Social Media and PPC

Getting creative is always the name of the game with marketing. Sometimes what is old is new again and sometimes what you tried before and didn’t work can be much more successful when you try it again. This is especially true for social media and Pay-Per-Click (PPC).

When we received a Marketing Matters question about social media and PPC, we thought it was an excellent opportunity to provide some tips for anyone looking to get started or boost results.

Q: What are some new things we can do on social media sites and with PPC?

A: Let’s start with PPC:

PPC is a quick way to get lead generation working but, for it to be effective, you should have a good idea of focus keywords for your business. If you haven’t done any keyword research before, start with a single keyword/keyword phrase that you’d like to test. This is a non-threatening, low-cost way to start because it provides you the opportunity to learn and test. As you become more confident, you can expand on the keywords you’d like to be found for but make sure you monitor the spend closely as costs can rapidly escalate.

If you’re an old pro at PPC, you may just need a good cleanup. Ensure that your campaigns are working to the greatest effect and turn off/tune up the ones that are not working well for you. Keep in mind that Google’s aim is to make money so review the recommendations they make in Google Ad Manager before blindly accepting their recommendations for additional spend. If you do accept their recommendations, make sure you’re measuring what the additional spend is delivering. If it’s bumping up your pipeline, that’s great, but if that pipeline is full of junk or tire kickers then you’ll know what to do.

Now, what about social media? The key is to be comprehensive.

• Consider expanding beyond LinkedIn. Most B2B marketers focus on LinkedIn (and that’s perfect) but there are opportunities on other platforms as well. If you have some good visual content, consider Instagram for example. One caveat – do what you can do well. If you can’t keep more than one network current, then stay focused on that one.

• Try some paid advertising on Facebook. It costs less than LinkedIn and, while it’s not primarily a B2B platform, your buyers are humans first and are likely part of the 75% of the US population on Facebook. The trick here is to look at the targeting options. We’ve done some campaigns on Facebook that target QuickBooks users for example.

• Be current and professional. This is true for ALL social platforms. Have consistent and updated banners or cover images and post content at least a few times a week.

• Maximize existing platforms. Using LinkedIn as an example, don’t just post from your company page. Have a plan to get your entire company to engage with your posts, use LinkedIn Publishing, and try some sponsored (paid) posts as well.

 

 

A final word on social media sites. Making sure they are consistently updated, professional and genuine is becoming increasingly important. Recent studies show that buyers visit social properties to make decisions about working with you and may not even visit your website. They look to social media for a cultural fit, reviews, and validation from their peers.

Have a Marketing Matters question you would like us to answer?

Email us at info@ThePartnerMarketingGroup.com with the subject line ‘MM Question’ and we will get your question(s) answered from our team of experts.

Have a pressing marketing issue you need help with?

Schedule a 15-minute session with one of our senior marketing consultants, no strings attached, and we will help you in any way we can. Email us at info@ThePartnerMarketingGroup.com with the subject line ‘MM Call’.