What is PPC?

PPC stands for Pay-Per-Click and is a type of online marketing where advertisers pay a fee every time their ad is clicked. This system is a fast and efficient way for B2B organisations to capture leads (Brad McMillen). Your target audience is essentially saying they are interested in your service or product by searching keywords into search engines, such as Google. PPC advertising is basically a way of buying targeted traffic from search results to your website through short, specific ads (Rahul Pandey). Search Ads tend to be the most popular option when creating a PPC campaign, but there are other types of PPC:

1. Social media advertising
2. Display advertising
3. Google shopping
4. Remarketing (Rahul Pandey).

PPC advertising is a smart, cost-effective, and time saving solution to reach your specific target market. So, if you are wondering whether PPC works for B2B companies, the answer is yes.

Is PPC effective for B2B marketers?

PPC advertising allows B2B brands to choose their target audience and personalise the ads to suit their needs. You will be reaching an audience who are most likely ready to purchase (Rahul Pandey). Launching a PPC campaign allows you to connect with business buyers who are already searching for your services or products – they want to work with you, they just need to find you (Web FX). One of the main benefits of PPC is that the campaign runs 24/7. You can earn valuable clicks to your website any time of the day instead of being restricted to the contact made in office hours. Over 70 % of buyers in the B2B industry use search engines when researching their next purchase (Web FX). With the competitiveness of keywords increasing, it can be extremely time consuming to reach your audience organically (John Reinesch). PPC advertising is a quick way to climb to the top of the search page and reach these potential buyers, with the possibility of converting them into valuable leads.

How to use PPC with B2B marketing

There are a range of factors you should consider when creating a PPC campaign strategy, the first thing you want to ensure is that you are targeting the right audience for your business.

• Research and understand your audience

Although you might understand your market, Google and other search engines do not, therefore doing your research prior to running a PPC campaign is essential to avoid being matched to irrelevant keywords (Brad McMillen). You need to create ads for a specific group of people who are most likely to buy from you, whether that’s people who know nothing about your product, or people who know everything (Web FX).

• Keywords

Once you understand who your buyers are, you need to consider what keywords you are using. It is not enough to have a bunch of keywords that can drive traffic to your site, you need to find less competitive keywords and potentially untouched ones that will cost less and drive your target audience to the site (Rahul Pandey). To build a suitable keyword list for your PPC campaign, utilise keyword research tools such as SEMrush to get the most out of your campaigns.

• Define your campaign goals

Before you start your PPC campaign you need to consider what your goals are, how you intend to achieve them, how you can measure them and ensure they align with your overall marketing strategy (Rahul Pandey).  Clearly defining your goals is the foundation of a good campaign. Your goals could be any (but not limited to) of the following: to generate leads, increase website traffic or drive sales. With a B2B sales cycle generally being longer than B2C, it is essential to track your site visits using an analytics software package such as Google Analytics (Brad McMillen).

There are many more factors to consider when setting up a PPC campaign, but for companies in the B2B industry, PPC provides a great opportunity to grow and evolve (Web FX). If you are looking for an effective way to reach out to new prospects without the cost and time of cold calls and tradeshows, then PPC advertising could be for you.