B2B advertising: how wide are your horizons?
Posted by Caitlin Smythe on 14 Nov 2007 at 04:29 pm | Tagged as: PPC
To begin with, B2B and B2C pay per click is pretty much the same thing. It still requires that marketers develop a highly targeted keyword list, write clear and compelling ad descriptions, design a landing page experience that is optimised for conversion and continually track the results. The differences lie specifically in those results, and have been divided up into four problems (summarised here):
Number one: you are advertising more complex services. It’s easy to understand the needs of your run-of-the-mill customer who is buying shoes. It’s not so easy meeting the needs of a client who is going to make quite a big investment in your business solution. B2B marketing targets the corporate searcher who is looking to invest in e-commerce in order to reach new goals and establish new clients.
Problem two is a higher cost per acquisition, because the stakes are so much higher! It’s not the cost of a pair of shoes; it’s a seriously chunky business deal that you’re fishing for. That means the rewards are higher, but the short-term cost is conspicuously more. SEM agents need to find out what the company is paying anyway per acquisition before establishing a realistic B2B bidding price.
The third obstacle is that it’s a much slower process – you’re not looking to land a sale, but to establish a brand presence. B2B landing pages focus on capturing a lead, rather than making a sale. In other words, it’s an ongoing service - rather than an immediate sale - that you want to punt.
And fourth, the ROI is also delayed – you don’t get snap investments that give instant ROI figures. B2B SEM necessitates a flawless handling strategy that keeps your clients moving through the process right up to the acquisition. It’s no longer good enough just to have a good sitemap; you must be able to take care of the client for much longer.
B2B search marketing is more complicated, sure. But its financial benefits are in a different league. Smart companies recognise the value of SEM – why not delve deeper and utilise the networking potential that the Internet represents?
