Google AdWords, the Pay-Per-Click (PPC) program, has proven to be phenomenally successful in search engine marketing (SEM) domain. The program delivers most of the Google’s revenue. The search leader has claimed, that this keyword based bidding mechanism has been generally delivering 7x returns to advertisers over the media cost. In well designed (and executed) campaigns, it is not uncommon to achieve 4x-6x returns.
B2B: A different beast!
However, computing returns on Business-to-Business (B2B) marketing programs over PPC is not that straightforward. The reasons are not very far to seek. Obviously the decision cycles are longer, requiring more research and consultation. The magic pull of instant gratification is absent. Most marketers use SEM programs (for B2B segment) to provide an initial trigger, to kick off user awareness/education. The task of continuing the conversation goes downstream into the Sales process.
This introduces newer variables that are not effectively under control of the PPC program. The resulting limitation drives marketers to search for alternate channels that promise better and continued engagement.
But a PPC program has a deeper potential for creating multi-touch engagement. It is possible to seek out the prospects at the right time, and deliver better metrics than what is commonly realized. However, this will be possible only when the Pay-per-Click campaign’s segmenting and targeting capabilities are enhanced and tailored to B2B marketing needs.
Rising complexity with the six stage cycle...
First some background. A B2B decision-making cycle is much longer from start to finish. Marketing gurus love to break this cycle down into six distinct phases:
(Click on the image to see a bigger version)
(the points in the orange highlighted zone illustrate the areas to be covered. The items in the list are indicative, not exhaustive)
This segmentation actually poses a significant targeting challenge in the PPC campaign design. Note that as one advances through these stages, the search progresses from being quite generic at the beginning, to very specific at the final end. With usually very sketchy information available on user behavior, the marketer often employs, the “one-shoe-fits-all” approach for reaching out to the prospects, regardless of the stage they may be in.
Some PPC campaigns, either take a “minimalist” approach by bidding on a very tightly knit set of keywords, or spread themselves thin by attempting a large cornucopia of search phrases. The first approach has the obvious shortcoming of missing out on potential opportunities. On the other hand, the comprehensive keywords strategy requires a fairly large inventory of search queries (spread across core, generic, branded, intermediate and long tail).
Of the two approaches, latter is generally preferred, since it enables campaigns to service a wide range of user’s intent. However, this carpet-bombing burns a deep hole in the marketing budget, pushes the cost per lead (CPL) metrics through the roof, and takes some shine off of the PPC program.
Decision Cycle Mapping using big data
No one, barring the NSA and probably Facebook (and possibly some enterprise grade PPC platforms like DoubleClick, Adobe or Marine…), has as much data on users as Google. With a vast array of search queries used every second, and a large spectrum of user’s response caught in its net, it will not be a big challenge for Google to decode the intent of the users.
The Search Giant should then be able to map the intent to the stage in the decision making cycle. In other words Google can make the AdWords smarter, such that given a search query, the system will be able to determine the likely stage of the decision cycle the searcher is likely to be in, and display the appropriate ad-creative inserted by the marketers for that specific stage!
Google can go even a step further, and suggest the type of search terms should be employed (by enhancing the Keyword Suggestion tool with insights from the big data) for each of the individual stages in the decision cycle. Once the advertiser has selected the right search queries, and inserted the most suitable creative, AdWords would do the rest. This will take most of the guesswork out of targeting for marketers.
One may argue, that this assumes that all B2B users follow very similar steps in the decision-making, and use highly analogous search terms, to locate the information. While variations abound naturally, given the massive data set, statistical methods would be able to discern the real patterns, and abstract out the real intent to a fairly high level of accuracy. This is the reason why Google can do this mapping efficiently, and, at a much higher level of confidence, than an individual marketers struggling with (relatively) limited set of keywords and spreadsheets for just one domain.
Why should Google take this on?
I can think of the following reasons
- Who knows search more? An enterprise knows more about their business than any outsider. However, Google knows more about the searching behavior and relationships between search queries and user’s intent, than anyone else, even the enterprise running the PPC program
- AdWords Targeting capabilities: Google is BIG on adding newer and sharper bundles of arrows in AdWords quiver. It recently rolled out several enhanced targeting features. These range from Geo-targeting (+SearchEngineWatch) to Geo Bid Multiplier for B2B (+SearchEngineLand) and post-conversion (even offline win) analytics using Google AdWords Conversion Import as an aid to packing more punch. Decision Cycle Mapping will be a powerful and natural extension tailored for B2B.
- Making marketers successful. A Decision Cycle Mapping capability will help in improving performance metrics by reducing most of the guesswork. Rising performance metrics will draw more B2B advertisers (and attract higher budgets) to the PPC programs. Higher performance will stimulate more competition as well. Google will stand to gain as the beneficiary of increased bidding rivalry.
From Generic to Specific
All purpose general search engine marketing platforms have done wonders, specially for retail and direct to customer businesses, with ease of management in bidding, tracking and rules based actions. The shorter purchase cycle allows better control over the entire process, and, enables marketers to tweak performance metrics with confidence.
Well I guess this too goes into my Marketing Bucket List!
