I would like to send a huge “thank you” to all those who attended the webinar I hosted on Tuesday, August 18, 2015. If you were unable to attend, you can access the full presentation of B2B PPC: What’s Hot & What’s Not now.

Because I did not have the opportunity to answer all your great questions during the webinar, I will be sharing my responses below!

1. Which B2B PPC platform or network generally has the best results?

In 2015, LinkedIn has proven to be the most effective platform for lead generation. Instead of targeting by keyword and assuming intent based on research, LinkedIn allows you to target by professional demographics including job title or company. Having the ability to send targeted content to decision makers is a B2B online marketers dream. Simply put, the targeting power of LinkedIn is the reason why it is the most effective place to reach your target audience. Many of our clients have shifted dollars from Google to LinkedIn because of the positive results.

2. We have a very limited budget for PPC, around 2K per month. Which mediums do you think would be best for us?

I would suggest launching three types of campaigns: Google remarketing, Google search and LinkedIn. Depending on your goals, I would suggest allocating 30% for remarketing, 30% for search and 40% for LinkedIn.

3. Are we able to discover the keywords our competitors buy?

Yes. We use a tool called SpyFu to essentially “spy” on our clients’ competitors. Using the paid version we can see average monthly spend on Google, search terms, landing pages, and tons of other PPC data. We typically run the analysis every 30-60 days to help inform our next move and find new keywords. For more info on our competitive analyses process, read our post all about spying on your competitors.

4. Do you suggest running AB tests to determine which ad copy, call to action, or placement is most valuable? If so, how would you suggest running these tests?

Absolutely. With all the free A/B testing tools, it’s foolish not to A/B test. Our standard best practice is to launch every campaign using Adwords experiments. We launch two versions of each ad and test the headlines to determine what messages have an impact on click through rate. If you have the resources to duplicate landing pages, we also suggest launching two versions of each landing page to measure the impact different call to actions have on conversion rate. Learn more about how we A/B test using experiments.

5. What’s your most effective keyword match type for B2B PPC?

 This really depends on the types of products you sell, but in general, I’ve found a healthy mix of broad-match modifier and phrase match keywords combine to make a strong and effective keyword strategy. As always, use the data to make your match-type decisions. If you’re low on search volume, add a “+” between each word and test out broad match modifier.  

I hope this webinar and blog post has helped you in your online advertising efforts. If you still have any PPC questions after reading this post or catching up on the webinar, feel free to send them my way on twitter @emagineleah!