Here’s an unpopular opinion you didn’t ask for: content is the lifeblood of any successful B2B PPC campaign. Without quality content, your campaigns fall flat, your audience disengages, and your conversion rates plummet. It’s a grim scenario that no marketer wants to face. And yet so many do…
What we’ve been seeing for so many years now as an experienced B2B PPC agency is many companies neglecting content as the lifeblood for their PPC… and then standing astonished by the poor results.
Apparently, 80% of business decision-makers prefer reading a series of articles to know more about a company than to see an advertisement or sponsored video. That’s exactly why effective PPC campaigns can’t just rely on eye-catching ads, but hinge on the value-rich content that supports those ads instead. Quality content fosters engagement, builds trust, and, ultimately, drives conversions. Isn’t that the goal?! But without content, even the most sophisticated PPC strategies can falter.
Still not convinced? Here’s how content drives your PPC campaigns in more detail:
Unlike outbound sales, inbound marketing was developed with the purpose of helping potential customers connect to your brand and the products or services you offer. The connection and trust are built slowly, over time, through valuable content such as blogs, emails, eBooks, videos, podcasts etc. It’s a multi-step and non-linear process that first makes potential customers aware of your business and then, draws those same potentials to your website and into your sales funnel.
Although inbound marketing is a long term strategy, it doesn’t mean you’ll be spending money without payback. The great thing about inbound is that you can start small and add on as you grow—you don't have to jump all-in all at once.
When all's said and done, the things you can expect from a successful inbound marketing strategy are:
So, how does PPC fit into your B2B inbound marketing strategy? It’s only through the combination of both strategies that you receive the best results. And here’s how you can get even more:
We just have to say this, and the reason why this isn’t one of the tips is, well, this isn’t a tip. This is a must. Planning and creating your content with your full-funnel campaign in mind can and will bring even better results. Content that aligns with each stage of the buyer's journey, presented in various formats–and that’s an important bit–will engage diverse audience preferences. After all, users who don’t know your brand at all and, what’s more, are not even aware of the problem they’re experiencing, won’t engage with your “book a demo” ads.
Now, we’ve just said that your content should come in various formats. Why? Because the times when one single ad promoting one single ebook on one single platform are long gone. So reuse your content as much as you can: create blogs, social, videos, interviews, podcasts–all around one topic.
Now, let’s move to the actual tips.
Remarketing is a hugely impactful PPC strategy and it’s a perfect fit with Inbound marketing. It allows you to tailor your online ads to specific prospects based on their browsing history as relevant to your business. You can target ads toward prospects who have visited your website, or you can be even more specific and only show ads to customers based on different actions taken on your website: viewing a particular service or signing up for your email list.
Remarketing campaigns are incredibly effective because they allow you to target people who are already familiar and might be interested in your brand, and reach out to them with messages appropriate to their stage in the inbound marketing funnel. It’s what us marketers like to call “low hanging fruit”. You have the opportunity to specifically target your messaging and communicate with prospects on a much more personal level.
You worked so hard bringing the right visitors to your site using great tailored content and social media engagement, but oh so few people actually will leave their details on the first go. Remarketing will enable you to bring back these users again and again, until they convert.
Let’s say you’re a cybersecurity company with a new product offering you want to get out there. The truth is, the best way to begin is with people who are already familiar with your service. Specifically target only the individuals who’ve visited your website during a certain time period or who made it to a particular page, such as your product page.
One thing we ought to say… remarketing does NOT mean bombarding users with the exact same ads over and over again. Analyze your previous content performance to see what worked best and follow that direction when creating new copy and new assets for improved results. You can even go to the next level by displaying ads featuring the exact products or services users viewed on your site
Once your content is live, the work doesn’t stop (does it ever…) Maximizing the exposure and effectiveness of your content requires strategic SEO and distribution efforts. Here’s how to ensure your content reaches its full potential:
Thought leadership is about positioning your brand as an expert in your field. It involves consistently producing high-quality content that offers unique insights and perspectives–and it’s a great way to boost your PPC efforts. Mind you, it’ll be a little bit more (okay, a lot more) resource consuming as opposed to launching an ad here and there, but it’ll be SO worth it. How?
In the end, when it comes to your B2B inbound marketing strategy the only thing that matters is that you’re successful in bringing potential customers into your sales funnel, and PPC should be a key piece of that. Ready to take your inbound strategy to the next level? Start by integrating these tips into your marketing plan and watch your engagement and conversions soar. And if at any point that feels overwhelming… we’re here to help.