| |
Homepage
5 Keyword Strategies for B2B PPC Campaigns
|
|
 |
 5 Keyword Strategies for B2B PPC Campaigns
| By Andy Komack
President, KoMarketing Associates
Managing a Pay Per
Click (PPC) campaign for business-to-business (B2B) is a much different animal
from running paid-search campaigns targeting consumers.
In a B2B
environment, products and solutions are more complex, the audience is more
sophisticated, the price tag is much higher, sales cycles are longer, and there
are multiple decision-makers and influencers. Plus, advertising budgets are
often much smaller.
There are many variables to tackle in any PPC
campaign. This article focuses on 5 keyword strategies for B2B search engine
advertising.
1) Start With Highly-targeted Keywords - When starting a B2B
search engine advertising campaign, never, ever start with a one-word keyword!
And be very careful even when selecting any two-word keywords.
B2B bids
will usually be higher than in a B2C environment, and your primary objective
(typically) is to generate well-qualified leads.
So, conserve your budget
early by carefully choosing keyword phrases that are directly applicable to a
product or service offering. Be as specific as possible, and try to put yourself
in a potential customer?s shoes.
For example, if your business is in the
data-warehousing space, you would certainly not bid on "data" to start out, and
you may want to bid only on phrase match (quotation marks around the phrase) and
exact match (brackets around the phrase) for your primary two-word phrases such
as "data warehouse" and "data warehousing."
2) Jump Right Into Markets
& Technical Terms - You may also consider bypassing the high-level concept
of your products/services, and going right after a particular vertical market by
targeting something like "financial data warehouse" and/or "finance data
warehouse." Again, start with phrase and exact match to gauge the level of
search activity before adding broad-match versions of the keywords.
Or,
instead of targeting a specific vertical market, consider going deep quickly by
starting your campaign by bidding only on very technical terms that the
immediate purchaser/end user would be searching for.
There will be a time
when you will want to open up your keyword selection to broader terms, enabling
you to test out the market and to attract the higher-level decision-makers.
These are the folks that may not take any action on your website at all, but
will ask someone on their team to investigate further. (This of course makes
tracking ROI more difficult, but it is often a necessary strategy to build brand
awareness.)
3) Users Do Not Search for "Solutions" - When choosing
keywords, you can try extending your keywords using the word "solutions," but
our experience shows that users rarely search with that word. Be sure to use
other descriptive extenders like "software," "services," "tool(s),"
"product(s)," "company(ies)," "provider(s)," "consultant(s)," and
"vendor(s)."
4) Apply Negative Keywords Generously - In search
advertising you have the opportunity to add negative keywords to a campaign or
ad group that will prevent your ads from being triggered when those words are
included in a search query. Some common negative keywords to consider in B2B
are:
Free, cheap, discount(ed), liquidation, close out, used, retail,
job(s), salary(ies), employment, internship(s), resources, research, statistics,
metrics, journal(s), association(s), links, open source, how to, create,
creating, home, homemade, etc.
The choice of negative keywords will
depend on your industry, but you can get creative and generate lists of words
that you would not want your ad to be triggered for.
We?ve created a
reference list of potential negative keywords on our blog that B2B
advertisers may want to consider.
5) Apply Your PPC Intelligence to SEO -
One very nice aspect of PPC is that you are gathering intelligence about exactly
how users search for your products and services. You are taking the guesswork
out of the keyword-research process involved in search optimization by seeing
the exact number of impressions and clicks for your keywords. And, you are
gauging the effectiveness of these keywords in terms of bringing qualified
visitors to your site. You can use your website analytics to monitor pageviews,
bounce rates, and conversions for the keywords that people have used to find
your site.
If you are just starting the keyword-research process for SEO,
you might use a keyword research tool like Keyword Discovery, Wordtracker,
Wordze, Google AdWords Keyword Estimation Tool, etc. It?s important to note that
these tools will show you the relative popularity of keywords, but cannot give
you an accurate representation of their actual search volume, or provide you
with a valuation of the keywords as they relate to your business.
For
example, when optimizing your data-warehousing website for organic search, you
may be deciding between "data warehouse" and "data warehousing."
Keyword-estimation tools may show you that "data warehouse" is far more popular
than "data warehousing." However, your PPC experience may show that "data
warehousing" is a more effective term for your website. Even more likely, you
may find that "data warehouse" is the better term, but that "data mining
warehouse" -- while having fewer searches -- is the best possible keyword phrase
for your business. You would then be able to make informed decisions about which
keyword phrases to optimize your website for.
Keyword selection is just
one facet of successful PPC advertising. Stay tuned for additional strategies
and tactics in future articles related to ad copy, bid strategies, landing page
optimization, and ROI tracking.
Andy Komack, President
KoMarketing Associates
|
|
|
| Attractive, Custom Design |  | CINIVA believes in bringing your design vision to life. All of our websites are custom designed with your input, never a template used.
| |
| Retail E-Commerce Success |  | | Dorothy Prentice Aromatherapy increases global visibility through their new online shopping cart, catering to retail and wholesale customers. | |
| Online Donations |  | | With CINIVA, churches can accept monetary donations and online registration for special events easily! | |
| Online Database Management |  | | No matter the online storage size needed, CINIVA has the tools to help you maintain any style of database. | |
| Searchable Classifieds |  | | Turn your website into a functional, searchable job and resume bank for a growing client base. | |
| PPC Management Gets Results |  | | Strong campaigns make for high search visibility. Learn how to use Google to increase traffic and business to your website. | |
| Effective E-Mail Marketing |  | | Sundays Blue Box Tanning Resort enjoys a healthy customer retention rate thanks to attractive, effective e-mail newsletters. | |
| AMTI For Homeland Security |  | | AMTI specializes in top-quality security and surveillance equipment. CINIVA serves to enhance their online presence. | |
| High Search Rankings |  | | Increased visibility in search engines leads to more traffic and more sales. CINIVA can get you noticed. | |
|
 |
|
|
|
