Will Your B2B Marketing Efforts Pay Off With Paid Search?

To get started on a positive note, the answer is a definite yes.

So why are some B2B business owners still hesitating?

Possible explanations: They don’t know to approach paid search advertising; they find it difficult to succeed at paid search advertising because of the niche markets they are targeting; or they find it’s getting harder to identify profitable search terms that can effectively turn clicks into sales and conversions.

Do any of those reasons sound familiar to you? Remember, B2B businesses can succeed at paid search advertising. If it is done right, it is actually one of the best ways to grow your business. Yes, paid search can become your biggest source of sales and leads!

Getting Started in Paid Search

If you want to successfully market your B2B company with paid search, it is pertinent that you understand the basic differences between B2C marketing and B2B marketing. For starters, the biggest difference between those two marketing terms is the value of a sale.

Here’s an example:

Firstly, note that the global average eCommerce transaction value is worth at least $81 (up to $119) on average. Next, let’s factor in repeat business, and imagine that you can make at least $200 from a returning customer. Assuming that you set a 50% profit margin, your CPA (Cost per Acquisition) needs to LESS than $100 to break even. On the other hand, you should note that the lifetime value of B2B businesses can be worth up to $200,000. With that in mind it’s worthy to note that B2B companies, which have a profit margin of just 10%, can still produce a great return on investment with a CPA that exceeds $1,000.

You Need to Practice Effective Communication

You need to target the right audience and communicate your message effectively. Do remember that your customers are looking for solutions and not just a list of features. Oftentimes, searchers click on an ad because they are hoping that it contains information that can solve their problems. Hence, less emphasis should be placed on showing off your products’ features when it comes to paid search. Once you can identify the problem that triggered their search, you can get them to convert by directly addressing their pain points through your ad.

Identifying your Audience

As we talked about targeting the right audience earlier, here are some tips to ensure you are on the right track. For starters, the golden rule is to avoid using the wrong keywords to ‘attract’ your audience because it just drives the wrong traffic. This type of traffic never converts. When you bid on search terms you have to be very careful because the more searches a certain keyword gets, the less specific the search intent is.

But the thing is that you never know until you actually tried using the keywords. Hence, you should be vigilant while keeping an eye out for any irrelevant clicks; the ones that do not increase sales and conversions. Drop those keywords and you will eliminate the associated costs of those irrelevant clicks. By doing so, you can free up a lot of budget that can be used to identifying additional relevant terms to build your traffic volume back up. This time round, that traffic could come with more conversions.