Top 100 Marketing Agencies Report

When you’re looking for a product or service, what’s the first thing you do 9 out of 10 times? Go online to google (the verb) that product/service so you can research it, get a feel for its value to you, and find out where you can buy it.

Right?

No matter if it’s in their business or personal life, people rely on the Internet to tell them the best brands of products and services. They usually start the process by googling a general term for that product/service. For B2B companies, showing up on the first page of those search results is critically important—the higher in the rankings, the better.

But if consistently addressing search engine optimization (SEO) is too time-intensive, or you don’t have the in-house knowledge to do that, or you just want to double up on the chances a prospect will find you when they’re looking for your product, you can try pay-per-click (PPC) advertising.

PPC 101

PPC stands for “pay-per-click.” In simplistic terms, you create a simple text ad with targeted keywords, and when someone clicks on that ad, you pay the website a small fee. Because you’re paying money per click, the website that is hosting your ad—commonly a search engine, but not always—will place it at the top of the search results, or the top of the page, or in the “news feed.” The more you’re willing to pay per click, the higher you’ll be listed in relation to other companies that have bid on those same keywords.

The top two results are ads that match the keywords “B2B software solutions.”

The Cost-friendliness of B2B PPC Ads

Paying $1 per click, for example, may seem like a lot, but it's really not, compared to the benefits you can receive. The people who click on the ad link tend to be more qualified prospects already looking for your product/service/solution. If not, they won’t click on it, and you won’t have to pay.

If you can convert a fraction of those who click on the ad, you’ll likely make more than enough in sales to make the PPC ad investment worth it.

Because it’s (by far) the most-used search engine in the world, you’d want to focus your PPC campaign on Google Ads. You can also advertise on social media sites and blogs that target the same audience as your marketing efforts.

The Benefits of a PPC Advertising Campaign for B2B Companies

If done right, PPC advertising can offer some enticing benefits for B2B companies:

• They’re cost-effective because you’re only paying when a user clicks on your ad and goes to your landing page or website, rather than paying for the ad to run for a length of time
• You can choose how much to pay
• It’s targeted, so you can choose your audience according to demographics and interests
• You can use PPC ads on many different sites: social media, search engines, blog posts, online newsletters
• It’s measurable, so you can determine how much return you’re getting on your investment
• It’s customizable—if it doesn’t seem to be working, you can make adjustments to improve performance
• You can see the impact of your PPC efforts almost immediately

It’s Not As Easy As it Looks, Though

But, as with any effective marketing strategy, a lot goes into crafting a successful PPC campaign. You’ll need to research and select the right target groups and keywords, write a relevant ad with the keywords in the right places, and make sure the landing page that the ad leads to is optimized for conversions.

That’s where a full-service B2B marketing/branding/creative agency like BayCreative can help. We’re experts in crafting content for a variety of marketing materials, including PPC campaigns. If you’re looking to increase your leads through the use of PPC ads, please let us know.

 All the best,
- Team BayCreative -

In a new study, 48 percent of B2B decision makers polled said B2B advertising is boring, and only 22 percent feel B2B advertising prompts them to take the next step in the purchase funnel.

In other words, current and traditional B2B advertising isn’t doing its job. In the same survey, 82 percent of decision makers said they wished B2B had the creativity associated with B2C. Eighty-one percent said they feel they would make better decisions if B2B advertising was more engaging.

The way forward with B2B advertising is clear: make it more creative and engaging for the audience.

As we’ve said before, even in B2B advertising, you’re talking to people, selling to people, not machines. Your content needs to speak to those people.

How do you engage them?

BayCreative specializes in creating engaging content for B2B clients, so we’ve offered an 8 step checklist below.

8 Step Checklist to Focus on Your B2B Audience

1. First and foremost, create content for a specific audience. That seems common sense, but so often, B2B content is created once, for all audiences, even though your audience is actually segmented. And because it’s created for all audiences, it comes across as too technical or too dumbed down, and the pain points don’t relate to the decision maker reading the content, or the messaging is simply off. Engaging content relies on knowing the specific audience you’re targeting and tapping into their hopes, fears, pain points, and situation.
   
2. Create content of value for the customer. Teach them something, or show them something they didn’t know.
   
3. Create stories that highlight your product/solution’s features and benefits, rather than list them. Case studies and videos are particularly good for this, but white papers and eBooks work well, too.
   
4. Include numbers that tell a story of why your product or service is such a valuable option for the company. That tangible evidence of value will have them wanting to know more if you’ve targeted your content correctly.
   
5. Share data. In the “2017 Content Preference Survey Report,” 76 percent of B2B buyers said that more data and research content would improve the quality of content provided by B2B vendors.
   
6. Consider tying your content to current events. People are interested in current events, so your content is more likely to engage them if it’s tied to current events.
   
7. Create a consistent, seamless brand message. The audience will become familiar and comfortable with your story and want to continue following it.
   
8. Keep it simple and easy to read. There’s no reason to show off how smart you are. You’re creating content to connect with the audience, not to inflate your own ego. Don’t write like an MBA. Write it right at the level that’s appropriate for your audience, and that’s usually going to be a lower level than you think. When you’re writing for a B2B audience, you want to be professional, but you don’t have to use overly technical language. Revise your content one more time to simplify concepts and explanations.