PPC Lead Generation

Multi Channel PPC

Some say that the B2B buying process has changed drastically and that securing qualified leads is increasingly difficult. We are not that agency.
Envy believes that the level of noise is the issue, and we know how to cut right through it, to enable you to reach your targets.

Do any of these sound familiar?

  • You’ve been running LinkedIn campaigns on and off for years and conversion rates are getting lower.
  • The simple eBook and Request A demo campaigns that used to work are just not delivering the goods anymore.
  • Google Ads are driving decent qualified leads but CPL is astronomical.
  • You’ve been told that your ads are rubbish. AKA not resonating with the target audience.
  • Your competition has a stupendous PPC budget, how can you compete?
  • Can’t really tell the ROI on the campaigns you’ve been running.

Envy will help you with:

  • Planning Integrated campaigns on LinkedIn, Google, Twitter, Reddit, Outbrain/Tabooola, even Facebook (if we have to)
  • Testing creative and messaging quickly
  • Building ABM campaigns that actually drive results
  • Setting up your HubSpot so that it sheds light on as much of the dark funnel as possible

Envy’s real ABM-based PPC campaigns have been working wonders for our B2B tech clients for years. Run by a dedicated team of Google, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter alumni with (not too many ;)) years of experience. 

What is PPC marketing?​

What does PPC stand for?

PPC stands for Pay Per Click. Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns are paid online advertising, where you pay a fee every time a person clicks on your ad. PPC ads use Cost per Click (CPC), Cost per Acquisition (CPA), or Cost per Thousand Impressions (CPM) models to decide how much you’ll pay each time.

Simply put, this is payment for audiences to engage with your brand and content as opposed to relying on organic means. Your target industry and audience will largely determine which channels and means you use for PPC.

Key channels used by B2B tech companies include Google Ads, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter and Reddit, and more, but again, the industries and audience they are targeting are key.

So How Exactly Do These Platforms Work?

Google Ads

Google Ads are divided into 3 main categories and luckily our experts are on hand to draw back the veil on what exactly the difference is between all of them.

 

Google Search

Google Search is where it all began. Long before LinkedIn or Facebook ads were a thing, Google was THE place to market online. Search ads are great because they can be used to target someone who’s already looking for what you offer. Ideal, right?

They are a lot fancier now than they were when first launched. With the introduction of extensions, you can massively increase the real estate of your ad on the Search Engine Results Page, leaving less space for your competitors. 😉

Google Display Network aka GDN

Ya know, those banner ads you see following you around when browsing the web? You’ve just looked at a cybersecurity solution and the company ads are following you, enticing you to jump on a demo? Those are all part of the Google Display Network. When used effectively, these little ads can do wonders for awareness building and retargeting.

YouTube

The ideal way to promote videos on the YouTube platform and also on apps. You do this by connecting Google Ads to your YouTube channel and then targeting based on any of Core Keywords, Demographics, Interests, Placements and Remarketing. The possibilities are almost endless!

LinkedIn Ads

The primary channel for B2B advertising, we’re sure you’re no stranger to the benefits of LinkedIn advertising. The reason it is such an attractive channel for marketing to businesses is that you can target by company, position and so much more, really drilling down into your target market. By utilizing Lead Gen and Awareness Ads you can target every potential customer, no matter what part of your sales funnel they may be on (though this is where a kickass ABM campaign would come into play too).

Facebook Ads

Though often overlooked as a B2B channel, with 2.9 billion active monthly users on Facebook, it’s a useful tool in raising brand awareness and retargeting. When utilizing this channel you can (among many other things!) target prospects based on your existing MQL contacts with look-alike audiences, then you can narrow down further for specific targeting.

Reddit Ads

Reddit ads are a fantastic resource for many tech companies to specifically target their ideal audience. Our key point here is to embrace the human inside you. Redditors respond to humans, not marketers, so get your creative hat on and be a little witty, they’ll love it.

Twitter Ads

Whether you love its new leadership or not, Twitter is not a channel to be sniffed at. You can target based on keywords, tweet engagements, influencers look-a-likes or tailored audiences, this low cost advertising platform should definitely make it onto your 2023 plan.

PPC vs Inbound Marketing

An age old question is what should I do first, or at all –  PPC or Inbound marketing. The popularity of inbound marketing is off the charts. In fact, when HubSpot surveyed over 3,400 marketers for their “State of Marketing 2022″ report, 66% of B2B Marketers reported they actively invest in SEO and 95% are investing in short form video this year. 

While there’s no doubt that the popularity of inbound marketing is well deserved, we find that too many companies are nervous about the investment in PPC and whether they can spare their already reduced marketing budgets. 

This is where a combined ABM and RevOps approach comes into play for your strategy to bring all departments into alignment and ensure you’re hitting those targets each quarter. 

Our key point here is that there is no PPC without Inbound. Trust us. We’ve had MANY clients over the years who want to jump the gun and get straight into PPC. At the end of day, we all want leads. But without relevant content to share, you’ll lose those leads as quick as you find them, if you even do. That’s why engaging with an agency who can cover all the bases is the most cost effective method for success.

Which PPC KPIs should I track?

There are a number of KPIs that your business can track depending on your goals. What is most relevant to your strategy? What is most important to your business goals? Are you looking for awareness of your brand or lead generation? When you can answer these questions, make sure to focus down onto maximum 3-4 KPIs so you can truly focus on results that matter.

  • CPC – Track your cost-per-click on a daily basis to quickly be alerted to anything out of the ordinary and ensure that they are in your circa, but don’t forget to leave room for seasonal or industry fluctuations. By maintaining vigilance here you can quickly pivot your messaging to something more cost effective where necessary.
  • CTR – On content or leadgen ads, the number one KPI is the number of people who click through and read your blog post or go on to your website, PR etc.
  • CPL – Cost per lead is where you pay for the action of a lead giving you their information so you are able to, among other things, contact or retarget with more relevant content as you bring them down the funnel.
  • CPMQL – Cost Per Marketing Qualified Lead differs from CPL in that you should always optimize according to
  • CPMQL as this brings the most valuable and high quality leads.
  • SQL – Sales Qualified Leads are contacts who your sales team have accepted as worthy of a direct sales follow up
  • ROI – The ultimate KPI = Return On Investment, while valuable is extremely difficult to track, especially now that we’re cookieless.
  • Time on site/no. of pages/length of video watched – How long did people stay on your site or your video content, how many pages did they read?
  • Impressions/Views – Here, too, you want as many eyeballs on your content as possible, but it will usually be done on the platform itself and not on your website through video content.
  • Traffic to website – Compare traffic to your website before and after your campaign. Are you seeing more returning visitors to your site? Look at organic and direct traffic volume to your site over time, is it rising?
  • Brand Recognition – Analyze brand recognition. Are more people searching your brand name on Google or mentioning you (hopefully, in a positive way) on social media? Track how many people search for the solution you offer, or the challenge you solve. Notice love from other companies. Are you getting more mentions and links from other websites than you did before your campaign?
  • EngagementLikes/Follows on Social – Are more people signing up for your blog or following you on social channels?Yes, likes, follows etc.
  • Moving down the funnel – Track how many people move on to the next stage of your funnel, where they seriously consider what you have to offer, and start converting into leads and customers.

Brand Awareness

  • CTR
  • CPC
  • Impressions / Views
  • Engagement / Likes / Follows
  • Brand Recognition

Lead Gen

  • ROI
  • CPL
  • CPMQL / SQL
  • CPO
  • Bounce Rate / Traffic to Website

Although most leads will be useless to you when you first start the campaign, the more you practice and learn how they convert further down the funnel, the easier it will be to identify valuable MQLs, convert more prospects and get a higher return on your investment. You should always strive to convert about 25%-30% of your leads into MQLs.

At the end of the day you should value quality over the quantity of leads. In PPC, it’s easy to optimize by CTR/CPC/Leads but in B2B you need to look further down the funnel and optimize your campaigns based on what gives you the highest quality. You can only do this by collaborating with the wider team; working in a silo just doesn’t work here.

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What kind of content works best for each stage of the PPC funnel

Awareness

When first encountering a user, treat them to engaging and informative Top of the Funnel (TOF) content. Present yourself as a thought leader offering original and insightful ideas and content. You can do this through:

  • Video
  • Blogs
  • Follower campaigns
  • Infographics

Consideration

This is when prospects have “clearly defined the goal or challenge and have committed to addressing it. They evaluate the different approaches or methods available to pursue the goal or solve their challenge”. At this stage, they will begin to connect between their challenge and your solution.

  • eBooks
  • Guides
  • Webinars
  • Whitepaper

Delight

Delighted customers turn into your brand promoters, if they are happy with their experience, then they share their delight and contentment with. What we are looking for at this stage is transforming a paying customer into a brand evangelist! You can this by using:

  • Surveys
  • Tutorials
  • Referral Programs
The PPC tools we rely on

There are countless PPC tools out there so how do you pick and choose between them? First evaluate what the tools are going to give you and how it will solve your customers’ pain points. Here are some of the tools we frequently use:

  • Google Analytics
    Deep dive into who is on your site, what they are doing and where they are from.
  • HubSpot
    Use HubSpot with Google Analytics to track those visitors by campaign all the way down the funnel and see who’s converting and who isn’t. HubSpot is of course way more than this and allows for everything and anything from nurturing, to lead scoring, to pop ups and chatbots and social and…..the list goes on!
  • Google Trends
    Know what’s hot and what’s not with a few searches. Discover where you should be putting your energy and marketing Dollars in a few clicks.
  • Semrush
    From seeing competitor ads to solid keyword research, Semrush is one to have in your back pocket.
  • Google Keyword Planner
    Now you’ve figured out what keywords to use with SemRush, use the Keyword planner to estimate CTRs and budget.
  • Leadfeeder
    Discover which individuals and companies are visiting your website and what they’re viewing.
  • Influ2
    Know your audience, but don’t know how to reach them? Send ads specifically to your target audience with Influ2.
  • anyword
    Kickstart your writing process and generate new ideas in seconds. It by no means replaces your copywriter, but it does make your process quicker and your ads far more likely to perform
  • Canva
    Killer designed ads in minutes? Check. GIFs? No problem.
  • Grammarly
    You don’t want your customers calling you out for poor grammar on your ads or landing pages. Grammarly solves that for you.
Selecting Your PPC Agency

So now you know how we do some of our PPC magic and you want to try working some PPC magic of your own, but where do you start? With many companies on a hiring freeze you may be thinking, “Where will I find someone with the expertize needed to implement any PPC campaigns?” That’s where outsourcing your PPC and B2B marketing needs comes in. Agencies are the ideal solution in this scenario as they are FULL of experts in the field and it’s what they do, all day, everyday. 

So what should you look for in a good B2B Marketing PPC agency?

  • Experience in your industry – If you are a cybersecurity company,  a PPC agency who knows your target audience will have the knowledge of how to reach them and the familiarity of what makes them tick. The team has clear evidence of what works and what doesn’t, and the exact practices it takes to succeed.
  • Deliver results within budget – This is an obvious one, but you’d be surprised. Many times, an agency will promise you the moon, and then proceed to overspend your meticulous budget. Not only does this mean your results are skewed, it will also have a knock on effect on your budget for the remainder of the year, so watch out!
  • Provides realistic expectations – Like we just said, be wary of agencies promising you the moon. Especially those promising the moon within a few weeks. At Envy, we have a 3 month minimum rule when it comes to expecting any results, anyone promising you quicker needs further examination.
Play Video about b2b 3 month rule
  • Understands the FULL funnel – The last thing you want is an agency who dives straight into demo ads before awareness is raised. Trust us, it’s a waste of budget and you won’t see the results you want.
  • Evaluate skill sets- Not all PPC agencies have skills in the channels most important to your company. For example, maybe you need to integrate multi-channel campaigns across Google Adwords, Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit. Integrating PPC as part of your inbound marketing campaign is also no small feat. You’ve got to decide if your chosen agency really has what it takes.
  • Experience in Account Based Marketing (ABM) – With budget’s tightening and companies seeing a 50%+ rise in sales successes when using ABM this is a must have.
  • Choose an agency with experience in other areas of marketing too, that way when needed, they can add specialized members to the team to solve your problem, instead of you searching for another agency.
  • Compare expertise – Once you’ve got a short list, dig deeper. Read through customer testimonials, compare existing client bases, and sift through all the content which can shed light on the advantages of each agency.

Envy is here for your PPC needs

When it’s in the right hands, PPC can supercharge your B2B tech marketing.

Envy has the experience and know how to help you set up your PPC campaigns, from ABM, to Google Ads to Social Media advertising, we’ve run 100s of campaigns. We literally live, breathe and dream about campaigns.

We have packages to suit all your needs, from the technical setup of your campaigns, ads, optimization, dashboards and more.

Our reputation as PPC  experts precedes us.

We believe that whatever PPC channel you choose, your ability to produce results depends on your marketing strategy, ad execution and correct setup. As experts, we will gear you up for success and implement whatever’s necessary to answer your management’s call.