Every B2B company should be actively investing in PPC lead generation.
While there’s a lot to be said for organic traffic and building a following on social media, PPC often offers the best possible ROI. If nothing else, it’s a great way to generate leads while you’re working on that social media following and impressive Google ranking.
Of course, even if you’ve already been investing in PPC, there’s always something more you can do.
3 Ways to Improve Your B2B Company’s PPC Lead Generation
It’s tempting to rest on your laurels when your PPC lead generation strategy is returning impressive results, but if you implement the three tips below, you may be surprised by how much better you’ll do in a very short period of time.
1. Try LinkedIn Ads
Despite the fact that LinkedIn is an absolutely essential social media channel for B2B companies, in the past, its advertising platform left a lot to be desired. While B2B marketers would use LinkedIn to share posts and build their network, they would generally take their budgets to Google Ads.
LinkedIn used to lack custom audiences, had almost no metrics whatsoever, and didn’t offer goal-based pricing. Twitter and Facebook’s advertising platforms have offered these for years.
And, on top of all that, LinkedIn ads used to cost a small fortune.
Fortunately, LinkedIn Ads have improved a lot over the last year. Now, they do feature account-, web-, and contact-targeting, and sponsored InMail campaigns.
Of course, these features are made all the better by the fact that LinkedIn is a social media platform dedicated solely to business. No matter what industry you’re in, your leads are most likely on LinkedIn.
So, if your PPC lead generation budget isn’t producing the ROI you want, one easy solution may be simply reallocating some of your funds to the new paid advertising powerhouse that is LinkedIn.
2. Focus Your Ads on Securing Email Addresses
B2B and B2C ads don’t work the same way.
If your company was B2C, you could probably just run paid ads right to your product, service, or landing page. In fact, you may not even need to invest in a PPC lead generation strategy. Your buying cycle would be so short that you could simply sell someone right from an ad.
This is almost never going to work in B2B. For one thing, B2B buying cycles have actually increased in length over the past five years. Then, there’s the fact that the average B2B company has to convince 6.8 decision-makers before they can close a sale.
All that is to say that if you’re trying to close deals with a PPC ad, you’re probably not seeing success. Instead, use those ads to secure leads’ email addresses. Bring them to a page where they can download the advertised lead magnet in exchange for their email address, and then use that address to continue your marketing efforts.
3. Pay Attention to Your Most Successful Times
There is no shortage of metrics you can monitor in order to improve the success of your B2B company’s PPC ads.
Unfortunately, most marketers miss one of the most important, especially in the world of B2B: the time-parameters when your ads will be displayed.
In Google Ads, this is known as “ad scheduling.” Facebook offers scheduling-by-time, too. Unfortunately, as far as LinkedIn has come, it doesn’t offer time-specific parameters for ads, but hopefully, that will change soon.
The reason this metric matters so much is that your prospects are probably most susceptible to your ads’ offers during certain times of the day. For many of you, this will mean 9-5, Monday through Friday, when they’re at work. During their personal lives, they might not care as much.
On the other hand, your market may be so busy that the only time they can ever consider their options is when things slow down outside of normal business hours.
More likely than not, you’ll find that your openings are even more specific. For example, Mondays and Fridays might be busy, and mornings may not be good. So, you’ll find that your PPC lead generation efforts work best Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays in the afternoon.
Always check back to see during which times your ads are most successful and then schedule them accordingly.
Turning PPC Lead Generation into Easy Conversions
Implement those above strategies ASAP and your PPC lead generation strategies will begin paying off more than ever before.
Of course, many of your fellow B2B marketers have discovered another shortcut to the results they want. Our platform is so good at earning conversions, that we actually guarantee a 51% increase in lead-generation and ABM conversions.
Want to see how?
Contact us today for a free demo.
