10 B2B SaaS Copywriting Tips for Better Ad Performance
I donât need to be the one to tell you this, but B2B tech companies have it hard when it comes to getting their advertising to perform.
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Theyâve got complicated products. And sophisticated audiences (who are all but totally allergic to buzzwords and fluff). And together, they make communicating your company or productâs value super hard.
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Having helped countless B2B companies over the past 9 years Iâve learned more than a thing or two about writing copy for these companies.Â
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And today Iâm sharing with you my top 10 copywriting tips â tips you can use right away (literally, try them out after you finish reading this) to evaluate your existing ad campaigns and improve their performance, stat.
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TABLEÂ OFÂ CONTENTS
- Tip #1: Sell The Click, Not The Product
- Tip #2: Take Something Out Of Your Ad Instead Of Putting More In
- Tip #3: Write First, Edit Later
- Tip #4: Remember How People Interact With Ads
- Tip #5: Use The Slippery Slope
- Tip #6: Donât Be Afraid to Try Long Copy
- Tip #7: Try to Use Your Voice of Customer As Much As Possible
- Tip #8: Clear Before Clever
- Tip #9: Tie Benefits Back to Something Realistic
- Tip #10: Make Sure Your Copy Passes the âSo Whatâ Test
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Tip #1: Sell The Click, Not The Product
The first tip is more of a mindset shift: remind yourself that your ad is selling the click, not the product (as a whole).Â
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Prospects donât see your ad in isolation. They see it in the context of everything else that happens throughout their day, AND in the context of everything else they see on LinkedIn, Google, Facebook or whichever platform your ad is served to them. So unlike an ecom ad, the goal of your ad here is to build excitement and anticipation. You want your prospect to be inspired enough to click on the ad and go where they can learn more about what you have to offer.Â
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This still applies even if youâre providing a free trial, or something else that is free.
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Because if you have an average contract value of $50,000-$100,000/year your prospect is NOT going to click on your ad and buy right away.Â
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Instead focus on giving the prospect something â a tip, an idea, an emotional twinge â that will motivate them to click.
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This could be through:Â
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- The messaging you use (make sure youâre talking about how you solve business problems, not just âhey our product is really coolâ)
- The type of call-to-action (CTA) (making sure itâs not too pushy for people who didnât know you existed until now)
- The visual in your ad creative (making sure it hits an emotional soft spot)
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Remember: You can always go into more depth on the landing page. But that wonât happen if your prospect doesnât click through in the first place.Â
Tip #2: Take Something Out Of Your Ad Instead Of Putting More In
Focus on getting one really memorable takeaway across in your ad copy.Â
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Writing copy by committee is never a great strategy and itâs easy to end up with ads that are saying so many different things that the prospect wonât take away any one thing in particular.Â
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Letâs say your productâs main value propositions are: itâs fast, itâs easy to use, and it saves money.Â
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Instead of stuffing all of that information into the same ad, I would write 3 variations:
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- Ad Variation 1: FastÂ
- Ad Variation 2: Easy
- Ad Variation 3: Saves Money
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Test each message separately so you can see which performs better AND so the prospect can remember your core value proposition.Â
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Pro tip: you can say the same message 1,000 different times or more by repurposing the way you communicate that message to the market through different creatives, ad types, and copy.Â
Tip #3: Write First, Edit Later
There are so many times when we sit down to try to write an ad and itâs really hard.
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First get all your thoughts, ideas, and concepts out in a document, then let it sit for a couple of hours, and finally go back to it with fresh eyes. Â
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If you just try to write it in one session itâs going to be messy and youâll spend forever tweaking it.Â
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The idea is that you get to write a really stupid first draft. But you KNOW that itâs going to be bad. So that gives you the chance to get the bad ideas out to make way for the good stuff. Your goal is to come back later to edit and make it better.Â
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Iâve lost count of how many times my first line in the body copy becomes my headline or other parts of my copy shift places with each other because theyâre better suited for a different part of the ad. But Iâm only able to make these connections with fresh eyes.Â
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Pro tip: you can use ChatGPT for brainstorming but even still you need to let the copy sit. Give yourself time to process it so you can edit it and not just run with it at face value.
Tip #4: Remember How People Interact With Ads
Each element of your ad is a part of the puzzle.Â
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People will stop the scroll because the creative caught them. Then they'll look at the headline. Then they go up and read the body copy. And finally they go back down to the headline before clicking.
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The prospect's eyes are going all over the place which means you canât afford to have copy thatâs disjointed.
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The headline leads into the body copy and should support the creative. And the body copy should support the headline. All the elements have to work together.Â
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As Eugene Schwartz once said âcopy is not written, itâs assembled".
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Treat each element of your ad with equal importance and make sure it makes sense when you look at it from the eyes of your prospect.
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Pro tip: you canât create ads in isolation, you need your designer and copywriter working together to ensure each variable in your ad works together (headline, body copy, creative).
Tip #5: Use The Slippery Slope
Your first line of copy should get the reader excited to read the second line. The second line should motivate the reader to read the third line. And so on. Direct marketer Joseph Sugarman calls this the âslippery slopeâ. It makes sure your ad is interesting to read and that the ideas inside it are easy to digest.
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The best way to check and test your messaging for clarity and word choice is to read it out loud.Â
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If youâre in the middle of a sentence and you paused for breath, you should place a period. That will help your sentences flow more naturally one into the other.
Tip #6: Donât Be Afraid to Try Long Copy
I have a bone to pick with people who say ânobody reads online!â Because of course they donât â if they donât have something interesting to read.Â
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People binge on Netflix series, video games, novel trilogies, and more for hours in one go.Â
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When you have people's attention you can keep sharing with them new details. But you have to earn their attention, first. (Which wonât happen with clickbait.)
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What can you give them in your ad that will make them feel they got value from this interaction, no matter how fleeting it was?Â
- Did they learn something new?
- Did you make them feel something?
- Did you make them think for a second?
If you can do at least one of those three things youâll earn their attention.Â
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Itâs hard to do this in 150 characters which is why long form copy is so powerful.Â
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Donât be afraid to push up until that 600 character limit if needed.Â
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Long copy will also lead to a greater dwell time and provide so much more context and opportunity for you to build motivation so they have a reason to click through.Â
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The takeaway here is that people will read your long form ads if itâs interesting to them. But they wonât read even short copy if itâs terrible.
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Side note: When writing ad copy I create 2-3 variations for the headline and the body, usually testing out different lengths (short vs long).Â
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Hereâs my simple but effective copywriting template I use in Google Docs:
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LinkedIn ads template | Eden Bidani
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Pro tip: itâs easy for ads to get stuck in the same creative loops, donât forget to brainstorm new creative concepts to test.Â
Tip #7: Try to Use Your Voice of Customer As Much As Possible
If no one in the product marketing or CS team is interviewing your customers do this ASAP.Â
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Get on a call with them and ask them questions such as:Â
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- How do you use the product?
- What is the impact of your product?
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The goal here isnât to get testimonials, itâs to understand how your customers talk.Â
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Youâll walk away knowing the benefits that matter to them and challenges.Â
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Iâd also recommend talking with sales and asking them what are the top customer objections that prospects say and exactly how they describe it.Â
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Using the same words and language your customers use allows you to communicate in their voice.Â
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These insights are so powerful that not even ChatGPT can brainstorm this for you.Â
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For example I used to work with a company that created $700 work bags and I interviewed a customer that mentioned she used to carry around a âmom bagâ.
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What did she mean by that? âA shapeless, old ugly bag.âÂ
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That word âmom bagâ is so unique and reflective of the voice of our customers that using that in our landing page copy instantly resonated and resulted in tremendous lifts in conversion rates.Â
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Five customer interviews can be all it takes.Â
Tip #8: Clear Before Clever
Jay Abraham once said sometimes the easiest way to sell a horse is to say âhorse for saleâ.Â
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You have a fleeting moment with your prospects engaging with your ads.Â
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So even if you have to use specific, complicated terms (for your sophisticated audience)Â you need to focus on making your copy as clear as possible.
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For example, try to simplify your language as much as possible. Yes, this might result in you using less voice of customer, or using a different brand tone of voice, and other elements of your messaging. But clear will always convert best.Â
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Consider the words you are using and find synonyms that imply the same meaning with less cognitive load.Â
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John Carlton refers to these as âpower wordsâ for example:Â
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Sometimes you want to say fast but you should be saying swift.Â
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Swift implies a very different connotation than fast.Â
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Itâs a whole different level of sophistication above âfastâ but itâs still a simple word.Â
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How would you say this same thing to a friend? Is a great frame to have.Â
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Remember to avoid complicated and overdone words like omnichannel đ¤Ž
Tip #9: Tie Benefits Back to Something Realistic
Everyone LOVES to talk about benefits â think: âGrow your business!â, âTransform your workplace!", âWin more customers!â, or âOptimize your lifeâŚ!â đ
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Itâs not that itâs not true. They are. But theyâre just so high-level and vague people struggle to grasp them. You need to tie them back to something tangible â something realistic that your prospects identify with. Otherwise, they just come off as fluff.Â
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So make sure the claims you make in your ads are specific. And even better, back up your claims by connecting them to a feature or capability of your product.
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Take the step to connect your benefits back to something realistic.Â
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Pro tip: even better than talking about how your benefits connect to something realistic, SHOW PROSPECTS HOW this happens with supporting images or videos.Â
Tip #10: Make Sure Your Copy Passes the âSo Whatâ Test
You should be totally skeptical about your copy (just like prospects will be).Â
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People arenât stupid â even if they fall victim to clickbait they will bounce from your landing pages.Â
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Every time you look at your copy ask yourself so what? And pick it apart to see where itâs fluff.Â
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Sit back and look through to see where youâre missing proof points or what can be removed.Â
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Youâll be able to find all those tiny things that will throw people off reading your ads.Â
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At the end of the day your audience will look at the total sum of your ad (headline, body copy, creative) and if there are elements out of place such as:
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- Run on sentences
- Improper formatting
- Typos and obvious errors
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All of these details will affect whether the audience feels they can trust you with their click.Â
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So what allows you a third person frame to find what looks off, and what can be stronger.Â
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Pro tip: search for free ad mockup software on Google to find tools you can use to see what your copy will look like to your audience within the platform youâre advertising.Â
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Hope you found this article helpful! đ
âConnect with me on LinkedIn and letâs keep the conversation going.Â
And if youâre in need of copywriting assistance check us out at CAPE Agency.
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Resources for mastering B2B advertising
If youâre serious about mastering B2B advertising then you definitely need to join 1,000+ B2B marketers leveling up their paid advertising skill sets in AdConversion.Â
âHereâs 4 reasons why you should consider joining. Every one of our on-demand courses are:
â Â 100% free access.
â Â Taught by vetted industry experts.
â Â Have workbooks, resources, and templates.
â Â Less than 10 minutes per lesson.
We believe every marketer should know how to scale paid ads so they can:
- Â Scale their ideas
- Level up their careers
- Make a positive impact
Click Here to Join 1,000+ B2B Marketers Today and start levelling up your advertising skill set.
Takes < 90 seconds to sign up (seriously we timed it đ)
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50+ Ad Specs for The Top 10 Ad Platforms
Have you ever wondered what dimensions does that ad require? đ¤
Then started searching to find the answer? (same here lol)
To save you (and ourselves) trouble, we gathered the most popular ad specs across 10 channels in one place:Â
- Google Display Ad Specs
- LinkedIn Ad Specs
- Twitter (X) Ad Specs
- Quora Ad Specs
- Reddit Ad Specs
- YouTube Ad Specs
- Google Discovery / Demand Gen Ad Specs
- TikTok Ad Specs
- Meta Ad Specs
âď¸ Bookmark this article and refer back to it when you need ad specs.Â
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Google Display Ad Specs
Source: support.google.com
Browse examples at adstransparency.google.com
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LinkedIn Ad Specs
Source: business.linkedin.com
Browse examples at: linkedin.com/ad-library/home
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âX (Twitter) Ad Specs
âSource: business.twitter.com
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- You can request to have video lengths increased up to 10 minutes
- Carousel can use images or videos but must be in the same aspect ratio (ex: 1:1 or 16:9)
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Quora Ad Specs
Source: image ads, video ads
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Reddit Ad Specs
Source: reddit.my.site.com
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* Headlines will be truncated to 100 characters on mobile/mobile web for the conversation placement.
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Youtube Ad Specs
Source: support.google.com
Browse examples at adstransparency.google.com
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Google Discovery / Demand Gen Ad Specs
Source: support.google.com
Browse examples at adstransparency.google.com
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TikTok Ad Specs
Source: ads.tiktok.com
Browse examples at library.tiktok.com/ads
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âMeta Ad Specs (Facebook/Instagram)
Source: business.facebook.com
Browse examples at: www.facebook.com/ads/library
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Resources for Mastering B2B Advertising
Hope you found this ad specs article useful!
If youâre serious about mastering B2B advertising then you definitely need to join 1,000+ B2B marketers leveling up their paid advertising skill sets in AdConversion.Â
â
Hereâs 4 reasons why you should consider joining. Every one of our on-demand courses are:
â 100% free access.
â Taught by vetted industry experts.
â Have workbooks, resources, and templates.
â Less than 10 minutes per lesson.
â
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
â
Click Here to Join 1,000+ B2B Marketers Today and start leveling up your advertising skill set.
Takes < 90 seconds to sign up (seriously I timed it đ)
3 Powerful Strategies For Scaling SaaS Google Ads You Need To Know
Google Ads is a blessing and a curse.
You're blessed with intent and cursed with scale.Â
Itâs a powerful channel for scaling pipeline for SaaS startups but low search volume is a challenge.Â
In this article youâre going to learn 3 powerful strategies for scaling your SaaS google ads further.Â
This wonât solve your limited search volume issues that's just the nature of your target keywords and B2B SaaS but these strategies will help you squeeze more performance from your account.Â
Letâs dive into it đ
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Strategy #1: Broad Match Discovery
- Strategy #2: Advertising outside of English
- Strategy #3: Industry campaigns
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Strategy #1: Broad Match Discovery
Before you click away Iâm not talking about using broad match in the traditional sense.Â
Where you let Google show your ads for WHATEVER they think is relevant.Â
Broad match discovery is where you combine broad match keywords AND an audience.Â
It essentially means youâre giving Google the flexibility to show your ads for whatever they feel is relevant but within the confines of your targeted audience.Â
I would not recommend testing this approach unless you have:
- Strong negative keyword lists
- Proven converting phrase match keywords
- Significant conversion volume (> 15/month)
The benefit is you get to scale your top keywords safely past phrase match.Â
How to implement broad match discovery:Â
Step 1: Find proven converting phrase match keywordsÂ
Review your performance across converting phrase match keywords to identify which youâre going to prioritize testing with broad match discovery.Â
Donât rely on âtotal conversionsâ make sure youâre viewing performance by keyword based on the custom metrics that matter for your business (ex: Demo, Trial, SQL, SAL, Opp, etc).
Once youâve identified some worthwhile keywords itâs time for step 2.Â
Step 2: Brainstorm your targeted audiences
Google has 5 audience types you can leverage for targeting in your search campaigns.Â
- Your data = website visitors or contact lists
- In-market = people actively researching a given topic
- Life events = people whoâve accomplished a life milestone (ex: create a business, get married)
- Detailed demographics = industries, company sizes, education level.Â
- Affinity = people who are interested in a certain topic
You can use a mixture of all these different types of audiences to layer on top of your broad match discovery campaigns.Â
If youâre dealing with < 500 searches/month for your keywords I recommend clustering a minim of 10-15 audiences on top of your campaigns to help with delivery.Â
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Step 3: Setup a campaign experimentÂ
The safest way you can test broad match discovery is in a 50/50 experiment alongside your top converting phrase match campaign.Â
You can easily AB test in Google Ads using the campaign experiments feature.Â
Located under Campaigns > ExperimentsÂ
Using this feature build an experiment splitting the traffic by 50% for your original campaign vs the experiment version using broad match AND the targeted audiences you brainstormed in step 2.Â
Strategy #2: Advertising outside of English
English is the most competitive language in the world with the majority of advertisers.Â
Weâve seen reductions of up to 70% in our average CPC targeting other languages.Â
If your company has the resources to sell in multiple languages â take advantage of localization!
Localization campaigns are when you target keywords, write ad copy, and design landing pages that all are in your audience's native language (ex: Spanish, German, Portuguese).Â
Youâll reap the benefits of lower costs due to less competition.Â
The downside however with localization is search volume.Â
If youâre already advertising in English outside of North America and finding success, definitely recommend testing this strategy.Â
How to implement localized campaigns:Â
Step 1: Find proven converting phrase match keywordsÂ
Review your performance across converting phrase match keywords to identify which youâre going to prioritize testing with broad match discovery.Â
Donât rely on âtotal conversionsâ make sure youâre viewing performance by keyword based on the custom metrics that matter for your business (ex: Demo, Trial, SQL, SAL, Opp, etc).
Step 2: Brainstorm your targeted languages
Ask your internal team what languages your sales team is able to sell in.Â
Based on your options make a list of potential languages.
Next, if youâre advertising outside of North America, review the top performing countries and identify their local languages and see if you have the internal resources that can speak that language.
If you canât sell in this language then this strategy wonât make sense.Â
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Step 3: Hire a local translator Â
Donât make the mistake of relying on Google Translate to perform the bulk of your translation.
Youâll want to hire a translator that grew up in the area in which you want to advertise.Â
For instance, if youâre advertising in Portuguese.Â
The dialect for Europeans living in Portugal and those living in Brazil is very different.Â
A local brazilian can tell if itâs not their dialect just like a native portuguese.Â
I recommend hiring locals off Upwork can be as low as $12/hour depending on the language.Â
These translations will make a world difference in your ad and landing page copy.Â
Strategy #3: Industry campaigns
Industry campaigns can be great for coverage and quality.
This is where youâre going to bid on a desired keyword and add a related industry term.Â
For example, letâs say bidding on the keyword âcrm softwareâ hereâs how you can modify this keyword to make it industry specific:
- healthcare crm software
- crm software for fintechÂ
- crm software for small businesses
The benefits of industry campaigns:Â
- Personalized ad copy that can yield greater CTRs
- Higher quality leads due to a more qualified search term
- Lower cost per click prices due to less competition
The downside however is search volume (the constant struggle of Google for SaaS đ ).
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How to implement industry campaigns:Â
Step 1: Find proven converting phrase match keywordsÂ
Just like the other strategies weâre going to identify proven keywords first that we can create industry variations for.Â
Step 2: Brainstorm your target industries
Run a win rate analysis in your CRM and understand which industries have the shortest sales cycles and largest deal sizes? Based on your findings, prioritise the industries in which you want to target.Â
Step 3: Build and prevent keyword overlap
Once you have your keywords and target industries youâre ready to build your campaigns.Â
Make sure to add your industry terms as negative keywords in your generic non-brand campaigns.
Otherwise you can have people seeing your generic ads for your industry terms.Â
Hope you found this article helpful!Â
Best of luck scaling your Google Ads campaigns for your SaaS.Â
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Resources for mastering B2B advertising
If youâre serious about mastering B2B advertising then you definitely need to join 1,000+ B2B marketers leveling up their paid advertising skill sets in AdConversion.Â
âHereâs 4 reasons why you should consider joining. Every one of our on-demand courses are:
â Â 100% free access.
â Â Taught by vetted industry experts.
â Â Have workbooks, resources, and templates.
â Â Less than 10 minutes per lesson.
We believe every marketer should know how to scale paid ads so they can:
- Â 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 đ)
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