Does PPC B2B Lead Generation Actually Work?

Paid advertising has continued to evolve, and the effectiveness of this strategy often wanes for marketing professionals. However, your approach to PPC could be hindering your results/conversions, so optimizing your strategy is the biggest hurdle.

PPC campaigns can (and should) integrate seamlessly with other marketing efforts, such as content marketing and social media initiatives. By aligning strategies, businesses can nurture leads across touchpoints while reinforcing brand messaging. For example, a targeted PPC ad can drive potential clients to a whitepaper or case study, delivering valuable insights and capturing their contact information for follow-up.

Setting Up Your B2B PPC Campaign

Launching a successful PPC campaign requires careful planning and execution. From defining campaign objectives to selecting the appropriate tools, each aspect contributes to the overall effectiveness of the campaign. Businesses must first determine what they aim to achieve, whether it's increasing brand awareness, generating leads, or boosting sales.

Following a structured approach can significantly enhance a campaign's chances of success. Here are some best practices for setting up your PPC campaign.

Select the Right Channel

This goes for any marketing strategy, but choosing the right paid advertising channel is the first step to making sure that you’re set up for success. We often find that Google and LinkedIn advertising are the best channels for B2B brands. The best thing you can do is put your money where you know you’ll reach the majority of your target audience.

Create Effective Ad Copy

The ad copy's effectiveness plays a significant role in attracting clicks. It should be concise yet compelling, clearly stating the value proposition and including a strong call to action. For instance, an ad that mentions a case study or offers a free consultation can pique the interest of potential clients.

Additionally, A/B testing different versions of ad copy can provide insights into what resonates best with your audience. By testing headlines, descriptions, and CTAs, brands can refine their messaging and improve overall campaign performance. It's also beneficial to incorporate emotional triggers and urgency in your copy, which can motivate potential clients to act quickly, especially in a competitive B2B landscape.

For Google ads, there are strict character limits that you have to keep in mind when you’re writing your ad copy. This is why it’s vital to communicate your value proposition concisely.

Landing Page Optimization

Once potential leads click on an ad, they should be directed to a landing page that continues the conversation. This page must be optimized for user experience and conversion. Key elements include clear messaging that aligns with the ad, intuitive navigation, fast loading speeds, and responsive design for mobile users.

Your landing page is a great opportunity to incorporate testimonials, case studies, and relevant content that can bolster credibility and encourage conversions.

Google Ads

For many paid advertising channels the steps are pretty similar for setting up an effective campaign. To get started on the right foot, you need to:

Choose the Right Keywords

Consider keyword selection the foundation for your PPC campaign. B2B organizations need to identify keywords that not only attract potential leads but also reflect their business's unique selling points. Conducting thorough keyword research using tools like Google Keyword Planner and SEMrush can help marketers discover high-volume, low-competition keywords that are more likely to convert.

In addition, consider long-tail keywords that capture specific searches. These tend to have less competition and can yield better conversion rates. Don’t forget to regularly review and update your keyword strategy based on performance metrics. Analyzing competitor keywords can also provide valuable insights into market trends and help identify gaps in your own strategy, allowing you to stay ahead of the competition.

Converting clicks into meaningful conversions can be particularly challenging, especially in niche markets. The key lies in selecting highly targeted keywords that align with your audience’s specific search intent and displaying your ads in front of the right decision-makers at the right time. When done correctly, you can show up in the top paid search results for high-value keywords. In fact, the top three paid ads on a search results page receive 46% of the clicks.

Allocate Budget

Determine how much you’re willing to spend on your ads. In general, a common rule for B2B businesses is to spend between 2-5% of their revenue on marketing. So a portion of that should go towards paid channels. 

That’s why evaluating your target keywords is vital, as this can give you a good idea of how much you should expect to spend for your particular campaign. Explore what terms your competitors are investing in and weigh whether it’s worth it to compete with them to rank for those keywords. 

Establish Goals

What are you looking to achieve through your paid campaigns? If you’re in B2B, lead generation is your top priority, so pay attention to these KPIs:

Conversions: This measures the number of times users have performed an action on your ad. This could be downloading an eBook you’ve advertised, signing up for your newsletter, etc. Basically, any valuable activity on your website can be monitored via conversion tracking. Google provides some useful conversion tracking documentation on how to set this up.

Cost-Per-Click (CPC): As the name suggests, Cost-Per-Click is the amount of your budget that’s being spent every time a user clicks on your ad. Expensive keywords are typically ones that have a high search volume and lots of competition. While it seems advantageous to go after these terms, you have to strike a balance between affordable, lower-volume keywords and quality terms that you know your audience is searching for.

Click-Through-Rate (CTR): This KPI measures how often a user clicks on your ad when it’s displayed. If you notice a low CTR, it could be a telltale sign that you need to rework your ad. To do this, reevaluate your target keywords, ad copy, and value proposition for the content.

Impressions: This measures how often your ad appears on users’ search engines. This isn’t as lead-gen focused, but it’s still a good KPI to keep an eye on to measure your ad’s reach and visibility.

LinkedIn Ads

While Google comes with a lot of nuance, LinkedIn ads focus heavily on visual elements for their advertisements. Their ad types also come with their own character limits, and there are a few you can choose from including:

Sponsored Content

These ads are the most common, and you’ll often find them in your main LinkedIn feed sprinkled throughout organic posts. The way to differentiate them is the “Sponsored” indicator at the top of the paid post. 

Sponsored content can take the form of videos, single images, carousel images, and more. You can sponsor any post that’s on your page so long as you’re either a Content Admin or a Super Admin. For this, you’ll want to select the most high-value content that you want to boost to spread the post’s reach. 

You can also create ads directly in LinkedIn’s Campaign Manager where you can customize the specific audience you want to target. Feel free to experiment with this channel to discover what works for your business and what audience will get the most value from your services.

Dynamic Ads

This type of LinkedIn ad will follow the user down the page while they scroll, giving your content even more screen time. However, they’re less flexible since there’s not much room for loads of copy, so you’ll want to be concise with your messaging. Here’s an example from LinkedIn’s marketing documentation:

Similar to Google, you’ll want to determine your goals but you’ll want to focus heavily on what audience/persona you’ll gain the most conversions from instead of honing in on target keywords.

Measuring Your Campaign’s Success

To determine whether a PPC campaign is successful, businesses must measure key performance indicators (KPIs). Understanding metrics associated with lead generation will provide insights necessary for continuous improvement and optimization. By establishing clear objectives at the outset, companies can align their PPC strategies with broader business goals, ensuring that every click contributes meaningfully to their bottom line.

Understanding Conversion Rates

Conversion rates indicate how effectively a campaign turns visitors into leads or customers. A high conversion rate often signifies effective targeting, compelling ad copy, and persuasive landing pages. However, you want to track whether you’re collecting valuable conversions that turn into actual customers. 

Tracking ROI for PPC Campaigns

To calculate ROI, businesses need to determine the revenue generated from the campaign relative to the total costs incurred. This calculation not only highlights financial performance but also assists in budget allocation for future campaigns. Additionally, understanding the lifetime value (LTV) of a customer can provide a more comprehensive picture of ROI, as it accounts for the long-term revenue generated from a single customer relationship.

B2B PPC Strategies

As businesses become more adept at PPC, exploring advanced strategies can further enhance performance. These techniques often require a deeper understanding of the market and user behavior but can yield powerful results.

Remarketing Techniques

Remarketing allows businesses to reach users who have previously interacted with their website or ads. This strategy keeps the brand top-of-mind and can significantly increase conversion rates, as these users have already shown interest in the products or services offered. By creating tailored ads specifically for these audiences, businesses can deliver personalized messages that resonate.

Organizations can deliver timely messages that encourage users to return and complete their purchases by tracking user behavior. For instance, if a potential customer visits a product page but does not make a purchase, a follow-up ad featuring that specific product can serve as a gentle reminder, enticing them to reconsider their decision.

Evaluate Negative Keywords

Specifically for Google Ads, negative keywords are crucial for refining audience targeting and ensuring ads do not appear in irrelevant searches. Failing to include negative keywords can lead to wasted resources spent on clicks that are unlikely to convert.

Regularly auditing and updating the list of negative keywords based on performance data allows you to streamline campaigns further, focusing only on prospects that fit their target audience. Additionally, leveraging tools that provide insights into search queries can help identify new negative keywords that should be added, helping you make sure that ad spend is not wasted on irrelevant traffic. This proactive approach not only enhances the efficiency of the campaign but also improves overall ROI, as every click is more likely to come from a genuinely interested prospect.

Our Take on PPC for B2B

So to address the question for this article, “Does PPC for B2B actually work”, the answer is yes, when it’s done right. Consider your goals around paid advertising and whether your approach needs some refinement. 

Paid advertising can often take a turn, draining your wallet if you’re not careful. Keep a close eye on your performance and adjust whenever necessary to boost the effectiveness of the content you’re investing in.