According to a recent study, 93 per cent of B2B buyers begin their purchasing decisions with online research. The research, by eye-tracking specialist Enquiro, also revealed that 95 per cent use a search engine to develop shortlists. Given this, you might expect B2B marketers to be enthusiastic users of pay-per-click (PPC) marketing. However, they have lagged some way behind their consumer counterparts in this area.
Most agree with Peter Wilton, MD of marketing agency TDA, who says, “Pay-per-click can be an effective acquisition driver, but it is too expensive and too blunt an instrument to play a significant long-term role in a B2B marketing strategy.” Yet this is changing. B2B marketers are beginning to take PPC seriously. Increasing competition for B2B keywords has driven up prices, and many observers expect this to continue into 2008. To some extent this is happening because of several innovations in the world of B2B PPC, and this increased take-up is driving further innovation. Much is changing, but one thing is certain: PPC is an element of marketing no B2B marketer can afford to ignore.
Improved targeting
For B2B marketers the problem with PPC is that it is poorly targeted. You pay for a search term and then anyone in the UK can click on it. Darren Jamieson, content editor at online marketing agency Just Search, believes this is no longer the case. “In the past, lack of knowledge and experience has meant many businesses have wasted their budget by, for example, advertising to the whole of the UK when they can only service their local area. Advances in tracking tools mean PPC campaigns can now be managed actively and with greater efficiency. Marketers can use geo-targeting to ensure only people in their area see their listing.”
It is also possible to focus PPC campaigns by sector through so-called vortals. Hannah Kimuyu, PPC director at online marketing agency Greenlight, explains, “Search engines are trying to accommodate the B2B sector through the creation of vertical search engines, also known as vortals. These reap the benefits of verticalisation. It has been estimated that by 2009 the vertical search market will be worth $1 billion.”
Looking overseas
Even though the UK B2B sector is lagging behind B2C when it comes to PPC, it is advanced compared to the rest of the world and in the last year some UK companies have recognised the potential for PPC overseas.
Greig Holbrook, MD at international search engine marketing consultancy Oban Multilingual, says, “On a global level, few local companies realise the potential of PPC, so there is less competition for key phrases for companies wishing to tap into local demand.
This is tied into lack of knowledge regarding PPC outside of the UK. Even in countries like Denmark, where PPC understanding is supposed to be among the highest, they are way behind the UK. This creates great opportunities for any company or organisation looking to go international,” he continues. There are of course challenges in this area. Although countries like the US and India speak English, business people there will search for different terms. Similarly, buyers in other countries may respond differently to the same creative.
Making it work for B2B
In the last year there have also been important developments in how B2B marketers use PCC. Neil Morgan, MD at web analytics firm Omniture, says, “Traditionally PPC was about getting the most clicks, so people bid for the words that produced the highest clicks. However, our research shows that the words that produce the most clicks are rarely those that produce the most sales. Increasingly then, B2B marketers are bidding on less popular – and therefore cheaper – words which produce better results.”
They are also investing in software that automates the time-consuming process of keyword-bidding. Cormac Doyle, head of paid search at online marketing agency Altogether Digital, says, “Bid management systems can provide keyword intelligence on the search terms that led to conversions, as opposed to the keywords that you bid on. This allows campaign managers to expand their keyword lists with more specific, converting keywords.”
This more sophisticated approach to PPC is also affecting how B2B marketers approach their search engine optimisation (SEO). Ivan Izikowitz, MD at search engine marketing agency, Clicks2Customers, says, “We’re seeing a growing realisation that SEO and PPC need to be more closely integrated. It’s a closely guarded secret how Google ranks sites, but we do know that if two sites have both bid equal amounts on the same term Google will differentiate on the quality of the landing page.”
The need for specialists
Ultimately, B2B marketers are making greater use of PPC with many reaping benefits. This means, however, there is more competition in the market. Simon Norris, MD at PPC agency Periscopix, says, “A year ago it was possible for B2B companies to get results from loosely-managed PPC campaigns. Now this isn’t the case. Everyone else has realised the potential and wants to get in on the act. This means only the most professionally-run campaigns will succeed.”
Not so long ago it was possible to run a PPC campaign yourself armed with little more than Google’s advice page and a spreadsheet of your top search terms. Now you need to invest time in becoming an expert or money in hiring one. As Ann Stanley, MD at online agency Anicca Solutions, says, “Most companies don’t understand quality score, ad relevancy or the importance of deleting poor performing key phrases with a low click through rate. Most B2B companies don’t have PPC conversion tracking codes set up and few have experience of using Google Editor or other PPC management tools. If they want to do it properly there are two choices – outsource to a Google-accredited professional or agency or become an expert yourself.”
Much is changing in the world of PPC, and B2B marketers are beginning to wake up to the possibilities. However, there is still a long way to go before they realise the full potential of this marketing technique. MarketingSherpa’s Search Marketing Benchmark Guide 2008 reported that B2B marketing organisations are spending one-fifth of their budgets online, with only one-third of that going towards PPC.
This is now the time for those B2B marketers to start getting into PPC. As Erika Saroli, PPC manager at marketing agency DGM, concludes, “There will be more and more B2B companies getting into the online space soon. In the B2C world a few years ago marketers became more aware of the potential of online and in particular of PPC. This led to rising cost per clicks and diminishing margins. The same will happen in B2B, so my advice would be to get into PPC as soon as possible and take advantage of a marketplace that is yet to reach full maturity.”
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