If run haphazardly, a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign can easily eat through its budget with little return on investment (ROI). To generate sales and conversions, a B2B PPC campaign requires frequent performance review and campaign maintenance.
A PPC account manager, whether creating the B2B PPC strategy from the start or inheriting the campaign later on, needs to be aware of the features to review and optimize for optimal campaign performance. The account manager should consistently check the account to ensure the campaign, ad groups, and ads are running smoothly and the budget is being used efficiently.
Account and campaign reviews can be conducted periodically as needed, depending on overall performance, and quick reviews should be conducted in between these in-depth reviews.
PPC accounts are organized into campaigns. It is important to spend time during the in-depth review looking over the surface of your account to take inventory of your currently running campaigns to check:
Within a B2B PPC paid search strategy, an account that is organized into manageable campaigns and ad groups can more efficiently target customers using keywords or another targeting method, if needed.
Depending on when the account was created, the ads may be outdated and may not be taking full advantage of the variety of ad types or may not be using all available features of the chosen ad type. PPC campaigns now offer a variety of ad campaign types to meet the needs of individual businesses.
For example, Google Ads now offers seven types of ad campaigns, including the following four types of ads:
For more information on Google campaign types, click here. If you’ve already decided on the campaign ad type, be sure to review any currently running ads to make sure all ad features are being utilized.
One of the most used campaign types in B2B PPC is search campaigns, but another campaign ad type or a combination of campaign ad types may be better suited to your campaign goals and objectives.
Search campaigns utilize keywords to trigger ads to display during user searches. Choosing and evaluating keywords based on their performances ensures that you are targeting the best possible search terms for B2B PPC lead generation:
PPC accounts can show which terms that users searched for that lead to your ad being shown to them. Reviewing this list can help you determine which keywords should be added or which negative words should be utilized to exclude certain terms from triggering your ads. Negative keywords allow you to exclude terms or phrases to better focus and target ads for the right users.
There are many factors involved in running a successful B2B PPC paid search strategy, but one of the most important factors are the ads themselves:
One of the premier ways of creating an eye-catching ad is to create an eye-catching headline. Headlines are in larger text than the ad description and will be read by searchers first so be sure to efficiently utilize all available characters, clearly state what the ad is for, and include the unique value propositions that your company offers to its customers.
Within the ad, use simple sentences that are grammatically correct, have no spelling errors, and include keywords. The key to a high-quality ad is to focus on either the issues that your prospective customers are currently facing or the benefits that your products and services will bring.
The ad itself should include a clear call-to-action as to what users will be doing after they click on the ad, whether they will be learning more about a product or service or if they will be contacting the experts of your business.
Google Ads allows the display links, or the links that are shown in the ad, to be customized to fit your ad. These display ads should include a keyword from the ad group.
For more tips on creating B2B PPC high-quality ads, check out these tips.
Ad extensions provide additional content to your ads, such as a phone number or more website links to useful pages, and when used well can increase the click-through rate of your ads. Text ads that utilize ad extensions give ads greater visibility and prominence within search results with no added cost.
For more information on Google’s available ad extensions, click here.
Landing pages are the pages that your ads link to and they must relate to their respective ads as well as the keywords to prevent users from bouncing from the landing page after clicking:
Search engine marketing should be paired with other online marketing initiatives, including search engine optimization (SEO), for more effective B2B PPC lead generation and long-term business relationships.
Even if you’ve nailed each of the PPC components above on the head, your budget still determines the success of your campaign and how great the return on your investment is. The Google Bid Simulator is a great tool for checking if you’re assigning the right amount of money to each keyword.
A PPC campaign budget does not need to be divided evenly, ad groups that you would like to appear for more users can be set up with a higher budget. Adjust your budget after answering these questions:
Close monitoring and deep-diving into data are essential for making smart decisions in PPC optimization efforts.
Just as ad types or recommendations are not a one size fits all approach, different targeting options work best for different campaigns, and even different ad groups. Different targeting, such as days of the week or time of day may improve ad spend allocation.
Ads automatically run all day throughout the week. Targeting during certain times, such as during business hours during weekdays, may be a more effective targeting strategy for B2B PPC campaigns. Utilize data to determine when ads are not receiving many clicks or when users are most likely to bounce, then decide if excluding those times would be beneficial for your PPC budget.
There is no universal solution when it comes to optimizing a PPC campaign, as certain ad types and targeting options that work for some do not work for all. Testing various ad structures and content, then tracking analytics is one of the best ways to determine the right PPC fit for your company and industry.
Analytics are an essential way to monitor PPC performance and testing for optimization. For some, either Google Ads or Bing Ads may be the right pay-per-click option while for others it may be utilizing both.
If you need assistance with search engine marketing and optimizing your B2B PPC strategy, visit our search engine marketing guide or contact SVM.