We've entered what Gartner describes as the ‘era of less’. Marketing budgets are contracting and teams are under constant pressure to prove their value and justify further spending.

Facing tight resources and a demand for tangible results, it can be tempting to pivot your online advertising to conversion-focused tactics. After all, prioritising the 5% of B2B buyers who are actively in-market has the potential to boost those all-important quarterly figures. Quick wins through targeted online ads can provide immediate justification for marketing spend and offer a lifeline in budget discussions.

However, savvy marketers recognise that this is a short-sighted approach that can severely limit long-term growth and market share. 

The challenge lies in optimising your online advertising budget to achieve both short-term results and the company’s long-term strategic goals. This means allocating digital ad resources across the entire buyer journey, from brand awareness through to conversion, rather than fixating on an instant boost to the bottom line. By doing so, you can ensure your organisation is well-positioned for more sustainable growth.

Balancing Your Digital Advertising Efforts

Effective budget allocation requires a strategic balance. To achieve it, your digital advertising strategy should focus on three key areas:

1. Brand Advertising: This builds awareness among the 95% of potential customers who aren't currently in-market for your products or services. It's crucial for building long-term brand recognition and establishing your company as a trusted industry player.

2. Lead Generation: These campaigns focus on capturing the 5% of customers who are actively in-market and ready to buy. It seeks to communicate the connection between individual buyers’ needs and your products or services.

3. Nurturing Campaigns: These efforts bridge the gap between awareness and conversion, guiding prospects through each stage of their decision-making process. They're essential for building and maintaining relationships.

By allocating your budget across these three areas, you can create a comprehensive digital advertising strategy. It ensures you're not only capturing immediate opportunities but also cultivating a pipeline of future customers.

Brand Advertising

These campaigns require a different approach than traditional lead generation tactics. They focus on creating lasting impressions and building long-term recognition among a wider audience. The aim is to already be part of the consideration set when prospects enter a purchase cycle and are evaluating potential solutions for their needs.

Display Advertising

Display ads can be worth your investment when working toward greater brand awareness. These visually-driven ads appear across various digital platforms, including websites, mobile apps, and video content, allowing marketers to cast a wide net and engage potential customers at multiple touchpoints.

Even if they don't immediately click or convert, these ads contribute to building brand familiarity and recall. When buyers are eventually ready to make a purchase decision, they're more likely to remember and consider brands they've encountered repeatedly.

The strength of display ads lies in their visual impact. By incorporating eye-catching graphics, compelling imagery, and brand-consistent design elements, these ads can capture attention even as users scroll through content. This visual appeal is crucial, as people are far more likely to remember and engage with content that includes relevant images.

To maximise the effectiveness of broad reach display advertising:

• Focus on visual storytelling: Use high-quality visuals that convey your brand's message and value proposition at a glance.

• Maintain brand consistency: Ensure your ads reflect your brand's style and aesthetic across all placements, creating a cohesive experience that reinforces brand recognition.

• Optimise for different platforms: Design responsive ads that look great on different devices and screen sizes.

• Incorporate your brand elements: Consistently use your logo, color scheme, and typography to build visual brand associations.

• Keep it simple: Use clean, uncluttered designs that communicate your message quickly and effectively

Targeted Audience Expansion

Platforms like Facebook/Meta, Google, and LinkedIn have developed sophisticated audience targeting features to help marketers reach potential customers more effectively. These approaches - lookalike audiences, optimized targeting, audience expansion, and predictive audiences - share a common goal: to extend the reach of advertising campaigns beyond explicitly defined target groups while maintaining relevance and efficiency. By leveraging vast amounts of user data and advanced machine learning algorithms, these features aim to identify and engage new prospects who exhibit similar characteristics, behaviors, or interests to existing customers or high-value audiences.

The primary objectives of these targeting methods are to improve campaign performance, increase return on ad spend (ROAS), and help advertisers discover previously untapped market segments. While each platform's approach has its unique strengths and applications, they all strive to balance the expansion of reach with the precision of targeting, ultimately enabling marketers to grow their customer base more strategically and cost-effectively.

Facebook/Meta's lookalike audiences are a powerful tool for advertisers to reach new potential customers who share similar characteristics with their existing audience. Advertisers can create a source audience based on various data points, such as customer lists, website visitors, or engagement with Facebook content. The platform then analyzes this source audience to identify common traits and behaviors, using this information to find new users who exhibit similar patterns. Lookalike audiences can be adjusted in size, with smaller audiences being more closely matched to the source but reaching fewer people, while larger audiences provide broader reach but may be less precise.

Google Ads offers two similar but distinct features: Optimized Targeting and Audience Expansion. Optimized Targeting uses machine learning to find new audience segments that are likely to convert based on real-time conversion data. It analyzes various signals, including demographics, interests, and online behavior, to identify users who are most likely to take desired actions. This feature is particularly useful for advertisers looking to maximize conversions without increasing bids or acquisition costs.

Google's Audience Expansion, on the other hand, focuses on broadening the reach of campaigns by finding new users with similar traits to the existing target audience. It uses historical data to identify these new potential customers, making it a good option for advertisers looking to grow their customer base beyond current demographics. Audience Expansion can be particularly effective when the specified target audience for a campaign is small.

LinkedIn offers Predictive Audiences and Audience Expansion as its counterparts to these targeting features. Predictive Audiences use LinkedIn's AI to create a new custom audience based on a data source provided by the advertiser, such as contact lists, Lead Gen Forms, or conversion data. This feature aims to find users who are more likely to convert, similar to Google's Optimized Targeting. Predictive Audiences require a minimum of 300 members in the source data and allow advertisers to adjust the audience by location and size.

LinkedIn's Audience Expansion is similar to Google's version, showing ads to users with attributes similar to the target audience. It primarily uses professional demographics and can be combined with Matched Audience segments. This feature is particularly useful when targeting specific facets like job titles, skills, or groups, where there's a possibility of missing some relevant members.

One key difference between these platforms is the type of data they leverage. Facebook's lookalike audiences benefit from the platform's vast user data, including personal interests and behaviors. Google's features draw from a wide range of online activities and search behaviors. LinkedIn's offerings are uniquely positioned to leverage professional data, making them particularly valuable for B2B marketing.

In terms of control and customization, Facebook's lookalike audiences offer a good balance of automation and user control, allowing advertisers to adjust audience size and layer additional targeting criteria. Google's Optimized Targeting is more automated, with less direct control over the expansion process. LinkedIn's Predictive Audiences allow for some customization in terms of data source selection and audience size.

Regarding performance and learning periods, all these features require some time to optimize. Facebook recommends waiting until a campaign has at least 50 conversions or has been active for two weeks before evaluating performance. Google's Optimized Targeting similarly needs time to learn and find the most effective audience segments. LinkedIn doesn't specify a particular learning period, but as with any AI-driven feature, some time is needed for optimization.

It's worth noting that while these features can significantly expand reach and improve campaign performance, they also require careful monitoring. Advertisers should regularly review performance metrics to ensure that the expanded audiences are delivering desired results and adjust strategies as needed. Additionally, all these platforms respect existing brand safety settings and content exclusions when expanding audiences.

Finally, the choice between these targeting options often depends on campaign goals, target audience, and the nature of the product or service being advertised. B2C companies might find Facebook's lookalike audiences particularly effective, while B2B marketers might lean towards LinkedIn's professional-focused options. Google's offerings can be valuable for both, especially for advertisers looking to capture users actively searching for related products or services. Ultimately, testing different approaches and closely monitoring results is key to determining the most effective strategy for each unique advertising campaign.

Contextual Advertising 

Contextual advertising is another way of focusing your brand building campaigns. It allows you to place ads based on the content where they appear. By analysing the text, images, and metadata of a webpage, advertising platforms serve ads that are directly relevant to the content the user is currently consuming.

For instance, a CRM software company might display ads on pages discussing sales strategies as there is a natural alignment between their offer and the user's current interests.

Contextual targeting allows you to raise brand awareness and generate interest with a highly relevant audience. It can be a powerful way to fill the top of your sales funnel and nurture prospects until they are ready to make a purchase.

Thought Leadership Content Promotion

Thought leadership content plays a pivotal role in brand awareness strategies for B2B marketers in professional services. By investing in thought leadership content promotion, B2B professional services firms can build a strong foundation for brand awareness that drives sustainable business growth and positions them as industry leaders.

To maximise the impact of thought leadership initiatives, B2B marketers should consider a multi-faceted approach. Develop a content calendar with social media posts aligned with industry trends and different buyers’ pain points. Use a mix of formats such as whitepapers, webinars, and podcasts to cater to diverse audience preferences, and leverage targeted paid social campaigns on platforms like LinkedIn for promotion.

Lead Generation Strategies

In-market buyers require a more direct and targeted advertising approach that highlights the strengths of your products or services in relation to their specific needs.

Search Ads

Search engines are often the first stop for in-market buyers researching their options. Paid search ads, appearing at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs), offer a prime opportunity to connect with prospects at the moment they're seeking information.

To maximise the effectiveness of search ad campaigns, focus on targeting high-intent keywords specific to your services. Craft compelling ad copy that addresses specific pain points or offers clear solutions. It's crucial to highlight your unique selling propositions (USPs) that differentiate your services from competitors.

Equally important is the optimisation of landing pages linked to your search ads. Ensure a seamless transition from ad to landing page with consistent messaging, clear benefit-focused content, and prominent calls-to-action (CTAs). Implement fast loading times and mobile responsiveness to enhance user experience and improve conversion rates.

By refining your strategy, ad copy, and landing pages based on performance data, you can create highly targeted search ad campaigns that effectively capture the attention of in-market B2B buyers, driving qualified traffic to your website and increasing the likelihood of generating valuable leads.

LinkedIn InMail Campaigns

Tailored messages are sometimes all it takes to push a prospect to contact your company or close a deal. Sponsored LinkedIn InMail campaigns allow you to bid to get priority placement within a recipient’s inbox. They are particularly effective as part of an Account-Based Marketing (ABM) strategy, which involves targeting key decision-makers at specific high-value accounts with personalised content and messaging.

The effectiveness of InMail campaigns lies in their targeted nature and professional context. LinkedIn's robust targeting options allows you to reach specific decision-makers based on criteria such as job title, company size, and industry.

This is a high touch tactic as to maximise the effectiveness of your InMail campaigns, you need to focus on personalisation and precise targeting. Customise your messages based on the recipient's profile, mentioning their job title or recent professional achievements. Craft compelling subject lines to improve open rates and include clear calls-to-action to drive conversions. 

Gated Content Offers

In-market buyers need to learn more about their business challenges and potential solutions to support their decision making process. By offering high-quality, exclusive content in exchange for contact details, companies can effectively generate leads while simultaneously showcasing their expertise in the field.

Gated content can be directly promoted through online advertising channels. Most ad platforms offer lead generation tools that reduce friction, allowing users to provide information directly instead of clicking through to a landing page. Platforms like Meta and LinkedIn streamline the process further with pre-filled forms from users’ profiles,offering higher completion rates and improving data accuracy. 

Nurturing Campaigns

Retargeting is a powerful strategy for nurturing both prospects and existing customers, offering a personalised and efficient way to guide them through their decision-making process.

It keeps your brand in front of prospects and customers, ensuring that they don't forget about your products and services. This constant engagement is critical, especially for prospects who may not be ready to convert immediately. By consistently providing relevant and timely content, you nurture their interest and build a stronger connection, ultimately leading to higher conversion rates.

Personalised Experiences

The core strength of retargeting lies in its ability to personalise the advertising experience and respond to customer interactions. By integrating behaviour data, such as pages visited or products viewed, you can segment your audience and deliver tailored ads.

For instance, if a prospect has shown interest in a particular product, retargeting ads can feature that product, reinforcing its value to encourage a purchase. Similarly, for existing customers, you can promote complementary products or special offers based on their purchase history, enhancing their overall experience with your brand.

Marketing Automation

Marketing automation tools are central to streamlining the process. By integrating your advertising platforms with your marketing automation system, you can ensure you offer consistent, targeted messaging across channels. For example, you could reinforce an email campaign encouraging a subscription renewal with targeted social media ads, creating a cohesive and persuasive remarketing ecosystem.

Ultimately, effective retargeting is not just about immediate conversions; it's about building long-term relationships. It requires a deep understanding of each individual prospect at each stage of their journey. By consistently delivering relevant content at the right time, marketers can foster deeper relationships, build brand loyalty, and guide prospects towards conversion more effectively.

Balance Your Digital Advertising Budget Between Today’s Buyers and Future Prospects

Balancing your digital advertising budget across brand awareness, lead generation, and customer nurturing is crucial for long-term success in B2B marketing. While it may be tempting to focus solely on short-term conversions, especially when budgets are tight, this approach risks neglecting the majority of potential buyers.

Don’t make the mistake of just fighting with your competitors over a small pool of in-market buyers. Instead, build a strong brand presence, capture and qualify active leads, and maintain valuable customer relationships.

By allocating advertising resources to reach prospects at every stage of the journey, you’ll ensure sustainable growth for years to come. 

Struggling to balance your B2B marketing budget? Reach out to 1827 Marketing today for expert guidance on optimising your spend and unlocking the full potential of your digital advertising resources.