LinkedIn’s ‘The B2B Marketing Benchmark’ report found that 50% of B2B leaders felt optimistic, and 36% felt confident about the marketing team’s ability to drive revenue.
Online advertising through platforms like Google Ads and LinkedIn can increase Marketing’s chances of trapping leads and generating new revenue. For CMOs to meaningfully contribute to revenue generation in this way, they need data. By analysing data, marketers can refine strategies based on past campaign outcomes.
Before starting your advertising campaign…
Establish your goals
Goals direct your advertising campaign by ensuring every decision aligns with a desired outcome, including brand awareness, website traffic, or lead generation. Ask: Are you targeting a set number of leads? A particular number of asset downloads? Clear targets give your campaign focus and a benchmark for success.
Choose the metrics you will track
Align metrics with campaign goals. While many metrics exist, not all are relevant to your organisation. Choose metrics that directly measure campaign success. Avoid vanity metrics. A high view count might not indicate real engagement or interest. Focus on conversions and marketing qualified leads. These metrics accurately reflect campaign effectiveness.
Calculate the desired ROI for your campaign
Review past advertising campaigns to estimate your desired return on investment. Historical data provides valuable insights into what returns you can realistically expect. If past efforts resulted in a negative ROI, it is a clear indicator that your tactics need adjusting. Relying on strategies that have not delivered financial results can lead to repeated financial setbacks. Setting a realistic ROI based on past performance helps guide budget allocation and strategy, ensuring you are on the right track for future campaigns.
1. Use past performance to influence decision-making
Past campaigns serve as a rich source of insights. Delving into their results lets you discern which tactics worked and which did not. This retrospective analysis ensures you avoid repeat mistakes and build on successful strategies.
While generating a large number of marketing leads feels good, the real measure of success lies in conversion rates. If there is a disconnect between leads and actual sales, it is a clear sign that something is amiss. The reasons could include a misalignment in the target audience or a breakdown in communication between teams.
So, you must ensure your audience is genuinely interested in your offering. Additionally, enhancing collaboration between marketing and sales can lead to a more seamless transition from lead generation to actual sales, ensuring potential customers do not fall through the cracks.
2. Choose channels that have generated past results
It is essential to match your advertising efforts with platforms that resonate with your target demographic. For example, in the B2B space, LinkedIn advertising typically offers a lot of value due to the 65+ million decision-makers who use it.
Historical data allows you to determine the success of advertising channels by providing a clear picture of which platforms have previously delivered strong results and which have not. If LinkedIn underperformed compared to Google Ads in a past campaign, it would be strategic to allocate more focus to Google Ads in upcoming efforts. Making informed decisions based on past performance ensures you use advertising budgets effectively.
3. Understand the impact of campaign length
The duration of a campaign plays a pivotal role in determining its success. While a longer campaign means increased expenditure, it also provides an extended window to generate leads. Conversely, a shorter campaign might be more budget-friendly but could limit potential reach.
Analysing data from previous campaigns offers clarity on this matter. If the data indicates that extended campaigns do not significantly outperform short-term campaigns in ROI, then a concise, targeted campaign might be more beneficial. Making informed decisions on campaign length based on past performance ensures that you maximise results while staying within budget constraints.
4. Select target markets and segments with customer data
Analytics play a crucial role in segmenting and refining target audiences. By diving deep into customer data, you can gain a clear understanding of customer behaviour, preferences, and needs, ensuring you direct marketing efforts effectively.
Customer data not only helps identify potential markets but also pinpoints specific segments within those markets. This granularity allows for more tailored and impactful advertising strategies.
Your B2B marketing data will highlight the industries and regions most responsive to your campaigns. By focusing on these areas, you can optimise your advertising efforts, ensuring maximum engagement and ROI.
Conclusion
In B2B marketing and advertising, leveraging data is the cornerstone of success. From setting initial goals to evaluating ROI, you should anchor decisions in past performance and concrete evidence. Previous campaigns offer invaluable insights, influencing platform choices, campaign duration, and precise targeting.
By leveraging customer data, marketers can sharpen their strategies, targeting the most receptive industries and regions. A successful B2B advertising campaign is rooted in understanding past outcomes, making data-driven decisions, and consistently refining approaches to maximise engagement and returns.
Resonate can guide and refine your advertising campaigns
At Resonate, we specialise in addressing the distinct challenges B2B organisations face in reaching key decision-makers. With our expertise in Google Advertising, we build targeted campaigns that make your brand stand out while making the most of your budget. Our goal with all advertising campaigns is to deliver predictable and measurable results from online traffic. Visit our Advertising page for more information on what we deliver.
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