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Chris
Hello and welcome to the paid search podcast. My name is Chris and today I'm going to do a case study. I'm going to talk about Google Ads in a way I haven't done in a while. This was actually a request from a longtime listener over in the UK who gave me a great idea when I just asked, hey, I don't have any ideas for the podcast. What should I talk about? Threw out an amazing idea that I thought was great. So that's what I'm going to talk about today. And I'm actually really behind for this week as far as my work. So I'm actually going to make this topic the entirety of the show. So I'm sorry, for those of you who have written in questions for this week, I'm gonna have to skip it. Just I have a commitment to put this podcast out every week and to get this one out, I'm gonna have to get straight to the point. So that is what today's show is. It is 100% focused on this week's case study about B2B and B2C. So business to business and business to consumer or business to customer. All right, so that's what I'm going to talk about. I'm talking about how do these two types of campaigns differ from each other? How would I build them? How would I manage, you know, a typical case of building managing expectations of a business to business lead generation campaign versus the typical experience of building and managing a business to consumer, business to customer campaign. How are they different? How are they alike? What are the direct differences between how I build them, how I manage them? We're going to jump in that today. We're going to jump into it right away. Right now I'm going to start talking about this and as always, I want to preface this podcast is brought to you by my friends@opteo.com PSP they are the purveyors of the world's best Google Ads management software out there. It is designed to help you make good decisions, fast, strong, concrete decisions about your Google Ads. How can you best make choices about your bidding, your negative keywords, your ad copy, your landing pages, your budget? Everything about Google Ads requires decision making based on data. Opteo is there to help you make decisions about this data, help you to get more done in your day by presenting you concrete alerts, information about the software. That's what it's about and it's an amazing software you can try for free for 28 days. 28 day free trial. That's twice the time that you get. If you were to try this on your own, you get an exclusive link right in the description. Click that. That's optio.com PSP 28 day free trial. You're going to like it. I can tell you the vast majority of people that listen to the show try it and stay using it after the trial period is over because it's so helpful. Optio.com PSP so without further ado, let's get into it. I have a list, let me see. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. So, seven different categories, comparing, contrasting, discussing the difference between B2B and B2C. You know, how can you interpret things, how can you understand the differences between things in this, you know, very different landscape? So first let's briefly touch on the definition of what I'm calling B2B and B2C. Okay, so B2B is any business who's trying to sell to another business. So this could be a small business, a large business. This could be a company that's trying to sell desks. Whether it's an at home, someone who's working at home, they use it as a desk or somebody or a high rise, multi floor desk that you know, they need to fill spaces for 150 people. You know, a modular type of system, you know, that would be a B2B company. That'd be a campaign that you would need to build based on how does someone search, how does someone find these desks in order to fulfill the need of a businesses process, you know, whatever a business would need. So this could also be, you know, an AC company. You have an AC company and you know that's going to be very different if you're running ads for business H vac and consumer H vac, right. AC repair for businesses, AC repair for consumer. They're very different and obviously we know they're different simply because one's a business and one is a consumer. But how do you approach one versus the other in Google Ads? Well, believe it or not, there's, there's quite a few things that I do differently that it really doesn't matter the industry. There is a clear difference between how I manage one campaign and how I set up and my expectations and things to look for compared to a consumer business. So to briefly define consumer B2C, that's pretty much everything else. If you sell sunglasses and it's not specifically for like safety glasses for steel workers, you know, if it's not personal protection equipment, then that's a consumer. You know, I mean, you're at, you are going to want to reach consumers. You're just selling normal sunglasses. So the very first distinction, and this isn't even one of my seven, the very first distinction between these two is that B2B very often defines its audience in a very specific way. Whereas B2C is just we have this product and anybody that wants it, we want them to find us. It could be a business, it could be a consumer. Irregardless, both of them could use it. And it means the same to us. Now sometimes businesses can potentially buy in bulk. You know, you might sell cupcakes and a business could buy a cupcake or a consumer could buy a cupcake. But sometimes a business might buy three dozen and a consumer might buy one. But that's a different conversation. What we're going to talk about is a product designed for businesses, a service designed for businesses and a product and, or service designed for consumers. Basically anyone? Okay, so number one, how do I set up my campaigns? What's one of the one major differences? The very first thing when I just get started, when I start thinking about the framework of my campaigns and ad groups, what's the first distinction that I make? Well, the very first thing that I decide upon is my, the number of campaigns that I build for each. So let's, for the purpose of making this, you know, easy, for examples, let's say that is a large budget for both of these. They're each planning on spending 50, 60, you know, $80,000 a month. Okay? So that way we're not, you know, the potential for experimentation and wide reaching campaigns is big. Okay, so we're not limited by budget, let's say in this scenario. So I would probably expect right off the bat to build a lot more campaigns. In my B2C example, okay, so my business to consumer, I'm going to probably build a lot more campaigns. The reason for that is because of volume. And you're going to hear this a lot. A lot of the reasonings in my decision making on this is because of one big distinction and it's that 9 out of 10 times a consumer is going to be doing a search 1 out of 10 times. Maybe 1 out of 20 times. Really, maybe it's even less 1 out of 20 times. It would be a business doing a search, a business oriented search. Obviously businesses can't do a search, but someone is doing a search specifically for businesses business purpose, nothing personal. It is designed specifically. I have a business need and I'm searching to solve that business need. So when someone does a Search for consumer. And we multiply that across all the people that are going to be doing consumer searches. We now have multiples and multiples of impressions compared to business. So this distinction means that I'm going to be presented with tens of thousands of potential impressions, and I need to sort through these much more carefully, much more precisely than perhaps what I, what I would do with a business campaign. So a business campaign, a B2B campaign, I might have one or two campaigns and a business to consumer account Strategy might have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or more campaigns. I'm typically going to have more campaigns in the consumer focused account because there's a lot of volume. I need to be able to make decisions. I can't just dump traffic unsorted, uncategorized into just a few ad groups, a few campaigns. There's going to be a lot of distinctions. So when there's tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of searches coming in and I need to be able to sort through those, make decisions, I'm not going to funnel that. I'm not going to funnel 10,000 searches into just one or two campaigns. I might need to split those up. So therefore, I need a higher volume of conversions. Sorry, higher volume of campaigns. And then B2B, it's going to be a fraction of what the consumer stuff would get. So I'm going to need less campaigns. So that's the very first thing. If you're building something out like this, expect more campaigns for consumers, less for business. That does not mean that it's simpler. As you'll see as we get down here, B2C is not more simple or more simplistic than consumer. I would say it's actually more difficult and we'll get into that. So number two, Chris, how do you approach bidding differences from B2C and B2B? All right, so when it comes to B2C, business to consumer, I am going to approach my bidding a bit more timid. Always for me, I'm going to use manual to begin with. I'm going to use manual CPC and possibly max clicks, maybe even max conversions. Now, for me, I'm always going to start with manual, but eventually I might move to max clicks and I eventually I might move to max conversions or target cpa. So really, any of the bidding strategies are on the board for me here. Okay? I am willing to move in the direction that the data points me. And because there's more volume, it's likely that I could move to something like max conversions, target CPA much faster than I would with B2B. Because I have volume on my side, I hopefully am getting more conversions, more data. The data is flowing faster because the clicks are probably less expensive. That's a very important part. And the reason I mention a more timid approach for my manual bidding, at least from the beginning, is because when there's tens of thousands, when there's an exponential amount more traffic, I shouldn't want all of it. I should be discerning about what traffic want and what traffic I leave aside. Okay, so if there's a lot of people searching for different types of shoes, clothes, phone cases, windows for their home, there's gonna be a lot of research, typically for things like that, and then multiply the fact that people are doing that search on their phones all the time. Lots of research, lots and lots of traffic to choose from up and down the funnel, high funnel, low funnel, always lots of traffic. So what I need to do is timidly approach that and bid at a lower level. I do not want to try and hit first position all the time. Absolutely not. I don't want to try and dominate, control, get really high impression share. I want to sample the traffic, try all the different traffic that's coming in, and try and get an equal amount of all these different levels to see what's going to work best for me. Okay, now let's contrast that with B2B. So with B2B, I'm going to go straight into aggressive manual bidding. Okay. I am going to bid to try and hit specific types of traffic and try and hit it at a very high absolute top percentage. First position, second position. That's what I'm going to be shooting for. And I'm going to be shooting for it almost all the time. I'm going to want high positions because I am going to expect less volume. I'm going to expect, you know, very dedicated, focused shoppers who are looking for something very specific. And when I choose my keywords, I'm going to want to be there and be able to make decisions. And there's not as much of it. And honestly, B2B traffic is pretty dry. If you need to figure out what security camera system your new dentist office needs, it's not an exciting investment in your time to research this. Right? So that's what I mean by dry. A lot of times people just want facts. They want to be told the facts. And oftentimes they're not going to do a whole lot of exploring. They're going to look for numbers, prices, comparisons, and they need to make this decision and Move on. This is a business decision. This is not a personal decision. So they tend to approach it differently for that reason. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to bid more aggressively, and I'm always going to be manual. In fact, I might even stay in manual bidding indefinitely for this campaign. The reason I say that is because MaxClicks is not appropriate. I don't think MaxClicks is appropriate at all because I should either be bidding manually and controlling the traffic and hitting first, or, you know, I think a manual approach is much more appropriate. Or I think possibly max conversions could be. But it's unlikely that I'll get to using max conversions or target CPA typically, because the conversion volumes for B2B is lower. There's not often a huge amount of conversion. So for that reason, the algorithm is going to be unlikely to be in my favor for B2B. You know, there might be a tenth of the conversion volume, so it may not work as efficiently. So I often don't like automated bidding for B2B simply because of, again, the volume difference. Algorithms of Google Ads are really focused on positive signals coming in and sharing that information about what hits and what doesn't. And sometimes B2B campaigns have very low conversion rates. And when you pair that with low search volume, now you're. Now you're having to, you know, deal with a less productive campaign. Okay, so let's move on to the next one now. Keywords. All right, Whenever I build a B2B campaign and I and I'm choosing my keywords, you can probably guess what I'm going to say here. My keywords for B2B are going to be focused. I am going to use phrase and exact. No broad. No broad match. Definitely not. They're going to be very focused keywords. They're going to be typically three, four, five words. They're going to use technically specific terms, okay? They're very technically specific, and they are going to use terminology that is specific to that industry. Okay? So I'm not going to use broader terms. I'm going to use very specific. And anyone who's run a B2B campaign before, it's almost like speaking a different language. If you don't know this industry, A lot of times, you know, these terms are only going to be searched if you know what this is about. I run into this all the time when I get new clients that I'm working with, and suddenly they present me with this whole thing, this whole world. I've never even heard Of. And I'm like, oh, boy, what is this? I got to read about? I got to figure out, what does this mean? What does this mean? That's the kind of keywords I'm going to choose. I'm not going to choose broad, wide scope kind of stuff. I'm going to be very specific because, and this is a clear distinction between B2B and B2C. B2B. I can so easily step out of that thin line between B2B and B2C. Imagine you're doing a type rope type tightrope walk, and your B2B is that type tightrope. If you step to the left or right, you're off of it, you're missing it. And all to the side, all around you is B2C. You must walk that thin line between consumer and business. And the best way to do that with keywords is to use very specific targeted language that is not going to skew your data and push consumer traffic to you. Okay, so as far as consumer, pretty much the opposite. I'm free to use any match type, broad phrase, exact. Typically, I'm going to pick phrase, but I might use broad. I might use exact. It really depends. But I am much more relaxed because I know I'm. As long as I'm in the right area, I'm not going to get the wrong people. Anyone who's interested in these glasses, anyone who's interested in this desk would be interested. As long as they're looking for a desk or sunglasses. Right? Who cares who they are? That's the difference between consumer and business focused. Traffic, Business. I'm concerned about who they are. Consumer. I don't care who they are. You want glasses, I got glasses. That's it. Okay, so next let's talk about budget. Let's pull back from our pretend world where we can just imagine we have $60,000 to spend. Okay, let's come back and we're in real life again. And now we have to decide how much budget can we actually afford. Okay, so on business to business focus, when it comes to budget, I'm probably going to choose something moderate. And I know you're like, what the heck does moderate mean? Kris, that is not helpful. Well, I know, but this is a tough one. But I wanted to give you some kind of direction. But the point is it can't be small, it can't be tiny, because typically the cost per click for business focused is going to hit pretty hard. The CPCs could be two, three times higher than, you know, the equivalent of consumer Traffic. So if consumer traffic is $3, business might be $9 per click. Okay, so a small budget is not really a very good idea. Something pretty strong, something moderate. But a very large budget I think is too risky. I think if you say, well, let's go, I mean, if the clicks are more expensive, let's have a very strong budget. So we make sure we have plenty of budget to work with. Let's make this work. Well, you must understand that that brings in significant risk. Higher budget spend brings about higher risk. Okay, so that's a problem. That's why I say, as much as you hate to hear it, moderate, something moderate. And when it comes to B2C business to consumer, anything goes. Small, large. Something small could totally work because you can, you have the, the entirety of the search funnel. It's fully populated from top to bottom. You can probably find traffic anywhere. You could do large budget, small budget, it's wide open. So I'm not nearly as concerned about consumer. But when it comes to business, B2B budget, moderate is usually where I prefer to fall. Not too small, not too big, for reasons as I have discussed. Now let's talk about geographic targeting. See, now we're getting into it because, I mean, I'm getting really specific here, guys, because I want you to know, I mean this is, I'm trying to show you the difference instead of just talking about how I build a B2B. I think it's more precise when I, when I compare and contrast between these different types. And I can do more of these case studies if you guys like them. I am, I'm on Twitter or send me an email, paid search podcastmail.com you can see me an email or leave a review. I definitely will see the email if it comes through. Reviews, I don't check very often, but I do appreciate them. If you, if you like this podcast, I do appreciate reviews on wherever you are listening or watching, comment on YouTube, whatever. So geographic targeting. Okay, so we are on number two, three, four, five. We're number five. This is number five. Geographic targeting. This one may not work for everyone, but preferably, I highly suggest for B2B large, a large area. Absolutely. Do not suggest zip code, postal code targeting something small. It's going to be a disaster. The reason comes down to volume. If you narrowly focus on B2B and you narrowly focus on geographic targeting, you're doubly constricting your ability to gather impressions, gather clicks, gather data, and it will be extremely slow moving for you. Additionally, small geographic targeting can increase your typical cost per click. So that will multiply the expenses for you. So ideally, larger is better. Whatever you think is appropriate for your moderate budget, go with a larger area. You can always grow and shrink it as needed. But preferably not something small. Not just like a couple towns, maybe an entire metroplex area, not just, you know, a 10 mile radius. Now to compare and contrast consumer as you might expect, anything goes. I might run a very specific zip code specific target campaign. If I'm doing a dentist or an eye doctor or a pizzeria, something like that, obviously targeting an entire metroplex or a state or a county is going to be very inefficient. So I need to do zip code and then that's the best way to do it. Or if I'm targeting selling sunglasses, it would be weird to target specific areas. Why not just target anyone in the United States? Wherever my shipping allows me to target, then that's what I target. So much more freeing for you to run a consumer because you can target whatever is there and then use your keywords, use other things to decide and be discerning upon the traffic that you want. Don't use your geographic targeting as a B2C level manager to choose your traffic. Use your keywords to choose your traffic. That's a better way to do it. Okay, I've got two more. I'm going to talk about negative keywords and I'm going to talk about ad copy. Very specific difference between the two. But before I do that, I want to remind you, optio.com PSP they have a new tool to help you understand your Google Ads account. This new tool is specifically designed for those super confusing responsive search ads. You can pull up this grading tool. It's an ability to get a report card on your Google Ads account and it will tell you how many responsive search ads have poor performance, which you know, are you hitting the minimum standards for these, you know, how unique is your ad copy, all of that stuff. So this is very important for you because Google has taken a lot of our abilities on measuring responsive search ads effectively. You can't compare the headline ctrs like you used to be able to do. So we need tools to be able to analyze this and Optio has the best and you can try this, this tool and many of the others that they have@optio.com PSP 28 day free trial. All right, number six and then on to number seven. Number six is negative keywords. So when I'm building this campaign, I can tell you right off the bat, I'm Going to be for a B2B, a business to business campaign. I'm going to be aggressive with my keywords. I'm going to use a lot of one word negative keywords. Going to be more aggressive on terms and themes and ideas that would imply consumer level interest. Okay? This is important because again, you are treading that thin line between consumer and business. Negative keywords are very important because they keep you from moving to the left and right too much. It only takes one look at your search term report in any Google Ads account to quickly learn that a phrase match keyword does not get you phrase matches of that keyword. Right? No secret, no secret here. That is obvious. So negative keywords are incredibly important for business to business lead generation because you must avoid that consumer level stuff. And it's the second most important thing to making sure you stay qualified in your keywords and the resulting search terms. It's the second most important thing because the number one most important thing is the initial keyword itself. Okay? The number one important thing is choosing a good keyword. Number two is making sure you have negative keywords to keep that keyword in line. So I'm going to be aggressive. That doesn't mean I create thousands upon thousands of negative keywords. But I'm definitely going to be more liberal in throwing those keywords out compared to B2C. Obviously I'm going to choose some negative keywords from day one for B to C. But I, you know, I don't really have a goal of eliminating this entire gray area of confusion for B2C. You know, most of it's probably going to be okay assuming I've picked good keywords and I'm getting good traffic. There's not a whole lot of red zones, danger zones for that, you know, that I would step in here. All right, and last is ad copy. Ad copy. This one's so important. Now, I've mentioned it once before, but it should be understood that B2B is important that you communicate technical. You be specific, you be concrete, you be very straightforward. And I think that's a differing tone than what you would do with consumer. So very often I'll use numbers, I use prices, I'll use strong call to actions, I'll use highly technical terminology in my ad copy. Whereas in consumer, I might use lighter, more emotional, more friendly, casual language. Okay? And again, the reason for this is because I find B2B advertisers will B2B searchers will very often have a job to complete and they need to find the right number for their business, they're looking for a security camera. For their business, they're looking for something specific that fits their price and they need to get that job done and move on to the next one. You know, and sometimes, you know, the cheapest price is not going to be the best. That's the nice thing about B2B advertising is that you don't have to be the cheapest because it's a business investment. Very often businesses will invest at very high levels as opposed to consumer where, you know, consumers are more restricted on how much they're willing to spend and how valuable this might be. You know, their, their camera system might be a few hundred dollars, whereas a business level camera system might be thousands dollars. And therefore you need to be very specific and concrete and differentiating between this camera system, for example, starts at $3,000. You actually might put that in the ad copy. You know what that does first? It scares away people who would be terrified of a $3,000 camera system. You know who that is? That's probably consumer level people that have stumbled upon your search. So it's going to keep them from spending your money. See, highly technical language, very specific, clear, strong call to action. This is going to be a better thing because again, you are walking a tightrope. Don't let consumers spend your money. That's your goal. Your goal is to make it day by day in your Google Ads campaign, getting as little wasted spend as possible because that B2B traffic is expensive. It's hard to find and it's much more difficult than B2C. B2C. I might approach it in a much more lighter, friendly tone, friendly approach. And that brings us to the end. Thank you guys for being here. Thank you for being subscribers of the podcast and your continued support, support of my show. Here I am drawing up another end of the year 2024, now moving into 2025. I continue, I plan to continue this. You guys still listen. I get people telling me all the time they enjoy the show so I'll keep doing it as long as you guys enjoy it. Thank you so much for your support. If, if you would like to reach out to me and get more personalized advice and hands on management or consulting from me, you can find me at my website, chrissafer.com for podcast related questions and inquiries and things like that. You can email me paid search podcastmail.com and for those of you that don't want either, I will see you right here next week.