3 Paid Media Tactics Designed To Aid B2B Account Based Marketing Efforts

Search engine advertising – or PPC – is not typically associated with account-based marketing.  Generally in PPC, we target high value keywords to inform and acquire new customers based on need, specific pain points, or keywords associated with products or services.

However, marketing platforms and tactics continually evolve to provide new ways to nurture customers.

As B2B marketers, we face a myriad of challenges unique to this space:

• More specific buyer personas
• Sales cycles that span multiple months, potentially even year-long in duration
• Products or services tailored to specific buyer needs
• Contact and lead nurturing; moving top of the funnel leads down the sales pipeline
• Multiple decision makers and influencers

So while it’s important to refresh and generate new leads at the top of the marketing funnel, it’s also crucial to be able to continually interact and nurture high value potential customers through any means necessary.

In this post, I’ve listed three tactics below where paid media platforms supply specific account-based marketing tools or strategies to aid in this goal.

AdWords Customer Match

Google can apply its vast demographic and user knowledge to directly advertise to a specific set of email addresses across the search engine results page, Gmail, and YouTube.

Whenever a user is signed into their Google account, or searching through an associated Android device, Google can match their usage to your advertising campaigns and serve them targeted advertisements.

There are over 1 billion active monthly users of Gmail and Google accounts, and more than half of emails are read on mobile devices.  This insures a high match rate with your customer list that will continue to grow as the use of Google accounts further expands.

Through Google customer match B2B account-based marketers can:

• Optimize search campaigns based on specific users and their behaviors
• Personalize ads in users’ Gmail inboxes
• Expand your reach to potential users that share interests with your core list through use of similar audiences

These options allow you to add additional tactics and segmentation to your marketing initiatives in AdWords.

Twitter Tailored Audiences

As a component of our B2B online marketing programs, we often use Twitter to research and interact with decision makers and key influencers, as well as share content with interested users.

However, you also have the ability to target specific users for advertising purposes, directly through their Twitter handle, email address lists, or even CRM database records.

Twitter Tailored Audiences you directly interact with key accounts and decision makers by offering:

• Promotions only available through Twitter
• Early-bird registrations or discounts to events, webinars, or other industry specific trade shows
• Priority access to new content, white papers, or industry reports
• Reach user groups who have taken a specific action in a mobile app, such as install or sign up
• Support for lead nurturing directly related to the ongoing engagement initiatives already being invested in through daily social media communications

Ultimately, this functionality allows B2B marketers to continue to engage and interact with high value influencers and decision makers directly through the Twitter platform.

LinkedIn Account Targeting

LinkedIn has always been flexible and powerful when it comes to demographic targeting options in their traditional add platform. You can build a specific list of companies or industries, but there are also tools in place to target specific users or users within your contact list.

• Match target companies to specific company pages within LinkedIn
• Upload specific email addresses to advertise directly to specific users within their LinkedIn feed
• Send sponsored messages to selected users

You can send direct LinkedIn messages to interact with your key prospects, or send high value content and updated materials regularly to their feed.

And just covered this week in Search Engine Journal, LinkedIn has launched Matched Audiences, which gives advertisers three new targeting tools: website retargeting, account targeting, and contact targeting.

This new advertising solution is to help B2B marketers reach target audiences throughout the entire buying journey.

Conclusion

Adaptability is key in B2B digital marketing, so as new avenues for nurturing high value potential customers become available, it’s important to capitalize on them.

While not as common as B2B search engine advertising tactics, taking an account-based focus across these three platforms can be very effective for directly targeting a pre-qualified group of potential leads, bringing them closer to sales-ready conversations with your team.