I’m not going to lie – if you’re new to the world of PPC lead generation, running your first Google Ads or Facebook Ads campaign to generate those leads can be pretty intimidating. You’ve got to get your account and tracking set up, work on the artwork and/or create your ads, and finally, run your ads and optimize them to get more leads at minimal cost.
On the bright side: while there’s a ton of work involved in PPC lead generation, familiarizing yourself with PPC ads is definitely worth your while. When used properly, PPC can be a huge asset to you, and running PPC ads is the easiest way of generating new leads to add to your prospect list. Read on to find out more!
First things first – which platform works best when it comes to PPC lead generation? Google, Facebook, Inststagram, Linkedin or Bing? Now, most marketers simply hone in on the “default option” (that’s Google Ads); that said, it might also be worth your while to advertise on the other channels as well.
First up, Facebook offers advertisers more options when it comes to targeting. Say you’re working for a SaaS company, and you want to reach marketing managers and directors who are sophisticated and savvy. If you’ve identified that your ideal customer is one who keeps up with industry updates and follows prominent marketers such as Neil Patel and Jon Loomer, you can use Facebook to target marketers who have “Liked” these marketers’ pages. Pretty cool, huh?
Then there’s Bing, which started out slow, but is now becoming a force to be reckoned with. Consider this: Bing now reaches almost 50% of the population in America and 142 million+ unique searchers worldwide. Out of these 142 million Bing users, 66 million use Bing exclusively; this means you won’t find them with Google.
Now, here’s the icing on the cake: studies have shown that the average Bing Ads Cost Per Click (CPC) is up to 42% lower than that of Google Ads. This means: on top of being able to reach out to a wider pool of searchers with Bing, you’re also getting the added benefit of reaching them at a vastly reduced cost.
The bottom line? If you’re looking to get started with PPC lead generation, Google might be the first choice that comes to mind – but there’s no harm experimenting with other platforms as well. You might find that Facebook or Bing (or a combination of all three) works the best for you!
For those running search ads, one key factor that influences your success is your keywords. At the most basic level, your keywords need to be both relevant and specific – so they drive you traffic that you can actually convert. On top of that, you’ll also want to make sure that you target keywords that aren’t too competitive; this way, you have a better chance of appearing on the first page of Google, rather than having your ad show on page four or five (and get significantly less traffic.)
Luckily, there are several tools that you can use to research and identify keywords with high potential. If you haven’t already done so, sign up for a Google Ads account so that you can use their Keyword Planner to research monthly search volumes and keyword difficulties. Google’s Keyword Planner aside, there are also other free and paid online keyword tools, including:
SEMrush’s Keyword Research Tool
Here’s a nifty PPC lead generation trick: you can also discover your competitors’ organic and paid keywords with SimilarWeb. Simply plug your competitor’s URL into the tool, and it’ll highlight the top organic keywords that the company is ranking for as well as the top paid keywords that it’s investing in.
Depending on your advertising budget and your market share, you can decide whether you want to take your competitor heads-on (and target the same keywords they’re targeting), or whether you want to use a different approach.
Once you’ve nailed down those keywords, the next piece of the puzzle is to come up with a compelling ad. There’s a lot to unpack here, and you should invest your time and resources into optimizing each and every element on your ad, but I’m going to hone in on copywriting today.
When it comes to copywriting, here’s what you need to know: the key to writing an effective ad lies in creating urgency. This is a technique that’s favored by eCommerce stores (“Black Friday Sale — 50% off for 24h only!”) – but B2B marketers can easily use similar techniques with their PPC lead generation efforts.
For instance, you could host a webinar in order to generate leads, and run ads to promote your webinar. In this case, your ad might look something like:
Ad: FREE Webinar On How To 10x Your Company’s Growth Using SEM. Starts In 2 Hours!
You don’t have to keep logging back into your account and editing that last sentence (“Starts in 2 hours”), by the way. Assuming you’re running your ads on Google, you’ll be able to use a nifty Countdown Widget to customize your text with a countdown timer. Your ads will be updated to reflect the actual countdown in real time, without any work on your end!
Now that you’ve got your ads sorted out, you’ll want to work on making it easy for your visitors to convert as leads.
There are several things you should do here. Firstly, make sure you match the message to the message on your landing page to a tee. If your ad reads “FREE Webinar On How To 10x Your Company’s Growth Using SEM”, for example, then use the very same header on your landing page. The more consistent you are with your messaging, the higher your chances of converting your visitor as a lead.
Next: Use a CTA to get visitors to turn into leads. Ofcourse, we recommend using Bookafy as your CTA to schedule a demo, initial visit or sales appointment. We have found that limiting the number of fields required to book really helps with he conversion. Ofcourse we want to know as much as possible… but limiting the fields to name and email is a great way to increase the conversion on the page and with that information you can easily deduce their company name, industry and company size from there. You’ll still get all the information you need, and you’ll reduce the likelihood of your visitors bouncing off the page without converting (because they can’t be bothered to fill out a long form).
Last but not least, make sure you display testimonials on your landing page in order to demonstrate social proof. If your visitor sees that industry experts and/or reputable companies have worked with your company, and only have good things to say about you, this makes it a no-brainer for them to sign up as a lead.
Now that we’ve reached the end of the article, here are your next steps: go ahead and set up your Google, Facebook, and Bing ad accounts, and use the strategies I’ve outlined in this article to start generating leads. From there, simply input your leads into your prospecting software, and move them through your sales funnel. You’ll find your sales and revenue shooting through the roof in no time!
