Pulling Levers Blog

According to a recent poll, 95% of B2B marketers are focusing their efforts on SEO, while only 35% are involved in paid search advertising. Based on these findings, it seems like a great time to get a jump on the competition and start building out some B2B-optimized PPC campaigns if you haven’t already.

Creating a successful B2B PPC campaign poses many hurdles for companies. For one, you only have 95 total characters in each ad, which isn’t always enough space to clearly describe your business or product. Also, if your product has a closely-related B2C version, you have to make sure you aren’t attracting the wrong customer. Below are some best practices to consider when creating B2B PPC campaigns and ad copy.

1. Know your competition
Before creating your campaign, do research on your competitors. See what type of messaging they’re using in their ads, and find out what keywords they’re bidding on. In addition to performing your own searches on Google, you can also utilize competitive research tools, including Spyfu and Compete.

Once you know what your competition is doing, start identifying unique qualities about your product or business that you can emphasize in your ad copy. For example, if you offer the lowest price in your industry, make sure to point that out.

2. Know your customers
When putting together a keyword list, consider all of the possible ways your potential customer would search for your product. Think about phrases and key terms that people may use to find your product if they’re not exactly sure what they’re looking for. This will increase your ad exposure and help you capture the most search traffic.

When crafting your ads, make sure to include features that address your customers’ needs. You only have 95 characters to get your message across, so it’s important to emphasize product attributes that your customers will find appealing. Also, when writing ad copy, use only familiar acronyms and short-hand, and avoid abbreviating words just to save space. Here is an example of an ad that addresses a customer’s need – boosting employee loyalty and retention.

3. Load up campaigns with negative keywords
If your product or service has any overlap with a similar B2C product or service, you’ll need to regularly pull search query reports from Google and Bing to identify potential negative keywords. For example, if your company sells high-end laser engravers for industrial use, you’ll want to add several negatives, such as “jewelry”, “photos”, “personalized” and any others that you know don’t apply to your product. This way you can eliminate a lot of unqualified clicks right off the bat, saving hundreds to thousands of dollars in advertising costs.

4. Incorporate business-focused messaging
This is another way to prevent customers looking for B2C versions of your product from clicking on your ads. Including clear, business-focused messaging may result in lower click-through rates, which in turn may lower your quality scores a bit, but the slightly higher CPCs you’ll pay will be much cheaper than spending money on completely unqualified clicks.

Below is an example of a B2B ad for a general, broad match keyword Mobile Advertising. The ad clearly states this is an agency providing services and not a mobile phone provider. It also lists a variety of types of services it provides to capture the correct business audience. This term brings in valuable leads but also finds consumers looking for mobile phones. In the end, you will have a much higher conversion rate by eliminating irrelevant clicks from B2C consumers.

5. Use a clear call-to-action
Including a strong, clear call-to-action is important in both B2B and B2C paid search campaigns. However, you can differentiate your ads even further by including call-to-actions that will resonate best with your potential B2B customer and deter clicks from those looking for a B2C version of your product. For instance, if you sell a high-end product that cannot be purchased online and are mainly concerned about generating leads, you can avoid using call-to-actions like “Shop Now” and “Visit Our Online Store” and focus on phrases like “Request a Price Quote” or “Download More Information”. This will help hone in on the most qualified clicks and contribute to higher conversion rates.

Common B2B Call-To-Actions:
• Request More Info
• Request a Price Quote
• Request a Free Demo
• Download More Info
• Download Product Catalog
• Learn More About…
• Browse Our Products

6. Optimize landing pages and lead forms
If your goal is to generate leads, you’ll want to make sure your landing page includes your lead form or clear ways to navigate to the form. Also make sure the lead form contains enough fields to make it clear that you are selling a B2B product, but not too many to deter potential customers from filling it out. It may also be helpful to display messaging prominently on the landing page or even directly within the lead form that reiterates the fact that your product or service is for business consumers.

Below is an example of a lead form for a company that offers employee recognition programs to businesses. They often have people looking to redeem awards fill out their lead forms, so to prevent this, they’ve added a separate link for them to click on rather than submitting the actual form.

There is a lot of opportunity to generate valuable leads and new business customers from B2B paid search campaigns. Use these tips and other best practices to get optimal results and don’t shy away from search advertising just because you are a B2B business!

Lever Interactive Expands Team and Announces Promotions
New Hires Joining the Optimization and Business Development Teams

DOWNERS GROVE, IL (July 19, 2011) – Lever Interactive, a Chicago-based full-service online marketing company specializing in performance-based marketing management, recently expanded with the addition of three new team members and announces recent promotions.

Stephanie Saucier joins Lever Interactive as Manager of Optimization, Josh Cole joins Lever Interactive’s Business Development team and Brad Bonic joins as an Account Strategist. Lever Interactive is also proud to announce two recent promotions. Jennifer Davis was promoted to Vice President of eMarketing and Jamie Watanabe has been promoted to Account Strategist.

Saucier will lead Lever Interactive’s team of paid search account optimizers as well as the search engine optimization and design/development teams. Saucier, a resident of Montgomery, comes to Lever Interactive after several years as a Web Operations Manager at FTD.com. She received her Bachelor of Science in marketing from Northern Illinois University.

Cole, a resident of Midlothian, will help direct Lever Interactive’s sales efforts. He comes to Lever Interactive from Crown Mortgage Company where he served as a loan officer. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in finance and accounting from Augustana College.

Bonic will manage and optimize search engine marketing and display advertising campaigns for several clients. Bonic, a resident of Plainfield, comes to Lever from Starcom Mediavest Group where he managed both on-line and off-line marketing and advertising campaigns representing a wide range of clients.

“I am very excited to have Stephanie, Josh and Brad join our growing team,” said Chris Gilmartin, President of Lever Interactive. “They bring diverse experience and knowledge to our team that will help grow the success of Lever Interactive.”

Davis has been with Lever Interactive for three years and leads the company’s daily activities. Davis has over 15 years of marketing, ecommerce and development experience. She is a resident of Downers Grove and earned her Bachelor of Arts in writing from Dominican University and her Master of Arts in business writing from DePaul University.

Watanabe has been with Lever Interactive for two years and has been instrumental in the day-to-day activities for several clients. She is a resident of Villa Park and earned her Bachelor of Arts in advertising from the University of Illinois.

“Both Jennifer and Jamie have contributed to Lever Interactive’s growth and success over the last couple of years,” said Gilmartin. “I look forward to their continued contribution in their expanded roles.”

About Lever Interactive

Lever Interactive is a full-service online marketing company specializing in performance-based marketing management. With a focus on search engine marketing, Lever Interactive combines the experience of seasoned search and online professionals with the latest in advertising technologies. With over 15 years of direct and interactive marketing know-how, the team at Lever Interactive provides leading expertise in today’s most advanced online marketing opportunities. Services include search engine marketing, shopping comparison and feed-based programs, email marketing, affiliate marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), web design and development. Lever Interactive is a Google AdWords Certified Partner, Yahoo Search Marketing Ambassador and Microsoft AdExcellence Member. They are also members of industry organizations Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) and Chicago Interactive Marketing Association (CIMA). Lever Interactive is located at 1431 Opus Place, Suite 625, Downers Grove, Illinois 60515. For more information, please visit www.leverinteractive.com.

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Media Contact
Chris Gilmartin
630-435-6400
cgilmartin@leverinteractive.com