B2B Marketing and Sales Tip #33 - Understand Your Google AdWords Spend and How to Boost ROI
Google AdWords can be a B2B Marketer’s dream, when leveraged and implemented properly. Not only can AdWords programs produce leads quickly, but those leads move through the funnel quickly and they cost less than traditional marketing programs. Or at least it feels like they cost less when you can spec a CPC of .50 to $1.00 per lead.
But that’s really just the tip of the iceberg, say the Search Engine Marketing experts at Apogee Search Marketing. They report business-to-business marketers can expect to spend anywhere from $85 to $100 per lead for Google Search Engine Marketing efforts. At NetQoS, we have a very successful Google AdWords program, but our cost per qualified lead runs at least $60.
When you’re spending that kind of money to generate leads, you really need a program designed to help you convert the junk leads to real opportunities. In the B2B Marketing world, in particular, it is likely that a large percentage of the people responding to your AdWords ads are researchers who are supporting a buying committee. Often, it is an assistant, a competitor or a Seymore, one of those guys whose job is to ask “can I see more?” but never to purchase.
ReachForce’s Funnelnomics B2B Marketing ebook advises Marketers to resist the urge to turn these leads over to Sales your Sales funnel, slowing down Sales productivity. That’s actually a best case scenario. The more likely scenario- is that Sales is simply tagging these leads “unqualified” before ever picking up the phone leading to gaping leaks in your funnel. These leads are really only seeds—an early indication that corporate buyers are in need of a solution like yours and are in research mode. That’s why it is vital to investigate these seeds thoroughly before handing them over to Sales. Before you do, you should have answers to questions such as what is the buyer need, is budget allocated, who else in the organization is charged with investigating solutions, who is the decision-maker, and what is the timeframe for purchase.
Read more about this topic in the ReachForce Funnelnomics Marketing ebook or in their white paper entitled, Making the Invisible Visible - Accelerate SEM Leads To Revenue.
2 Responses to “B2B Marketing and Sales Tip #33 - Understand Your Google AdWords Spend and How to Boost ROI”
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October 27th, 2007 at 4:17 am
[...] The B2B Lead Blog - B2B Marketing and Sales Tips wrote an interesting post today on B2B Marketing and Sales Tip #48 - Understand Your Google AdWords Spend and How to Boost ROIHere’s a quick excerptB2B Marketing and Sales Tip #48 - Understand Your Google AdWords Spend and How to Boost ROI Filed under Marketing and Sales Funnel, Search Engine Optimization, Demand Generation, Sales … s really just the tip of the iceberg, say the Search Engine Marketing experts a [...]
November 7th, 2007 at 6:00 pm
From the article: “These leads are really only seeds—an early indication that corporate buyers are in need of a solution like yours and are in research mode.”
Great point. So often we rely solely on feedback from sales as to the quality of the leads we are throwing over the fence. It’s about time marketers start taking back control and developing relationships with prospects before sending them to the black hole we call sales
I can’t tell you how many times I have witnessed sales disqualify a lead from a qualified company just because it is not a target title. Great insight in the Funnelnomics book by the way.