The Ultimate Guide to Paid Marketing for B2B

Paid marketing is an effective way of promoting a business, and the various mediums for paid B2B marketing are Google Marketing, Bing Ads, Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads, etc. 

For enterprise B2B companies, paid social and pay-per-click advertising can be challenging. The unfortunate reality is that the buyer journey for these businesses is long, with multiple stakeholders at different points in the process. 

It’s harder to promote B2B than B2C businesses with paid advertising because there needs to be a rock-solid strategy to reap significant results from your ad spend.

Paid B2B marketing strategies have an essential role in this process: here are some tips on implementing them when used by enterprise B2B companies.

Use Display Advertising to Boost Brand Awareness

Before someone can start considering your services, they need to know you. The first step in any decision-making process is finding the supplier – you can do this by utilizing Google’s Display Network and company advertisements in industry publications. 

Source

This type of digital marketing campaign doesn’t aim at driving leads. Still, you must keep in mind that these campaigns don’t generate direct results such as lead generation, mostly not in the short term if tangible results matter most for other business stakeholders (for example, shareholders).

This campaign aims to get your company’s name in front of as many people as possible. There are some ways you can target the ads, and we would usually recommend using keywords or an affinity audience. 

Use Google Text Ads to Target Transactional Keywords

Google text ads are the most common form of paid media campaigns for B2B marketers, but they are also one of the most misinterpreted. 

Source

Transactional keywords, or keywords as they are commonly known, refer to phrases that suggest a level of intent to purchase- words like “solutions,” “software,” and “business” can often be seen at the end. 

For example, when someone searches for marketing software (marketing), their intention is different than if they were searching google on how to do marketing (PPC).

Transactional search phrases have a higher level of intent, so they are the target for text advertisements on places such as Google. Rather than being too broad with their keyword targeting, many companies mistake spending more budget on keywords that attract few search results. 

However, as long as you don’t spend all your budget on these words without seeing any returns, it won’t matter. You can also use these AI content generators to create compelling ad copies.

Use Organic Keyword Research

The information-focused content on your website should address the broader search terms that are not targeted by your text ads. These searches require a more informative approach than an interactive one, so educating them on blog posts or another form of content is best.

You could also target these broader keywords with an awareness campaign, as I mentioned at the beginning of this article. 

Still, unless you provide educational materials in your ad, it is always better to approach those keywords from an SEO angle rather than trying to advertise for them explicitly.

Engage in Re-Marketing

Paid ads can still help increase visibility. Many businesses put pay-per-click ads on the first page of search results to target buyers searching for relevant terms. 

For the right price, you can place an ad for your business – a pay-per-click ad – at the top of a search results page, and it will only cost you more money if you don’t place it correctly. 

Regarding advertising, 98% of visitors don’t convert on just one website, so how else would anyone reach these people? The best way is through remarketing advertisements.

Source

Remarketing ads are digital marketing advertisements that appear specifically for prospects who have already visited your website. They show up on the internet as candidates move around and experience other websites so that they can be top-of-mind.

With all of the data available about customer demographics and browsing habits, these personalized messages allow you to create a hyper-personalized ad experience for every person – with or without an initial visit to your site. 

Just make sure that post-click experiences (the landing page) deliver a message too.

Include Video Marketing in Your Strategy

Video has become a non-negotiable part of B2B marketing. More and more companies are waking up to the value of video in their campaigns. Videos help you engage prospects and boost lead generation. 

Source

Let’s look at the most impactful video formats that you could use within a new or existing B2B marketing campaign.

1. Brand Videos – These videos are a subtle way of letting your customers know who you are and what you have to offer. They’re an excellent alternative to formal, overly produced sales pitches. Make sure your personality and company message shine through when creating the video. It would aid if you thought about what makes your company more valuable than your competitors.
2. Tutorial Videos – A tutorial video is a self-explanatory video that teaches the user something new. Tutorial videos, in a nutshell, take the user through step-by-step instructions on how to complete a specific task.
3. Testimonial Videos – Testimonial videos are a powerful way to build customer trust. It’s worth the time to collaborate with clients to create original and engaging testimonial videos.
4. Case Study Videos – Case study videos are a more comprehensive account of your work successes than testimonial videos. They focus on how you improved your client’s business performance and included ROI and conversion rates.

Videos don’t need to be complex for B2B prospects. Connecting with them and demonstrating your value will serve you well.

Concentrate on the overall ROI

Don’t worry about how many of your ads are getting impressions or the cost per click. If you have set up your B2B marketing campaigns rightly, you should measure overall investment instead of the value of leads. 

You may spend $6,000 on one lead worth $50k or even $12k on one lead worth over a million dollars. These can be extreme examples, but what matters when looking at your long-term paid B2B situation measures how much money you invest versus how valuable leads come out and assess.

Increasing your overall return on investment will require you to make efforts and modifications in various areas. Doing this requires being brave with your B2B marketing strategies and abandoning established tactics for newer ones. It’ll also need long-term initiatives. 

However, all these changes should be worth the time invested if you have the right plan to understand what customers want and effective communication. They are statistics to help track any progress made towards ROI improvement.

Adopt a Customer-Centric Strategy

B2B companies need to adopt a customer-centric strategy to excel in B2B marketing.

Source

A customer-centric company needs to have more than just good customer service. It should focus on providing positive experiences before and after the sale to drive repeat business, increase loyalty and improve growth.

When you give your customers the focus they deserve and combine this with Customer Relationship Management with the help of CRM tools, you have the key to a wealth of data- giving you an all-encompassing view of each customer. You can then use this information to provide them with more tailored experiences.

To build a customer-centric strategy for B2B marketing, a B2B company should take these actions:

• Operationalize customer empathy
• Hire for customer success
• Democratize customer data
• Facilitate direct interaction with customers
• Connect company culture to customer outcomes
• Tie compensation to the customer

To achieve customer-centric visions, companies need to have a customer-focused culture.

Wrapping Up

The buyer journey for a B2B company is often long. It can take a little bit to see a return on your paid campaigns, but you’ll likely cover any lost revenue quickly once you do B2B marketing. 

It will help if you consider a couple of things when working on your paid search for a B2B marketing campaign. You need to ask yourself about the customer problems and then choose keywords that match those. 

Consider video marketing to make sure many people are looking at your ad, engage in re-marketing, focus on overall ROI, and adopt a customer-centric strategy correctly.