How To Create a B2B Google Ads Optimization Workflow [+Free Template]
Hey there, B2B Marketer. If you don’t have a well-structured optimization workflow, managing just a handful of Google Ads accounts can be a struggle (been there, done that 😅)
In this article, I’ll walk you through the Google Ads Optimization Workflow template, the exact process I used to go from barely managing five Google Ads accounts to easily managing 30+ 🚀
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Google Ads Optimization Workflow Process
- Daily Google Ads Optimizations
- Weekly Google Ads Optimizations
- Monthly Google Ads Optimizations
- Quarterly Google Ads Optimizations
- Free Resources to Master B2B Ads 🔥
Why You Need a Google Ads Optimization Workflow Process
Without a consistent approach, managing Google Ads can feel chaotic. You may get lost in metrics that don’t matter or, worse, miss out on key optimizations that could boost your profitability.
I developed the Google Ads Optimization Workflow Template to help me stay organized and focus on impactful daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly optimization tasks.
👉 Grab your free copy of the template in Module 2, Lesson 1 from the B2B Google Ads 102 - How To Convert Clicks Into Profit course.
If you follow this approach, you’ll find yourself in control of your accounts, not the other way around.
Now let’s dive deep into the tasks by timeframes ⏰
Daily Google Ads Optimizations
Daily optimizations are essential for ensuring that your accounts are running smoothly. It’s your first line of defense against overspending and wasted ad spending.
Each day, you should:
1. Review your budget pacing
This way, you’ll ensure that you are not overspending or underspending.
2. Check for irrelevant search terms in the Search Terms Report
You want to add any irrelevant negative keywords. So every single day, you should review your search terms report and compare your search terms to your keywords to find the irrelevant ones and add them to your negative list.
3. Adjust bids as needed
If you’re using manual bidding, make sure to adjust your bids accordingly to get visibility.
If you’re using something like maximize clicks with a bid cap, make sure that you take a look at your average cost per click in relation to your bid cap. If you notice that your average cost per click is really close to your bid cap, you could be throttling yourself.
If you’re using Target CPA bidding, ensure that the CPA amount you set is large enough to get enough deliverability. I recommend increasing it by 20% if you notice you’re not spending your budget.
Pro Tip: Setting up Google Calendar reminders can be helpful, and something that I always tell my team that manages client accounts internally at our agency is to block an hour on their calendars every single day to go through their accounts and optimize them. We call it “optimization power hour”. ⚡️
By doing that, you will be proactive, and you’re going to catch things much sooner before they become potential fires.
Weekly Google Ads Optimizations
Weekly optimizations allow you to step back and review broader trends instead of getting caught up in the day-to-day fluctuations.
Instead of getting caught up in the day-to-day fluctuations, here you should:
1. Review weekly performance trends (visibility, cost, volume)
Every week you should look at search impression share, search lost to rank, search lost to budget, and search top impression share.
You also want to look at how much you have spent, your cost per conversion, your cost per custom conversion, meaning the cost per SQL, converted user, or whatever that KPI is that you’re measured against.
You will also want to look at volume. How many conversions are you getting? Is it trending up? Is it trending down? These are the things to keep an eye on every week.
Another thing you can do is check the charts in Google Ads to map different metrics and quickly see the trend of search impression share with this graph 👇
🚨Important: When you’re optimizing and looking at things weekly, don’t freak out if you see changes like 25% down search impression share. But if you see it happen consistently for two or three weeks in a row, then there’s definitely something that you need to make a decision about.
Lastly, breaking down your campaigns by themes like brand, non-brand, and competitive will help you to quickly identify underperforming segments and reallocate your budget where it will be most effective.
This will make the optimization process much more manageable.
2. Pause underperforming keywords
Pausing underperforming keywords is an opportunity to give more budget to the keywords with good performance.
You can quickly go to the keyword section in your account and filter by conversions to see which keywords have no conversions. Then, you can sort by cost and understand which ones are hemorrhaging the most budget and can be paused.
3. Add new relevant keywords
When you check the Search Terms report, there are certain search terms that can make sense to add to your campaign as keywords.
You can also go to the Google Ads Keyword Planner and find net new keywords that you might not be covering. This is an opportunity to expand your scope and reach, and it’s a good best practice to get into the habit.
4. Pause underperforming ads and add new ads to replace underperformers (<5% CTR)
Pausing underperforming ads is as simple as going to the ad section in your account and then pausing any ads that are not performing anymore.
So if you notice you have some underperformers, ideally anything less than a 5% click-through rate (but always compare it with your average performance), it’s time to shut off the underperforming ad and add a new ad into the mix.
This way you can continually improve your overall click-through rate performance to help boost your expected click-through rate and improve your quality score.
Monthly & Quarterly Google Ads Optimizations
Monthly and quarterly tasks focus on more strategic, higher-level adjustments.
Monthly Optimizations
It’s crucial to ensure that your campaign settings, quality score, and budget allocation align with your overall goals and haven’t been altered unintentionally.
This is also the time to assess the impact of your Google Ads efforts on your sales pipeline and to make necessary changes.
So at the end of each month, you should:
👉 Audit campaign settings (networks, bidding, location options)
This step is crucial if you manage multiple campaigns or accounts.
It’s important to double-check if you’re targeting the right network and don’t have display and search combined together.
You want to make sure your bids haven’t been updated by accident, or God forbid, you have the auto recommendations still turned on, and they’re automatically updating your bids without your consent. 💀
You also want to ensure that your location options are set to “presence” and that people are actually in your target location or regularly in, not people who are potentially in other areas and are interested in that location.
👉 Review month-over-month pipeline impact from Google Ads
We’re running ads to generate revenue, and revenue comes from initially having pipeline.
So you need a dashboard to track the performance month-over-month and connect your activity to revenue.
It can be as simple as having a report on a spreadsheet where you can see the evolution of your KPIs every month. You can create one from scratch or search for a template on the internet.
Pro tip: Check out our free Building a Paid Media Program course (Module 3, Lesson 2) to learn how to build an automated dashboard for less than $200/month using Google Sheets + a connector like Dataslayer or Supermetrics.
👉 Review performance by campaign theme (visibility, cost, volume)
The same analysis we discussed in the weekly optimizations above should be done on a monthly basis too.
How much are you spending per theme? What is your cost per conversion? What is your conversion rate? And what are the volumes?
Are you driving more volume in a certain theme versus another? Should you move the budget around?
These are the questions you should answer here.
👉 Review quality score (ad relevance, landing page experience, expected CTR)
How is your quality score by campaign theme? Is it increasing or decreasing month-over-month?
Ideally, you should aim for a quality score of 7 or above. If it’s lower than that, optimizing your ad relevance, expected CTR and landing page experience will improve things.
Check out this Quality Score Guide to learn the 80/20 of what you need to know about quality score to improve it.
👉 Review geographic performance and budget allocation
Here you want to go ahead and see how the campaigns you’re targeting in each region are performing so you can make the necessary adjustments.
I also recommend checking the Locations report to have a granular view of how each country grouped into a region is performing.
By doing this, you can find opportunities for new campaigns targeting a single country if it has a good performance and the campaign is limited by budget, or excluding low-performing countries to free up some budget for the top performers.
👉 Review device performance and budget allocation
In B2B, desktop usually performs better than mobile and tablet, so if you’re targeting all devices you can find opportunities to maximize conversions by breaking out the campaigns into different devices.
👉 Review keyword/match type performance and budget allocation
Are there certain keywords that are doing better for you than others? Certain match types? All of these are insights that will help you optimize your Google Ads campaigns.
👉 Review landing page performance and experiments
How are your landing pages performing? Are you running experiments? If you're not, that's definitely an opportunity.
👉 Implement new campaign experiments
If you’re not testing new experiments, this is a massive opportunity to improve performance, and you can run experiments easily in Google Ads with their campaign experiments tool.
Quarterly Optimizations
Every quarter, take time to conduct a competitor analysis and review your goals. It’s a great practice to see what new ads and keywords your competitors are using, giving you inspiration and helping you stay ahead in the market.
Pro tip: The channel ad libraries are great resources for competitor research. Check out these 10 tips for free competitor research using them.
This periodic check-in will ensure that your optimizations are aligned with your business objectives, providing a clear path for growth 🙌
Stay organized with the Google Ads Optimization Workflow template
If you get your free copy of our Google Ads Optimization Template, you’ll notice that we have daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly tasks discussed above on the template.
The way this template works is very simple. We have our tasks on the left, the task title, and the different timeframes. There’s also a space for you to take notes while optimizing your account.
Then you can change the status of each task, so you and your team will know if a task is done or if it’s in progress, as well as define the task owner.
There are also some formulas where, based on the timeframe, the due date will automatically update. So for example, if you set the Last Complete date of a daily task as 2/2/24, it’ll automatically say the due date for that task is 2/3/2024.
In addition, if you do the same thing for a weekly task, it will add seven days to the due date, and now it will say 2/9/2024.
Lastly, you’ll also find all the different tutorials covered in this guide linked to each task. The goal of these tutorials is to show you how to do each step so you can use this as a reference.
By implementing these daily, weekly, and monthly optimizations, you’ll stay ahead of potential issues and make data-driven adjustments that boost your account performance.
I hope this guide helps you to manage your accounts efficiently 🙌
If you have any questions, feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn.
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- Visibility: How To Find the Hole Sucking Profits
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Other Articles You May Enjoy.
10 Effective Account-Based Marketing Tactics For Modern B2B Marketers
Do you need to find out if ABM is the right approach for you & how you can get the most out of your efforts?
I had the pleasure of interviewing Brandon Alisoglu who’s achieved a 300% increase in demo bookings for B2B companies while maintaining a 50% SQL rate from ABM campaigns.
Here’s Brandon’s top 10 tips & tactics to maximize return on effort (ROE) for your ABM ads.
(In no particular order, they all matter)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Tip #1 - Assessing the Suitability of ABM for Your Business
- Tip #2 - Embracing the Long Game in Account-Based Marketing (ABM)
- Tip #3 - Create a Dossier of Information
- Tip #4 - Breaking Content to Audience Segmentation
- Tip #5 - Focusing on Outcomes: The "So What?" Factor in ABM
- Tip #6 - Drilling Into Personas & Messaging
- Tip #7 - A/B Testing Value Propositions
- Tip #8 - Set Aside Time to Ideate
- Tip #9 - Streamlining the Process with Templates
- Tip #10 - Don’t Skip Google
- Conclusion
- Resources for mastering B2B advertising
Tip #1 - Assessing the Suitability of ABM for Your Business
When evaluating ABM for your business, consider the nature of your target accounts and the practicality of a personalized marketing approach.
ABM is particularly effective for targeting large organizations or "whales" where the potential return justifies the extensive effort and resources required for highly tailored campaigns.
Challenges with ABM in Smaller Companies
In smaller companies, the lack of numerous distinct roles and seniority levels may limit the effectiveness of ABM strategies that rely on granular targeting and personalized messaging.
If a company is too small to segment effectively based on these criteria, the impact of a tailored ABM approach may be diminished.
ABM often involves high-ticket offerings and significant investment in marketing resources.
If the target account does not have the financial capacity or the organizational complexity, the return on investment might not be worth it.
Strategic Considerations for ABM
Evaluate potential accounts not just by their immediate size but by their strategic importance and the potential lifetime value they offer.
Consider more generalized targeted advertising strategies for smaller accounts that do not justify a full ABM approach.
These can still be effective by focusing on industry-specific pain points and solutions but do not require the level of customization and operational complexity associated with traditional ABM.
Identifying the Annual Contract Value (ACV) Benchmark
An ACV of around $20,000 is generally seen as a threshold where ABM becomes viable.
This benchmark suggests that the deal size is significant enough to warrant the detailed and personalized marketing efforts required in ABM.
Another practical measure is whether the contract value requires CFO approval.
The involvement of a CFO generally indicates that the deal is substantial enough to require careful consideration and alignment with strategic financial goals.
Tip #2 - Embracing the Long Game in Account-Based Marketing (ABM)
Unlike traditional demand generation tactics that may prioritize immediate results, ABM focuses on building engagement through a more deliberate and personalized approach.
The idea here is to build a meaningful relationship with key accounts.
In the same way, you wouldn't ask for a hand in marriage on the first date, successful B2B marketers shouldn’t ask prospects to talk to sales unless they've had some interaction before.
The Importance of Educating and Engaging
The early stages of ABM should center around education and awareness.
Allow targeted accounts to familiarize themselves with your brand and value propositions.
This foundational phase is important for setting the stage for deeper engagement.
Jumping directly to aggressive sales tactics like pushing for demos with accounts that have minimal interaction with your brand, is less likely to yield positive results.
Instead, nurturing relationships over time fosters trust and increases the likelihood of conversion when the account is ready.
Balancing Immediate Needs with Long-Term Strategy
While the emphasis on the long game is important, we realize the need to meet short-term sales targets is a pressing reality for most B2B marketers.
In such cases, employing a robust account scoring system can help identify which accounts are most ready to engage based on their behaviors such as:
- Website visits (specially high-intent pages)
- Ad engagement
- Email interactions
- Webinar attendees
For accounts that show clear signs of being in-market or closer to the decision stage, tailor your approach to convert these opportunities.
This can involve more direct calls to action, such as personalized demo invitations and running incentivized offers.
If your company is product-led, this would be a good time to offer free trials.
Sample of free trial ad by Plauti:
Tip #3 - Create a Dossier of Information
Understanding your prospects' interests, pain points, and engagement history comprehensively is the key to crafting personalized and effective ABM strategies.
This information equips sales teams with the required data to personalize their outreach effectively and accelerate the sales process.
Building & Targeting Prospect
Compile data on prospect activities, including the specific ads they clicked, pages they visited, or any communications they have sent.
This dossier should act as a dynamic document that sales teams can use to personalize their approaches.
By understanding what content the prospect has engaged with, the sales team can address specific interests or pain points, making their pitches more relevant and compelling.
Marketers can also use this data to launch 1:1 campaigns featuring social proof and objection handling.
If the list of accounts is not large enough for a 1:1 approach, then gather the top 3-5 most common objections that resonate with the majority of the accounts.
You can reduce the overall cost by dynamically excluding any account that has contacted sales.
Implementation Tips for Effective ABM
- Identify in-market accounts by using advanced analytics and account scoring to determine which of your target accounts are actively engaging with your content.
Tools like HubSpot or Marketo can help streamline the process.
- Once these engaged accounts are listed, segment them for targeted campaigns that address their specific stages in the buyer’s journey.
This segmentation allows you to apply more aggressive sales tactics appropriately while continuing to nurture less-ready accounts with educational content.
- Distribute content that educates and engages at various stages of the customer journey.
This tactical approach ensures that when you invite accounts to a demo or free trial they are informed and more likely to be receptive.
Successful ABM is a blend of patience and strategic agility, tailored to meet both the immediate and long-term goals of your business.
Tip #4 - Breaking Content to Audience Segmentation
The purpose of this step is to develop and deliver content that addresses specific pain points and interests identified in your prospect dossiers.
Strategies for Deepening Prospect Engagement
As you gather more data on your prospects' behaviors, such as the ads they click or the pages they visit, use this information to guide them through a personalized buyer's journey.
This involves crafting content that speaks directly to their needs and leading them to web pages that provide further value and deepen their engagement with your brand.
Regularly update and refine your ads to keep them in line with your audience's changing interests and needs.
Creating a Content "Buffet"
Offer a Variety of Content Options.
Imagine setting up a buffet of content options tailored to different tastes and preferences within your target accounts.
By providing a range of topics and formats—from whitepapers and case studies to webinars and interactive tools—you allow prospects to self-select the content that most resonates with them.
Use the insights from observed interactions to refine your understanding of what each prospect cares about.
This personalized approach not only enhances the relevance of your outreach but also increases the likelihood of a prospect's deeper engagement with your content.
Integrating Technology for Efficiency
While managing this level of personalized engagement can become complex, employing an ABM platform can streamline the process.
These platforms can help organize and automate content delivery based on user behavior, keeping track of interactions across different channels to maintain a cohesive and personalized marketing approach.
Pro tip:
Before fully investing in an expensive ABM tech stack, validate your strategy with simpler tools or minimal setups to prove its effectiveness.
A simple way is to use LinkedIn's demographic reporting to see which companies have been exposed to impressions, and which ones are actually engaging.
You can take it a step further and leverage a third-party data connector like data slayer to pull the demographic data from LinkedIn through API.
Tip #5 - Focusing on Outcomes: The "So What?" Factor in ABM
A critical aspect of effective ABM is ensuring that every piece of data, every content interaction, and every campaign has a clear and compelling answer to the question: "So what?"
Every action should educate, nurture, or capture leads, to bring you closer to revenue.
The Importance of Outcome-Based Messaging
In ABM, it's not enough to highlight the features of your product or the hours it can save a potential client’s team.
The key is to articulate what these benefits mean in the context of the customer’s specific business challenges and goals.
When discussing a product feature, such as "saves your engineering team 20 hours a week," it's essential to connect this benefit to tangible business outcomes.
For example, what does saving 20 hours a week mean for the company?
Could it lead to faster project completions, cost savings, or better resource allocation?
These outcomes are what will truly capture the interest of decision-makers.
By consistently focusing on the "so what?" of your actions and messaging, you can lift your ABM efforts from functional to transformational.
Pro-tip:
Establish Leading Indicators to Measure ABM Progress:
By establishing clear leading indicators across your marketing funnel, you can quantify progress and tie every action back to tangible business outcomes.
From initial awareness through engagement to conversion, each stage can be monitored and analyzed to ensure marketing efforts move potential clients closer to a sale.
These indicators provide a roadmap that justifies the investment by showing how specific activities contribute to moving accounts through the sales pipeline.
If you want to learn more about creating leading and lagging indicators along with actionable free templates check out the AdConversion Paid Media Program course; Module 2, lesson 1.
Tip #6 - Drilling Into Personas & Messaging
Within any given company, different levels of management and seniority have distinct priorities and challenges.
For example, C-suite executives might focus on strategic growth and scalability, directors on operational efficiency, and managers on tactical execution.
Tailoring your messaging to address these specific concerns can dramatically increase the relevance and impact of your communications.
Beyond role-based customization, consider the particular needs and pain points of the industry or vertical your target accounts might operate within.
Strategies for Effective A/B Testing
Implement continuous A/B testing across your campaigns to determine which messages resonate best with each persona.
Segment your target audience by role and seniority, and tailor your messages accordingly.
For example, test different value propositions with managers versus C-suite executives to determine which messages drive more engagement or conversions from each group.
Understand that the preferences and behaviors of your audience can evolve, and your ABM strategy should be agile enough to adapt to these changes.
Tip #7 - A/B Testing Value Propositions
By testing two to three variations of each message, you can discover appeals and incentives that resonate with distinct groups within the same role and seniority level.
In cases where the target company might not be large enough to segment by job titles or seniority due to LinkedIn’s filtering limitations, marketers need to think creatively about how to approach personalization and segmentation.
Alternative Segmentation Strategies:
- Use Broad Segments:
Instead of job titles, consider using job function and seniority or even adding member skills into the mix.
- Focus on Common Pain Points:
Leverage the common challenges or objectives identified in smaller organizations.
For example, if most employees are likely involved in decision-making due to the company's size, tailor messages that address broad business benefits that resonate across multiple roles.
As discussed earlier, knowing the top objections by vertical can guide the creation of content and ads that preemptively address concerns.
This is particularly useful when precise job title segmentation is not feasible.
Tip #8 - Set Aside Time to Ideate
In the fast-paced environment of account-based marketing, it's imperative to carve out dedicated time for creative thinking and experimentation.
By blocking out time on your calendar, preferably during quieter hours like Friday afternoons, you ensure that you have the space to think deeply and creatively about your ABM strategies.
Regular ideation sessions allow you to review current insights and performance data, enabling you to develop new approaches and refine existing ones.
Pro tip:
Leverage Experimentation and Documentation:
Incorporate a structured approach to experimentation.
Try out new ideas on a small scale to assess their effectiveness before rolling them out broadly.
Keep detailed records of your experiments, including:
- Hypotheses
- Execution details
- Outcomes.
This documentation enables you to capitalize on effective strategies and avoid past mistakes.
Tip #9 - Streamlining the Process with Templates
Keeping detailed and organized documentation of ABM activities, such as experiments, outcomes, and insights will save you lots of time & effort in the long run.
It can be as simple as using Google Docs with structured headings and a table of contents.
Consistent documentation helps in creating a reliable record that can be referenced in reports and strategy meetings.
Leveraging Design Templates
Design templates allow marketers to quickly generate new versions of ads or content without starting from scratch each time.
By standardizing the design elements, teams can focus on tweaking the messaging and content to better align with the target audience’s evolving preferences.
Using templates also ensures that all materials produced are aligned with the brand’s visual identity and messaging guidelines.
Effective Use of Templates and Documentation
Develop a range of design templates for different types of content and ads.
This library should include templates for social media posts, email campaigns, and other marketing materials that are frequently used in ABM campaigns.
Regularly update the documents with the latest results from A/B tests, data analysis insights, and feedback from sales and marketing teams to maintain accuracy and relevance.
Confirm that all team members are trained on how to use the chosen documentation and templates effectively.
With the design templates in place, focus on iterating on the creatives frequently.
Especially in smaller audience segments where ad fatigue can set in quickly.
Tip #10 - Don’t Skip Google
While (ABM) often focuses on direct and personalized communication channels like LinkedIn, incorporating Google Ads into your Demand Gen strategy can heavily reduce the overall cost per acquisition (CPA).
The Strategic Use of Google Ads
Google Ads allows you to address specific queries and pain points that your prospects are actively searching for.
By focusing on these queries, you can position your company as a solution provider right at the moment of need, effectively answering potential customers’ questions through targeted ads.
Often, niche or less competitive keywords related to specific industry questions or problems can be much cheaper than more general, high-intent keywords.
For example, targeting a specific industry debate or a lesser-known feature comparison can capture relevant traffic at a significantly lower cost.
This, not only increases brand awareness but also positions your company as an authoritative and helpful resource.
Creating content that addresses these queries and promoting it through Google Ads can drive highly targeted traffic to your website, increasing the chances of conversion.
Practical Tips for Implementing Google Ads
- Work with your sales and customer service teams to pinpoint the questions and topics that commonly arise during the sales process.
- Use these insights to guide your keyword and content strategy for Google Ads.
Develop content that answers these questions comprehensively.
This could be in the form of blog posts, FAQs, or educational articles.
- Use the identified keywords to set up Google Ads campaigns.
Start with a lower budget to test the effectiveness of your keywords and ads.
Monitor the performance and adjust your strategy based on the results.
Conclusion:
In this article, we discussed the significance of Account-Based Marketing (ABM) strategies through 10 practical tips and tactics to get the most out of your marketing efforts.
We explored the value of a long-term engagement strategy, emphasizing the need to build relationships through educational content and gradual interactions, rather than taking a direct approach.
Effective ABM involves understanding target accounts' specific needs and behaviors, employing analytics for better targeting, and continuously iterating on creative content to maintain relevance and combat ad fatigue.
Bookmark this blog as your comprehensive guide for your next ABM efforts to make sure your strategies align with the overall company goal.
If you’d like to reach out or get more weekly tips, please connect with Brandon via Linkedin.
Resources for mastering B2B advertising
If you’re serious about mastering B2B advertising then you definitely need to join 1,000+ B2B marketers leveling up their paid advertising skill sets in AdConversion.
Here’s 4 reasons why you should consider joining. Every one of our on-demand courses are:
✅ 100% free access.
✅ Taught by vetted industry experts.
✅ Have workbooks, resources, and templates.
✅ Less than 10 minutes per lesson.
We believe every marketer should know how to scale paid ads so they can:
- Scale their ideas
- Level up their careers
- Make a positive impact
Click Here to Join 1,000+ B2B Marketers Today and start leveling up your advertising skill set.
Takes < 90 seconds to sign up (seriously we timed it 😂)
Intro to B2B Google Ads: Crash Course For New Advertisers
Want to master Google Ads for B2B?
We’ll dissect Google Ads from a 10,000 foot view in this guide.
So you can walk away knowing:
- What is Google Ads?
- Is your ideal B2B buyer searching on Google?
- How can you get your ad seen on the top of Google?
- How much does Google Ads cost?
So whether you’re a SaaS founder, performance marketer, or in-house marketer looking to:
- Scale demo and trial requests for your new B2B SaaS startup
- Run Google ads for clients or launch campaigns internally
- Work with freelancers or agencies running your Google Ads
It all starts here with the fundamentals, so let’s dive in! 👇
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- What is Google Ads?
- Is Your Ideal B2B Buyer Searching on Google?
- How Much Does Google Ads Cost?
- How to Forecast Your Google Ads Budget
- Why is Google Ads So Powerful?
- How Can You Get Your Ad Seen on the Top of Google?
What is Google Ads?
Google Ads is an auction place.
Or as I like to think about it, a battleground.
Where you have thousands of advertisers competing against each other to show up on the top of Google when their ideal prospect searches for their products & services.
With 8.5B + searchers happening per day on Google there is a very HIGH likelihood your ideal B2B buyer is using Google to find information, and research solutions.
Is Your Ideal B2B Buyer Searching on Google?
Depending on the niche you’re in Google may or may not make sense.
You can create a free Google Ads account and leverage the Keyword Planner to validate demand.
All you need to do is research the ideal keyword your dream buyer would search and review the average monthly search volume and top of page bid estimates.
In the example below, I can see that for “email marketing software” there is:
- 1,000 - 10,000 average monthly searches
- $49.75 top of page bid estimate
If your ideal keyword has > 100 searches per month, Google can be a worthwhile return on effort.
How Much Does Google Ads Cost?
Before diving into how much does Google Ads cost?
With Google Ads you’re only charged on a cost-per-click (CPC) basis.
Meaning you only pay Google if someone clicks your ad, so unlike traditional advertising you’re not being locked into a fixed contract and paying just for eyeballs (aka impressions).
So in short if someone sees your Google Ad and doesn’t click, you won’t pay.
This is what makes Google Ads so attractive, but extremely competitive.
Here’s two ways to find out how much Google Ads will cost for your ideal keywords:
1/ Review Top of Page Bid Estimates in the Google Ads Keyword Planner
As shown in the previous step you can leverage the Keyword Planner to find bid estimates.
In my experience these estimates are never 100% accurate and recommend adding 20% on top of the top of page bid estimate to be safe.
For example, with the keyword of email marketing software we have a $49.75 top of page bid estimate, adding 20% makes it $59.70 allowing us a margin of error to better set expectations.
2/ Launch a Pilot Campaign for $100
Ultimately you’ll never know your real cost per click prices until launching.
If you’re seriously considering Google Ads I recommend launching a pilot campaign for $100.
The whole objective of this campaign is to understand; what is my REAL cost per click price?
Here’s a simple cheat sheet for setting up this campaign:
- Campaign Name = {Region}_{KeywordTheme}_{MatchType}
- Locations = {Your Target Country/Region/State}
- Match Type = Exact
- Bidding = Manual CPC
This setup will allow you to have the greatest control to discover your real CPC prices.
How to Forecast Your Google Ads Budget
Once you know the following:
- Your quarterly sales goal
- Average cost per click
- Opportunity win rate
- Revenue per sale
You can easily forecast a daily, monthly, and quarterly budget using our Google Ads Budget Calculator based on worst, moderate, and best case scenarios.
Give it a look, there’s a video tutorial on the page for you explaining the process.
Why is Google Ads So Powerful?
Intention Is what makes search advertising so powerful 🤝
You can reach exactly the right person, in the right place, in the right location searching for your specific product or service. At that point all you have to do is show up and not mess things up.
I always say Google Ads is a blessing and a curse; they bless you with intent, and curse you with scale.
Given your industry search volume will vary dramatically and it can become hard to scale.
The key is to win Google’s Ad Rank game to offset competitors and rising click prices.
How Can You Get Your Ad Seen on the Top of Google?
Every time you search for something on Google (or other search engines such as Yahoo, Bing, and Firefox) the results page you’re directed to afterwards is the Search Engine Results Page (SERP).
I like to think of the SERP as the Battleground in which Google Ads takes place.
The SERP is Divided Between Paid and Organic Results.
The Google SERP usually has about 3-4 paid ads at the top and 3 at the bottom.
Ad Rank Determines the Position of Your Ad on the First Page
Which determines if your ad is on top of the first page of or nowhere to be seen.
Your goal is to appear in the top 3 spots as click-through rates decline with lower positions.
Higher Position Doesn't Always Mean Greater Cost
The remarkable thing about Google Ads is that you can be #1 on the page and pay less than your competitors who are in positions lower than you (hypothetical example below).
If after reading this article you believe Google Ads is worth further exploration.
Build on this fundamental understanding of Google Ads for B2B.
Hope you found this useful!
Resources for Mastering B2B Advertising
If you’re serious about mastering B2B advertising then you definitely need to join 1,000+ B2B marketers leveling up their paid advertising skill sets in AdConversion.
Here’s 4 reasons why you should consider joining. Every one of our on-demand courses are:
✅ 100% free access.
✅ Taught by vetted industry experts.
✅ Have workbooks, resources, and templates.
✅ Less than 10 minutes per lesson.
We believe every marketer should know how to scale paid ads so they can:
- Scale their ideas
- Level up their careers
- Make a positive impact
Click Here to Join 1,000+ B2B Marketers Today and start leveling up your advertising skill set.
Takes < 90 seconds to sign up (seriously we timed it 😂)
B2B vs B2C Advertising: 8 Differences & Examples You Need To Know
Hey there new B2B marketer!
Diving into the world of B2B advertising can be confusing and overwhelming.
In this article I’m going to walk you through 8 differences between B2B & B2C you need to know.
This article is part of our B2B learning track so if you’re serious about learning B2B advertising you’re in the right place!
Let’s dive into it 👏
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
- 8 Biggest Differences Between B2B and B2C
- The Cost of The Product
- How Purchase Decisions Are Made
- The Average Sales Length
- Smaller Audience Sizes
- Different Distribution Strategies
- Need to Support Multiple Sales Funnels
- Team Sport, Not Individual
- Go Further Than Just The First Conversion
8 Biggest Differences Between B2B and B2C
In no particular order of importance, here are the 8 biggest differences between business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) advertising.
The Cost of The Product
The first key difference between B2B and B2C is the cost of the product.
B2B marketers call this the average deal size or average contract value depending on what is sold.
Typically, B2B products are more expensive ranging from $1,000 to over $250,000.
How Purchase Decisions Are Made
In B2B buying, there will be more people involved in the purchase of the product compared to B2C where there is usually only one person involved.
This is often referred to as a buying committee, in B2B your job is to nurture, educate, and reach everyone in this group so they can collectively decide to purchase the product.
The Average Sales Length
There are more people involved with purchasing the B2B product or service and the product is typically a more expensive purchase, the length of time to purchase that product is typically longer.
Depending on the complexity of what is being bought, sales cycles can range from 30 days to 36 months. The higher and more complex the product or service is the longer the sales cycle typically is.
This is different from B2C because it can take me 30 seconds to buy something off an Instagram ad.
I’m not sure if that’s a good or bad thing 🤣
Smaller Audience Sizes
With B2B advertising programs, you’ll be targeting smaller audiences across ad channels.
Your audience will typically be less than 300,000 contacts with a focus on reaching the right person and company vs B2C where your audiences will typically be much broader than this since more people can purchase your product or service.
Different Distribution Strategies
Since you’ll be reaching a much more targeted audience, and you may be dealing with a specific budget – the ad channels you decide to use may look different than your B2C advertising counterparts.
It all comes down to where your audience lives and breathes, digitally.
Believe me, I’ve been behind some powerful Facebook ads for B2B. But, you may think twice about using a TV commercial during the Super Bowl as a B2B marketer (well…unless you’re Salesforce!)
But again, this will all depend on your budget and the breath of your buyers.
Need to Support Multiple Sales Funnels
In B2B, your advertising campaigns will support and fuel multiple sales funnels and processes.
The big three are product-lead, sales-lead, and a hybrid of both.
You can learn more about each revenue model in our B2B Advertising Guide.
Team Sport, Not Individual
B2B advertising requires strategic alignment across multiple teams including sales, marketing, and customer success departments to support the buyer’s journey and close deals more effectively.
Given the fact that it’s not just about reaching a specific individual but also a company.
This increases the importance and complexity of working across teams.
Go Further Than Just The First Conversion
The B2B sales processes are more complex and there's more buyers involved.
Your advertising campaigns should be designed to help impact the entire buyer journey.
Not just the first conversion like B2C advertising.
I hope you found this article helpful!
Connect with me on LinkedIn, and let’s keep the conversation going.
You can also visit my website here for more valuable content.
Jumpstart Your B2B Marketing Career
If you’re serious about mastering B2B advertising then you definitely need to check out my free course that will teach you the foundational knowledge to becoming a high-performing B2B marketer who knows how to use advertising to drive legit business and revenue impact without the fluff or wasting your time and money learning the ropes the hard way.
- Module 1: you’ll get a crash course in the B2Bverse and master terminology, sales processes, and working across teams.
- Module 2: you’ll learn how to become your customer's psychologist and understand them deeply with buyer personas that allow you to craft effective messaging.
- Module 3: you’ll master the B2B funnel and learn how to think like a CEO to identify performance bottlenecks and convert more leads into revenue.
- Module 4: you’ll learn how to put it all together and build your go-to-market strategy that gets your ad in front of your dream buyers and converts attention.
This course was designed for absolute beginners in mind.
Accelerate your learning curve and start the course today for free.
How to Craft B2B Buyer Personas For Ad Targeting
Hey there B2B marketing grasshopper 👋
In this article, we're channeling our inner Mr. Miyagi from "The Karate Kid," because we're about to master the art of creating B2B buyer personas.
Wax on, wax off style – but with less wax and more wisdom!
Let’s dive into it.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
- What Is a B2B Buyer Persona?
- 3 Major B2B Marketing Personas
- How to Develop a B2B Buyer Persona
- The Five B2B Buyer Persona Segmentations
- B2B Buyer Persona Template
- Translating B2B Buyer Persona’s into Ad Targeting
What Is a B2B Buyer Persona?
Just like Daniel-san needed to understand his opponents in the All Valley Karate Tournament, it's important to understand your B2B buyer personas to win in the market.
It's critical because these personas are your roadmap – they guide every marketing punch and kick you make.
If you don’t do this, your marketing efforts might be as off-target as Daniel-san trying to catch a fly with chopsticks on his first try.
We're talking about misdirected resources and messaging that misses the mark, leaving your ROI down and out — so let's break it down, Karate Kid style:
What is a persona? It’s the semi-fictional characters that make up your target audience. It’s a great way to unpack who makes up your ideal customer profiles, called an “ICP”
3 Major B2B Marketing Personas
In B2B marketing there are 3 major personas or roles to understand in the sales process.
This is also referred to as a buying committee:
- Decision Maker – The person who makes the final decision to purchase
- Champion - A person who enthusiastically supports your product or service in their organization
- Influencer - A person who can influence other members of the buying committee
Your marketing and advertising efforts should address their needs and concerns when it comes to buying and using your product or service.
Knowing what these personas are looking for will help you tailor your messaging to make your ads stand out.
For example: imagine your buyer persona 'Finance-Manager-Frank'. He's in his mid-40s, loves numbers more than karate, and is always on the lookout for tools that bring efficiency and balance. Where does he find his information? → LinkedIn and financial blogs
Knowing this, you’d be able to hone in your advertising strategy to use LinkedIn ads to demonstrate how finance managers find more efficiency from their investments by using your product.
How to Develop a B2B Buyer Persona
There’s 5 major segmentation buckets to consider when putting together a B2B buyer persona:
- Demographic Segmentation
- Targeting potential customer based on their role (ex: Job Titles, Job Functions)
- Firmographic Segmentation
- Targeting potential customers based on company traits (ex: Industry, Company Size)
- Geographic Segmentation
- Targeting potential customers based on their company and physical location (ex:USA)
- Technographic Segmentation
- Targeting potential customers based on the tech they use (ex: Slack, Teams)
- Behavioral Segmentation
- Fine tune your messaging based on your potential customers Jobs To Be Done, decision-making process, and more.
Within each segmentation, there’s key information you should collect to build your personas which will ultimately inform your advertising channel strategy, targeting, and messaging.
Getting crystal clear on your buyer personas will also help you maximize your resources, build internal trust with your sales and service teams, and drive better results.
Let’s dive into the five segmentations in greater detail.
The Five B2B Buyer Persona Segmentations:
Demographic
Target potential customer based on their role
- Role: Identify the job title and role they’re in and what level in their organizations they fall (individual contributor, middle management, or in the C-suite – chief roles including CEO, CFO, CMO, etc).
- Responsibilities: Identify all the key areas they oversee and manage. Pulls who they report to.
Firmographic
Target potential customers based on company traits
- Company Industry: ex: Technology, Manufacturing
- Company Employee Size: ex: 500 - 1,000 employees
- Company Revenue Size: $1,000,000 - $10,000,000 ARR
Geographic
Target potential customers based on their company and physical location
- Company Location: ex: United States, Canada
- Employee Location: ex: United Kingdom
Technographic
Target potential customers based on the tech they use
- Tools: This breaks down the tools they use or need to do their jobs (ex: Slack, Teams)
- Company Competitors: list out any relevant competing technologies
Behavioral
Fine tune your messaging based on your potential customers Jobs To Be Done, decision-making process, and more.
- Goals: This details how their job is measured by
- Jobs to be Done/Pain Points: This elaborates on the biggest challenges they face in their role
- Decision-Making Process: This goes into detail on who they need approval from when buying a new product/service, who signs the contract, who owns the budget
- Evaluation Process: This details how this persona typically decides on a product
- Objections & Concerns: this outlines what prevents them from making a decision
- Consumption Habits: how do they gain information for their job and what social media networks do they use
B2B Buyer Persona Template
To help you put this into action get a free copy of my B2B Buyer Persona template in Module 2 - Lesson 2 of my B2B Advertising Foundations Course when you sign up for free. With this template you will be able to easily map out your buyer persona across the five segmentations.
Translating B2B Buyer Persona’s into Ad Targeting
After completing the B2B Buyer Persona template you should be very clear on who you’re going after.
Now you’ll want to review your persona’s segmentation and find possible targeting opportunities in the platforms you’re considering advertising on – your options will vary greatly by channel.
Create a draft campaign in your ad platform of choice and review all of the audience targeting options available – sometimes you’ll need to get creative! (example below of LinkedIn Ads).
And that my advertising friends is your way to craft a buyer persona you can use to identify the audiences you’ll be targeting in your B2B advertising.
Hope you found this article useful!
Connect with me on LinkedIn, and let’s keep the conversation going.
You can also visit my website here for more valuable content.
Jumpstart Your B2B Marketing Career
If you’re serious about mastering B2B advertising then you definitely need to check out my free course that will teach you the foundational knowledge to becoming a high-performing B2B marketer who knows how to use advertising to drive legit business and revenue impact without the fluff or wasting your time and money learning the ropes the hard way.
- Module 1: you’ll get a crash course in the B2Bverse and master terminology, sales processes, and working across teams.
- Module 2: you’ll learn how to become your customer's psychologist and understand them deeply with buyer personas that allow you to craft effective messaging.
- Module 3: you’ll master the B2B funnel and learn how to think like a CEO to identify performance bottlenecks and convert more leads into revenue.
- Module 4: you’ll learn how to put it all together and build your go-to-market strategy that gets your ad in front of your dream buyers and converts attention.
This course was designed for absolute beginners in mind.
Accelerate your learning curve and start the course today for free.
5 Unconventional Ways to Use The LinkedIn Ads Library
Most marketers know the LinkedIn Ads library exists.
And the basics of how to use it (ex: search a competitor and voila you’ll see their ads 🪄)
You’re going to go beyond the basics in this article and learn.
5 unconventional ways experts use the library to uncover insights and inspiration.
Let’s dive into it 👇
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Unconventional Way #1: Finding Conversation Ads Copy
- Unconventional Way #2: Identifying Localization Campaigns
- Unconventional Way #3: Studying Competitive Offers
- Unconventional Way #4: Creative Concept Discovery
- Unconventional Way #5: Landing Page Tear Downs
Unconventional Way #1: Finding Conversation Ads Copy
When you open up the LinkedIn Ads Library you can search %FIRSTNAME% to see conversation ad copy examples from competitors and relevant brands.
Here’s how to find conversation ad copy examples step-by-step:
- Open up the LinkedIn Ads Library and search for a relevant competitor or brand.
- Enter %FIRSTNAME% under search by keyword and select your relevant country and date range filters.
- From here you can browse all available variations based on your filters 🎉
If you don’t see any conversation ad messages you’ll likely need to adjust your filters or it’s possible your competitors or the relevant brands you’re researching aren’t actively testing this ad format.
Unconventional Way #2: Identifying Localization Campaigns
Localization campaigns are when you advertise outside your primary language and draft ads, and landing pages relevant to a specific language.
We’ve seen advertising outside of the English language a reduction in costs by up to 70%.
If you have the potential to advertise outside of English it’s definitely worth testing.
Here’s how to identify localization campaigns with the ad library:
- Open up the LinkedIn Ads Library and search for a relevant competitor or brand.
- Filter by all countries and uncheck your current target locations (ex: United States)
- Browse through the results to identify different localization campaigns (look for ad copy that isn’t in your primary language, example below is an ad in German).
- Click view details on the ad to identify the targeted locations.
Write down any interesting target countries and/or languages your competitors are targeting that you might consider reaching with localization campaigns.
Unconventional Way #3: Studying Competitive Offers
Let’s say you’re a B2B SaaS company looking to drive more demo requests.
You can use the LinkedIn ad library to easily see ads from competitors or relevant brands that are also trying to drive more demo requests.
The same is true if we’re talking about free trials, webinar registrations, ebook downloads, and anything else you can think of.
Here’s how to study competitive offers with the ad library:
- Open up the LinkedIn Ads Library and search your offer in the search by keyword filter.
- From here you can browse various ad types that mention your offer within the ad copy.
- You can repeat this process and narrow down your filters for further granularity.
Unconventional Way #4: Creative Concept Discovery
Most advertisers using the library will just look at the ad examples provided and not dig much further.
Instead what you should do is look for patterns around creative concepts to understand your competitors creative strategy (or the relevant brand in question).
Creative concept = the format of which the creatives are designed off
Here’s 10 examples of creative concepts:
- Before & After
- UGC
- Meme
- Product Mockup
- Illustration (Drawings)
- Stats & Research
- Comedy Skit
- Animated
- Behind-the-Scenes
- AI Generated
Using the library take note of any patterns of creative concepts your competitor/brand in question might be repeating. If it’s significant you might want to consider testing a similar concept.
Use your best judgement when labelling concepts and look for patterns.
Unconventional Way #5: Landing Page Tear Downs
When viewing ads in the library you can click on the CTA button to open up the associated landing page the ad is driving traffic towards.
The original UTMs are also still within the URL parameter so you can reverse engineer these to better understand your competitors ad strategy (learn how here).
With this valuable information you can tear down each page for inspiration.
Hope you found this article useful!
See you in the next article or one of our free courses!
Resources for mastering B2B advertising
If you’re serious about mastering B2B advertising then you definitely need to join 1,000+ B2B marketers leveling up their paid advertising skill sets in AdConversion.
Here’s 4 reasons why you should consider joining. Every one of our on-demand courses are:
✅ 100% free access.
✅ Taught by vetted industry experts.
✅ Have workbooks, resources, and templates.
✅ Less than 10 minutes per lesson.
We believe every marketer should know how to scale paid ads so they can:
- Scale their ideas
- Level up their careers
- Make a positive impact
Click Here to Join 1,000+ B2B Marketers Today and start leveling up your advertising skill set.
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LinkedIn Spotlight Ads In 2024: Are They Worth The Investment?
Should you invest in LinkedIn Spotlight Ads?
In this article you'll learn:
- The pro's and con's of LinkedIn Spotlight Ads
- How much LinkedIn Spotlight ads cost
- Examples of LinkedIn Spotlight ads
- 3 LinkedIn Spotlight ad strategies
By the end of this article you’ll know if this ad type makes sense for you.
Let’s dive into it! 👇
Contents
- What are LinkedIn Spotlight Ads?
- LinkedIn Spotlight Ad Specs
- 4 Reasons to Invest In LinkedIn Spotlight Ads
- 4 Reasons You SHOULD NOT Invest In LinkedIn Spotlight Ads
- 3 LinkedIn Spotlight Ad Strategies Worth Testing
What are LinkedIn Spotlight Ads?
Spotlight ads are only seen on desktop devices and use a combination of your audience's LinkedIn profile data such as photo, company name, and job title to dynamically change based on the user.
LinkedIn Spotlight Ad Specs
When creating a spotlight ad you’ve got the following options:
- Ad headline = 50 characters
- Company name = 25 characters
- Company Image = logo or image in JPG or PNG that is < 2 MB
- Background Image (optional) = 300x250 in JPG or PNG
I’d personally recommend not adding a background image as it removes the ad description, and the users profile photo will not be shown, which defeats the purpose of this ad type 😅
4 Reasons to Invest In LinkedIn Spotlight Ads
Reason 1: 74% Lower Cost Per 1,000 Impressions (CPM)
After reviewing $1,726,264.56 in spend by ad type for our B2B SaaS clients, we found linkedin spotlight ads have an average CPM of $5.23, 74% lower than single image ads.
Reason 2: Increased Ad Recall
Spotlight ad placements are very “low key” and unintrusive.
They only appear on Desktop and are served on the right side of the newsfeed.
Given an average CPM of $5.23 and subtle placement you can rack large frequencies > 20 without negatively impacting your audience’s experience.
The combination of high frequency and low impression costs = greater potential ad recall
Reason 3: Low Creative Effort
Spotlight ads only require an image that is < 2MB making it an EXTREMELY low creative effort.
Compare this to formats like single image, carousel, or even video ads.
If you want more exposure without a ton of effort they’re an easy addition.
Reason 4: Flexible Bidding Strategies
Spotlight ads allow you to multiple bidding strategies depending on your campaign objectives.
- Maximum delivery = LinkedIn will automatically adjust your bids for the most exposure
- Cost cap = set a target cost per landing page click
- Manual bidding = set a specific bid per landing page click
With each of these bidding strategies you have flexibility to test and leverage the one that allows you the greatest exposure for the lowest cost.
4 Reasons You SHOULD NOT Invest In LinkedIn Spotlight Ads
Reason 1: 83% higher average CPC prices
After reviewing $1,726,264.56 in spend by ad type for our B2B SaaS clients, we found linkedin spotlight ads have an average cost per click of $7.93, 83% higher than single image ads.
Reason 2: You want to generate the most conversions
Spotlight ads have horrible engagement rates compared to other LinkedIn ad types.
If your primary objective is to drive conversions then spotlight ads are not the ideal ad type to use.
Reason 3: You’re trying to drive the most traffic to your site
Spotlight ads have below average clickthrough rates compared to other ad types which makes using them to drive site traffic a poor use case of budget.
Reason 4: You’re not already investing in other ad types
Spotlight ads are not a game changer ad type. They should be used in support alongside other more dominant ad types such as (image, video, or conversation).
The best use of spotlight ads is remarketing, allowing you to stay top of mind at a low cost in front of the audiences that already know/like/trust you.
3 LinkedIn Spotlight Ad Strategies Worth Testing
In no particular order, here’s 3 strategies worth testing with spotlight ads.
Strategy #1: Remarketing
The real advantage of spotlight ads are low distribution costs with an average CPM of $5.28.
This in combination with the fact that spotlight ads are a non-intrusive ad type on desktop devices and limited right-hand placements makes them great for remarketing.
You can leverage spotlight ads to remarket:
- All website visitors
- Company page visitors
- Past event attendees
- Contacts of customers, and leads in nurture
If you want to learn more about building a LinkedIn remarketing strategy check out our in-depth article on How to Build a Multichannel B2B Retargeting Strategy (Step-By-Step).
Strategy #2: Company Page Growth
Another potential strategy to test spotlight ads is growing your LinkedIn company page.
You can leverage this ad type to drive visitors to view your page (which will then hopefully lead to a follower), check out this example from Aurora who is using a CTA of “Follow”.
Strategy #3: Job Recruitment
Spotlight ads are available with the Job applicants campaign objective and given it’s dynamic element (automatically pulling the photo of the user) you can create personalized recruitment ads.
I hope you found this article useful!
And as promised, now know if this ad type makes sense for you.
Resources for mastering B2B advertising
If you’re serious about mastering B2B advertising then you definitely need to join 1,000+ B2B marketers leveling up their paid advertising skill sets in AdConversion.
Here’s 4 reasons why you should consider joining. Every one of our on-demand courses are:
✅ 100% free access.
✅ Taught by vetted industry experts.
✅ Have workbooks, resources, and templates.
✅ Less than 10 minutes per lesson.
We believe every marketer should know how to scale paid ads so they can:
- Scale their ideas
- Level up their careers
- Make a positive impact
Click Here to Join 1,000+ B2B Marketers Today and start leveling up your advertising skill set.
Takes < 90 seconds to sign up (seriously we timed it 😂)