Some ideas for improving B2B Google Ads.

Advertising B2B products and services on Google can be really profitable because the cost of generating a lead can be low compared with the value of a new customer.

But, it's tricky to get right.

B2B Google Ads usually faces one of 2 problems:-

• Very little traffic. This happens when you provide niche or specialised goods or services. Think something like multi-spectral aerial imaging, conveyor belt rollers or winch clutches.

• Lots of traffic, but most of it B2C. This happens when there are consumer versions of your products or services. Things like vacuum sealers, dust extraction systems, linen or solar panels. You can buy them for your house. Or you can buy large quantities or high capacity versions for factories, warehouses and hotels.

I've done quite a bit of B2B Google Ads over the years. Here are some things that have worked for my clients.

Ideas for fixing the B2B Google Ads low-traffic problem.

1. Accept that there isn't much traffic and make the most of what there is.

Google search ads only work when someone is searching. If few people in your target market use Google then it's not likely to be an important source of new business.

You can improve your chances of getting the few enquiries that are going by:-

• Using a position-based bidding strategy - where you ask Google to show your ads at the top of the page.
• Offer a high cost per click either using manual CPC or the maximise clicks bid strategy.

2. Advertise complimentary products or services.

Complementary products are things that are bought together. Think printers and ink, laptops and laptop bags, nail guns and nails etc.

I had a client who sold medical equipment, including expensive devices like electrocardiographs and X-ray machines. They faced two key challenges:

• Finding facilities that might need these things.
• Getting a foot in the door.

At the time there was almost no search volume for the big-ticket equipment. But, there were loads of searches for consumables like surgical gloves.

We advertised the gloves. Our campaign generated about 5 leads a day.

Delivering a box or two of gloves wasn't in any way profitable. But it got my client into facilities that were likely to need electrocardiographs, X-ray machines and so on.

3. Advertise for substitute goods or services.

I mentioned multi-spectral aerial imaging earlier. At the time there was no search volume for it because it was a brand new technology.

But, people were searching for aerial survey or aerial photography. Some of these people would be better served by the multi-spectral imaging my client offered. So we advertised on aerial survey and photography searches and my client was able to make some sales.

Ideas for filtering out B2C Google Ads searches when you're selling B2B.

Fixing the low-traffic problem is about finding more people to show your ads to. This is the opposite. We want to show our ads to fewer people - only the B2B people.

Here are a couple of ideas on how to do this. None of them are 100% effective and most of them throw the baby out with the bath water - they stop B2B enquiries too. But, I'm setting them out so you can test and find out what works in your market.

1. Accept that dealing with B2C searches is a cost of advertising on Google.

If your Google Ads are profitable you could ignore the B2C problem. Just accept it as a cost of doing business and spend your attention on something more important.

2. Reduce B2C enquiries through keyword selection.

Target only exact match keywords that include words that show that it's a B2B search. If you sold linen to hotels you might use keywords like [bulk hotel linen] or [hotel linen suppliers]. If you sold industrial dust extractors you'd choose keywords that included things like factory, heavy duty, commercial or industrial.

This will reduce the number of B2C enquiries, but it will also reduce the number of B2B enquiries.

That's because B2B customers often use the same search terms as B2C customers. A maintenance manager doesn't think of their dust extraction system as an industrial dust extraction system. To them it's the dust extraction system. A linen buyer at a hotel chain doesn't necessarily search using the words bulk linen. They just want hotel linen.

3. Filter out B2C enquiries with negative keywords.

Use negative keywords like diy, home, hobby and so on. You should do this because it doesn't take long. But it's not very effective because most B2C searchers won't include words like diy or hobby that can be blocked by negative keywords.

If you advertise goods where the market includes branded consumer goods add the brand names as negatives.

If you sell products add the names of shops like Amazon, EBay, Costco etc as negatives.

4. Reduce B2C enquiries by targeting working age people.

Use demographic bid adjustments to exclude people outside normal working age. Don't expect this to be very effective as most people on the internet are of working age.

5. Reduce B2C enquiries by advertising only during office hours.

Google defaults to showing your ads 24/7. Schedule the ads to show during working hours only.

The trade off is that B2B people on night shift or doing research outside office hours won't see your ads.

6. Reduce B2C enquiries by showing your ads only on computers.

Use device bid adjustments to show ads on computers, not on mobile phones or tablets.

The trade off is that you miss the search from the maintenance engineer standing next to a broken bottle-filling machine Googling for a spare part on his iPad.

7. Reduce B2C enquiries with repellant ad copy.

Use ad copy to discourage clicks from B2C searchers. E.g. "Wholesale only", "Commercial and Industrial Solar Panels", "Valves from 300mm upwards"

If you're using automated bidding it helps train the algorithm to show your ads to the right people.

8. Upload B2B qualified leads as offline conversions.

Use offline conversions to tell Google which leads were qualified - i.e. B2B. If you have enough qualified leads every month you can use a conversion-based bidding strategy and optimise to get more qualified leads. I've written in more detail about this here.

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