Google Ads for long sales cycles (looking for help)
Hi Guys,
I have been trying to run google ads for my company (we are in the B2B space). The idea has been to target high intent words to optimize the budget that we have. However, while we are getting forms filled, not many are actually replying to our mails or booking meeting slots with us.
Our sales cycle, in general, is long (about a month) and I figured that might also be a reason. So, I was thinking of adding remarketing to our campaign. However, I am unsure what the composition of this campaign should be.
I was thinking of running search ads on these specific keywords and to then run remarketing display ads to the users. Further, given the traffic on the google ads landing pages is low, I will have to remarket on the audience of our entire website and then just apply filters on geography, demography, etc.
I am not sure if this is the smartest way to do it, because, I have also heard people say display ads is probably better for awareness than for closing the lead. What do you guys use to set up a campaign for a month? Thanks!
I feel something is broken in your marketing funnel, but I don't think remarketing is going to fix it.
In simple terms, remarketing gives the customer/visitor a chance to re-evaluate your offer( a second chance if you will), and "bring them back".
In your scenario, people who spent time searching for something, then clicking on your ads, and filling out forms, didn't bother to respond to emails or book appointments.
See if you could dig out the data and understand what motivated them to fill out the form in the first place. Are they in your target? Do they expect something else to happen other than an email or appointments?
If the ads offers a free download, and they fill out a form to get the download, that completes the transaction in their mind. The email and appointments become unnecessary to them. A lead nurturing program might be a better fit.
Hope this helps.
Michael
P.S. Check out my Google Campaign Checklist(Free):
https://michaellu8.gumroad.com/l/GoogleCampaignChecklist
Ideally you could just auto-bid based on qualified leads (you can do this by doing an 'offline conversion upload' through Google Sheets). Every single one of my clients that we begin optimizing towards qualified leads, automate bidding, and set up the account in a way that is easy to manage has seen a ton of new business.
Disclaimer: I work at Google for my day job, I drink the Kool Aid.
Sounds super-interesting. I think I should do this as well. However, the current problem I am having is probably a bit earlier in the cycle - the leads that do fill-up the form are not getting on calls with us. So, we aren't able to convert them. The process you are suggesting (to my understanding) comes after the conversion happens, so that google can work better on the more accurate data that I supply.
What I would like to understand is if there is a way to keep engaging with leads to ensure that they do engage with us and give us the chance to convert them. Is there a standard way employed by B2B companies to get better-qualified leads who would then naturally be more engaging?
Hi Karthik,
Some thoughts on this. Remarketing is a great way to capture lost leads, and it's usually cost effective as well.
I really recommend using responsive display ads for this. These are not exactly banner ads (those typically don't work well for a B2B niche like this) but instead Google uses a creative, headline text, and description text to generate an advertisement for each placement. They typically for very well for remarketing.
A shameless plug, but I'd recommend that you look through our free guide to PPC. There is a whole section on remarketing that may be helpful!
https://www.discosloth.com/beginners-guide-to-ppc/
This is really great - super detailed guide.
While I will anyway take a look, are the responsive display ads bit explained in greater depth in the guide?
Also, how do you think a good long ads cycle should look like? Do you start with search ads or display ads? For remarketing, should it only be display ads? I wasn't able to see a lot of value in RLSA vs. the origin search ads.
Sorry for the many questions, but would love to hear your thoughts.
The guide does explain responsive ads a bit more. I highly recommend them over traditional banner ads (but you might want to A/B test both).
For a long sales cycle, and especially for something in your niche, we would always start with highly targeted search ads. The CPC may be very expensive, but it is usually worth it. Reaching one person with high intent is better than 100 people who don’t have any interest in your service.
That's great - I will be sure to take a look at it.
On an aside, I tried reaching out to your agency end of last week, but haven't got any revert yet. Just thought of letting you know, in case I am missing something :)
Sorry about that, it must have got caught in spam. Shoot me an email at gil@discosloth.com and I’ll keep an eye out for it!
Wow thanks for sharing 👍
Hi Karthik,
I'm curious about this as well. My sales cycle are similar to yours (and longer) and I have been wanting to experiment with ads, but haven't prioritized this so far. I think once I have a good story around cold email and LinkedIn outreach, I can pull my focus into this.
In the meantime, hoping someone who knows more about this can chime in.
Hey Danial,
Totally. We also started with cold mails before Google Ads. I think Google Ads is a bit costly in B2B industries (especially ours where there are big players already). But I am pretty positive about this channel working out.
Good luck!
Thank you!
Hi Karthik,
Two thoughts — 1. in enterprise, a month is on the shorter end of a sales cycle.
2. If people are filling forms and then ghosting there could be hiccups in the outreach cycle— timing or messaging disconnect with the prospect. My uninformed guess is that they are filling out forms with the hope of getting information and then are being hit with a hard sell and they get turned off.
Happy to talk through specifics if you’d like.
Nick
Hi Nick,
Thanks for your reply!
On 1 - Absolutely. To be honest, our sales cycle is probably longer than a month (we have had clients closing in a couple of weeks as well as those that take 3 months). My idea behind sharing a month as the sales cycle was more to indicate that just a single ad is probably not going to do the trick.
On 2. Totally, agree. We felt the same and have tried to address this. I have detailed it below - please let me know your thoughts
Please let me know if you would like me to share the exact mail. I would be more than happy to send it to you.
Best,
Karthik