Paid advertising on social media channels always seems to be growing, it’s a huge buzzword at the minute and everybody wants it to work for their business.
In B2C you’ll find endless ecommerce businesses who essentially make a living through Facebook ads alone and this makes sense, social media is very much a consumer channel. But this doesn’t stop stakeholders in B2B[1] companies pushing for paid social to drive a volume of leads and clients.
And this is where it gets challenging. As a B2B marketer, you are advertising in an unleveled playing field.
When you advertise on Google Ads[2] you have user intent, you still have competition but you are all competing for the same thing, an engaged user.
When you advertise on Facebook however, you are targeting the same users as businesses in fashion, electronics, homeware – and there is no intent.
It, therefore, becomes incredibly important that you pinpoint the right audience and target them with engaging creatives. If you don’t you will just be wasting ad spend.
There is so much you can do with paid social ads, so I’ve outlined a few that I have seen work well in the B2B space.
Customer Lookalike Audiences
There are so many audiences you can test across LinkedIn and Facebook, be that based on job titles, interests, company names – the list goes on. However, If you are new to paid social or just looking for a new way to generate leads, lookalike audiences are where I would start.
There are two ways to do this; – the first is to get a list of all the users who have enquired via your website, be that a form completion or a download – whatever you deem to be an inquiry.
The second,