General PPC

PPC (Pay-Per-Click) is a model where you pay only when someone clicks your ad. It’s used across platforms—Google Search, YouTube, LinkedIn, Meta/Facebook, and more—to promote your content, products, or services to a targeted audience.

PPC drives immediate traffic by paying for ad placement. SEO is an organic strategy that takes longer but delivers sustainable traffic without per-click costs. Most successful B2B strategies use both in tandem.

  • Paid Search (Google/Bing): Targets users actively searching specific keywords. High intent. Best for lead generation.
  • Paid Social (LinkedIn/Facebook/Instagram): Targets users based on demographics, interests, job titles, or behavior. Best for awareness, nurturing, and remarketing.

Use Search when:

  • Buyers know what they want
  • You need high-intent leads now

Use Social when:

  • You want to build awareness or educate a niche audience
  • You’re promoting gated content, hiring, or events
  • You’re targeting engineers, buyers, or executives by title or industry

Yes. PPC is highly effective for targeting niche buyers searching for specific equipment, services, or industrial certifications. It’s also useful for targeting decision-makers in long buying cycles.

Both have value:

  • Google Ads works best for capturing demand (“stainless steel tank supplier”).
  • LinkedIn Ads are ideal for reaching niche B2B roles like engineers, buyers, and plant managers.
  • Meta Ads (Facebook/Instagram) are lower cost and effective for remarketing or boosting top-funnel content (e.g., videos, blog posts).

  • Search ads appear in search results when users actively search for keywords.
  • Display ads show on websites, apps, or YouTube and are best for brand awareness, not high-intent lead generation.

Budget & Costs

Costs vary depending on the industry, level of competition, and target audience. In industrial PPC, cost-per-click (CPC) typically ranges from $2–$10. You control your daily and monthly budgets.

  • Google Search: $1,500–$5,000/month for most industrial niches
  • LinkedIn Ads: Higher CPC ($8–$15+) but excellent for precise B2B targeting
  • Facebook/Instagram: Lower CPC ($1–$4) with wide reach

A strategist can help you determine the recommended budget for your campaign’s goal.

It depends. Paid social often costs less per click but may deliver lower-intent traffic. It excels at building awareness, retargeting, and account-based engagement. Paid search captures ready-to-act users.

Yes—and you should. A well-balanced strategy uses:

  • Google for high-intent capture
  • LinkedIn for industry-specific targeting
  • Facebook for remarketing and low-cost awareness

Technically, there’s no universal minimum—but platforms and performance realities create some constraints:

  • Google Ads: You can start with any budget, but running with less than $500–$1,000/month in a competitive B2B industry may not yield enough clicks or conversions for meaningful optimization.
  • LinkedIn Ads: Yes, LinkedIn enforces a daily minimum spend, typically:
    • $10/day for campaign groups and individual campaigns
    • $2/click minimum bid for manual bidding
      • This means even if your total budget is modest, you may be required to set your daily budget higher to launch campaigns.
  • Meta (Facebook/Instagram): Very flexible with no enforced daily minimums. Lower-cost testing is possible, but low budgets may extend learning phases.

⚠️ Keep in mind: Budget isn’t just about platform requirements—it’s also about data. If your monthly spend is too low, you may not generate enough impressions or clicks to know what’s working. This can slow down optimization and lead to inconclusive results.

Targeting & Audience

Yes—but only on platforms like:

  • LinkedIn Ads: Direct targeting by job title, industry, seniority, company size, and company name
  • Meta Ads: Limited B2B targeting, but you can use interests, behaviors, and lookalike audiences
  • Google Ads: Some audience targeting via “in-market” segments and customer match

Yes. All major ad platforms offer the ability to upload custom audiences. Use these to:

  • Retarget current leads
  • Cross-sell or upsell existing customers
  • Build lookalike audiences

Yes—retargeting (aka remarketing) is one of the highest ROI tactics in B2B. Set up:

  • Google Display + YouTube remarketing
  • LinkedIn Website Retargeting
  • Meta Custom Audiences from site visits or form engagement

Only some platforms support true account-based marketing:

  • LinkedIn Ads: Upload a list of companies for exact targeting
  • Meta Ads: Not built for ABM, but can be used for layered lookalikes
  • Google Ads: Customer Match can be used with company emails (if available)

I use tools like Google Ads Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, and Semrush to find high-intent terms relevant to your products or services AND campaign goal.

Yes. Bidding on branded terms helps control your SERP presence, protect against competitors, and improve conversions at a low cost.

Negative keywords prevent your ad from showing on irrelevant searches (e.g., “DIY,” “jobs,” “free”). They’re essential for avoiding wasted spend and improving lead quality.

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Landing Page Strategy

Yes. Sending PPC traffic to your homepage or general service page often leads to poor conversions. A tailored landing page with clear CTAs and relevant messaging performs better. Use:

  • Product/service-specific pages
  • Industry-specific pages
  • Use case or solution-based content

  • Clear headline with keyword match
  • Value proposition
  • Visuals or diagrams
  • Trust signals (certifications, associations, testimonials)
  • Conversion-focused form or CTA
  • Mobile responsiveness and fast load time

In most cases, no. PPC landing pages are built for conversions, not SEO. Use a noindex tag to avoid confusing your SEO efforts or keyword cannibalization.

Yes, especially on LinkedIn and Facebook. They’re great for gated assets like:

  • Whitepapers
  • Product catalogs
  • ROI calculators
  • Quote request offers

But you’ll need a plan to nurture those leads, as social form fills are often earlier-stage.

Strategy & Scaling

Absolutely. PPC is ideal for boosting awareness, traffic, and lead generation around time-sensitive events or new product introductions.

For many industrial companies, year-round ads provide consistent pipeline growth. However, budget allocation can spike around product rollouts, events, or procurement seasons.

Yes. Use geographic targeting or keyword variations to test market demand, positioning, or new industries—before investing heavily in other channels.

PPC provides fast traffic and keyword testing while SEO builds long-term authority. Together, they maximize SERP coverage, increase visibility, and shorten sales cycles.

Yes. Use Meta or LinkedIn to promote job openings, showcase company culture, and build awareness with trade school grads or skilled workers.

  • Promote gated technical content (e.g., guides, whitepapers, compliance checklists)
  • Retarget visitors who viewed service pages
  • Run Sponsored InMail to buyer roles with demo or quote offers

Yes—video is effective on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Meta. Highlight:

  • Facility tours
  • Product demos
  • Case studies
  • Team or customer testimonials

A full-funnel PPC strategy targets prospects at every stage of the buyer journey—from awareness to decision.

🚦 Key Funnel Stages & Tactics:

  • Top-of-Funnel (TOFU) – Awareness
    • Platforms: LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook
    • Tactics: Promote educational content, whitepapers, case studies, video tours
    • Goal: Build trust and brand visibility
  • Mid-Funnel (MOFU) – Consideration
    • Platforms: Google Search, LinkedIn
    • Tactics: Retarget site visitors, offer product demos, comparison guides
    • Goal: Encourage form fills or deeper engagement
  • Bottom-of-Funnel (BOFU) – Conversion
    • Platforms: Google Search, Remarketing
    • Tactics: Bid on high-intent keywords (e.g., “industrial gearbox supplier”), highlight guarantees or pricing
    • Goal: Drive RFQs, calls, or direct contact

A full-funnel approach improves efficiency by nurturing leads over time instead of chasing only ready-to-buy users.

PPC brings leads in. Email nurtures them toward purchase. How They Support Each Other:

  • Lead Gen + Drip Campaigns: Use PPC (LinkedIn, Facebook, Google) to capture leads via gated content, then enroll them in automated email sequences that educate and qualify.
  • Abandoned Forms: If someone clicks your PPC ad but doesn’t convert, retarget them with email (if known) or social remarketing.
  • List-Based Retargeting: Upload email lists to Google Ads, LinkedIn, or Facebook to retarget warm leads or build lookalike audiences.
  • Cross-Channel Messaging: Reinforce key messages via both channels—e.g., promote a product launch in email and retarget with PPC.

Together, these channels shorten sales cycles and increase deal velocity in complex B2B environments.

It depends on your audience and content.

✅ Pros:

  • Reddit Ads can target communities (subreddits) like r/engineering, r/mechanical, or r/manufacturing
  • Useful for recruiting, top-funnel awareness, and niche discussions
  • Relatively low cost compared to LinkedIn

⚠️ Cons:

  • Limited targeting by company/job title
  • Can be hostile to overt advertising—content needs to be helpful, not salesy
  • Low intent compared to search

If you have helpful, technical content or want to reach early-career engineers, Reddit can be worth testing. For C-suite or high-ticket B2B leads, stick to LinkedIn or Google.

Yes—and many B2B teams are already doing so. It’s important to remember that AI is a tool, not a replacement. It speeds up testing, but won’t understand your technical value prop the way your marketing team does. Use AI to scale variations—not strategy.

✍️ For Ad Copy:

  • Tools like ChatGPT or Jasper can help brainstorm headlines, test CTAs, or rewrite copy variations
  • AI-generated copy still needs human editing for tone, accuracy, and compliance

🖼️ For Creatives:

  • Tools like Canva, Midjourney, or Adobe Firefly can generate image concepts
  • Ideal for:
    • Concepting ads
    • Creating basic illustrations
    • A/B testing visual styles

Campaign Optimization

I recommend reviewing performances weekly, but allow 20-30 days before making any significant changes to give the platform’s algorithm time to learn.

  • Google Search: Responsive search ads with sitelinks
  • LinkedIn: Single image ads, message ads (InMail), document ads
  • Facebook/Instagram: Carousel ads, video ads, and lead forms for low-friction conversions
  • YouTube: Skippable in-stream ads to showcase capabilities, facilities, or how-to demos

Common reasons include: low search volume, uncompetitive bids, irrelevant targeting, weak ad copy, or poor landing page experience. A full audit helps identify the issue.

Google assigns a Quality Score based on keyword relevance, ad copy, and landing page experience. Higher scores lead to lower costs and better ad positions.

Native lead forms (also called lead gen forms) are in-platform forms that pre-fill user information—such as name, email, job title, and company—directly from the user’s social profile. They’re available on:

  • LinkedIn (Lead Gen Forms)
  • Facebook/Instagram (Meta Lead Ads)
  • Google/YouTube (Lead Form Extensions)

These forms don’t require users to leave the platform to visit your website, which reduces drop-off and increases completion rates—especially on mobile devices.

Yes—and in many cases, they’re one of the most efficient ways to capture early-stage B2B leads.

  • Lower friction: More users complete the form since they don’t have to visit a landing page or manually enter info.
  • High-quality business data: On LinkedIn, for example, forms are populated with verified job titles, industries, and company names.
  • Fast deployment: No need to build landing pages or worry about mobile responsiveness.
  • Strong performance for gated assets: Great for whitepapers, brochures, calculators, webinar signups, or quote offers.
  • Integrated CRM options: Can be synced to most major CRMs and marketing automation platforms to automate follow-up.

⚠️ Watch-Out For:

  • Lead intent may vary: While volume is often higher, these leads can be earlier in the buying journey. They may need nurturing before being sales-ready.
  • CRM integration is key: Make sure your CRM or lead routing system is connected properly so leads don’t get stuck in a spreadsheet or missed.
  • Testing matters: Run tests against traditional landing pages to compare cost per lead, lead quality, and conversion-to-opportunity rate.
  • Limited branding/control: You can’t design the form experience the same way you can with a custom landing page.

🛠️ Best Practices for Industrial Campaigns:

  • Use for top- or mid-funnel offers like:
    • Industry-specific checklists
    • Maintenance guides
    • Compliance tips
  • Application-based case studies
  • Qualify leads by asking custom questions like:
    • “What equipment are you currently using?”
    • “What’s your estimated project timeline?”
  • Set up automated follow-up emails or a thank-you page redirect for next steps (e.g., brochure download, meeting scheduler)

Use:

  • Email drip sequences with educational content
  • Follow-up from sales or customer service
  • Retargeting to bring them back when they’re ready to buy

Yes—especially if you’re running high-value lead gen or recruitment ads.

🔒 How to Exclude:

  • Google Ads: Exclude IPs or create custom audiences (e.g., based on job-hunting keywords or irrelevant site behavior)
  • LinkedIn: Exclude users with “student,” “intern,” or “seeking” in their title, or filter by seniority
  • Meta: Use interest exclusions where available, though it’s less precise
  • Also consider creating competitor exclusion lists using their IPs or email domains if you’ve identified them.

📉 Why It Matters:

  • Reduces junk leads
  • Protects proprietary offers from being monitored
  • Keeps your CPL focused on real buyers, not researchers

Performance & Reporting

Key metrics for both search and social include:

  • Impressions
  • Clicks
  • CTR (click-through-rate)
  • CPC (cost per click)
  • CPM (cost per thousand impressions – useful for social)
  • Conversions (form submissions, calls, downloads)
  • CPL (cost per lead)

Yes:

  • Search leads are usually warmer but more expensive.
  • Social leads may be earlier in the funnel or need nurturing.

Use gated content, lead forms, and remarketing to improve quality on paid social.

We track performance using Google Ads, GA4, and tools like Looker Studio. Set up may include:

  • UTM parameters to track campaign sources in GA4
  • Meta Pixel, LinkedIn Insight Tag, or Google Tag Manager
  • Offline conversion tracking if leads are followed up via phone or email

While averages vary by industry and platform, in industrial and B2B manufacturing, a 2–5% conversion rate is typical. Higher than 5% often indicates strong landing pages and well-qualified traffic.

We define these based on your goals; however, common conversions include:

  • RFQ form submissions
  • Brochure downloads
  • Phone calls
  • Button clicks

It is recommended to give campaign’s at least 30 days to gather enough data for optimization. B2B cycles are longer, so expect leads to convert over time—not always immediately.

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