5 Effective Paid Strategies for B2B eCommerce Companies

A change is coming for the world of B2B ecommerce. The days of buying specific parts over the phone are being overtaken by simply shopping online. Meticulous Research study reports that B2B sales will see the fastest growth of all ecommerce categories over the next 7 years. This is due to more B2B ecommerce buyers shopping online, as well as an increase in buyers using mobile devices to shop.

With an online presence becoming essential for all B2B ecommerce companies, an effective paid marketing strategy should go hand-in-hand. In this post, we will be discussing 5 paid strategies B2B companies can use to improve ecommerce sales.

Define Your Audience

The start of any advertising campaign should always lie on discovering the target audience and how they search for products. Sending only one ad to a huge audience may of worked 10 years ago, but now ads need to be specifically tailored to the individual to help make a sale happen. Questions that need to be asked and answered include:

• What questions do buyers ask online?
• What features are buyers looking for?
• What are buyers’ end goal for purchasing?
• What do buyers not like in a product?

These questions will help shape ad messaging, keyword strategy and offerings for all online advertising, so making sure they are answered with as much detail as possible will help lead to success.

Set Up Google Shopping Ads

While normal search ads on Google could be effective for B2B ecommerce, advertisers should look further to find the most success on the platform. Google thankfully offers the perfect solution through Shopping Ads.

With Google Shopping ads, companies can upload a product feed that will allow for their offerings to show up right in the search engine results page. By reading the provided product feed, Google will automatically display relevent products based on what users are searching for.

This means that is important to add as much detail as possible to the Google Shopping Feed to give the product the best chance to show up. Advertisers should consult Google’s shopping feed specifications in order to determine what attributes should be used during creation.

Build Relationships with Remarketing

While gaining new customers should be the top focus, companies should not forget about the existing customers. Building strong relationships with these users is important for gaining life-time repeat buyers. The one of the most effective ways to do this is with a Google Remarketing campaign.

With remarketing on Google, companies can reach these users with highly targeted image ads designed to bring the user back through new products, deals or features. Targeting options include:

1. Users who have been to the website
2. Email of potential and existing customers.
3. Similar audiences to a remarketing or email list

The relationship built with buyers is just as important as that first sale. Remarketing to these users and keeping a strong brand presence is a strategy that needs to be utilized by all B2B ecommerce companies.

Nurture Potential Buyers on LinkedIn

While LinkedIn ads are not nearly as ecommerce focused as a Google Shopping Ad, LinkedIn’s main benefit lies in its’ audience targeting options. With LinkedIn, B2B companies can target ads directly to the buyers of their product. Some of these targeting options include:

1. Job titles & functions
2. Specific companies & industries
3. Website visitors (Retargeting)
4. Customer email lists

While directly selling products on LinkedIn isn’t best practice, companies can start building relationships with the target audience in order to eventually get a sale. Focusing on promoting case studies or reports that help promote the brand, utilizing LinkedIn Lead Gen ads.

By nurturing relationships on LinkedIn with the target audience, a potential sale could be right around the corner.

Focus on Mobile Advertising

Beyond choosing the best advertising platform, it is also necessary to determine the best devices to be seen on.

Like previously mentioned, mobile traffic is a big reason why B2B ecommerce revenue has, and continues, to grow. Based on a 2019 RedStage report, 50% of B2B buyers are using their mobile phones to assist in purchasing products. Even more important: 40% of all B2B sales come from mobile traffic.

This means that mobile needs to play a key part to any strategy. While other devices shouldn’t be ignored, observing the results from mobile is essential for budget optimization, especially for companies with limited funds. If performance for mobile does bring in the best results, then most of the budget should be attributed there.

Final Thoughts

The way business is done for B2B ecommerce companies is changing. Buyers calling for parts and equipment is becoming less frequent, and an online presence, especially on mobile, is now essential to reach these users.

Over the next few years, B2B ecommerce companies will need to make sure that they have an effective paid search strategy in order to stay relevant online. Through advertising products, nurturing existing customers and building new relationships, paid search offers a perfect way to secure a successful online presence.