Professional Services Firm: B2B PPC Advertising
While the details are sometimes sensitive, the picture painted in the following client success stories is one of quantifiable results.
Pharmaceutical consulting firm increases profit 400% with PPC; closing sales & marketing loop.
The Challenge
The Client, a pharmaceutical consulting firm in North Carolina, created an aggressive annual marketing plan that required 25% of its new business be generated via its website.
The company, however, had zero presence in search engines for search queries related to its product and services.
Key program components included E-commerce specific PPC advertising, demand generation, and marketing measurement.
Program Implementation
KoMarketing developed a Search Engine Optimization (SE) program for long-term lead generation success, and initiated and launched a Pay Per Click (PPC) search engine advertising program via Google AdWords with the following goals:
- Generate qualified leads quickly
- Position the company to become top-of-mind for its targeted services
- Gain keyword intelligence to transfer to SEO strategies
Prior to launching the PPC program, KoMarketing and the Client took the following steps:
Define “quality” leads
KoMarketing helped the Client formalize the criteria that defined a quality lead, including company size, buyer/decision maker profiles, average deal size, geography, and how prospects identified the specific services they were looking for.
Create an ad messaging Mind Map
KoMarketing and the Client generated initial concepts for PPC ad copy for each of the company’s primary service offerings. Ad copy concepts focused on the Client’s value proposition, brand position, and offers.
Incorporate tracking & analytics
Web analytics were used to track individual keyword performance beyond simple conversion tracking codes. KoMarketing advised the client to send leads to a CRM database – SalesForce.com – with the search engine and keyword identified. The company was then able to follow their search advertising spend through the sales process. By linking sales data back to keywords, ad text, and search engines, a feedback loop was established to continually modify and improve the campaigns each month.
After these initial steps, KoMarketing then began overseeing the tactical components of the PPC search marketing program, tailored to the client and its business goals. Program components included:
Developing an organized campaign structure
A logical hierarchy of service offerings – consulting, training, advisory, etc. – was developed in order to easily manage thousands of keywords, and target ad copy and landing pages, more effectively.
Keyword research & collaboration
KoMarketing used a variety of resources to create a comprehensive list of keywords, broken down by service offering and target market. After the data was presented to the Client, the keyword list was then refined through a collaborative approach that identified the terms that had the highest conversion potential.
Ad copy creation & version testing
KoMarketing drafted multiple ad copy versions for each service offering and target market. After approval was received from the Client, the PPC program launched with a minimum of three ad copy versions per Ad Group/service offering.
Landing page creation & optimization
KoMarketing created specific landing pages for high-volume keywords to improve conversion rates and capture well-qualified leads. Incremental steps were taken in creating and optimizing the landing pages, starting with basic copy modifications, then moving to testing product images, navigational elements, and adding contact form fields to the pages.
Results
- The Client received 348 leads via PPC over the first twelve months.
- The average cost per lead was $67.
- The majority of the leads generated through PPC were traceable throughout the sales cycle (via the CRM integration put in place).
- Profit, after advertising expense and management fees, was over 400%.
“With other agencies, the tendency is to see a flurry of work initially, and then communication and accountability starts to fall off. Our KoMarketing account team is in contact with us almost daily – it’s like they’re sitting right here in our office. They’re truly an extension of our marketing team.”
