campaign for B2B lead generation. Ad copy is an important place for continual analysis, slight adjustments, and split testing. Ad copy should be aligned with the respective landing page content that is clicked into by a potential lead. Keywords you’ve selected to promote should match the context of the ads within its respective ad group. This helps to achieve and sustain a strong AdWords quality score and avoid wasteful budget spend.
Buyer Persona
Having a solid understanding of your buyer persona/s before investing heavily in AdWords B2B PPC advertising is a must. Your company may have one or several buyer personas, depending on the size of your company, different offerings, verticals, etc. Market research and real feedback and user data, including demographics, behavior patterns, motivations, and goals will help you hone in on better understanding your buyer personas and set up an optimized PPC campaign from the get-go.
Landing Pages
When a potential B2B customer discovers one of your AdWords PPC ads in Google and clicks through, he or she is probably hoping to experience highly relevant and helpful content that’s congruent with the ad’s message and copy. Many times, this is not the case, and potential customers are lost while cost-per-click and campaign spending go up due to a weak quality score and high bounce rate. Landing pages are just as important to maintain, monitor, and enhance over time as internal Google AdWords ad, keyword, location, and bidding settings are.
Quality over Quantity
In the world of B2B PPC advertising and Google AdWords for B2B, quality wins out over quantity. Scaling should be performed carefully to keep conversion rates high, relevant clicks up, a low CPC, and a strong quality score. Keep an eye on competing ads and landing pages too. These are a great inspiration for improving your ad and landing page experiences for your buyer personas.
Looking for a digital advertising partner that specializes in search engine marketing? Contact us at HONE Digital Marketing today for more information and a free assessment.