Google Ads Strategy For High-Quality B2B Leads

Google Ads Strategy For High-Quality B2B Leads

High-performing B2B sales teams need a strategy influx of targeted, high-intent leads to fuel their pipelines, keeping their activity metrics up, and hitting those lofty revenue goals.

Google Ads, with its deep targeting abilities and directly measurable results, can be an invaluable lead generation channel.

Where a B2C Google Ad can lead straight to a direct sale, and therefore target bottom-of-funnel intent, B2B Google Ads strategies must cover the full funnel. Keyword targeting, ad copy, and landing page must all reflect this as well.

Google Ads are useful as they:

• Give you the power to control your growth pace based on ad spend and campaigns used
• Are often quicker to launch because you can start with one landing page
• Enable you to drive traffic to content based on “high purchase intent” keywords, i.e., search phrases describing the product or service you’re selling.

Targeting high purchase intent keywords will result in high-quality leads with a high likelihood of becoming customers, as the average B2B Google Ads campaign conversion rate is 3.75%.

How To Run Successful B2B Google Ads Campaigns Based on Sales Funnel Stages

Sales funnel consisting of three main categories:

• The top of the funnel (TOFU) people are in the awareness stage in their buying cycle
• The middle of the funnel (MOFU) people are interested in or considering buying, and are making comparisons and researching further about the best solution
• The bottom of the funnel (BOFU) people are nearly ready for making purchase and starting to initiate contact with companies to be able to help them.

Top of Funnel

When people are in the “top of the funnel” awareness stage, and not actively looking to make a purchase. They are just coming across you for the first time.

It is the first stage of your marketing funnel, or where the customer begins their customer journey.

The top of the funnel is a critical place to focus on expanding your brand’s reach and building your audience. For example, you can use targeted advertising across social media and publisher networks to build large audiences made up of your ideal marketing personas. Your ad campaign might provide a link to your newsletter, displaying a funny video, or showcasing a clever slogan, but it should be intended to pique your audience’s interest in your brand, rather than encourage them to make a purchase right away.

Types of Top of Funnel Content:

• Advertisements: Building an audience helps you to share your message as widely as possible. In this, targeted ads on social media and publisher networks, direct mail, print ads, video ads, podcast or radio ads, and TV/OTT ads are all ways to build awareness among new prospects who may not be ready to buy yet.

• Social media: Social media is for connecting with existing customers as well as raising brand awareness among new or potential customers. You can grow your audience by participating in relevant hashtags, encouraging fans to share your post, and sponsoring it to a larger audience.

• Content marketing: the initiatives can take a variety of forms, including blog posts, video content, podcasts, infographics, and more. The goal is to focus on understanding the target customer’s pain points and develop engaging content that helps them solve their problems.

Middle of Funnel

At the middle of the funnel (MOFU), people are already aware and need more time to evaluate their options. They are considering a variety of solutions to their problem, and are researching brands, but not ready to make a commitment.

Customers at this stage are familiar with your brand, either through inbound marketing (such as a Google search or social media share from a friend), outbound marketing (like an advertisement), or potentially via a referral. They are beginning to fully understand your offering, but you haven’t won them over yet, and you may face a crowded field of competitors.

Strategies for effective middle funnel marketing:

• Email marketing
• Content marketing
• Free trials or “Freemium” offers

When a customer is in the middle of the funnel, you have their attention, but it is easy to lose it. You need to maximize engagement at this phase by responding to their behavioural cues with relevant content to help you build a stronger relationship with the customer.

Bottom of Funnel

Bottom of the funnel (BOFU) is the last stage in the marketing funnel where people are nearly ready for making purchase and starting to initiate contact with companies to be able to help them. The goal is to help guide people over the finishing line to conversion.

You do this by providing content that really motivates them to take action. By this stage, prospects have already interacted with TOF and MOF content, which aims to educate and build trust. BOF content needs to be highly personalized and should speak to people who are already interested in your brand.

Five main tactics that businesses use for effectively engaging potential customers in the BOF stage:

• Bottom of funnel ads
• Personalized email campaigns
• Product demos
• Customer reviews and testimonials
• Limited-time offers

Further, some key metrics to consider when measuring BOF performance:

• Conversion rate
• Cost per acquisition (CPA)
• Return on investment (ROI)
• Customer lifetime value (CLV)

Implementing The Right Google Ads Strategy To Generate High-Quality B2B Leads

Considering all things, Google Ads is quite successful for B2B companies since it is a great place to start for long-term expansion. You can target keywords according to the degree of buy intent inside the sales funnel, in addition to retargeting across other channels. You will be able to spend wisely and optimize efficiently now that you are an expert at B2B Google Ads campaigns