Writing Pay-Per-Click Ad Copy for B2C & B2B Audiences

When employed properly, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising will generate some of your best leads – people who are already searching for your business or the products and services you offer. It’s the ideal situation – prospects searching for you, rather than the other way around. And while appearing for the right terms at the top of the search engines may be the first step, it’s not the most critical. Just showing up is not enough when you want prospects to take notice, click your ad (and not your competitors’), dig into your solution’s differentiators and complete an action on your website.

The key is writing attractive ad copy, which, of course, has no standard formula. Copy varies from industry to industry, and between the B2C and B2B worlds, because the audiences aren’t the same. Let’s assess the key differences and similarities between writing B2C and B2B ad copy, so that your next campaign is effective regardless of your audience.

Differences:

Timing is everything

A major factor differentiating PPC copy for B2B versus B2C audiences is the amount of time it takes for prospects to complete the sales cycle. Even more complex consumer purchases take a couple of months at the most, which is why B2C ads include more sales language and urgency.

B2B purchases are just the opposite. The time that elapses between solution research and point of purchase is often three to six months at a minimum. In-depth comparisons involving competitors’ products occur, and the product must pass through multiple levels of approval. The initial researcher is responsible for the recommendations he ultimately makes. Therefore, he must be guided rather than pushed through the information gathering part of the sales process. B2B copy should situate the advertiser as an industry expert and thought leader. If you tailor your creative to catch your prospects’ attention with information that makes their lives easier, they will trust you as the go-to resource throughout the process, increasing the likelihood your prospects will remember your brand and solutions during the selection phase of the purchase cycle.

Buy now! …or later

Another difference in writing B2B and B2C PPC ads is the offer you’re providing. As noted earlier, B2B and B2C searchers are in different places on the purchase timeline. B2C offers may aim to close a sale with wording such as “buy now.” In fact, a sense of urgency works to your advantage. For example, when someone in the travel industry writes ad copy, wording such as “$200 dollars when you book today!” or “low rate wars, ending this week, book before they end” can increase clicks and conversions. The consumer feels that if he waits too long, he will miss out on a deal.

On the other hand, B2B offers should be presented in a more nurturing and informational way, with calls-to-action such as “register for literature” or “watch the webinar.” If B2B clients feel too pressured or forced to complete a purchase decision by your ad copy, they will move onto others with offers that they perceive to have educational or research value.

Why should I?

A final distinction is the number of people involved in the purchase process. Your B2B prospects are faced with the task of garnering approval from multiple levels within their organizations before a purchase is made. The end user is typically someone other than the person who controls the budget. In this case, you need to employ words in your ad copy that researchers can later use to sell the product to their superiors. Statements like “low cost while increasing productivity,” as well as actual past improvement statistics, will catch their attention because they justify the purchase.

For B2C, there is usually only one person or a few closely knit people involved in the purchase decision, so the job of the ad copy is to directly address their needs. You will still want to test a few different versions, since on occasion the person searching may not be the final decision maker, but the justification for purchase does not have to be addressed up front. It’s the searcher’s attention you need to capture and keep. For example, if a teen wants to buy a new cell phone, you wouldn’t want to utilize your ad’s creative space talking about warranties and theft protection, but rather ringtone capability and the new colors available. Once you get the prospect excited and interested, he will click your ad to find all of the additional, relevant information about the phone.

Similarities

Talk fast!

The trickiest part of PPC ad copy, both for B2B and B2C, is how limited you are by search engines’ character counts. On Google, for example, your headline can be a maximum of 25 characters, and the two lines of descriptive text are limited to 35 characters each. That means you have to be extremely choosy about your language.

You want the headline to match the search, but if it matches too closely, you may blend into the crowd of all other headlines on the search engine’s results page. Balance relevancy match with what you can offer.

When it comes to writing the description, meeting prospects’ needs is critical. With only 70 characters, it’s a lot easier to convince someone to register for a webinar than to get them all the way to buying a new database system management solution. By compelling someone to register for your webinar, you open the door to introducing the solution you offer.

Solve the Problem

With both B2B and B2C PPC ad copy, you have to answer the question your searchers are asking. Their search queries usually indicate the issues or pain points they are trying to solve. You have to deliver a better answer to the problem than the other advertisers on the page. Think of your PPC ad copy as an online conversation with prospects. Be the solution to their problems through text.

Showing up in the search engines through PPC advertising doesn’t really start the relationship with a prospect; it’s that ever-important click that lets the true sales dialogue begin.

Gloria Dutton is a marketing coordinator at 90octane, a conversion-driven marketing agency based in Denver. A pioneer in response-based online tactics such as search engine marketing, online advertising and microsite design, the firm integrates these with more traditional channels to deliver custom, optimized programs. 90octane helps business-to-business companies generate and nurture high-quality sales leads, international nonprofits attract new donors, and top consumer brands enter new markets and increase sales.

Placement Performance report

Placement Performance report The Placement Performance report shows performance statistics for your ads on specific domains and URLs in the content network. Using this information, you can optimize your placements on the content network and improve your return on investment. Read some helpful tips on how to best leverage the information returned in your report. Below you'll find instructions for running a Placement Performance report. Note that this process is similar for all report types. Sign in to your AdWords account at https://adwords.google.com. Select the Reports tab. Click Create a New Report. In the Report Type section, select Placement Performance. Select your preferred option from the Level of Detail drop-down menu. Choose Account to see combined performance statistics for all ads. Select Campaign or Ad Group to see ad performance statistics broken down at the campaign or ad group level. From the Domain or URL drop-down menu: Select Domain if you only want to see the upper-level domain of the pages that showed your ads. Select URL if you want to see the entire URL. From the View drop-down menu: Choose Summary to see the sum total for each statistic over your selected date range. Choose one of the other options to see statistics broken down by a particular unit of time. In the Date Range section: Select the radio button next to the drop-down menu to choose a date range for which to view your statistics. Note that complete statistics for the current day aren't available until the next day at 3:00 p.m. PT. Alternatively, select the second radio button and enter your own date range. Note that data for the Placement Performance report is only available from June 1, 2007. You'll see an error message if you pick an earlier start date. If you selected Ad Group or Campaign from the Level of Detail drop-down menu, you'll see a section labeled Campaigns or Campaigns and Ad Groups. Select the first radio button to see statistics for your entire account. Select the second radio button, next to Manually select from a list, if you only want to see statistics for certain campaigns or ad groups. Click Add next to each campaign that you want included in the report. If you chose Ad Group from the Level of Detail drop-down menu, click the arrow next to each campaign to select individual ad groups. You can further customize your report in the Advanced Settings section. Click Add or Remove Columns to choose the kinds of statistics that your report displays. Click Filter Your Results to restrict the kinds of domains or URLs shown in your report. Click Add another restriction to create up to four filters. Enter a unique name in the Name Your Report field. Check the box next to Template to save your settings for future reports. Check the box next to Scheduling and select the appropriate option from the drop-down menu if you'd like your report to run automatically in the future. In the Email section: Check the box next to Email and fill in your email address if you'd like an email notification whenever your report runs automatically. Check the box next to with report attached as if you'd like the report attached to the email notifications. Choose your preferred report format from the drop-down menu. Click Create Report. To export and download your report when it's finished running: Sign in to your AdWords account at https://adwords.google.com. Select the Reports tab. Click the name of your report. Select the format in which you'd like to export your report: .csv, .csv (for Excel), .tsv, .xml or .html. Learn how to read a Placement Performance report. Was this information helpful? Yes No You may also be interested in... Other helpful articles: Search Query Performance report Invalid Clicks report Impression Share reports

Invalid Clicks report

Invalid Clicks report

You can run a Campaign Performance or Account Performance report to see the number and percentage of clicks that have been classified as invalid and automatically filtered from your account. You are not charged for these clicks, and they do not affect your account statistics. Learn how Google detects invalid clicks.

Please note that data for invalid clicks is only available for reports dated January 1, 2006 to the present, and that this data is not available for hourly views.

Here are instructions for running a Campaign Performance or Account Performance report with information on invalid clicks:

1. Sign in to your AdWords account at https://adwords.google.com.
2. Select the Reports tab.
3. Click Create a Report Now.
4. In the Report Type section, select the radio button next to Campaign Performance or Account Performance.
5. From the View drop-down menu:
   • Choose Summary to see the sum total for each statistic over your selected date range.
   • Choose one of the other options (except for an hourly view) to see statistics broken down by a particular unit of time.
6. In the Date Range section:
   • Select the radio button next to the drop-down menu to choose a date range for which to view your statistics.
   • Alternatively, select the second radio button and enter your own date range. Note that data for invalid clicks is only available after January 1, 2006.
7. If you selected Campaign Performance as your report type, you'll see a section labeled Campaigns.
   • Select All campaigns to see statistics for your entire account.
   • Select Manually select from a list if you only want to see statistics for certain campaigns. Click Add next to each campaign that you want included in the report.
8. Under Advanced Settings, click Add or Remove Columns.
9. In the Performance Statistics section:
   • Check Invalid Clicks to see the number of invalid clicks filtered during the reporting period.
   • Check Invalid Clicks Rate to see the percentage of your total clicks that were filtered during the reporting period.
10. Select any other data you want included in the report by clicking the appropriate boxes. Note that reports with data for invalid clicks can't include data for ad distribution.
11. If you'd like to restrict the data displayed in the report, click Filter Your Results and make your selections from the drop-down menus. Click Add another restriction to create up to four filters.
12. Enter a unique name in the Name Your Report field.
13. Check the box next to Template to save your settings for future reports.
14. Check the box next to Scheduling and select the appropriate option from the drop-down menu if you'd like your report to run automatically in the future.
15. In the Email section:
    • Check the box next to Email and fill in your email address if you'd like an email notification whenever your report runs automatically.
    • Check the box next to with report attached as if you'd like the report attached to the email notifications. Choose your preferred report format from the drop-down menu.
16. Click Create Report.

Impression Share reports

Impression Share reports Impression share is a new AdWords metric that represents the percentage of impressions where your ads were shown out of the total available impressions in the market you were targeting. This metric is available at the campaign and account level for search. Impression share is available as a column option under 'Level of Detail' when you run an Account or Campaign Performance report. Data is available for search campaigns. To run a Campaign Performance report with this metric, follow these steps: Sign in to your AdWords account at https://adwords.google.com. Click on the Reports tab and then on the Create a New Report link. For 'Report Type,' select the radio button next to Campaign Performance or Account Performance. For 'View,' choose Summary (for an overview report) or Hourly (by date) (if you want to see hourly data associated with specific calendar dates) or Hourly (regardless of date)*, Daily, Day of Week (for data associated with each day of the week), Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, or Yearly from the pull-down menu. *Note that although Impression Share is available down to the hourly level, the data is only available from February 15, 2007 onwards. Select the 'Date Range' for your report by clicking on the pull-down menu and choosing the time span (i.e. 'Last seven days,' ' Last thirty days,' etc.). You can also use clickable calendars to choose specific date ranges for Summary, Daily, and Weekly views. Select the campaign or campaigns to include in this report by choosing the radio button for All campaigns, or Manually select from a list and then clicking Add next to the campaign names on the list provided. Within 'Advanced Settings,' select Add or Remove Columns. Check the box next to 'Impression Share.' You can further customize your Campaign Performance report by clicking on Add or Remove Columns to refine your report based on preferred column topics such as 'Impressions,' 'Clicks,' 'Avg CTR,' 'Avg CPM,' 'Invalid Clicks,' etc. *Note that impression share reporting data is available from February 15, 2007, onward, and that these reports can not be run with hourly views. Additional column sets will be visible if you have Conversion Tracking enabled. Also in 'Advanced Settings,' you can apply filters to restrict the display of report rows based on specific criteria. Click Filter Your Results to customize your filters; up to four filters may be created by clicking the Add another restriction link. Enter a unique Report Name for your report and check the box to save your settings as a template if you want to re-use them in the future. For 'Templates, Scheduling and Email,' schedule your report (if you want it to run again automatically at another time), and, if you want it delivered via email, provide an email address and choose your preferred report format (.csv, .csv for Excel, .tsv, .xml, or .html) Click Create Report. To export and download your report when it is finished running: Log in to your AdWords account. Click on the Reports tab. Click into the Report Center Click the name of the report you would like to view. Select the format in which you'd like to export your report: .csv, .csv (for Excel), .tsv, .xml, or .html.