Why are some Google Ads programs successful and others aren’t?
Why can some B2B companies use Google Ads to drive long-term growth, while others struggle to gain a foothold or see their once-productive programs peter out over time?
In my 15 years of managing Group Twenty Seven, I’ve identified three factors that separate B2Bs with top-performing Google Ads programs from those that don’t.
1. Growth metrics are success metrics
There’s a pattern most B2B companies experience with their Google advertising.
How it begins: The company starts with an understanding that for long-term, sustainable success, they need to become a market leader. The marketing team builds a comprehensive Google Ads program to support that goal.
Part of the program focuses on long-term growth and awareness, using tools such as Display ads and video ads in combination with upper-funnel keyword terms.
The other part of the program focuses on getting leads and sales while keeping an eye on cost-per-click and cost-per-lead.
The company may continue with this two-pronged approach for years, driving consistent performance and growth, month after month and year after year,
But then something happens. It could be an economic downturn. Or maybe there’s a change in leadership. Sometimes, priorities shift and other projects take precedence. Whatever the reason, the marketing team is under new pressure to tie every ad dollar spent to a sale and reduce the cost of lead acquisition.
Something happens… and the marketing team is under new pressure to tie every ad dollar spent to a sale and reduce the cost of lead acquisition.
Some marketing teams will bow to the pressure and “trim the fat” of their Google Ads campaigns. (This isn’t hard to do, by the way. Basically, you just have to assess campaign performance and stop all “non-performing” campaigns—and keep iterating on this process.)
Often, the company is thrilled with the results of this cost-cutting. They continue to get leads and sales while spending less on their Google advertising. The marketing team can report to leadership that they “lowered ad spend by X amount and CPL by X amount,” and everyone is happy.
But six months later, sales and leads dwindle. And everyone wonders why.
Six months later, sales and leads dwindle. And everyone wonders why.
How did this happen? By eliminating “non-performing” campaigns, the company is left with only high-intent lower funnel non-branded search campaigns, branded campaigns, and remarketing campaigns.
Not long after, lower funnel non-branded search campaigns stop producing, leaving only branded campaigns and remarketing. Next, the volume of clicks and revenue from branded campaigns and remarketing also declines. Leads start drying up.
And in just a few months, a healthy, thriving Google Ads program is reduced to a trickle.
Fortunately, not every company follows the “cost-cutting” path when under pressure. Companies with a growth marketing mindset keep their comprehensive Google Ads program in place, including campaigns that aren’t directly tied to sales or leads. They understand that these campaigns are necessary to become a market leader.
In short, companies with top-performing Google Ads programs treat growth metrics as their main success metrics. Growth is their north star, and they stride toward it, even when there’s pressure to focus purely on sales and leads.
Companies with top-performing Google Ads programs treat growth metrics as their main success metrics.
2. Content is a priority
In some companies, content isn’t considered all that important. They may have a blog and a sales slide deck, but that’s about it. This is particularly true for B2B companies more accustomed to in-person events, where they’ve traditionally relied on salespeople to convey educational content to prospective clients during sales meetings.
But that kind of selling model can only take them so far. So for them to succeed with Google Ads, they need to have a library of resources that their marketing team can deploy in their advertising.
Content such as explanatory videos, white papers, and educational on-demand webinar recordings isn’t just valuable for content marketing, it’s also a goldmine for advertising.
When companies have lots of content to choose from, marketing teams can get strategic about where they use it in the buyer’s journey. They can use educational content (such as white papers and on-demand webinars) for top-of-funnel prospects.
When companies have content to choose from, marketing teams can get strategic about how and where to use it in the buyer’s journey.
Once prospects are further along in the buyer’s journey, marketing teams can present them with branded campaigns and use keywords that are appropriate for prospects that are ready to buy. They can also send them to lead-generation landing pages without coming across as pushy.
But if a B2B doesn’t already have content that the marketing team can use in their Google advertising, then the marketing team has to create that content—which is a much steeper hill to climb.
3. New ways of doing things are embraced
Google Ads is always changing. And the pace of that change is increasing.
Companies with top-performing Google Ads programs see those changes as opportunities rather than obstacles. They find ways to benefit from changes rather than stubbornly persisting in the “old” way of doing things.
Companies with top-performing Google Ads programs see changes as opportunities.
Recently, for example, that means moving away from strategies based on hyper-segmentation and micromanagement to strategic intent-based account structures and personalized targeting.
Even more fundamentally, it means expanding their understanding of what Google advertising encompasses.
Today, Google advertising doesn’t just mean ads that show up on Google search pages. New campaign types, such as Discovery and Performance Max, have changed the game by taking Google advertising beyond personalized targeting methods—and even beyond Google.com.
Today, you can reach the right people in a multitude of ways on a multitude of properties, such as video ads on “watch next” feeds and image ads on content categories that your audience frequents.
Today, you an reach the right people in a multitude of ways on a multitude of properties.
We’ve seen that B2Bs with successful Google Ads programs embrace these changes instead of resisting or ignoring them. They accept that strategies and campaign types that worked yesterday may not work tomorrow—so they’re open to testing new ideas, even if there’s no immediate benefit to their advertising ROI.
Want Your Google Ads Program to Join the “Top-Performing” Ranks?
Whether your Google Ads program is new or established, we can partner with you to build a program that’s geared to the long-term success of your B2B company.
And we can deliver this support in a variety of ways depending on your needs, whether as an initial audit, a limited consulting engagement, or ongoing program management.
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