Key elements of a successful B2B paid media strategy

Paid media is a powerful tool for B2B marketers, but achieving real success requires more than just setting up a few ads and hoping for the best. The increasing adoption of machine learning in paid advertising, through features like Smart Bidding and Performance Max, has levelled the playing field. To succeed in this competitive environment, it’s crucial to employ advanced tactics that go beyond these standard tools.

In this blog, I’ll walk you through three key components that are essential for a successful B2B paid media strategy: data-driven decisions, continuous testing and optimisation, and compelling ad copy and creative. 

These aren’t just buzzwords; they are the building blocks of a strategy that consistently delivers results and the only way that you can truly beat out the competition now that we’re all bidding with the same tools and using the same ad formats and targeting options. 

1. Data-Driven Decisions

In the world of Paid Advertising, data is king. If you’re not making decisions based on solid data, you’re flying blind. Sure, it might be tempting to trust your instincts, but data provides the insights you need to make informed decisions that can genuinely impact your campaign performance.

When you base your decisions on data, you’re not only optimising your current campaigns, but you’re also building a strategy that can scale. You’ll know where your budget is best spent and, more importantly, where it’s being wasted.

For B2B advertising, where budgets tend to be larger and the sales cycle longer, data-driven decisions are even more crucial. Making the right adjustments in real-time can help prevent wasted spend and improve the overall lead quality, which ultimately leads to higher conversion rates.

The single biggest win with data you can have if you’re starting from scratch is integrating the data that platforms don’t already have access to – and for most, the easiest way to do this is by integrating CRM directly into the ad platforms to bring in data on lead quality and performance through your internal sales funnels. When you’re able to move your ad campaigns from optimising for a form submit or MQL down to an SQL or Opportunity that’s been vetted by the sales team as high quality, you’ll see your ad platforms move from pumping out volumes of form completions that might be good and might be useless turn into high quality, prospecting hunting machines. This is exactly what we did for a large client in the SaaS space which saw us move from MQL to SQL for our bidding optimisation. Over a 12 month period, we saw qualified pipeline revenue increase by 248%.

2. Continuous Testing and Optimisation

You can’t afford to set up a campaign and leave it running without a second thought. Continuous testing and optimisation are key to keeping your campaigns on track. Even if something’s working well, there’s always room for improvement. Continuous testing doesn’t have to mean huge changes every time. Small, incremental improvements can add up, making a big difference over time. The more you test, the more you’ll learn—and the better your campaigns will perform.

For B2B advertisers, testing and optimising across multiple channels, targeting options, and ad formats helps to understand what resonates best with decision-makers. Testing different approaches and learning from the results allows you to get closer to the best-performing combination, which is essential in such a competitive market.

Testing is an absolutely crucial component for any successful advertising strategy, but with B2B often having such high cost per acquisition metrics to compete with – it’s even more important. With one B2B software client, we implemented a 12 month test following the principles of Unified Search to balance their paid ad spend efforts against their brand name with the traffic and leads that would come in via their organic search listings for branded search queries. Over the space of 12 months, we slowly reduced paid investment on the clients brand name while monitoring organic search performance to ensure the leads we were no longer capturing via paid efforts were still being picked up through organic search listings. Once we got to the point where total lead volume dipped too far with the lower paid investment, we knew that we’d cut back by too much and Organic was no longer filling the gap. This is where we slightly bumped spend back up to find our sweet spot. 

Over a 12 month testing period we were able to reduce paid advertising spend on brand terms by 20%, seeing only a 3% decrease in total branded leads coming in via Paid and Organic. Thus reducing the brand term CPA by 18% YoY and allowing for that 20% of budget to be re-invested into high performing non-brand activity.

3. Compelling Ad Copy and Creative

At the end of the day, all the data and testing in the world won’t matter if your ad copy and creatives don’t hit the mark. Your message needs to resonate with your audience, addressing their pain points and offering real solutions. This is where the magic happens—when your ads connect with people on a deeper level.

Compelling ad copy isn’t just about catchy headlines. It’s about making your audience feel like you understand them and can offer the solution they need. For B2B advertising, where you’re often dealing with complex products and longer sales cycles, your copy must build trust. It needs to clearly convey how your solution solves a problem and why it’s a better option than the competition. Engaging, well-crafted creatives help in conveying that message effectively and building long-term relationships with your audience.

Another, often overlooked, aspect when it comes to creative and copy within B2B advertising is using humour to stand out from the crowd. If you scroll through LinkedIn now and you’re the target buyer seeing ads for any software or tech products I guarantee it’s a sea of blue and white shiny looking adverts that all look the same. If you picked out ten of them, I’d hazard a guess that more than half are offering a gift card or pair of airpods to get on a call with their sales team and all are pushing the hard sell to SPEAK TO OUR TEAM NOW. 

Something as simple as getting humour into the creative can be so powerful in helping you stand out in a crowd, and if you’re also coming up against the enormous tech giants with what feels like unlimited VC backing and ad spend – cutting through the noise with an ad that stands out can actually mean performance is much stronger and your CAC (customer acquisition cost) stays low. This is precisely what we did for our client, Workbooks, which recently won Marketing Week’s “Best Campaign of 2024”.

Why These Elements Matter

These three elements—data-driven decisions, continuous testing, and compelling ad copy—are all interdependent, and together, they create a robust framework for any successful B2B paid media strategy.

For B2B advertising, every decision counts because the stakes are higher. Data helps you refine your approach, ensuring you’re targeting the right decision-makers with the right messaging. Continuous testing ensures your campaigns evolve, adapting to changes in the market and buyer behaviour. And compelling creative ensures you capture attention, build trust, and inspire action from your audience. Each element contributes to driving leads that can eventually turn into long-term clients, which is the ultimate goal in B2B marketing.

By focusing on these elements, you’ll have a paid media strategy that’s not only effective but also adaptable. Data-driven decisions help you optimise and refine your approach. Continuous testing ensures that you’re always improving and staying ahead of the competition. And compelling ad copy makes sure your message hits home with your audience, driving the right action.

A successful B2B paid media strategy isn’t something you can create overnight. It takes time, effort, and a constant focus on refining your approach. By prioritising data-driven decisions, continuous testing, and compelling ad copy, you’ll have the foundation you need to create a strategy that delivers real, measurable results.

Whether you’re just starting or looking to take your existing campaigns to the next level, focusing on these key elements will help you achieve better performance and stronger ROI.