Background
This case study relates to the work we are doing for a B2B client in the corporate gift space.
We are running search and shopping campaigns for this B2B client.
The challenge with many B2B Google ads accounts is that there is a lot of traffic on Google from consumers looking to buy individual products as opposed to businesses who are looking to buy in bulk. The search behaviour – i.e. the words that they type into Google are often the same or very similar. This means that we have to spend a lot of time adding thousands of exact match negative keywords to stop ads showing for the search terms that are most likely direct to consumer type searches.
For example a consumer may search for “personalised coffee cup” when they are looking to buy one item with someone’s name on it for a present. Whereas a B2B customer may search “personalised coffee cup” meaning that they want to personalise the mugs with their logo.
Even though we regularly add negative keywords to the shopping campaigns to improve traffic quality, the account generates a lot of traffic from the search queries that do not have any B2B intent which takes cost per lead higher than we would like.
Due to this cross over between B2B and B2C search behaviour we were hesitant to run PMax campaigns for this client as PMax campaigns do not allow any control over a few important things such as bidding, traffic quality or placements. Also, critically they do not allow you to add negative keywords at the campaign or ad group level.
PMax campaigns generally work well for all of our Direct to Consumer clients but for this B2B client the traffic quality is very important and we were concerned that Google would send a lot of unrelated traffic. With the limitation on adding negative keywords along with no control over bidding we thought it may result in a worsening ROI.
Have you ever faced a similar problem with a B2B account where shopping campaigns are not good enough and PMax campaigns have limitations?
Set up
We initially decided to test a PMax campaign for a few key product categories for this B2B client. It was an all asset PMax campaign with several asset groups based on different product types. All asset groups were set up with the maximum number of images and only B2B related assets.
The next important step was to add targeting audience signals related to B2B and products in the asset groups. This was the key (we believe) for Google to understand and target the right type of users.
We used 10 to 12 highly targeted B2B related search themes in each asset group alongside the product focused terms. The next important thing was to add first party audiences such as past converters and upload a customer list which gives Google a clear idea about the type of users to target.
Results
The performance of the test PMax campaign were very encouraging when we compared them to the previous shopping campaigns for the same categories. We therefore replicated this by creating a few more PMax campaigns targeting different product groups.
Below is the before and after result. As you can see in the table, all the four PMax campaigns generated more conversions at a lower cost per acquisition (CPA). The overall result – 44% increase in conversions and 47% decrease in CPA.
The clicks are lower on one of the PMax campaigns compared to the shopping campaign but the shopping campaign was drawing non-B2B related traffic whereas the traffic quality for PMax campaign is much better so this is not an issue.
These results are outstanding, busting the myth that PMax campaigns may not work well for B2B accounts. Targeted search themes and audiences allowed Google’s AI algorithms to correctly B2B traffic. This worked well to generate higher conversions while lowering the cost per lead.
After seeing good results for this client, we implemented a similar strategy for another B2B account and the PMax campaigns have started performing well there too. We are now rolling out across all B2B Clients as we have with the D2C accounts we manage.
Learning
- Using targeted signals is highly important for a B2B PMax campaign especially using past converter audience. Make sure to track each conversion and use this audience in your PMax campaign.
- The search insight report for all four PMax campaigns show much improved traffic quality compared to the shopping campaigns. I think Google’s algorithms understand the signals you provide very well.
- Clicks are lower on one of the PMax campaigns but that’s not a concern as the traffic quality is much better and the conversion numbers are higher.
If you are a B2B business and haven’t tried PMax campaigns or if you have but haven’t found any success then try again with correctly built asset groups and targeting and you may see completely different results. If you need some help then please get in touch.
