Google Ads

Beginner’s Guide to Google Ads Competitor Analysis In 2024

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Silvio Perez

Founder @AdConversion

Looking to research competitor's Google Ads?

In this guide I'll walk you through how to find their best ads, and reverse engineer their strategy.

Regardless of if your budget is as low as $10/day or $10,000/day, the same process applies.

We’ll first focus on analysis in this guide and then dive into strategy.

Let’s get into it! 👇

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

How to Find & Research Competitors Google Ads
Free Tools to Find Examples of Competitors Google Ads
Paid Tools to Find Examples of Competitors Google Ads
How to Break Down Your Competitors Google Ads Strategy

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^‍

How to Find & Research Competitors Google Ads

Pablo Picasso once said “good artists copy, and great artists steal” taking inspiration from what works from your competitors and transforming it into “your own” way is a sound approach.

Just remember this can sometimes lead to a situation where everyone is copying each other and no one has any real idea of what their doing in the first place 😅

Ultimately beating your own baseline performance is what you should obsess about.

With this disclaimer out of the way, you first need to know what competitors you want to research.

You can find who you’re up against with the auction insights report in Google Ads.

Screenshot showing Google Ads Auction Insights report comparing metrics like impression share and top-of-page rate for competitors, essential for Google Ads Competitor Analysis.

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Find this report by navigating to Keywords > Auction Insights within your Google Ads account.

Sort this report by Impression Share to understand how visible you are against your competitors for your targeting criteria (ex: keywords, locations, audiences).
Review the Top of page rate as well to understand how often you and your competitors appear within the top 3 positions of Google.

Now that you have an understanding of who your competitors are.

Let’s dive into the free and paid tools you can use to conduct Google Ads competitor analysis.

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Free Tools to Find Examples of Competitors Google Ads

Each of the following competitor analysis tools can be used for free, leverage whichever resonates.

Google Ads Transparency Center

Source: https://adstransparency.google.com/

The Google Ads Transparency Center was released on March 29, 2023 as a way to help you quickly and easily learn more about the ads you see on Search, YouTube and Display.

Since the release of this tool it’s become an absolute goldmine for Google advertisers.

Here’s how you can leverage the Google Ads Transparency Center for competitor analysis:

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1. Visit the Google Ads Transparency Center and enter your competitors domain URL

Image displaying the Google Ads Transparency Center interface, prompting users to enter competitor domain for analysis, critical for Google Ads Competitor Analysis.

2. Scroll down to see the most recent Search, YouTube, and Display ads

Display of active ads from Udemy in Google Ads Transparency Center, allowing users to track and analyze competitor ad strategies.

When scrolling through the results take note of the following:

Number of total ads to understand how active your competitor is.
The language the ads are written in to know if your competitor is running localization strategy.
The primary keyword your competitor is trying to target in the ad copy.
{Parameters} in the ad copy to know if your competitor is using dynamic search ads or keyword insertion.

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3. Once you find an interesting ad click on it to reveal the target location

Click on the show anywhere button to reveal the target location for the ad.

Close-up of a Google ad from Udemy, highlighting ad targeting details like location (Indonesia) for Google Ads Competitor Analysis.

Armed with this information you can decide if you want to advertise to these same regions.

If you only used 1 tool for Google Ads competitor analysis I’d recommend the Transparency Center.

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ISearchFrom

Source: https://isearchfrom.com/

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If you’re planning to advertise somewhere you’re not physically located and want to know which competitors are bidding on your target keywords, ISearchFrom is a great free tool to use.

Here’s how you can utilize ISearchFrom for google ads competitor analysis:

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1. Visit ISearchFrom and enter your target country and keyword

Screenshot of the “I Search From” tool simulating a Google search for “Google ads course” in the UK, useful for competitor analysis in Google Ads.

2. Review the ads to uncover advertisers in your target location you might not be aware of

Example of Google search results for the "google ads course" term showing sponsored ads, including competitors like Apple and Coursera, relevant for Google Ads Competitor Analysis.

From this simulated result for someone “physically” located in the United Kingdom I can see Coursera is advertising on google ads courses in this region.

From here I can leverage the Transparency Center to uncover more ad examples from them.

Again this is a great tool for finding competitors you’re not familiar with in locations you’re not in.

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Paid Tools to Find Examples of Competitors Google Ads

Each of the following competitor analysis tools can be used for a fee, use whichever resonates and fits your budget.

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SpyFu

Source: https://www.spyfu.com/

Price: $39-$79/month

If you’re looking for a simple tool to review examples of competitors Google Ads copy, target keywords, and landing pages.

SpyFu is a great tool to start off with, here’s how you can use it.

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1. Visit SpyFu and enter your competitors domain

Overview of the SpyFu marketing tool interface, showcasing features for analyzing competitor SEO and PPC data, crucial for Google Ads Competitor Analysis.

2. Review your competitors estimated Google Ads budget and quantity of paid keywords

SpyFu report detailing Udemy’s monthly domain overview, including organic vs paid traffic, vital for understanding Google Ads Competitor Analysis.

3. Navigate to “PPC Research > PPC Keywords” to see all paid keywords

SpyFu interface showing PPC keyword performance for Udemy, focusing on the most successful keywords for Google Ads Competitor Analysis.

4. Head to “PPC Research > Ad History” to see all competitor ad examples by keyword

SpyFu report highlighting historical ad performance for Udemy, featuring clicks, cost-per-click, and coverage, key for Google Ads Competitor Analysis.

5. Uncover other top competitors “PPC Research > Competitors” you might know of

SpyFu chart comparing top competitors like Udemy, Coursera, pluralsight and skillshare based on paid keywords, essential for Google Ads Competitor Analysis.

With this one tool you can get estimates of competitors' Google Ads budgets, review keywords, ads, and uncover opportunities across new competitors you might not know of.

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Other paid tools:

There’s no shortage of paid tools you can use to research your competitors.

Here’s a list of some others worth exploring:

SEMRush ($129-$499/month)
iSpionage ($59-$299/month)

Don’t get hung up on the tools.

Achieving the end outcome is ultimately key.

Now that you know how to find and research your competitors Google Ads.

Let’s walk through how to break down their strategy.

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How to Break Down Your Competitors Google Ads Strategy

Knowing what keywords and ad copy your competitors are using is a great starting point.

But getting answers to questions like:

How are my competitors structuring their campaigns?
How are they allocating budget?

are crucial insights that can separate you from them.

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1. Reverse Engineering URL Parameters

Once you know your competitors landing pages, which you can get from:

Searching keywords in Google and clicking on their ads
Reviewing landing page URLs in SpyFu’s Ad History report

You’ll want to review their UTM parameters to get insights on the goal of this campaign, target keyword, and anything else around how it was set up.

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URL Parameter Example #1 - Zoho

For example, I searched CRM software and clicked on this ad from Zoho:

Screenshot showing a Zoho CRM ad and corresponding landing page, showing information you can get by checking the url parameter in the ad, helpful for Google Ads Competitor Analysis.

When reviewing the URL post click I can see the following parameters:

/?network=g&device=c&keyword=crm%20software&campaignid=14928929712
&creative=552506800726&matchtype=e
&adposition=&placement=&adgroup=130022006802&gad_source=1
&gclid=Cj0KCQjw3tCyBhDBARIsAEY0XNlAKXey
TKDzEJQDpeNh2giI4p8sVSnWKqsvlND5bvZa_J
q62wCqSFoaAsc1EALw_wcB

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By reviewing the URL structure I can gather the following information:

Network = g | they’re advertising on Google Search
Device = c | they’re running ads on Desktop devices
Keyword = crm software | they’re bidding on crm software
Matchtype = e | they’re using exact match

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URL Parameter Example #2 - Freshworks

Let’s use one more example to drive this home with the Freshworks ad that was underneath Zoho:

?tactic_id=6071454&utm_source=google-adwords&utm_medium=FSales-Search-InsideEU-FSE-RLSA-New
&utm_campaign=FSales-Search-InsideEU-FSE-RLSA New&utm_term=crm%20software&device=c
&matchtype=p&network=g
&gclid=Cj0KCQjw3tCyBhDBARIsAEY0XNkaG_AiGqCRYj-AEcuQcnvJS_3eI0bS6jIKu_
M7JRmqOYwSIGwuc6UaAvYqEALw_wcB&gad_source=1

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Here’s what I’m able to gather from the URL structure:

Source = google-adwords | they’re advertising on Google Search
Campaign = FSales-Search-InsideEU-FSE-RLSA-New | they’re advertising in the EU and running a remarketing list for search ads campaigns.
Term = crm software | they’re advertising on the keyword crm software
Device = c | they’re bidding on desktop devices
Matchtype = p | they’re using phrase match

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With this information you can start to get answers into how your competitors are structuring their campaigns and it’s freely available and ready for those advertisers that are savvy enough to look.

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2. Keyword Classification

How are your competitors allocating budget?

Now you’ll never know the answer to this question with absolute certainty but with some manual work here’s how you can try and piece together a sense of their strategy allocation.

You’ll need one of the paid tools listed above in order to perform this keyword analysis.

I’ll be using SEMRush for the sake of demonstration but the general process is the same across tools.

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1. Export all of your competitors paid keywords into a CSV

SEMrush data export showing a list of competitor ad keywords like “Udemy” and “UX design” with metrics, vital for Google Ads Competitor Analysis.

2. Filter the Last Seen column by the most recent month to see active keywords

Example of SEMrush export for competitor keyword data with sorting and filtering options, useful for Google Ads Competitor Analysis.

3. Add a new column called “Theme” and classify each keyword by campaign theme.

This step can take some significant time but can be well worth the effort to understand your competitors keyword strategy and budget allocation priorities.

With your custom column of “campaign theme” you’ll want to manually classify each keyword.

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Here’s the four campaign themes you’ll utilize for classification:

NonBrand = high-intent keywords that don’t include your brand name
Brand = keywords containing your brand name
Competitive = keywords that represent your competitors
Content = keywords that are informational and research oriented

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Watch this video for a deep dive on how to perform this advanced classification:

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4. Summarize your classified keywords into a pivot table to understand your competitors strategy and budget priorities

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From here we can make some assumptions about what is working for our competitors.

87% of Udemy’s keywords are NonBrand, 9% Brand, 4% Content, and barely 0% Competitive.
It’s safe to assume that the majority of the budget is supporting NonBrand, followed by Brand, Content, and ultimately Competitive.

Based on this allocation I might want to focus on NonBrand first given the volume of investment Udemy seems to be spending on it, and avoid competitive keywords to start.

This isn't 100% exact science but an advanced way to research your competitors Google Ads.

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Need help calculating your stating Google Ads Budget?

If you’re in need of help calculating your starting Google Ads budget check out our calculator.

screenshot of the adconversion google ads budget calculator interface for calculating campaign metrics like CPL, CPA, and ROAS under different scenarios

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Hope you found this article useful!

See you in the next article or one of our free courses!

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Once you understand the basics and set up initial campaigns, start A/B testing and experimenting. You could test many things, for example, different ad formats, creatives, messaging, campaign objectives or targeting - all of which can lead to better performance. From my experience, any significant improvement in advertising efficiency starts with a (sometimes random and "long shot") test. To make the testing process smooth and successful, I recommend starting with a hypothesis, creating a testing plan, and having clear KPIs and ways of tracking those.

Kris Wojcik

Digital Marketing Exec

#1 tip for marketers getting into B2B advertising is to have fun with it. A lot of B2B brands take themselves really seriously to appeal to Enterprise buyers, but the reality is we're all human and you're marketing to humans.

Jess Bahr

Co-Founder & CEO

People buy different, not better. So when you're advertising in B2B, it's crucial to sniff out your differentiator and explain that in a way that your buyers will clearly understand it, consume it, and resonate with it. Each of your buyers is different too so it's important to have a good mix of how you explain the difference.

Tim Davidson

Sr. Director, Digital Marketing

One valuable tip I'd offer new marketers entering the realm of B2B advertising is to prioritize understanding your target audience deeply. B2B advertising differs significantly from B2C advertising in that you're not just targeting individual consumers but engaging with businesses, often involving nuanced decision-making units.

To effectively connect with your B2B audience, invest time researching and profiling your ideal customer profile (ICP). This means identifying their industry, company size, and job roles and delving into their pain points, challenges, and aspirations – try to get in the minds of your ICP from entry-level to executive.

By going that extra mile in understanding your audience, you can craft messaging and content that resonates with them—addressing their specific needs, providing solutions, and positioning your products or services as the standout choice.

Tyler Ray

Global Demand Generation + Growth

Before you create any adverts, you need to figure out what your message is going to be. Don't rush into it until you know 'what problems you solve, how you solve them, and why your customer should solve them.' One sentence on each of those creates your elevator pitch, which should be present in some way, in all of your ads. It also represents the business case for your product. If you can't explain your story easily, how on earth do you expect your audience to remember it?

Joseph Hill

Director of Digital Strategy

You know that crazy Marketing 'funnel' everyone talks about? Always start from the bottom up. Meaning, the first place to start is to know who your customers are and how they equate to revenue. Then work yourself up the funnel to drive the most impact.

Bryttney Blanken

Demand Generation Consultant

Adopt the 'kill your darlings' mantra. You have to be ready to cut what you love if it isn't delivering results—be it an ad, keyword, or campaign. What was once a good performer might not stay that way, so never 'set and forget.' Always monitor and optimise.

Three macroeconomic principles should guide you:

1- Budget is limited.
2- Benchmark against your own metrics, not industry fluff.
3- Make trade-offs based on what performs better.

Kill the darlings that don't contribute to the revenue to make room for what does.

Canberk Beker

Group Global Head of Paid Media

Focus on the audience/ICP first, not being the best/all-in-one product. When you address the pain and call the audience out, it resonates far more than simply stating 'We're #1/the best in ... category'. No one gives a shit about fancy review badges, Gartner, or other reports (maybe just a tiny bit) & enterprise studies/research. Everyone wants to know how your product will solve their pain or problem.

The best way (for me at least) to find out the actual problem of a customer is to go to G2 and your biggest/well-known competitor and read/scrape all the 'What problems is PandaDoc solving and how is that benefiting you?' answers. You'll find out that most answers are about one/two specific cases, and so then it's your job to address it right via website/ad copy messaging.

Alex Panchuk

Performance Marketing

Shift your mindset. You'll generate leads, but it's not just about lead generation. When they convert, focus on quality and intent. To do that, you need to understand the customer and how to reach them with the right and interesting message in the right places, consistently. Make it easy for them to remember you, find you, and buy from you when they are ready. For practical advice, Go through the LinkedIn ebook 'How B2B Brands Grow", study demand generation, join communities, and ask questions there.

Roman Krs

Performance Marketer

Before you blame the channel, do the research to see if there are some other reasons why leads aren't converting to opportunities.

For example:

WEBSITE

Does the ad align with the landing page?
Is it easy to understand how it works, who it's for, how much it costs, and the outcome it drives?
Do you have relevant social proof?

CONVERSION

Is the form simple and short?
Does it offer an easy way to schedule a meeting?
Are there clear CTAs across the website?
Do you address common objections on the demo page?

LEAD HAND-OFF

How long does it take to set up a meeting with a buyer after the form is filled take?
Did we align the follow-up with the intent level?
Do we offer a demo at the first meeting?
Do we identify the core problems of the buyer and how our solution can help solve those issues?

SALES CYCLE

Did we create a close plan?
Have we gotten all key decision-makers involved?
Do we add value along the sales process?
Do we always set up the next meeting with a clear agenda?
Have we properly differentiated ourselves against competitors and keeping with the status quo?

80% of the above don't directly involve the "channel"

Jonathan Bland

Co-Founder

For someone starting with B2B advertising, I highly recommend following the right B2B content creators on LinkedIn, as well as other paid media ones - then block some time to go through their posts/videos to learn new strategies/tips, or merely understand their point-of-view. Then, find ways of testing those strategies/quick wins with your own clients to get your own insights and takeaways - plus, it's a great way of implementing what you learn

Gonçalo Prates

Performance Marketing Manager

Make sure that you nail your fundamentals before you launch your campaign. Know where your ICP spends time online and what they are searching for.

If you don't, you won't be able to nail down your targeting for paid social and you won't go after the right keywords on paid search.

Start with the understanding of your buyer (the qualitative and quantitative) insights, and then go and build your strategy based off of that. There are a lot of great resources on how to technically set up your campaign - just keep it as simple as you can to begin with.

The final part of the fundamentals is to make sure you have tracking in place in your CRM. You need to be able to know what leads came in from your paid ads, and be able to track them throughout the sales process. Otherwise you'll never be able to answer the question at the executive level, "How are our ads performing?

Blake Strozyk

Founder

Seasonality in B2B is real & should be taken into account when optimizing & experimenting with paid ads.

Here is what I mean: We have grown very rapidly over the last 1.5 years and therefore don't have reliable base data from last summer, so only this year we started to feel the summer slow down properly. Many experiments that we ran have to be pre & post (sometimes it's technically not possible to run A/B), so if you launch an experiment in June & compare results with May the results will be heavily impacted by external factors (summer period slowdown).

It's not something new, but something we faced a lot this summer. So don't disregard the importance of taking seasonality into account.

Borys Khodan

Head of Paid Media

1. When building advertising campaigns, be hyper focused on audience and targeting. Your best advertising campaign won't be successful unless you target the right people at the right time.

2. The biggest gold mine for ad copy is customer calls. If you have a tool like Gong, you should be listening to calls every day to find insights on what your customers care about.

Liam Barnes

Sr. Manager, Growth Marketing (Emerging Tech)

The B2B Buyer's journey is complex, make sure you are filling all the content gaps on your paid ad strategy.

Miguel Sánchez

Demand Generation Manager

Offers are the most underused and underappreciated lever in B2B ad performance, and it’s not even close.

People associate Offers with e-commerce style, “buy one get one free” marketing messages. But the category is so much broader than that - it’s offering different things to your audience to see what they respond best to.

In short: Everything you promote with an ad is an Offer, whether you think of it that or not. Some example Offers that B2B companies can use:

a.) Click this ad and schedule a sales call
b.) Click this ad and get access to a demo
c.) Click this ad and get an eBook
d.) Click this ad and get an incentive.

You should start with an Offer when building campaigns, don't make it an afterthought.

Kevin Lord Barry

Co-Founder

Advertising can be daunting as a new B2B marketer, when you don't have a full grasp on how the ad platforms work or you haven't spent as much money on them, you might feel like you are not ready to run ads.

But here's the thing, you will never be 100% ready till you actually take action, and as scary as this might feel, there's a great thing about this too, you are also more prepared than you actually think.

That first campaign won't be perfect, you will make mistakes, and you will lose some $$$ in the process (sad reality about advertising 😅), but as long as you see this as a learning experience, you will accelerate your knowledge about the platforms and become strong in them in no time.

Diego Oquendo

Head of Marketing

Never skip out on creative. With all the targeting features that we have access to as B2B marketers, creating content specific to the persona you're going after is important. Whether it's copy or the images you use, I recommend investing time into making sure they resonate with your ICP.

Ali Yildirim

Co-Founder & CEO

Ultimately it boils down to establishing trust. Your objective is to educate prospects from various angles and persuade them to take the desired action. Providing value upfront through various means is the most sustainable approach to accomplish this.

Rory Conroy

Growth & Performance Marketing Manager

Put a real effort into the ad creation on social channels. Create a list with the prospects’ pain points, their headaches, and how your product could solve any of these pain points, then transform it into ad copy that talks directly to your prospect in a humane language, it’s B2B but we’re talking to people, this will make ads that will stand out on the crowd. We can have the best audience and an infinite budget, but if we don’t master the message (and have a compelling design), chances are that our ads will not be noticed.

Jessica Amaral

Demand Generation Manager

Silvio Perez

Founder @AdConversion

Want to level up your B2B advertising skill set?

AdConversion was created to help B2B marketers master advertising with free courses, articles, resources, and templates created by the world best practitioners.

START LEARNING

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10 Insider Tips on Event Promotion From $1M+ In Ad Spend

Kirk Deis

Read Article

Looking to boost registrations for your next event?

I’ve been a part of a team that has driven 10,000+ registrations for events like Ascend, and Innovation Day.

‍

Here are my top 10 event promotion best practices for increasing registrations through paid ads.

(In no particular order, they all matter)

‍

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Tip #1: The Four-Stage Framework for Event Marketing
Tip #2: Utilizing Partnerships & Internal Networks
Tip #3: Mastering Segmentation & Efficiency
Tip #4: Remarketing Mastery: Capitalizing on Targeted Engagement
Tip #5: Cross-Channel Integration
Tip #6: Geo-Targeted Ads: Precision Marketing for Event Success
Tip #7: Gamification: Turning Engagement into a Competitive Advantage
Tip #8: Display Advertising & Maximizing Visibility
Tip #9: Remarketing Campaigns: Sharpening the Focus for Better ROI
Tip #10: Mastering ROI: The North Star of Marketing Success
Conclusion
Resources for Mastering B2B Advertising

‍

Tip #1: The Four-Stage Framework for Event Marketing

‍

Maximizing ROI on event marketing demands more than just throwing money at promotions.

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It requires a carefully structured budget across four critical stages:

Pre-Event
Event-Day
Post-Event
Repurpose-Phase

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Pie chart of event promotion budget distribution showing 60% pre-event, 20% event-day, 10% post-event, 10% repurpose phase.

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Let’s break down each stage.

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1/ Pre-Event: The Hype Machine:

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The goal here is to generate buzz and build anticipation. It's about investing wisely in creating brand awareness with assets like videos, static images, that get people excited and start conversations.

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The aim? To discover what truly resonates with your audience.

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Skydio LinkedIn Ad for UASD Innovation Day, showing 2 days left countdown with a drone in flight controlled by a soldier

UASD Innovation Day LinkedIn ad showing 1 day remaining with a close-up of a drone and soldier.

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2/ During the Event Day: Capturing Attention:

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As the event unfolds, there's a golden opportunity to keep marketing with timely emails and live updates.

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It's not just about informing; it's about keeping the engagement needle moving by reminding attendees of the value they're getting, right as it happens.

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Live demo promotion LinkedIn ad for drone-led patrol featuring Skydio X10 drone in a remote operation.

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3/ Post-Event: Leveraging Assets:

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Post-event, the focus shifts to capitalizing on the event's content.

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Recorded sessions and dedicated landing pages become key tools in extending the event's lifecycle.

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How? By marketing these assets to both attendees for reinforcement and to those who missed out, providing them a chance to engage.

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Skydio webinar promotion LinkedIn Ad for ‘5 Steps to Implementing Patrol-Led Deployment’ featuring a police officer with a drone.

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4/ After The Event - The Repurpose Phase:

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Finally, we enter the "Repurpose-Phase," where content from the event transcends its original context.

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This is where smart marketers reuse and recycle event content in ads or promotions for future events, turning one-time efforts into long-term assets.

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LinkedIn ad for Skydio drones inspecting energized environments, with industrial background.

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Budget distribution:

‍

Whatever your budget may be, the principle remains the same—allocate strategically.

‍

Invest heavily in the “Pre-Event Phase” to find your audience's pulse and save a portion for the "Repurpose Phase" to fuel future events.

‍

This staggered approach not only maximizes exposure at each stage but also ensures that registrations and engagement peak when it matters most.
‍

Practical Budgeting Example

With a $1,000 budget, consider allocating $600 towards the Pre-event phase to test and refine your marketing approach.

‍

Reserve $200 for live engagement during the event, and use the remaining $200 to promote your post-event content and seed future events, ensuring your marketing efforts continue to bear fruit long after the event has concluded.

Tip #2: Utilizing Partnerships & Internal Networks

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When your marketing budget seems like a drop in the ocean, it's time to get creative with what you have.

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Even with $5,000 in hand, there's a wealth of untapped potential lying within your LinkedIn connections and internal team networks.

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Strategic Content Sharing:

‍

Kickstart your campaign by encouraging your team to engage with your event posts on LinkedIn.

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This simple action can significantly boost your visibility, pushing the algorithm into recognizing your content's importance.

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Influencer Collaboration:

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Whether it's through LinkedIn, Instagram, or niche forums like Reddit, reaching out to influencers with a teaser of your event will extend your reach beyond your immediate circle.

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Pro-tip:

Offer influencers engaging assets like short videos to make sharing easier and more appealing. The goal is to make your event resonate within their networks, amplifying your message through trusted voices in the community.

Humorous meme with a bald man holding a finger to his lips, text ‘Choose Your Influencers Wisely.

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How to Craft Influencer Outreach:

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Semrush: When faced with promoting an event with limited resources, leveraging Semrush to identify key content creators in your domain can be a game-changer.

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Once you find out which websites are most suitable, cold emails to these targeted individuals proposing collaboration opportunities can open doors to new audiences.

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Screenshot of semrush traffic analytics dashboard showing key metrics for amazon.com including visits, unique visitors, and bounce rate.

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LinkedIn Strategies: Joining LinkedIn groups and engaging with active members can also unearth opportunities for partnership.

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It's about finding mutual benefits, even if it comes with a price tag.

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Influencers typically have set rates, so budget accordingly. However, when reaching out directly to content creators or platforms, there's more room for negotiation.

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List of event management groups on a LinkedIn showing group names and member counts.

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Boosting Organic Posts: Another proven method is enhancing your LinkedIn posts organically through employee engagement before opting for paid promotions.

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Remember, it's not just about spending money but making every dollar work smarter.

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Example of Boosting an organic post for LinkedIn

Screenshot of a LinkedIn post offering 10 tips to boost event promotion with paid ads for more impressions, with a green arrow pointing to ‘Boost’ button.

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For additional tips on promoting events, check out this LinkedIn post by AdConversion.

Tip #3: Mastering Segmentation & Efficiency

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Let’s start with critical pitfalls to steer clear of.

‍

Broad targeting equals wasted effort.

‍

Dial into the specifics of your audience to ensure your content reaches the right eyes and ears.

‍Segmentation is Non-negotiable: Specificity in targeting not only enhances engagement but also optimizes your budget by focusing on the most promising prospects.
‍Creativity within Constraints: Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. "Good Enough" can often be your best starting point. Launch with what you have, then adapt and improve.
‍ROI vs. ROE: While ROI (Return on Investment) reigns supreme, don't overlook the ROE (Return on Effort).

‍

Evaluate the potential returns against the effort required. Sometimes, the simplest strategies yield the best results without exhaustive planning and resource allocation.

‍

Pro-tip:

Launching event promotion comes with its share of delays and edits. Start early and simplify.
Overcomplicating creative requests can bottleneck the process, jeopardizing your timeline.Embrace minimalism in your initial creative assets.
Focus on refining the message rather than getting lost in the design details. There will be room to iterate and enhance based on real-world feedback.

Tip #4: Remarketing Mastery: Capitalizing on Targeted Engagement

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After laying the groundwork with audience segmentation, remarketing emerges as the strategic follow-through that ensures your message continually reaches those most likely to act.

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It’s about reconnecting with website visitors, video-view watchers, image interactors, etc.

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Reaching to those who demonstrated interest but haven't yet taken the desired action.

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By targeting these engaged users with specific, relevant ads, the probability of conversion (registration) significantly increases.

‍

If you want a crash course on remarketing check out this 35-page blueprint on How to Build a Multichannel B2B Remarketing Strategy by Silvio Perez.

‍

Blueprint guide from AdConversion for building a multichannel B2B retargeting strategy across LinkedIn, Meta, X, and YouTube.

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Tip #5: Cross-Channel Integration

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Using just one platform for event promotion is like whispering in the midst of a loud crowd.

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The essence of cross-channel integration lies in presenting a unified brand narrative across various platforms.

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From LinkedIn's precise targeting capabilities to the broad reach of YouTube and the personal touch of Meta's networks, each channel plays a critical role in amplifying your event's visibility.

‍

Pro tip: Check this article to learn how to get LinkedIn-like targeting on YouTube ads for B2B.

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Platform-Specific Strategies: A Closer Look:

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YouTube: Leveraging YouTube for its vast audience and cost-effective view rates turns your event promotion into an engaging visual narrative.

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Here, remarketing shines, allowing you to reconnect with interested viewers through compelling video content.

‍LinkedIn: With unmatched segmentation options, LinkedIn stands out for B2B event promotion. Tailoring your message to reach specific professional demographics ensures your event resonates with the right audience.
‍Meta: Often underestimated in B2B contexts, Meta (Facebook and Instagram) offer a unique space for testing and remarketing. Here, the personal intersects with the professional

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Navigating the Creative Challenge:

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A common hurdle in cross-channel marketing is content creation, especially video for platforms like YouTube.

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The solution? Creativity and repurposing. Utilize existing assets, from high-engagement talks to website walkthroughs, and repurpose them into new video content with minimal effort.

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Think of content as modular components that can be assembled and reassembled to suit different platforms.

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A blog post can transform into an infographic, a webinar clip, or a social media snippet, maximizing your content's reach and lifespan.

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Meme featuring a character from StarTtrek with a hand gesture and text ‘Repurpose Content and Prosper,’ highlighting content strategy.

Tip #6: Geo-Targeted Ads: Precision Marketing for Event Success

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For events that offer both in-person and virtual attendance options, geo-targeted ads stand out as a proven tactic.

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By targeting potential attendees within a specific radius of the event location, you ensure that your advertising dollars are spent on those most likely to attend in person.

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Example of Meta’s radius targeting:

Geo-targeting feature on Facebook Ads Manager showcasing a map view of Miami, Florida, with a marked area for a 17-mile radius, showing a pinpoint on the city.

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Measuring the Impact of Geo-Targeted Campaigns:

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Leveraging tools like Gradual allows for detailed tracking of event registrations, distinguishing between virtual and in-person sign-ups.

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This segmentation is key in evaluating the effectiveness of geo-targeted campaigns, providing insights into lead quality and audience relevance.

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Creative and Tactical Considerations:

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While geo-targeting primarily focuses on the pre-event phase, its implications for brand visibility are vast.

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Creative tactics, such as mobile digital billboards, can also play a role in maximizing local awareness, even in relation to competitors' events.

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Pro-tip

For events with significant local interest, consider augmenting your digital geo-targeting with physical advertising moves.
This can create a buzz around your event and ensure your brand remains top-of-mind among your target audience.

Tip #7: Gamification: Turning Engagement into a Competitive Advantage

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Gamification: A strategy to break through the noise!

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By switching up event promotion into an interactive and competitive experience, you not only capture attention but also foster a sense of community and excitement around your event.

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Practical Example

Offering a free drone to the attendees with the most referrals turns the event sign-ups into an engaging competition.
This not only increases exposure but also incentivizes participants to become advocates for the event, effectively turning them into an extension of the sales team.

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Operationalizing Gamified Content:

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Using tools like Gradual, attendees receive a virtual ticket upon registration, complete with a unique referral link for sharing on social platforms.

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This system not only simplifies sharing but also tracks referrals back to the source, enabling a competitive leaderboard to emerge.

Tip #8: Display Advertising & Maximizing Visibility

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Stepping beyond traditional advertising channels can lead to remarkable visibility.

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Display advertising, mainly used through Google Display Network or programmatic ads, holds untapped potential when approached through direct publisher partnerships.

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Direct Publisher Engagement:

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The strategy here isn’t just to place ads but to place your event promotions on websites specifically relevant to your niche.

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By using tools like SEMRush to identify these niche publishers and reaching out directly, you can secure ad placements that speak directly to an engaged audience.

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The Operational Dynamics:

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Differentiating from the wide net cast by typical display networks, focusing on publisher partnership involves negotiating directly with site owners.

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This can range from pop-up ads to dedicated ad slots on their site, leveraging their audience for your event’s gain.

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Reducing Variables for Success:

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The common pitfalls of display advertising come from an overwhelming array of variables. From ad dimensions and placements to the diversity of websites.

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By choosing a direct partnership with publishers, you drastically reduce these variables, focusing on what matters most: context and audience relevance.

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Graphic showing types of programmatic advertising: real-time bidding, preferred deal, private marketplace, and programmatic direct.

Tip #9: Remarketing Campaigns: Sharpening the Focus for Better ROI

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We touched on the importance of remarketing in tip #4 but this is such an easy win for most brands that it deserves emphasizing. Since users have interacted with the brand before, remarketing can be ideal for high-intent offers such as "demos" or "free trial". The initial challenge often lies in cultivating a large enough audience size.

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Start by building broad prospecting campaigns to stir interest and engagement across your target demographics. This boosts awareness and seeds your remarketing pool with individuals who have shown an initial interest in your offerings.

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Remarketing should be viewed not just as a conversion approach but as a nurturing mechanism. With the ability to promote a mix of content—from event announcements to demos and trials—remarketing can support the entire customer journey, especially in B2B contexts where sales cycles are longer.

‍

If you want a crash course on remarketing check out this 35-page blueprint on How to Build a Multichannel B2B Remarketing Strategy by Silvio Perez.

Tip #10: Mastering ROI: The North Star of Marketing Success

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Knowing your numbers and directly tying marketing efforts to revenue generation and pipeline acceleration is fundamental. The ultimate measure of marketing’s effectiveness lies in its ability to influence revenue.

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Every campaign, ad, and event should be scrutinized through the lens of its potential to contribute to the bottom line. This requires a deep understanding of your audience, the sales cycle, and the points at which marketing interventions can make a tangible difference.

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Operationalizing ROI-Focused Strategies:

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Quantitative Analysis: Adopt a data-driven approach to every marketing initiative.

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This means setting clear, measurable objectives upfront, rigorously tracking performance, and continually refining tactics based on empirical evidence of what works.

‍Strategic Alignment: Ensure that marketing activities are fully aligned with broader business goals. Collaboration with sales, product development, and customer success teams can provide valuable insights that help tailor marketing efforts for maximum impact on revenue and pipeline progression.
‍Cultivating a Business Mindset: Transitioning from a pure marketing perspective to thinking like a CEO involves a broader appreciation for how marketing activities contribute to the overall health and growth of the business.

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It’s about seeing beyond immediate metrics to understand the strategic importance of marketing as a driver of long-term success.

Conclusion

‍

In this article, we covered 10 actionable tips for promoting your next successful event through paid ads.

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Just to highlight a few key points, we talked about the 4 pillars of event promotion and how to distribute your budget in each phase, utilizing partnerships & internal networks, audience segmentation, and thinking like an investor to maximize your return on investment (ROI) and return on effort (ROE).

‍

Each of the 4 event planning stages plays an important role, from generating buzz and capturing live attention to extending the event's influence and repurposing its content for future efforts. The power of partnerships, strategic content sharing, and influencer collaborations cannot be overlooked. It’s an effective way of broadening reach without proportionally increasing spend.

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Remarketing and audience segmentation are essential for converting initial interest into conversions (registrations), while cross-channel integration expands your digital footprint to reach your audience on all key platforms.

‍

I hope you got a ton of insights from this article and wish you fruitful results for your next events.

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 😂)

‍

Learning from the Pros

min Read

10 Tips to Boost B2B SaaS Marketing Beyond Ad Platforms

Chris Konowal

Read Article

Are you looking to drive a greater return from your paid ads?

The answer often lies outside of the ad platforms themselves.

Here are 10 actionable tips to improve ad performance outside the ad managers.

Let’s dive into it! 👇

‍

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Tip #1: Unleash the Power of GA4’s Page Path Report
Tip #2: Leverage Multiple Data Sources to Measure Performance
Tip #3: Work with the Product or Service Team to Design Lead Magnets
Tip #4: Meet with Sales & Customer Success for Insights
Tip #5: Get Hands-on with Your Product or Service
Tip #6: Dive Into CRM Metrics for a Holistic View
Tip #7: Get Regular Insights from the Sales team
Tip #8: Link Marketing Efforts to Business Results
Tip #9: Incorporate Leading Indicators into Your Success Metrics
Tip #10: Practice Patience
Conclusion‍
Resources for mastering B2B advertising

‍

Tip #1: Unleash the Power of GA4’s Page Path Report

‍

Have you ever wondered how visitors wander around your site before hitting that sweet 'convert' button?

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In B2B, it's pretty rare for someone to convert after just one page visit. So, imagine discovering that a whopping 90% of your future clients check out your pricing page before deciding you're the one.

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That's your cue! With this intel, you can strategically place pricing info where it matters most, like in your ads or on key landing pages. It's all about making that path to conversion as smooth as possible.

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GA4's Page Path report is like a treasure map showing you the most popular pit stops.

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You can access the page path report by signing into your GA4 account, on the left-hand side, click on “explore” and select the pre-made template called “path exploration”.

In the example below, we can see out of 1,958 page views, we had 17 form submissions ↓

google analytics user journey report from a b2b saas company showcasing session start, page views, and form submissions

‍

Bonus tip from episode insights:
Tools like Hotjar can be like a pair of X-ray glasses for your website. They let you peek into how users navigate your pages, showing you exactly where they bounce off or get hooked. This information can help tweak your landing page by identifying unaddressed user concerns or areas for expansion.

‍

Tip #2: Leverage Multiple Data Sources to Measure Performance

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Effective marketing decisions require more than just ad platform insights.

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The in-platform metrics are a great starting point, but what you gain out of it is quite limited.

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You can get the initial results for optimization such as CTR, CPC, frequency, open rate, or impression share depending on the channel, but the true source of data would have to be combined with CRM data.

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By bringing together data from Google Analytics 4 and your CRM, you can create a multidimensional view of your campaigns' effectiveness.

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This is more important than ever before with the deprecation of third-party cookies.

‍

Bonus tip from episode insights:
Ideally, you would have at least 3 supporting data points to back up recommendations.
This is especially true for recommendations that will require a major lift.

Tip #3: Work with the Product or Service Team to Design Lead Magnets

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A lead magnet involves providing valuable content in return for information such as a name, email address, job title, and company name.

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To stand out, we need to create offerings that genuinely attract and provide value to our audience, moving beyond ebooks and webinars to create lead magnets that are both informative and irresistible.

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Rather than offering an e-book that your prospect may or may not find valuable, try offering resources or workshops that speak to the prospect’s unique pain points.

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This shift not only aligns with consumer preferences but also sets the stage for more meaningful interactions.

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Now, the question still remains: "Do content lead magnets contribute to the pipeline?"

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For most B2B SaaS companies, less than 5% of content actually leads to pipeline conversions.

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The most effective conversions come from meetings that address the prospect's real issues without any intention of selling them something (absolutely no hidden agendas!).

B2B SaaS marketing lead magnets examples: consultation, free trial, online workshop, whitepaper, webinar.

Tip #4: Meet with Sales & Customer Success for Insights

‍

Use the insights from the Sales and CS team to fine-tune your strategy, offers, audience, ad copy, or any key piece of information that might be misaligned with current campaigns.

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Understanding customer pain points, questions, and feedback directly can guide you in creating content that resonates deeply and addresses real needs.

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Sales and CS teams possess in-depth knowledge about the demographics, pain points, and motivations of existing customers.

‍

Marketers can leverage this information to refine buyer personas, ensuring that marketing messages and content resonate effectively with target audiences.

Tip #5: Get Hands-on with Your Product or Service

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There’s no substitute for experiencing what you’re marketing firsthand.

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Dive into demos, use the product daily, or participate in the service being offered.

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This deep dive helps you understand the nuances and unique selling points from a user's perspective.

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Understanding the core value of the product or services will help you communicate the value proposition when writing your ad copy.

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It also provides your clients with a fresh perspective to fill any potential gaps.

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If you are not sold on the product/service, then how can you sell it to someone else?

Liam Neeson meme emphasizing B2B SaaS marketing support skills with engaging text.

Tip #6: Dive Into CRM Metrics for a Holistic View

‍

Regularly reviewing CRM data helps you see the real-world impact of your campaigns.

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This feedback loop is crucial for making data-driven decisions that can improve campaign performance and ROI over time.

‍

3 key metrics you should always consider as a B2B Marketer:

Pipeline-to-spend ratio
Average time to close
Average deal size

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If you have not already, request CRM access from your clients so you have context around the key metrics and speak the same language as your clients.

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As a marketer, you must connect all activities directly to revenue since that's ultimately what matters most to businesses.

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It will make clients see you as a strategic partner in their business.

Tip #7: Get Regular Insights from the Sales team

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Adding on to tip #4, the sales team’s daily interactions with prospects and customers are a treasure of insights that can refine your marketing approach.

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Often, marketing and sales operate in silos, even though they're both working towards the same goal.

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Having a monthly or quarterly meeting with your main point of contact (POC) can help close the gap, but if that is not possible then download the CRM notes to make necessary adjustments to your campaigns.
‍

Bonus tip from episode insights:
If you've got a substantial list of prospects who passed on your offering due to specific reasons (ex: product gaps), you can build an audience list of these closed lost customers and run ads against them when you roll out a new product feature that addresses those concerns.

Office Space meme promoting quick cross-team communication in B2B SaaS marketing

Tip #8: Link Marketing Efforts to Business Results

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Awareness campaigns might not deliver immediate conversions, but their role in nurturing leads and supporting the customer journey is crucial.

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Work with other Marketing team members to build case studies and analytics to illustrate how awareness campaigns contribute to overall business goals.

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A compelling way to validate the impact of awareness campaigns is to assess the performance disparity between remarketing campaigns and cold audience initiatives.

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For example, showing a significantly lower cost per demo from prospects with prior brand exposure can justify the investment for awareness campaigns.

Tip #9: Incorporate Leading Indicators into Your Success Metrics

‍

By understanding what early success looks like, you can refine your strategies in real time, ensuring your marketing efforts are always moving in the right direction.

‍

These leading indicators could be top-of-funnel metrics such as:

Clickthrough rate (CTR)
Cost per click (CPC)
Engagement rate

‍

Leading indicators are vital for navigating the complex B2B landscape, offering the insights needed to steer your marketing efforts toward success, even when immediate sales results are not visible.

Tip #10: Practice Patience

‍

B2B sales cycles are naturally longer than B2C, requiring a mindset that values persistence and long-term strategy over instant results.

‍

By analyzing attribution data and understanding the nuances of traffic sources, you can refine the strategies.

‍

The key is to establish a robust measurement system and integrate leading indicators to track progress.

‍

Recognize and celebrate the small milestones along the way to keep morale high and maintain focus on the long-term goals.

Conclusion

‍

Yielding results for your B2B SaaS marketing is not about quick wins; it's a marathon, not a sprint.

‍

Deeply understanding your product, closely aligning with sales and customer success teams, and strategically utilizing a variety of data sources lay the foundation for sustainable success.

‍

Real growth comes from consistently applying insights, adjusting based on performance indicators, and staying committed to your long-term vision.

‍

Here's to marketing smarter, not harder, and seeing your efforts pay off!

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 😂)

Guides

min Read

B2B Advertising in 2024: The Definitive Guide

Silvio Perez

Read Article

Today I’m going to give you a crash course in B2B advertising.

‍

In this comprehensive guide I’ll cover:

What is B2B advertising?
7 ways B2B differs from B2C
20 B2B Terms and Metrics you need to know
Top 3 B2B Revenue Models
B2B ad examples by revenue model
How to create a B2B advertising strategy
The Five Stages Model
The Best B2B Ad Channels
Advice from 20 B2B Advertising Experts

So if you need to get up-to-speed on B2B as quickly as possible, you’ll love this guide.

‍

Let’s get started 🔥

What Is Business-to-Business Advertising?

B2B advertising is the process of any paid marketing efforts directed toward influencing multiple individuals within a company for a purchase decision (known as a buying committee) vs a single consumer.

7 Differences between B2B and B2C Advertising:

Longer sales cycles (3 - 36 months)
‍
Larger average deal sizes (< $1,000 - $250,000+)
‍
More stakeholders involved in the purchase decision (ex: c-suite, finance)
‍
Focus on impacting the entire buyer's journey not just the first conversion (unlike B2C).
‍
Smaller audiences (< 300,000) with a focus on reaching the right person and company vs B2C with broad audiences ( > 300,000) as more people can purchase your product.
‍
B2B requires strategic alignment between marketing and sales as you’re joining forces (inbound and outbound) to win accounts.
‍
B2B supports multiple revenue models, the big three being; product-led, sales-led, and hybrid. Whereas e-commerce is solely product-led.

‍

Check out more examples in the article: B2B vs B2C Advertising: 8 Differences & Examples You Need To Know.

20 B2B Terms and Metrics you Need to Know

‍

One of the first things you realize when you get into B2B is how much jargon there is! MQL, SQL, ACV, ARR, and the list goes on!

‍

In order to make sure you understand the language, here’s 20 B2B terms and metrics you need to know:

‍

Terms & Metrics	Definition
Lifecycle stages	The steps in which a person goes from expressing interest to becoming a customer. Example: Lead → MQL → SQL → Opp → Won
Lead scoring	The process of automatically scoring leads.
Lead	Someone that has expressed interest by giving their contact information (ex: email address) in exchange for the offer you provided.
Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL)	A lead that has been marked qualified by achieving a certain amount of points based on the company's lead scoring model.
Sales Qualified Lead (SQL)	A lead that has been qualified by sales directly.
Opportunity (Opp)	An open deal that has the possibility of becoming a customer.
Sales Qualified Opportunity (SQO)	An open deal that has been vetted by sales directly and meets qualification criteria.
Pipeline	The total amount of potential revenue from open opportunities.
Closed Won	A deal that has been converted successfully into an existing customer.
Annual Contract Value (ACV)	The total revenue amount a contact is worth over a 12-month period.
Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)	The total amount of revenue that is generated on a monthly recurring basis.
Average Revenue Per User (ARPU)	The average amount of revenue generated over the lifespan of a user.
Account Based Marketing (ABM)	A strategy focused on driving awareness and conversion from a specific list of companies.
Pipe-to-Spend	The total amount of pipeline generated for every dollar spent.
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)	The total cost to acquire a customer.
Business Development Representative (BDR)	A sales rep responsible for outbound.
Sales Development Representative (SDR)	A sales rep responsible for inbound.
Net New	The acquisition of brand new customers.
Expansion	Driving more revenue from existing customers.
Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)	The perfect person your product can benefit.

‍

Unfortunately there are many more terms you’ll need throughout your B2B career 😂 and every company creates their own (it’s a constant struggle) but these 20 will give you a solid foundation. For a great list of b2b terms check out our B2B Advertising Glossary.

Top 3 B2B Revenue Models

If you’re working in B2B there are three common revenue models you’ll likely work with.
‍

If your job is to promote this organization, understanding the revenue model is key as it will change everything from how you approach your strategy, the offers you choose, channels, and more.

‍

Revenue Model	Definition	Example Offers	Example Companies
Sales-Led	A sales-led B2B organization leverages people to educate and nurture prospects throughout the buyer's journey.	This looks like a prospect requesting a demo to speak with a sales rep to learn more.	Syndio
Product-Led	A product-led B2B organization allows prospects to try their product self-serve in order to learn more.	This looks like a prospect signing up for a free trial and trying the product themselves.	Mixpanel
Hybrid	A hybrid B2B organization leverages both a sales-led and product-led approach to educate prospects.	This looks like having both a free trial option and talk to sales available for prospects depending on what their preference is.	Logikcull

‍

Syndio’s platform landing page example highlighting the "schedule a demo" call to action button as a sales led company example — Sales Led - Syndio

B2B Ad Examples by Revenue Model:

Sales Led

Product Led

‍

‍How to build a full-funnel B2B Advertising Strategy ‍

‍

Now that you know how B2B differs from B2C.

‍

How do you build a full-funnel B2B advertising strategy?

‍

Full-funnel refers to building a strategy that covers all touch points along the customer journey.

‍

This means advertising to individuals who are (e.g. Eugene's Schwartz Stages of Awareness):

‍

Unaware = have no clue they even have a problem in the first place (ex: blissfully mismanaging customer relationships)

Problem Aware = know they have a problem but are not sure how to solve it (ex: realize managing customer relationships is important but don't know how).

Solution Aware = need help deciding on the right solution (ex: should I use Google Sheets, a filing cabinet 😂 or a CRM?).

Product Aware = know of your brand/product but not sure if you're the best option (ex: comparing CRM software; Salesforce vs HubSpot vs Pipedrive).

Offer Aware = know of your brand and exactly how you can help but need some nudging (ex: pricing discounts, better contract terms, customer references).

Most Aware = Existing customers, familiar with your brand and working with you (ex: referral program).

‍

Understanding your prospects' stage of awareness allows you to create messaging, and offers that better resonate with where they are in the customer journey.

‍

It helps to have a model (think of it like a map) to make complicated topics simple.

‍

We’re going to use The Five Stages model covered in our course Building a Paid Media Program.

‍

‍

Here’s how it works:
‍

Based on the stage; the outcome, awareness level, offers, tactics, and KPIs differ.

Outcome = the end goal you're trying to achieve in each stage.

Awareness = the familiarity level of your brand/product/solution.

Offers = what you're providing your target audience in each stage.

Tactics = how you're going to actually execute your strategy per stage.

KPIs = how you're going to measure success in each stage.

‍

Let's dive into examples for each stage so you really understand!

The Five Stages Model

Stage 1: Create

Outcome	Build brand affinity & trust (raving fans)
Awareness	Unaware, problem aware
Offers	Educational content & thought leadership
Tactics	Boosting content with sponsored paid social ads
KPIs	Cost per consumption, blended cost per opportunity

‍

Stage 2: Capture

Outcome	Convert interest from in-market buyers
Awareness	Solution aware, product aware
Offers	Demo requests, free trials
Tactics	Bidding on high intent keywords, paid listings, retargeting
KPIs	Pipe-to-spend, direct cost per opportunity, ROI

‍

Stage 3: Accelerate (Sales Led) / Activate (Product Led)

Outcome	Help sales close deals faster / get free users to convert
Awareness	Offer aware
Offers	Testimonials, case studies, events, webinars
Tactics	Sponsored paid social ads
KPIs	Pipeline velocity, paid signups

‍

Stage 4: Revive

Outcome	Restart closed lost opportunities
Awareness	Offer aware
Offers	Incentivized demo requests, guided trials
Tactics	LinkedIn conversation ads
KPIs	SQOs created, blended cpSQO

‍

Stage 5: Expand

Outcome	Drive revenue from existing customers
Awareness	Most aware
Offers	Referral program, Certification program
Tactics	Sponsored newsletters/partnerships
KPIs	Influenced SQOs created, Expansion revenue

‍

The Five Stages model allows you to plan across all the lifecycle stages past initial conversion.

‍

Ultimately no one knows for certain where someone is in their buyer's journey and everyone moves through it at different speeds. Use your best judgment.

‍

If you're confused on which stage someone would be, remember the target audience's level of awareness dictates the stage they fall under.

‍

Which stage should you invest in?

‍

Generally speaking if you want to maximize ROI in the short-term you should work from the bottom of the Five Stages and move towards the top (Expand → Create).

‍

Stage	Budget Required due to Audience Size	Estimated ROI Timeline	Estimated Difficulty
Create	High	> 90 days	High - requires strong content strategy and unique POV
Capture	Moderate	< 45 days	High - usually stiff competition & expensive costs
Accelerate / Active	Low	varies based on sales cycle	Low - familiar with your product and considering it
Revive	Low	< 45 days	Low - familiar with your brand and expressed interest in the past
Expand	Low	< 60 days	Medium - existing customers, hard to scale due to small audience sizes

‍

You don't have to build a full-funnel strategy at once, take it one stage at a time.
‍

Putting The Five Stages into practice

Decide on which stage you want to focus on based on the outcome you’re after. If you have a smaller budget (ex: < $5,000/month) focus exclusively on one stage first.
‍
Once you’ve decided on the stage fill in your budget, and leading + lagging KPIs. If you’re unsure of what KPIs to select refer to Module 5- Lesson 1 of Building a Paid Media Program.
‍‍
Next decide on which channels you’ll advertise on to reach individuals in this stage and how you’ll target them and exclude the wrong audience. If you’re unsure of what channels to advertise on, refer to Choosing the BEST channels.
‍
Finally decide on what offers you’re going to promote in these channels for this stage (the offers listed above are only examples to give you ideas).
‍
If you’re targeting multiple stages repeat steps 1-4 for each.

‍

Click here to become an AdConversion student and get free access to The Five Stages planning template in Module 2 - Lesson 1 where we cover how to build your paid media strategy in depth.

‍

gif of Silvio Perez showcasing how to use AdConversion's Paid Media Strategy template — Image: Module 2 - Lesson 1; Building a Paid Media Program

After you’ve filled in The Five Stages planning template you now have your strategy in place and can easily move into execution and start assembling your campaigns, creatives, and messaging.

What are the BEST B2B advertising channels?

‍

The obvious answer is where your audience hangs out online!

‍

But not all channels are equal, some are more effective at certain stages.

‍

Most channels can be grouped into these 5 primary categories ↓

‍

Channel Category	Channel	Description
Paid Social	YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Quora, Reddit	Advertising on social networks.
Paid Search	Google, Microsoft	Advertising on search engines.
Paid Review	Capterra, SoftwareAdvice, SelectHub	Advertising on review listing sites.
Programmatic	Display, Digital Audio, ConnectedTV, Native	Advertising on the open internet.
Sponsorships	Influencers, Newsletters, Events, Podcasts	Advertising directly with individuals or organizations.

‍

How to decide on the best channel?

‍

There's four key criteria to consider when deciding on a channel:

‍

Targeting options
Media cost
Reach
Policy

‍

Let's dive into each ↓

‍

Channel Criteria	Description
Targeting options	Can you reach your ICP based on the available targeting options?
Media cost	How much does it cost per click and per 1,000 impressions? (CPC & CPM)
Reach	How large is your audience size with your available targeting options?
Policy	Does this platform allow your industry to serve ads without restriction?

‍

If the channel you’re considering meets all four of these criteria then you should consider running a test campaign for $100 to get your real average CPC & CPM.

‍

Recommended Channels by Stage

Based on my experience these channels work best for each stage:

(Use this as inspiration not restriction)

‍

Stage	Channels
Create	YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Display, Twitter
Capture	Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, Capterra, SoftwareAdvice, YouTube
Accelerate / Activate	LinkedIn, Facebook, Display
Revive	LinkedIn, Facebook
Expand	LinkedIn, Facebook

‍

Let this be a guide to help you get started, take what serves you and abandon the rest.

‍

Test what works for you until proven otherwise.

Advice from 20 B2B advertising experts

One of the best parts about being in B2B is the quality of marketers in this space.

We asked 20 B2B advertising experts:

What’s 1 tip you’d share with new marketers getting into B2B advertising?

Guides

min Read

50+ Ad Specs for The Top 10 Ad Platforms

Silvio Perez

Read Article

Have you ever wondered what dimensions does that ad require? 🤔

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:

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

⭐️ Bookmark this article and refer back to it when you need ad specs.

Google Display Ad Specs

Source: support.google.com

Browse examples at adstransparency.google.com

Sizes	Dimension	File Types	Max Size
Square and rectangle	200 × 200 Small square 240 × 400 Vertical rectangle 250 × 250 Square 250 × 360 Triple widescreen 300 × 250 Inline rectangle 336 × 280 Large rectangle 580 × 400 Netboard	GIF, JPG, PNG	150KB
Skyscraper	120 × 600 Skyscraper 160 × 600 Wide skyscraper 300 × 600 Half-page ad 300 × 1050 Portrait	GIF, JPG, PNG	150KB
Leaderboard	468 × 60 Banner 728 × 90 Leaderboard 930 × 180 Top banner 970 × 90 Large leaderboard 970 × 250 Billboard 980 × 120 Panorama	GIF, JPG, PNG	150KB
Mobile	300 × 50 Mobile banner 320 × 50 Mobile banner 320 × 100 Large mobile banner	GIF, JPG, PNG	150KB

‍

LinkedIn Ad Specs

Source: business.linkedin.com

Browse examples at: linkedin.com/ad-library/home

Ad Type	Dimension	Character Count	File Types	Max Size
Single Image Ads	1200 x 1200 Square 1200 x 628 Horizontal 628 x 1200 Vertical (mobile)	Intro text = 600 Headline = 200	GIF, JPG, PNG	5 MB
Video Ads	(3 seconds to 30 minutes) 1920 x 1920 Square 1920 x 1080 Landscape 1080 x 1920 Vertical (9:16) 1536 x 1920 Vertical (4:5)	Intro text = 600 Headline = 200	MP4	200 MB
Carousel Ads	(2 - 10 cards) 1080 x 1080 Square	Intro text = 255 Card = 45	JPG, PNG	10 MB
Event Ads	4:1 (image will be pulled from the Event page)	Intro text = 600 Event = 255	—	—
Document Ads	Use any of the standard PDF layouts.	Intro text = 155 Headline = 70	PDF, DOC, DOCX, PPT, PPTX	100 MB
Conversation Ads	300 x 250 Banner	Message = 500 CTA = 25	JPG, PNG	2 MB

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‍X (Twitter) Ad Specs

‍Source: business.twitter.com

Ad Type	Dimension	Character Count	File Types	Max Size
Image Ads	800 x 800 Square 800 x 418 Rectangle	Tweet text = 280	JPG, PNG	5 MB
Video Ads (Up to 2 minutes and 20 seconds)	1080 x 1080 Square (1:1) 1920 x 1080 Landscape (16:9)	Tweet text = 280	MP4, MOV	1 GB
Carousel Ads (2 - 6 cards, images or video)	800 x 800 Square (Image) 800 x 800 Square (Video)	Tweet text = 280	JPG, PNG MP4, MOV	3 MB (Images) 1 GB (Videos)

‍

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)

‍

Quora Ad Specs

Source: image ads, video ads

Ad Type	Dimension	Character Count	File Types	Max Size
Image Ads	800 x 800 Square 800 x 418 Rectangle	Headline: 65 Body: 105	JPG, PNG	5 MB
Video Ads	(3 - 60 seconds) 1280 x 720 Landscape (16:9)	Headline: 65 Body: 105	MP4, MOV	70 MB

‍

Reddit Ad Specs

Source: reddit.my.site.com

Ad Type	Dimension	Character Count	File Types	Max Size
Image Ads	1080 x 1080 Square (1:1) 1080 x 1350 Portrait (4:5) 1440 x 1080 Landscape (4:3) 1920 x 1080 Landscape (16:9)	Headline: 300	JPG, PNG, GIF	3 MB
Video Ads	(Up to 15 minutes) 1080 x 1080 Square (1:1) 1080 x 1350 Vertical (4:5) 1440 x 1080 Classic (4:3) 1920 x 1080 Landscape (16:9)	Headline: 300	MP4, MOV	70 MB
Carousel Ads	(2 - 6 images) 1200 x 1200 Square (1:1) 1200 x 628 Rectangle (16:9)	Headline: 300 Caption: 50	JPG, PNG, GIF	20 MB (per image) 3 MB (per GIF)
Conversation Placement	400 x 300 Thumbnail	Headline: 250	JPG, PNG, GIF	500 KB

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* Headlines will be truncated to 100 characters on mobile/mobile web for the conversation placement.

‍

Youtube Ad Specs

Source: support.google.com

Browse examples at adstransparency.google.com

Ad Type	Dimension	Character Count	File Types	Max Size
Skippable Video Ads (no max length)	1920 x 1080 Landscape (16:9) 1440 x 1080 Classic (4:3)	Headline: 15 CTA: 10 Long Headline: 90 Description: 70	MP4, MOV, MPEG, AVI, ASF	N/A
YouTube Short Video Ads (Up to 60 seconds)	1920 x 1080 Vertical (9:16)	Headline: 15 CTA: 10 Long Headline: 90 Description: 70	MP4, MOV, MPEG, AVI, ASF	N/A
Non-Skippable Video Ads (15 - 20 seconds)	1920 x 1080 Landscape (16:9) 1440 x 1080 Classic (4:3)	Headline: 15 CTA: 10 Long Headline: 90 Description: 70	MP4, MOV, MPEG, AVI, ASF	N/A
Bumper Ads (Up to 6 seconds)	1920 x 1080 Landscape (16:9) 1440 x 1080 Classic (4:3)	Headline: 15 CTA: 10 Long Headline: 90 Description: 70	MP4, MOV, MPEG, AVI, ASF	N/A

‍

Google Discovery / Demand Gen Ad Specs

Source: support.google.com

Browse examples at adstransparency.google.com

Ad Type	Dimension	Character Count	File Types	Max Size
Image Ads (3 - 20 images)	1200 x 628 (Landscape) 1200 x 1200 (Square) 960 x 1200 (Portrait)	Headline: 40 Description: 90	GIF, JPG, PNG	5 MB
Carousel Ads (2 - 10 cards)	1200 x 628 (Landscape) 1200 x 1200 (Square) 960 x 1200 (Portrait)	Headline: 40 Description: 90	GIF, JPG, PNG	5 MB
Logo Image	1200 x 1200 (Square)	N/A	GIF, JPG, PNG	5 MB

‍

TikTok Ad Specs

Source: ads.tiktok.com

Browse examples at library.tiktok.com/ads

Ad Type	Dimension	Character Count	File Types	Max Size
Video Ads (5 - 60 seconds)	1920 x 1080 Vertical (9:16) 1200 x 1200 Square (1:1) 1920 x 1080 Landscape (16:9)	100 characters	.mp4, .mov, .mpeg, .3gp, or .avi	500 MB

‍

‍Meta Ad Specs (Facebook/Instagram)

Source: business.facebook.com

Browse examples at: www.facebook.com/ads/library

Ad Type	Dimension	Character Count	File Types	Max Size
Image Ads	1080 x 1080 Square (1:1) 1920 x 1080 Landscape (16:9)	Primary Text: 125 Headline: 27 Description: 27	JPG, PNG	300 MB
Video Ads (1 second to 241 minutes)	1080 x 1080 Square (1:1) 1080 x 1350 Mobile (4:5)	Primary Text: 125 Headline: 27 Description: 27	MP4, MOV, GIF	4 GB
Carousel Ads (2 to 10 cards)	1080 x 1080 Square (1:1)	Primary Text: 125 Headline: 32 Description: 18	JPG, PNG MP4, MOV, GIF	Image: 30 MB Video: 4 GB

‍

Resources for Mastering B2B Advertising

Hope you found this ad specs article useful!

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 I timed it 😂)

Google Ads

min Read

3 Powerful Strategies For Scaling SaaS Google Ads You Need To Know

Silvio Perez

Read Article

Google Ads is a blessing and a curse.

You're blessed with intent and cursed with scale.

It’s a powerful channel for scaling pipeline for SaaS startups but low search volume is a challenge.

In this article you’re going to learn 3 powerful strategies for scaling your SaaS google ads further.

This won’t 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.

Let’s dive into it 👇

‍

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Strategy #1: Broad Match Discovery
Strategy #2: Advertising outside of English
Strategy #3: Industry campaigns

‍

Strategy #1: Broad Match Discovery

Before you click away I’m not talking about using broad match in the traditional sense.

‍

Where you let Google show your ads for WHATEVER they think is relevant.

‍

Broad match discovery is where you combine broad match keywords AND an audience.

‍

It essentially means you’re giving Google the flexibility to show your ads for whatever they feel is relevant but within the confines of your targeted audience.

‍

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.

‍

How to implement broad match discovery:

‍

Step 1: Find proven converting phrase match keywords

‍

Review your performance across converting phrase match keywords to identify which you’re going to prioritize testing with broad match discovery.

‍

Don’t rely on “total conversions” make sure you’re viewing performance by keyword based on the custom metrics that matter for your business (ex: Demo, Trial, SQL, SAL, Opp, etc).

Google Ads dashboard showing keywords, average cost per click, cost, demo request conversions, cost per demo, demo conversion rate and conversion rate

Once you’ve identified some worthwhile keywords it’s time for step 2.

‍

Step 2: Brainstorm your targeted audiences

‍

Google has 5 audience types you can leverage for targeting in your search campaigns.

Your data = website visitors or contact lists
In-market = people actively researching a given topic
Life events = people who’ve accomplished a life milestone (ex: create a business, get married)
Detailed demographics = industries, company sizes, education level.
Affinity = people who are interested in a certain topic

Google Ads audience segmentation interface highlighting custom segments and demographics options

You can use a mixture of all these different types of audiences to layer on top of your broad match discovery campaigns.

‍

If you’re 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.

‍

Step 3: Setup a campaign experiment

‍

The safest way you can test broad match discovery is in a 50/50 experiment alongside your top converting phrase match campaign.

‍

You can easily AB test in Google Ads using the campaign experiments feature.

‍

Located under Campaigns > Experiments

Performance report comparing AB test campaigns in Google Ads

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.

Strategy #2: Advertising outside of English

English is the most competitive language in the world with the majority of advertisers.

‍

We’ve seen reductions of up to 70% in our average CPC targeting other languages.

‍

If your company has the resources to sell in multiple languages – 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).

‍

You’ll reap the benefits of lower costs due to less competition.

‍

The downside however with localization is search volume.

‍

If you’re already advertising in English outside of North America and finding success, definitely recommend testing this strategy.

‍

How to implement localized campaigns:

‍

Step 1: Find proven converting phrase match keywords

‍

Review your performance across converting phrase match keywords to identify which you’re going to prioritize testing with broad match discovery.

‍

Don’t rely on “total conversions” make sure you’re viewing performance by keyword based on the custom metrics that matter for your business (ex: Demo, Trial, SQL, SAL, Opp, etc).

Google Ads dashboard showcasing cost per demo and conversion rates

‍

Step 2: Brainstorm your targeted languages

Ask your internal team what languages your sales team is able to sell in.

‍

Based on your options make a list of potential languages.

‍

Next, if you’re 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 can’t sell in this language then this strategy won’t make sense.

‍

Step 3: Hire a local translator

Don’t make the mistake of relying on Google Translate to perform the bulk of your translation.

‍

You’ll want to hire a translator that grew up in the area in which you want to advertise.

‍

For instance, if you’re advertising in Portuguese.

The dialect for Europeans living in Portugal and those living in Brazil is very different.

‍

A local Brazilian can tell if it’s not their dialect just like a native Portuguese.

‍

I recommend hiring locals off Upwork can be as low as $12/hour depending on the language.

Search results for Portuguese translators on a freelance platform called UpWork

These translations will make a world difference in your ad and landing page copy.

Strategy #3: Industry campaigns

Industry campaigns can be great for coverage and quality.

‍

This is where you’re going to bid on a desired keyword and add a related industry term.

‍

For example, let’s say bidding on the keyword “crm software” here’s how you can modify this keyword to make it industry specific:

healthcare crm software
crm software for fintech
crm software for small businesses

Comparison of generic and industry-specific CRM software keywords for scaling SaaS google ads campaigns

The benefits of industry campaigns:

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 😅).

‍

How to implement industry campaigns:

‍

Step 1: Find proven converting phrase match keywords

Just like the other strategies we’re going to identify proven keywords first that we can create industry variations for.

‍

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.

‍

Step 3: Build and prevent keyword overlap

Once you have your keywords and target industries you’re ready to build your campaigns.

‍

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.

‍

Hope you found this article helpful!

‍

Best of luck scaling your Google Ads campaigns for your SaaS.

‍

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 😂)

‍

Google Ads

min Read

Google Ads Quality Score: Everything You Need To Know (2024)

Silvio Perez

Read Article

Mastering quality score is essential if you want to pay less per click and outrank competitors.

In this article you’ll learn the 80/20 of what you need to know about quality score.

Let’s dive into it!

‍

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Quality Score Simplified
How is Quality Score Calculated?
How to audit your Quality Score?
How to improve your Quality Score?
Quality Score FAQ

‍

Quality Score Simplified

Back in 2005, Google released Quality Score.

This is a number from 1-10 that Google created to determine how relevant your ads are to what people are searching for (1 being the lowest relevance, and 10 being the highest).

Google want’s people who search to find what they are looking for.

This way they come back to Google and search again in the future.

Quality Score is how they gamified the system to achieve this objective.

It’s the perfect trinity between advertiser, searcher, and Google:

Advertisers are rewarded with lower costs when having higher quality scores
People searching for answers on Google will now find more relevant information
Because people find relevant information they use Google again in the future

Before Quality Score was introduced Google was filled with tons of irrelevant ads leading to a poor experience for searchers and ultimately less people using Google in the future.

(In my opinion) Quality Score was one of the most important features released that transformed Google into the most dominant search engine in the world.

The secret to improving Quality Score is relevance.

How is Quality Score Calculated?

Ad relevance, landing page experience, and expected CTR are the three variables that go into calculating your Quality Score. Depending on how relevant each is to your keywords you’ll have a final score between 1-10 (1 being the lowest relevance, and 10 being the highest).

‍

Ad Relevance

A metric that determines how relevant your keywords are to your ad copy.

Above average signifies great relevance, below average signifies room for improvement, below average signifies poor keyword and ad copy relevance.

Ad relevance is 100% in your control and below average ad relevance is usually the result of poor ad group structure resulting from too many keywords and/or few variations of ad copy.

‍

Landing Page Experience

A metric that determines how relevant your keywords, ads, and post click experience matches the search intent of the user.

It’s not just about having your keywords on the page, it also takes into consideration page load speeds, page structure (ex: H1, H2s, H3s), and mobile optimization.

Above average signifies a great landing page experience, average signifies room for improvement, and below average signifies poor post click experience.

landing page experience google ads quality score

Expected CTR

A metric that determines the likelihood of someone clicking on your ads once seen in the Google search results.

In my experience auditing Google Ads accounts this is the #1 most common variable that drags down quality score for most accounts since it’s the least in your control.

This is Google’s perception based on historical and predicted performance on how well you believe your ad will be engaged with.

Above average signifies a highly engaging ad, average signifies room for improvement, and below average signifies poor ad engagement.

How to audit your Quality Score?

Once you understand the basics of quality score that it is a factor of relevance and three components that determine whether you’re a 1-10 the next logical question becomes:

What’s impacting my quality score performance?

Here’s how to run a Google Ads quality score to find what’s impacting your performance.

[EMBED YOUTUBE VIDEO]

‍

Step 1 - Download a keyword report

Within your Google Ads manager navigate to the keywords section within your account:

Campaigns > Keywords (press G + K for a keyboard shortcut)

Modify your keyword columns to include:

Quality Score
Ad Relevance
Landing Page Experience
Expected CTR

Once completed download your keywords into a CSV.

google ads quality score report download

‍

Step 2 - Summarize your keywords into a pivot table

Pivot tables are great for summarizing large amounts of data.

Within Excel navigate to Insert > PivotTable to summarize your keyword report.

Once complete format your table as follows:

Rows = Quality Score
Values = Count of Keywords
Filter = Quality score 1-10 (exclude —)

reporting on google ads quality score in excel

‍

Step 3 - Drill down to understand Quality Score performance

With your table setup now you can easily see overall quality score performance and drill down into specific elements such as ad relevance, landing page experience, and expected CTR.

Switch your rows to drill down into each element of quality score to diagnose performance:

Ad Relevance; rows = Ad Relevance, values = count of keywords
Landing Page Experience; rows = Landing Page Experience, values = count of keywords
Expected CTR; rows = Expected CTR, values = count of keywords

How to improve your Quality Score?

After completing your Google Ads Quality Score audit it should be pretty clear which factor of QS is hurting your performance? (ex: ad relevance, landing page experience, expected CTR).

Here’s some recommendations on how to improve each QS factor:

‍

Improving Ad Relevance

Below average ad relevance is a symptom of poor ad group structure.

If you have below average ad relevance, fear not! Because this is 100% in your control.

Here’s some tips to improve your ad relevance:

Add more headline variations to your responsive search ads to include the keywords within your ad groups.
Keep your ad groups tightly grouped with thematic keywords, for the keywords that can’t fit the theme consider putting it into its own group with relevant copy.
Consolidate your active keywords and remove below average ad relevance variations that are not receiving any worthwhile impressions or clicks.

‍

Improving Landing Page Experience

Below average landing page experience is a symptom of poor post click experience.

If you’ve been neglecting your landing pages this is where it’s going to bite you.

Here’s some tips to improve landing page experience:

Include your primary keyword in your headline 1 to match search intent and your ad copy.
Run your landing page through PageSpeed Insights to find how you can improve the mobile and desktop experience.
Follow on page SEO best practices and have proper headline, and content formatting. Remember Google will crawl your landing pages so make sure it’s technically sound.
Install a session recording tool to see how users behave on your landing page, the insights here are invaluable at understanding gaps.

‍

Improving Expected CTR

This is Google’s perception on how likely your ads will be clicked.

Unfortunately this aspect of Quality Score is the least in your control but that doesn’t mean there isn’t anything you can do to improve it.

Here’s some tips to improve your expected clickthrough rate:

Use as many ad extensions as possible (ex: sitelink, image, structured snippet, etc). Ad extensions provide more info to the searcher and make your ads larger.
Test new RSA ad copy on a monthly basis to consistently try and improve your ad clickthrough rate performance on an ongoing basis.
Monitor your account clickthrough rate trends month over month to combat negative trends. You can set up an automated rule within Google Ads to be notified automatically via email.
Audit your search terms report and build your negative keyword lists. Block irrelevant impressions of your ads so that you can actually drive clicks.
Experiment with dynamic keyword insertion to see if it positively affects your ad CTR.

Quality Score FAQ

How long does it take to improve your quality score?

Technically every time your keyword enters an auction quality score is recalculated to determine placement of your ad in relation to your competitors.

However in my experience it usually takes a month to see significant changes in your overall score.

‍

Should you worry about low quality scores?

Yes, low quality scores should cause concerns but it shouldn’t be your initial priority. The first goal should be to drive relevant traffic and convert users.

If you’re not currently accomplishing this then stressing about quality score is pointless as it’s really only a factor of reducing your costs and improving visibility.

If you’re not already converting the visibility you do have, getting more of it won’t help.

‍

What is a good quality score?

A good quality score will fluctuate depending on your keyword strategy but overall I’d recommend having 70% of enabled keywords in your account with a score > 7.

Just know this is highly circumstantial and if you’re running a competitive keyword strategy you will have lower quality scores by default given the difficulty of including your competitors in your ads.

Hope you found this article helpful! 🔥

Check out our video tutorial linked if you want a visual walkthrough.

‍

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 😂)

Google Ads

min Read

How To Use The Google Ads Editor In 2024: Bulk Upload Campaigns, Ads & Keywords

Silvio Perez

Read Article

There’s nothing worse than making bulk changes natively in Google Ads.

If you’re ready to save hours bulk uploading campaigns, ads, and keywords.

Mastering the Google Ads Editor is essential.

Let’s cover everything you need to know 👇

‍

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

What is the Google Ads Editor?
How to get started with the Google Ads Editor?
How to bulk upload campaigns, keywords, and ads with the Google Ads Editor

‍

60-second crash course on the Google Ads Editor

What is the Google Ads Editor?

It’s a free tool that you can install to update your campaigns offline including altering campaign settings, adjusting keyword bids, and creating new campaigns, ads, and ad groups.

Any serious Google advertiser uses the editor to save hours performing tedious tasks.

Make sure you download the latest version of the editor to follow along in this article.

How to get started with the Google Ads Editor?

After installation add your Google Ads account within the Account Manager and download all campaigns so you have the most recent version of your account.

Google Ads Editor screenshot showing a pop-up for account downloads with a highlighted ‘Download’ button and red arrow.

The Google Ads Editor follows the same account structure:

Account > Campaign > Ad Group > Keyword > Ads

Google Ads Editor screenshot showing Account, Campaigns, and Ad Groups sections with performance metrics like impressions, clicks, avg cpc and CTR.

Highly recommend using the Hide Empty Types filter to reduce irrelevant options visible.

How to bulk upload campaigns, keywords, and ads with the Google Ads Editor

The easiest way to bulk upload campaigns into the editor is using a google sheet template.

This template should have the following fields fields available (at minimum):

Campaign
Ad Group
Keyword

Get a copy the example template below here <<

A table template for Google Ads Editor Campaign Import. Columns include Campaign, Campaign Status, Ad Group, Keyword, Criterion Type, and Bid Strategy Type.

Once you have your template copy you’re ready to get started.

‍

Step 1: configure your campaign import template

‍

Fill in your import template with all the relevant campaign names, ad group, keywords, and ads.

Do not modify the column headers as these are meant to match the editors default fields.

Feel free to fill in whichever fields you find most relevant.

‍

Step 2: Upload your campaign import template

‍

Once you’ve completed setting up your campaign import template with all your relevant details it’s time to import your campaigns into the editor.

Navigate to Account > Import > Paste Text to begin the import process:

A screenshot of Google Ads Editor interface showing the "Account" menu opened, highlighting the import option Paste Text feature.

Once complete copy all of the column headers and rows you filled in in your import template and paste them into the import from text window:

Screenshot of Google Ads Editor import window with a table listing campaigns, statuses, and ad groups for software and cloud.

Don’t worry about the blank “Not importing” columns this is due to the formatting of the import template I provided, instead review the fields that are filled in the column headers.

Make sure everything is looking accurate according to what you want to import.

Once complete click Process to import the campaigns, keywords, and ads.

‍

Step 3: Configure your campaign settings and publish

‍

After reviewing your changes make sure to select Keep in order to retain them.

Now you should have all of your campaigns, ad groups, keywords, and ads that you filled into your import template visible within the Google Ads Editor.

The final step is to configure your campaign and publish your changes. ‍

Highlight each of your new campaigns at the sametime to apply the same campaign settings across of all them at once 🚀

Screenshot of Google Ads Editor showing campaign settings in bulk. Lists campaigns with statuses and options to edit details like budget and bid strategy.

Review all available campaign settings and uncheck the Display Network for search.

If you don’t want your campaigns to spend when published, change the status to Paused.

Once your campaigns are ready to be published into your live Google Ads account.

Select Post > Post Changes > Selected Campaigns

That’s it! 🎉you’ve just saved hours and created campaigns in bulk.

Hope you found this article helpful, see you in the next one!

‍

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 😂)

‍

Learning from the Pros

min Read

10 Tips for Free Competitor Research Using Ad Libraries

Lee Gannon

Read Article

With so many different tools available for competitor research it can be a bit overwhelming.

I’ve lived and breathed paid ads over the past eight years, and in this article I’m going to share with you 10 tips on how to conduct competitor research for free using ad libraries.

Grab a notebook and let’s dive in!

‍

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Tip #1: Familiarise yourself with all the available ad libraries
Tip #2: Leverage time and location filters
Tip #3: Estimate platform demand by volume of creatives
Tip #4: Build a swipe folder of ad inspiration
Tip #5: Research brands in adjacent industries
Tip #6: Build a matrix to document your competitors’ movements
Tip #7: Build a checklist to uncover strategic insights
Tip #8: Review the ad formats being used
Tip #9: Clickthrough to review landing pages in use
Tip #10: Review your competitors’ UTM string

Tip #1: Familiarise yourself with all the available ad libraries

‍

The first step is to know what options you have available.

Here are the primary ad libraries available for the top 3 ad platforms:

LinkedIn Ad Library

Meta Ads Library

Google Ads Transparency Center

Within each library you can study creatives for your competitors and relevant brands.

Using them on a quarterly basis to spy on your competitors is a key habit to develop.

Tip #2: Leverage time and location filters

You can filter by time and location within each ad library to understand:

Which markets are my competitors investing in?
How many creative variations are my competitors testing?
Are they testing localised campaigns outside of english?

You won’t know exactly how much your competitors are investing but you can use the volume of ads as a proxy to estimate the level of investment, and interest for a given market.

If you spot certain markets where you’re finding organic traction AND you see your competitors have gone through the commitment of localising these regions,these are great signals for you to consider running a pilot campaign.

Tip #3: Estimate platform demand by volume of creatives

‍

We touched on using the volume of as a proxy to estimate the level of investment for a market.

The same logic applies to also understanding the demand for a specific ad platform.

Let’s use a hypothetical example, imagine you see the following for your competitor:

LinkedIn Ads = 20 active ad variations in the past month
Meta Ads = 10 active ad variations in the past month
Google Ads = 5 active ad variations in the past month

Based on the volume of ads you can assume LinkedIn could be their primary platform followed by Meta, and finally Google. Look up your competitors and take note of their volume of ads by platform.

You’ll never know with 100% certainty but it’s a good approximation for at least the effort they are expending on each channel, if not their level of success.

‍

Pro tip: get buy-in from leadership to test new ad platforms by showing them how active your competitors are within those channels, this creates FOMO which is quite powerful.

Tip #4: Build a swipe folder of ad inspiration

‍

A swipe folder is a simple collection of screenshots of ads, landing pages, and offers that stand out.

As you’re going through the ad libraries take note of the ads that catch your attention from competitors, relevant brands, and from scrolling through social platforms.

Inspiration comes from all sources and by building this swipe folder you can:

Better communicate and share guidance with your creative team
Avoid reinventing the wheel with tested concepts
Reduce the time to produce new creatives

This can be as simple as a folder in a Google Drive, it doesn’t need to be complicated.

If you want to be organised about it you can also group ads by concept, such as:

Social Proof
Thought Leadership
Product Marketing

The most important piece to takeaway from this is you have some sort of folder to refer to.

‍

Pro tip: create a shared slack channel for people across teams to upload examples of great ads they come across to crowdsource inspiration.

Tip #5: Research brands in adjacent industries

‍

Oftentimes your competitors might be behind the ball when it comes to advertising.

In these instances researching them won’t be very helpful or worthwhile.

Instead what you can do is research brands in adjacent industries, for example:

eCommerce
E-learning
Retail

You can take what works in other industries and adjust it to fit in yours.

Creativity is often taking what works from one sphere and applying it to another.

Tip #6: Build a matrix to document your competitors’ movements

‍

If you want to take your competitors’ research to the next level, build a documented matrix.

This can be as simple as:

Competitor Namesome text
- Month/Year
- Channel
- Ad Count

It will take a bit of work to put this together but the primary benefit is you can now monitor your competitors’ activity by ad platform on a quarterly basis.

Here’s a simple example of what this can look like in Google Sheets:

A dashboard displaying various tables and a bar chart.

Pro tip: if you’re looking for a role in paid media, do a competitor research analysis on the brand you’re applying for. It's a great way to differentiate yourself against other candidates.

‍

Tip #7: Build a checklist to uncover strategic insights

‍

When reviewing your competitors’ ads in the library you’ll want to think deeper than just the surface level of the styles and examples of ads in front of you to uncover strategic insights.

Create a simple checklist to remind yourself to think about:

Are the ads running to gated or ungated content?
Is there a mixture of content that focuses on demand creation or capture?
What stage of the funnel are their ads focused on? (ex: ToFu, BoFu)
What mixture of offers are they testing? (ex: Conferences, Webinars)
Are they driving to a landing page or lead form?

Compare the insights you uncover against your current approach.

If you notice 3 of your competitors are promoting events and you’re not then it’s worth testing.

Tip #8: Review the ad formats being used

‍

This was touched on slightly before but it deserves to be in its own tip.

As you’re reviewing competitors in the library take notes of the ad formats being used.

For example, when it comes to LinkedIn are they testing:

Image
Video
Spotlight
Carousel
Document
Conversation

If you notice a large volume of a certain ad format it’s safe to say it must be working.

Compare the formats they are using against your own to inspire future experiments.

For videos take special note of aspect ratio, short vs long form, and other nuances like humour.

‍

Pro tip:assign your competitor research tasks to an intern or junior person as pulling these insights is quite time-consuming and can be done by an entry level team member.

Tip #9: Clickthrough to review landing pages in use

‍

The remarkable thing about these libraries is that you can click through on the ad and view the landing pages your competitors are using. This insight is not otherwise easily discoverable.

This all of sudden opens up a lot of homework for you to perform landing page teardowns.

What are the calls to action on the landing page?
How is the page structured compared to yours?
Do they have better social proof than you?

Now suddenly your swipe folder can be filled with print screens of their entire landing pages.

Which can be shared with your team to test new page variations.

Pro tip:

If you’re using Google Chrome you can use the extension called GoFullPage to take screenshots of entire pages with the click of a button.

Tip #10: Review your competitors’ UTM string

‍

To close out on our final tip, I wanted to share a more advanced approach.

When you’re clicking through to the landing page of your competitors’ ads take note of the UTM string in place to potentially uncover insights on how they’ve set up their campaigns.

By reviewing the URL structure I might gather the following information:

Network = g | they’re advertising on Google Search
Device = c | they’re running ads on Desktop devices
Keyword = crm software | they’re bidding on crm software
Matchtype = e | they’re using exact match

‍

Hope you found this article helpful! 👏

Connect with me on LinkedIn and let’s keep the conversation going.

‍

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 😂)

‍

LinkedIn Ads

min Read

LinkedIn Ad Formats: How to Choose the Best One for Your Campaign

Petr Mochalov

Read Article

LinkedIn has become an essential platform for B2B marketers, offering a variety of ad formats designed to reach professionals and decision-makers.

But with so many options, how do you choose the right one for your campaign?

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll delve into LinkedIn's diverse ad formats, uncovering detailed insights and actionable best practices.

Whether you're looking to increase brand visibility, generate quality leads, or drive traffic to your website, mastering LinkedIn's ad formats can give you a competitive edge in the market.

‍

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Overview of LinkedIn Ad Formats
Single Image Ads
Video Ads
Carousel Ads
Thought Leader Ads
Text Ads
Conversation Ads
Message Ads
Spotlight Ads
Follower Ads
Document Ads
Lead Gen Forms
Connected TV Ads
How to Choose the Right Ad Format
How to Measure Performance of Each Ad Format

‍

Overview of LinkedIn Ad Formats

Selecting the right ad format depends on your marketing objectives and target audience.

Let’s explore each primary LinkedIn ad format in detail, and reference this article for all ad specs:

Single Image Ads

‍

Single Image Ads are a staple of LinkedIn advertising.

These ads feature one static image and appear directly in the LinkedIn feed, making them highly visible and engaging.

High engagement with minimal content.
Simple to create and easy to manage.

Two LinkedIn single image ads: Walnut ad shows a chick before and after product use; UserGems ad highlights tracking valuable buyers

Pro tip: Use images and copy that resonate with your target audience. The best-performing ones often use your Ideal Customer Profile's (ICP) language or even direct words. Remember, in B2B, we are still advertising to people, not to robots! 😃

Video Ads

‍

Video Ads are perfect for storytelling and driving engagement.

They allow you to share dynamic content that captures attention and conveys your message effectively.

Excellent for storytelling and capturing attention.
Engaging format that can explain complex ideas

LinkedIn video ad format for AdConversion promoting video on building a 7-figure ad agency with no fixed contracts or ad spend fees

Pro tip: Video ads excel at both brand building and showcasing testimonials. They are particularly effective for demonstrating product functionality. Make sure to add subtitles, the videos usually autoplay on mute.

Carousel Ads

‍

Carousel Ads allow you to showcase multiple images or videos in a single ad unit, each with its link.

This format is ideal for highlighting different aspects of a product or telling a story more interactively.

Interactive format that encourages engagement.
Multiple visuals to showcase different products or features.

LinkedIn carousel ad format by ActiveCampaign highlighting customer growth testimonials and promoting a free 14-day trial.

Pro tip: Carousel ads can be used for explaining the product, showcasing use cases and features, or explaining customer success stories in the feed. Ensure you have a consistent flow across all cards.

Thought Leader Ads

‍

Thought Leader Ads are a powerful way to build brand credibility and engage your audience by leveraging the influence of key figures within your organization.

These ads allow you to sponsor posts from your company's thought leaders, positioning them—and by extension, your company—as industry experts.

Build Credibility: Sponsoring posts from thought leaders enhances your brand's authority and trustworthiness.
Engagement: These ads typically receive higher engagement rates as audiences are more likely to interact with content from recognized industry experts.‍
Content Variety: Showcase a variety of content, from personal insights to industry analysis, that resonates with your audience.

Two LinkedIn Thought Leader ad formats: ActiveCampaign promotes CRM integration advice; Opteo highlights AI and automation for PPC agency growth.

3 tips for implementing thought leader ads:

‍

Authenticity: Ensure the content from thought leaders is authentic and reflects their genuine perspectives.
Consistency: Regularly publish thought leadership content to maintain engagement and visibility.‍
Interactive Content: Use content that encourages interaction, such as questions or calls to action, to drive higher engagement rates.

For more insights refer to 14 Powerful LinkedIn Thought Leader Ad Strategies Worth Testing.

Text Ads

‍

Text Ads are simple yet effective.

They appear on the right-hand sidebar of LinkedIn and are great for driving traffic to your website or landing page.

Cost-effective and easy to set up.
Ideal for driving traffic to your website.

linkedin text ads featuring Lokalise and Grammarly ads

Pro tip: Text ads are very effective, allowing you to stay top of mind at a low cost in front of your target audience. Also, they always help to keep your logo in your ICP’s LinkedIn Feed.

Conversation Ads

‍

Conversation Ads offer an interactive way to engage your audience by allowing recipients to choose their own path through multiple call-to-action buttons.

This format fosters engagement and ensures high visibility in LinkedIn Messaging inboxes.

Highly engaging format that fosters engagement.
High visibility in LinkedIn Messaging inboxes.
Great for generating leads

linkedin conversation ad format featuring Mutiny and Udemy Business ads

Pro tip: Create engaging and relevant conversation flows tailored to your audience's needs and interests. The message subject can be a game changer for open rates! Also, try incentivized ads, sometimes they can work miraculously 🚀

Message Ads

‍

Message Ads are direct messages sent to LinkedIn members’ inboxes, making them highly personal and effective for driving immediate action.

High visibility in LinkedIn Messaging inboxes.
Personalized and direct communication.

‍

Pro tip: Craft personalized messages that speak directly to your target audience’s pain points and offer clear, actionable solutions. Keep the tone to the one that your target audience is using.

Spotlight Ads

‍

Spotlight Ads are personalized ads that appear on the right-hand side of the LinkedIn feed.

These ads use the viewer's LinkedIn profile data, such as their photo, company name, and job title, to dynamically personalize the ad content.

Lower CPM and High Ad Recall
Personalized Ad Content

‍

Check out LinkedIn Spotlight Ads In 2024: Are They Worth The Investment? to dive deeper into this ad format.

linkedin spotlight ad format featuring AdConversion ad

‍

Pro tip: Spotlight ads are particularly effective for remarketing, allowing you to stay top of mind at a low cost in front of audiences that already know and trust your brand.

Follower Ads

‍

Follower Ads help increase the number of followers for your LinkedIn page, promoting your company to a wider audience.

Effective in promoting LinkedIn pages to acquire followers.
Increases organic reach on LinkedIn.

linkedin follower ad format featuring AdConversion ad

Pro tip: Highlight the unique value your LinkedIn page offers to followers. Use eye-catching visuals and compelling copy that resonate with your target audience.

Document Ads

‍

Document Ads allow you to share in-depth content directly within the LinkedIn feed.

You can share whitepapers, e-books, or case studies that members can view and download without leaving LinkedIn.

Share in-depth content directly within the LinkedIn feed.
Options to gate content with a Lead Gen Form to capture leads or share freely to build brand awareness.

linkedin document ad format featuring Walnut ad

Pro tip: Offer valuable content that addresses your audience's challenges or interests. Use a strong call-to-action to encourage downloads and interaction with your documents. Some say they prefer Document Ads to Carousel Ads because you can build retargeting audiences for Document ads.

Lead Gen Forms

‍

Lead Gen Forms are a versatile tool that can be used with various ad formats to capture quality leads directly on LinkedIn. These forms are pre-filled with LinkedIn profile data, making it easy for users to submit their information.

Captures quality leads with pre-filled forms.
Provides a seamless user experience.
Can be used for booking demos, downloading guides and templates, event registrations

Pro tip: Minimize the number of fields in your form to reduce friction. Use pre-filled form fields to make it easier for users to submit their information quickly. Don’t use “work mobile” or “work email” because they are usually not pre-filled.

Connected TV Ads

‍

Connected TV Ads allow you to reach professional audiences through streaming content.

These ads appear on connected TV platforms and are ideal for reaching a hard-to-reach professional audience in a large-screen environment.

Reach professional audiences through streaming content.
High visibility on large screens.

For detailed ad specifications and additional tips, check out 50+ Ad Specs for The Top 10 Ad Platforms.

How to Choose the Right Ad Format

‍

Choosing the right LinkedIn ad format is crucial for achieving your marketing goals. Here’s a guide to help you align your campaign objectives with the most effective ad formats and measure their performance.

‍

What's Your Primary Campaign Goal?

‍

First, identify your primary campaign goal. Are you aiming to capture demand, create demand, accelerate open cases, or brand awareness?

‍

Campaign Goal	Objective	Recommended Ad Formats
Capturing Demand	Get leads, demos, and sign-ups.	Single Image Ads, Lead Gen Forms, Conversation Ads, Message Ads
Creating Demand	Raise awareness about a problem, introduce your solutions, and explain how you can solve the problem.	Single Image Ads, Video Ads, Thought Leader Ads, Carousel Ads
Accelerating Open Cases	Run campaigns for objection handling, showcase case studies, testimonials, and social proof.	Document Ads, Carousel Ads, Spotlight Ads
Brand Awareness	Make sure that you stay on top of the mind of your Target audience. Deliver your messaging and key value proposition in the feed.	Single Image Ads, Video Ads, Thought Leader Ads, Text + Spotlight ads

How to Measure Performance of Each Ad Format

‍

Effectively measuring the performance of your ad campaigns is key to optimizing and achieving your marketing goals.

‍

Here are the KPIs and bidding recommendations for each ad format:

‍

Ad Format	Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)	Bidding Recommendations
Lead Gen Forms	Cost per lead (CPL), conversion rate %	Manual Bidding: Start with bids above LinkedIn's minimum threshold to gather data quickly. Adjust daily based on performance.
Conversation Ads	Open rate, click-through rate (CTR), conversion rate	Manual Bidding or Maximum Delivery: Start with a low bid and adjust based on performance.
Message Ads	Open rate, CTR	Cost per send to maximize message delivery: Begin with a $1-2 bid and adjust according to campaign pacing.
Single Image Ads	CTR, engagement rate	Manual Bidding for cost control and optimizing clicks: Regularly check and adjust bids to avoid overbidding or underbidding according to your daily budget.
Video Ads	Video completion rate, engagement rate	Cost per view (CPV) or Maximum Delivery: Start with the lowest feasible CPV and adjust based on initial performance.
Thought Leader Ads	Engagement rate, follower growth	CPC or CPM bidding for engagement or reach: Focus on content that has already shown high engagement.
Document Ads	CTR, download rate	Manual bidding for leads and engagement: Use the engagement objective for the best results.
Carousel Ads	CTR, engagement rate per card	Manual bidding for engagement: Ensure each card in the carousel tells a consistent story.
Spotlight Ads	CTR, conversion rate	Manual bidding for engagement: Keep bids low to prevent high CPC prices.
Text Ads	CTR, CPC	Manual bidding for cost efficiency: Keep bids low to prevent high CPC prices.

‍

By aligning your ad formats with your campaign goals and following these tips for measuring performance, you can create more effective LinkedIn ad campaigns that drive results and maximize your ROI.

You can read more about Objectives and Bid strategies here.

Hope you found this article helpful! Connect with me on LinkedIn, and reach out with any questions.

‍

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
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Learning from the Pros

min Read

10 Expert Tips For Scaling Google Ads Demand Capture

Diego Oquendo

Read Article

Do you need to scale your paid search campaigns and find new ways to increase demand capture?

As the head of Marketing at Catalyst, I build and mentor teams to maximize ROI in paid ad channels including Google.

Here’s my top 10 tips & tactics to scale your Google ads efforts.

(In no particular order, they all matter)

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TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Tip #1 - Leverage Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI)
Tip #2 - Tap into Device & Location Bid Modifiers
Tip #3 - Shift Towards Smart Bidding ASAP
Tip #4 - Sync Your CRM with Google Ads
Tip #5 - Steer Away From Broad Match As Much As Possible
Tip #6 - Take Advantage of the Google Ads Editor
Tip #7 - Lean on Google Ads Script & Rules
Tip #8 - Exclude Search Partners & Display Network
Tip #9 - Install Behavioral Analytics Tools for Landing Page Optimizations
Tip #10 - Consider Bing as a Second Demand Capture Channel

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Tip #1 - Leverage Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI)

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DKI is a powerful method to improve the relevancy of your ads based on user search terms.

When managing ad groups with multiple keywords on a similar theme, this technique ensures that you are displaying ads that closely align with users' query terms.

Google Ads interface with options for keyword insertion, countdown insertion, and location insertion in ad creation.

How Dynamic Keyword Insertion Works:

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DKI automatically updates the ad’s headline to include the exact keywords that triggered the ad.

This way, the ad's first impression is highly relevant to the user's search, which improves overall engagement.

Even a slight increase in click through rate (CTR) can impact the performance of a campaign by driving more traffic to the landing page.

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Best Practices for Using Dynamic Keyword Insertion:

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Prioritize the First Headline: Always aim to have the first headline of your ad matches as closely as possible to the user’s search query.

Group Keywords by Theme: Make DKI more effective by grouping your keywords by themes.

There are generally 6 buckets of themes for search ads:

Brand
Non-brand
Competitive
RLSA (Search Remarketing)
Content
Dynamic Search Ads

With this organization, DKI can create more coherent ads that display the most relevant headline for each bucket.

Tip #2 - Tap into Device & Location Bid Modifiers

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A critical aspect often overlooked in Google ads is the optimization of device and location modifiers.

For most B2B SaaS campaigns, the quality of traffic can vary significantly across different devices.

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Desktop vs. Mobile vs. Tablet:

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Typically, desktop traffic yields the highest quality in terms of conversion rates and user intent.

Users on desktops are generally more engaged and possibly in a professional setting, compared to mobile users who might be multitasking or browsing casually.

Tablets often perform the worst in terms of conversion rates and traffic quality, which is why many advertisers choose to exclude them entirely from campaigns.

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Strategic Use of Location Modifiers:

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If you target several states or countries, you should modify your bids based on the areas that perform best.

This could mean adjusting bids upward in high-performing regions to capture more traffic or decreasing bids in lower-performing areas to conserve budget.

In extreme cases, you can exclude low-performing regions altogether.

Google Ads interface showing location settings with options for targeting and location exclusions.

google ads location settings with targeted locations and bid adjustments for the United States and Canada.

Pro Tip:

Start with a conservative approach focused on proven strategies. As results come in and budget allows, gradually introduce new variables and expand your focus to optimize the overall campaign performance. Maintain detailed records of campaign performance across different devices and platforms. This data will be invaluable for making informed decisions about where to allocate resources most effectively.

Tip #3 - Shift Towards Smart Bidding ASAP

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Smart bidding strategies can help improve campaigns’ performance by focusing on conversions rather than clicks.

The Maximum Conversion strategy is particularly effective, as it lets Google optimize your bids to meet a specific CPA target, ideal for campaigns with regular conversions.

Google Ads settings page showing bidding options with target CPA set at $510 for conversion focus.

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Key Considerations for Smart Bidding:

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Google recommends having at least 30 conversions per month to effectively utilize Target CPA.

However, for campaigns with lower conversion rates, setting a minimum threshold of 10-15 conversions can still be sufficient.

Ensure that your conversions are properly set up and that Google receives clear signals about which conversions to prioritize by setting specific values for each conversion action.

This is crucial for smart bidding algorithms to function properly, as mixed signals can dilute the focus of your campaign optimization.

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Pro Tip:

For businesses, especially in B2B sectors where conversion volumes are low, it's important to track higher funnel events. These can include engaged visits, interaction with forms, and even form abandonment. Each of these steps can be set through Google Tag Manager (GTM), providing richer data for optimization. Apply a structured conversion funnel that captures various stages of user engagement. From initial website interaction to form submissions or CRM entries, each stage should be defined and tracked as separate conversion events. You can then design custom goals and bundle your conversion actions together to add them to your campaigns.

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google ads goals summary with custom goals and conversion actions across 16 campaigns

Tip #4 - Sync Your CRM with Google Ads

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Performance marketers thrive on optimizing for meaningful conversions. It will take emotions out of the decision-making process.

Integrating CRM lifecycle stages into Google Ads can profoundly impact your ad optimization and overall marketing strategy.

By linking stages such as MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead), SQL (Sales Qualified Lead), opportunities, and customer status directly from a CRM platform like HubSpot, you enable a more nuanced and powerful approach to ad targeting and bid adjustments.

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How to Implement Your CRM Sync:

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Depending on your CRM system, various tools and plugins can facilitate this integration. Ensure that the tool you choose can sync data reliably and in real-time to maintain accuracy in your campaigns.

Define which CRM milestones are important for your campaigns and set Google Ads to track these as conversions

Use the data from your CRM to set up automation rules in Google Ads. For example, you could decrease bids or pause campaigns if the cost per SQL exceeds a certain threshold, ensuring you maintain profitability.

Regularly review the data flow and synchronization between Google Ads and your CRM to ensure accuracy. Adjust your strategies based on new insights and continually refine your approach to improve outcomes.

Tip #5 - Steer Away From Broad Match As Much As Possible

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Broad match can drive a high volume of traffic due to its extensive reach. This can result in a large number of conversions, which initially might seem cost-effective.

However, the quality of these conversions often needs to be revised when scrutinized more deeply in the sales funnel.

Despite lower upfront costs, the conversions from broad match often fail to convert into valuable leads or sales.

They may also attract clicks from irrelevant queries, leading to wasted ad spend and diluted performance metrics.

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Best Practices for Keyword Match Types:

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Phrase match offers a balance by allowing your ad to show only when a searcher's query includes the exact phrase or close variations of the phrase, in the same order. This strikes a better balance between reach and relevance, providing more control than Broad match type.

Exact match targets queries that are much closer to the keywords.

While this reduces reach, it increases the relevance and quality of traffic, making it ideal for targeting high-intent users and optimizing conversion rates.

Regardless of the match type used, a comprehensive negative keyword list is crucial.

Finally, test different match types to see what works best for your specific campaigns. This could mean comparing the performance of Phrase match versus Exact match or testing different variations of your keywords.

Tip #6 - Take Advantage of the Google Ads Editor

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Google Ads Editor is an indispensable tool for marketers aiming to streamline their campaign management processes.

This desktop application allows users to manage their Google Ads campaigns offline, offering robust functionalities for bulk editing and optimization.

Google Ads Editor is particularly advantageous for managing large accounts with numerous campaigns and extensive lists of keywords.

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Best Practices for Using Google Ads Editor:

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Develop a standardized template with predefined columns and settings that align with your campaign's requirements.

This setup ensures that you can quickly import data from spreadsheets directly into Google Ads Editor without compatibility issues.

Always synchronize Google Ads Editor with your online account to ensure all changes are up-to-date and to avoid discrepancies between offline edits and online status.

Before uploading changes to the live environment, use the review function to ensure accuracy and prevent potential errors from impacting your campaigns.

While Google Ads Editor is incredibly powerful, it does have a learning curve.

Invest time in learning its features and shortcuts.

Tip #7 - Lean on Google Ads Script & Rules

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Automation is a key component in optimizing campaigns. Google Ads scripts and rules offer powerful tools to automate routine tasks and strategic operations.

Scripts allow for advanced, customized automation that can modify bids, pause ads, or adjust budgets based on specific conditions.

Rules can be set to trigger based on performance metrics such as CTR, conversion rates, or cost per acquisition.

For example, automatically increasing the budget for high-performing campaigns or reducing bids for underperforming keywords helps maintain efficient spending.

Utilize scripts to automatically apply a tracking template across all campaigns, incorporating dynamic elements like campaign and ad group names.

This will detach personal bias from campaign management. Scripts and rules operate based on data, not preference, enabling objective decisions that focus solely on performance metrics.

You must regularly review the outcomes of automated actions. Automation is powerful, but it requires oversight to ensure it aligns with changing campaign goals and market conditions.

Tip #8 - Exclude Search Partners & Display Network

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When managing Google Ads, especially for substantial budgets, it's crucial to ensure that every dollar spent is driving quality traffic and conversions.

A common oversight is not excluding search partners and the display network from search campaigns.

While these features can increase visibility, they often compromise the quality of traffic and the overall effectiveness of your campaigns.

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Understanding the Impact by Network:

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Including Search Partners and Display Networks can inflate your impressions without a corresponding increase in clicks.

This dilution of CTR can harm your campaign's overall performance metrics, misleading you about its effectiveness.

Google's quality score is a critical metric in determining your ad rank and the cost per click (CPC) you pay.

A lower CTR resulting from irrelevant impressions on search partners and display networks can decrease your quality score, leading to higher costs and reduced ad placement.

Pro Tip:

Conduct regular audits of your Google Ads accounts to identify any inefficiencies or overlooked settings that could be draining your budget or diminishing your campaign’s effectiveness. While Google may provide recommendations, always assess them critically in the context of your specific campaign goals and historical data. Consider experimenting with settings on a smaller scale before applying them broadly, especially when dealing with large budgets. This cautious approach allows you to gather data and make informed decisions based on actual performance metrics.

Tip #9 - Install Behavioral Analytics Tools for Landing Page Optimizations

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One of the most effective strategies for enhancing landing page effectiveness is to implement behavioral analytics tools, such as Hotjar or Microsoft Clarity.

These tools provide deep insights into how users interact with your page, allowing for data-driven improvements.

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The Importance of Behavioral Analytics:

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Most of these tools offer features like heatmaps, scroll tracking, and session recordings that reveal how users interact with your landing page.

You can identify which parts of the page attract the most attention and where users lose interest.

You can make informed decisions about layout adjustments, content placement, and calls to action.

For instance, if users frequently abandon a form, you might simplify it or adjust its placement on the page to increase completion rates.

Use the insights gathered to A/B test different versions of your landing page.

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Pro Tip:

Before implementing any changes based on behavioral data, be clear about what you’re trying to improve. Having specific goals will guide your optimization efforts, whether it's increasing time spent on the page, reducing bounce rate, or boosting form submissions. Combine quantitative data from analytics tools with qualitative feedback from user surveys or feedback forms. Keep a detailed record of all changes made and the results they yield. This documentation will help you understand what works, what doesn’t, and how future landing pages can be designed for maximum impact.

Tip #10 - Consider Bing as a Second Demand Capture Channel

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To extend the reach of your successful Google Ads campaigns without significantly increasing your budget, consider importing your best campaigns into Bing Ads.

Bing, while smaller than Google, still captures a unique audience segment that may not overlap completely with Google users. This can increase your campaign's overall reach and exposure.

Generally, competition on Bing is lower than Google Ads, leading to lower cost-per-click (CPC) rates.

Hope you found these 10 tips helpful!

For more tips or to connect, please reach out 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
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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 😂)

Learning from the Pros

min Read

10 Proven SaaS LinkedIn Ads Tips To Drive More ROI

Canberk Beker

Read Article

Want to drive qualified pipeline and revenue from your LinkedIn Ads campaigns?

I’ve worked with 50+ startups, and managed 7-figure LinkedIn ads budgets for B2B SaaS.

My goal with this article is to show you ten proven tips for improving your LinkedIn ads ROI.

Irrelevant of the order, all of these tips have equal importance.

Let’s jump into it! 🚀

‍

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Tip #1: Use auto bidding for the first 7 days of a new campaign
Tip #2: Never use the Audience Network
Tip #3: Penetrate your audience with the reach objective
Tip #4: Leverage exclusions for focus
Tip #5: Job functions give you best visibility and reach
Tip #6: Always start with even rotation upon launch
Tip #7: Check your demographics report weekly
Tip #8: Target mobile devices exclusively with 628 x 1200
Tip #9: Review your performance by device
Tip #10: Use LinkedIn’s bulk import and export feature

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Tip #1: Use auto bidding for the first 7 days of a new campaign

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When launching a new LinkedIn Ads campaign start with automated bidding for the first week.

The thought process behind this is it will give LinkedIn’s algorithm enough time to learn and give you an average bid of what it takes to win auctions for your target audience.

After the first week switch to manual bidding and set the bid amount 20% lower than your average.

This works almost 99% of the time allowing you significant cost per click reductions.

Once you make the switch keep an eye on your daily spend over the next five days, if you set your bids too low it can negatively impact your visibility.

The key is to find the optimal bid between cost and maximum visibility (ex: impressions, views).

Give it a shot and send me a DM on LinkedIn with how much money you save! 🤑

This tip applies to traffic and conversion campaigns.

Tip #2: Never use the Audience Network

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This one might be a bit controversial, but no matter what you LinkedIn reps say this is a no no.

If you’re not familiar, the LinkedIn audience network is a conglomerate of website partners.

This allows you to distribute your content outside of LinkedIn and on their websites.

Sounds amazing in theory but in practice the problem with the audience network is:

🔴90-95% of your ENTIRE LinkedIn Ads budget is spent on websites outside of LinkedIn

Which completely destroys the point of running LinkedIn ads in the first place 😂

The LinkedIn algorithm always prioritizes the audience network because it’s cheaper and it’s trying to optimise for the greatest number of impressions for the lowest cost with your budget.

I’ve personally tested the audience network over multiple quarters with the same exact campaign and the only difference is one is using the audience network and other isn’t.

The campaign using the audience network had a CTR of 0.03% compared to 1% without.

You also have no ideas which websites placed your ads as it’s a black box.

Save your budget and improve your ROI by turning it off.

Tip #3: Penetrate your audience with the reach objective

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If you’re trying to reach a large audience (ex: target account list) and want to do so in the most cost effective way, leverage the reach campaign objective.

Obviously if you’re trying driving the most clicks then this tip wouldn’t be applicable.

Instead in that case you should focus on using the website visits objective.

The caveat here is if you truly know:

Your ideal customer profile
That your content resonates with them

Then you can make the case that these people will click through anyways regardless of objective,

Through testing I’ve found that if you have great content using reach you’ll actually serve towards more people and generate more net new clicks given the reduction in CPM costs.

The major benefit of reach is that it is optimised for driving more unique impressions per viewer.

Pro tip:

Contact your LinkedIn Ads rep to send you a report on audience penetration on a monthly and quarterly basis to see how many unique users you’re reaching in your target audience.

Tip #4: Leverage exclusions for focus

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Most LinkedIn advertisers underestimate the power of exclusions.

It’s one of those things most leveraged but not to its fullest capability.

Everyone knows you need to exclude the obvious things like competitors, students, customers, etc…

But they haven’t built the habit of checking LinkedIn Demographics Report once per week to find irrelevant titles for exclusion.

It’s really important to be mindful of multiple current roles when excluding as you can accidentally block your ads from being visible from high value audience members.

For example, let’s say you only help businesses with more than 1,000 employees.

Conventional logic would be exclude people who work at companies with < 1,000 employees but what happens when your perfect prospect:

Volunteers at a nonprofit organization with < 100 employees
Started a side hustle that only has with a size of “myself only”

The answer is, they won’t see your ads.

Remember that exclusions are always prioritised over inclusions.

When excluding focus on using job titles to refine your audience and prevent accidental conflicts.

Tip #5: Job functions give you best visibility and reach

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This point is a bit controversial but from my own testing I’ve found job functions give you better visibility and reach than job titles.

This doesn’t mean you should never use job title targeting, I’ve actually found for certain personas titles work better than functions but if you’re in the following scenario:

Targeting a high value account list
Promoting ads that speak to a general pain point/benefit
Your ideal audience has a million variations of the same title

Then you’re better off using job functions to reach as many relevant audience members.

Here’s some great combinations of job function targeting to test:

Job functions AND seniority
Job functions AND seniority AND member skills OR interest

Make sure you’re checking your demographics report on a weekly basis to find all the irrelevant job titles you’re reaching and exclude them on an ongoing basis.

This process can take up to two and half months but the goal is to eventually get to the point where you only see relevant titles inside of the demographics report.

Highly recommend excluding unpaid, training, and entry seniority as a starting point.

Pro tip:

Study LinkedIn profiles of your best prospects and take note of the member skills, certifications, and schools they’ve listed to find commonalities for targeting.

Tip #6: Always start with even rotation upon launch

When launching your new campaigns you have the option to choose how to serve your ads.

linkedin ads ad rotation options with choices for optimizing for performance or rotate ads evenly in campaigns

The thought process behind this is you want to understand which ad will perform the best by receiving enough budget for proper testing.

Unfortunately if you start with optimising for performance LinkedIn will prematurely assign 40-50% of your budget to one variation of ad while the others only receive what’s remaining.

In order to avoid this, start with rotating ads evenly for the first 7-14 days when launching a new campaign to serve budget equally and then switch to optimise for performance.

Tip #7: Check your demographics report weekly

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I’ve hinted at this multiple times across all these tips but it’s so important to driving a return on investment with LinkedIn Ads that it deserves to be its own tip.

You need to know what’s happening across your account.

Review your demographics report for:

Ad performance
Campaign performance
Campaign group performance

linkedin ads demographic report showing impressions by job function

This will ensure your budget is going towards reaching the right people and companies.

Pro tip:

LinkedIn has reporting minimums when using the demographics report in platform, get around this by using a third party data connector to push the data into G-Sheet or Looker.

Tip #8: Target mobile devices exclusively with 628 x 1200

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LinkedIn has a 628x1200 image ad spec that allows you to only appear on mobile devices.

If you know that your audience performs well for you on mobile devices you can set up a campaign leveraging this specific image ad dimension to serve exclusively on LinkedIn mobile.

The same is true for targeting desktop devices with text or spotlight ads.

Learn more about your audiences device behaviour with Google Analytics 4:

google analytics report showing User engagement metrics by device category, with desktop leading in users and engagement sessions.

Tip #9: Review your performance by device

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You can review your performance in LinkedIn by clicking on Breakdown > Impression by Device Type

The AdConversion team analysed 10,000,000+ impressions and found:

85.1% of impressions serve on Mobile App
9.6% of impressions serve on Desktop Web
5.3% of impressions serve on Mobile Web

That’s 90.4% of total impressions serving on mobile devices! 🤯

Pie chart showing 85.1% of impressions from mobile apps, 9.6% from desktop web, and 5.3% from mobile web.

Pro tip:

Use the LinkedIn Ads preview to see what your ad will look like when displayed on mobile and optimise your copy to best fit this device over desktop.

Tip #10: Use LinkedIn’s bulk import and export feature

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This tip is one that even my most savvy marketing friends aren’t aware of.

Changing bids, and creating campaigns on LinkedIn is a REAL pain.

You don’t need to suffer this pain and instead can use LinkedIn’s bulk import and export feature.

You can simply just export your ads, campaigns, or groups to make bulk changes.

Voila, a task that would take hours has been cut down into minutes.

Learn more about bulk actions in this article by LinkedIn.

Hope you found these 10 tips valuable! 👏

Implement the ones that resonate most with you to improve your ROI from LinkedIn Ads.

Connect with me on LinkedIn, if you have any questions or want to connect!

‍

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: