A B2B paid media strategy can bring many different benefits for those looking to improve the results of their marketing efforts. When performed correctly, advertising campaigns are a cost-effective method to position your business on search engines, boost brand awareness and find quality leads.
However, there are many factors to consider when setting up your ads, and some of them have become a frequent roadblock for marketers: ads that attract unqualified leads, keywords with low search volume, high CPCs, etc.
These can drive businesses to lose money and opportunities to scale.
Keep reading and discover the 4 marketing campaign optimization practices you need to look at to know if your paid campaigns are well-managed.
1. Are you measuring beyond conversions?
Many agencies are not even measuring conversions, but that’s table stakes. To measure the effectiveness of keywords and ads and determine your paid campaigns’ ROI, you must accurately set up conversion tracking for your B2B paid search strategy.
But only measuring conversions is not enough. Not all conversions end up buying, not all of them are ready to buy, and many are not worth pursuing. So if you’re only using that, you’re missing out.
The problem is measuring based on qualified leads like Marketing Qualified Leads or Sales Qualified Leads. For example, if you have eCommerce, you shouldn’t focus on revenue only, but on Lifetime Value.
However, accessing the CRM is a challenge for many agencies, so just a few offer a complete report.
2. Is the team or agency managing your paid media campaigns transparent?
Finding a transparent team in terms of how much of what you’re paying is going to agency fees versus the actual ad spend is crucial. But you also need a team that’s transparent with their processes and willing to help you understand the paid search strategies they are implementing.
When you run digital marketing campaigns for the first time, it’s when you’re going to do the worst in terms of ROI. It’s like learning how to play tennis. The first time, you won’t be good at it.
Ultimately, it’s impossible to scale if you don’t learn, build and improve every day with your own data.
The agency managing your ads should meet with you regularly to show the performance of the campaigns, tactics, and channels, and suggest adjustments to keywords, audiences, and demographic data.
If you’re not building that intel, you will always depend on others and won’t be able to make informed decisions regarding your paid campaigns.
3. What to do if your digital marketing agency is not optimizing your paid media campaigns properly?
Understanding the level of effort the agency is putting behind your campaigns will help you ensure they’re not over-managing or under-managing them.
Pay the most attention to signs of under-management because if they’re over-managing, you will see it in how much you’re paying. But aside from what you’re paying, the important thing is to know what you’re getting in return for your money.
For example…
- How often are they doing marketing campaign optimizations at the keyword and audience level?
- How often are they refreshing copy in the ads?
- Do they frequently recommend adjustments to the landing pages or refreshments for the creatives?
You need to ask yourself these questions to determine if their services are worth the price. You cannot have them do all of the above daily or weekly. But depending on how much money you’re spending per campaign, you want to ensure that you have the optimal frequency for optimizations.
A standard red flag you must look out for is process automation. If they’re not automating the recording part, they’re probably wasting time on something that can be automated, and obviously, you’re paying for that.
The team managing your ads should have solid analytics in place with a report done by a machine, a Python code, and automation. This will ensure their time is spent analyzing the business side of things and recommending optimizations.
4. Look for certified Digital Marketing Agencies and Google Partners
The team or digital marketing agency managing your paid media campaigns should be Google partners. That means that they have experience in the field. They’ve kind of passed the “Google test.”
If you feel like doing a little more digging, you can always look for the clients they’re managing, case studies, and how much they spend monthly.
Hopefully, with these 4 considerations in mind, it should be enough for you to feel confident about the team you’re hiring to manage your budget smartly.
If you need help managing your paid media campaigns, schedule a free consultation and learn more about effective b2b paid media strategies to boost your ROI and accelerate the expected benefits.
