B2B Lead Generation – How We Maximized Leads by 300%

B2B lead generation

Generating leads for B2B business is effective only if it’s done right. Not only does an ineffective B2B lead generation campaign burns your marketing budget, but you may also end up with no results at all. 

Over the years, we’ve generated countless leads for our B2B clients, including brands with a global presence and here’s how we did it:

B2B lead generation objectives

First, consider our objective for B2B lead generation. In almost every scenario, lead generation is used to generate sales. 

Keeping this objective in mind would ensure that all your B2B lead generation effort works towards the common goal, i.e. sales.

This means cutting out unqualified leads, ineffective ad campaigns, anything and everything that does not contribute towards a sale. 

Your target cost per lead

Apart from sales, you will need to identify your return on investment. Since every product or service is different, costs and profit margins vary. 

This means that identifying your target cost per lead is essential for any lead generation campaign. Should your cost per lead exceed the target cost, you might not make a positive return on investment (ROI). 

Your target audience

Who is your target audience? 

Are they C level executives (CEO, CFO, COO, etc)? Or Technical experts in a specific sector (manufacturing directors, software engineers)?

Identifying your target audience allows you to reach out to them effectively since we can:

• Reach out to potential clients on the right platform 
  
  For instance, if we are targeting C level executives, we might want to focus our campaign on LinkedIn or Google. In addition to that, target people ages 50 and above since half of the global CEOs are in their 50s. Having this piece of information in hand, it allows us to narrow down our target audience and maximize our returns with the same budget.
  
  Conversely, if we are targeting social media influencers, it would be wiser to focus our budget on Facebook and Instagram instead.

• Save costs by excluding irrelevant audiences when running lead generation ads on digital platforms such as Google or LinkedIn
  
  Excluding irrelevant audiences would greatly minimize marketing costs. With the budget saved, we will be able to reach a wider pool of potential customers.

• Target decision-makers directly
  
  This allows us to cut to the chase, save time and effort in acquiring the sale. We will share some insights on how to do that below!

B2B lead generation platforms

This is a digital era and the majority of consumers have gone digital. This opens up to a host of opportunities to acquire new leads online. 

Below are platforms that have been proven to be effective in generating leads for businesses:

Social Media

LinkedIn 

The unique aspect of LinkedIn is that we are able to accurately target prospects by job title. This brings us one step closer to the decision-makers. Namely, senior management and directors. 

Although this method of targeting is not as extensive as Facebook or Google, LinkedIn is still an effective B2B lead generation platform in terms of performance.

With regards to costs (e.g. cost per click), LinkedIn is a costlier platform compared to other social media platforms such as Facebook or Instagram. However, with proper setup and optimization, generating leads on LinkedIn can be cost-effective.

Facebook 

Costs via Google differs greatly depending on your keyword, industry and location amongst other factors. 

As for Facebook, even though the platform has been perceived to be excellent for B2C alone, our Facebook ad campaigns have proven to be equally effective in B2B lead generation.

A few years back, we ran a campaign for a technical industry to drive B2B leads to a seminar on Data Science spanning five countries. Within a month, we have managed to generate over 200 event responses by utilizing Facebook events coupled with its native ads.

A key element in social media for B2B lead generation would be your ad creatives. An effective ad creative on social media makes a huge impact on your campaign success rate. Videos are definitely recommended, however, as with every campaign, testing different creatives are essential for amplifying success.

Search engine marketing 

Google Ads

Costs via Google differs greatly depending on your keyword, industry and location amongst other factors. 

For instance, the top of page bid (high range) for the keyword ‘business intelligence tools’ costs up to $14 per click. 

Compared to its abbreviation ‘bi tools’, the top of page bid (high range) can reach up to $42 per click! That’s really expensive and in our opinion, not worth bidding for the 1st position. 

An alternative solution:

For keywords with high bids, consider running a search engine optimization (SEO) instead. That is if the search volume is substantial. Doing so allows us to minimize costs while maximizing returns on your marketing budget. 

Are keywords always that expensive on Google Ads? Fortunately, no. The costs vary on Google depending on your industry, and it is worth noting that the B2B industry is a highly competitive territory.

Your Location matters a lot on Google Ads as well. Taking our sample keyword ‘bi tools’, let’s compare the CPCs in another location. 

In the example below, we’re comparing Singapore and Malaysia for the exact same keywords.

Location: Singapore

Keywords: ‘bi tools’, ‘business intelligence software’ and ‘business intelligence tools’.

Location: Malaysia

Keywords: ‘bi tools’, ‘business intelligence software’ and ‘business intelligence tools’.

As you can see, costs are much lower in Malaysia compared to Singapore. In this scenario, running ads in Malaysia would be more cost-effective as compared to running ads in Singapore.

Bing ads  

You may think: who uses Bing these days? That’s an excellent question.

Let’s understand further by using real data from Bing’s keyword research tool to evaluate. 

Consider the same keywords we used in the Google Ads example above.  

Location: Singapore

Keywords: ‘bi tools’, ‘business intelligence software’ and ‘business intelligence tools’.

Based on the forecast, we can see that not only costs are way lower as compared to Google, search volume is much lower as well. 

Although Bing’s search volume is not substantial, having your presence on Bing increases the overall reach of your lead generation campaign. The low costs here gives us an opportunity to achieve an effective overall cost per lead.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) 

Ranking your website organically for converting keywords is a key part of B2B lead generation. 

Ranking your website without identifying converting keywords would be suicide for any SEO campaign. This means that you could be spending money on SEO for absolutely no returns.

Unless your objective is to generate brand awareness, you must first understand which keywords drive conversions on your website.

This can be done by running a Google ad campaign in the first phase. Google Ads allows us to collect extensive data over a much larger pool of keywords, we can then leverage the useful data to eliminate non-performing keywords. 

Once we have identified our converting keywords, we can start our SEO efforts. This allows us to maximize results within the same budget. 

Remarketing 

Remarketing allows us to serve ads to potential clients who landed on your website but have not triggered a conversion.

This is an effective way to reach out to clients who are still researching or have not decided if they should inquire with your company. 

Note: The effectiveness of remarketing is dependent on the right setup and optimization. An ineffective campaign structure would be detrimental to your campaign, potentially increasing your overall cost per lead.

To summarize, we should run campaigns on multiple platforms to drive maximum results. 

What are conversions in the case of B2B lead generation?

A conversion is a specific action performed by a potential client. This can include:

• Online form submissions
• Emails
• Website live chat inquiries (E.g. Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp, Novocall etc.) 
• Phone calls

The above are primary conversions where an actual lead is captured. Consider secondary conversions as well:

• Whitepaper downloads
• Free trials

While not all secondary conversions contribute to an actual sales conversion, they can substantially contribute to your overall results with proper lead nurturing. 

Qualifying the lead

Qualifying leads comes first, especially for B2B businesses since the benchmark for success in lead generation would be the actual sales closed. 

There’s absolutely no point in generating hundreds of leads if not a single sale is made. This means that it is essential to maintain lead quality to some degree.

Why are some B2B leads not qualified? 

• No budget
  “Thanks for your quotation, however, this exceeds our budget.”

• Incorrect timing
  “We’ve just signed up with another vendor.” 

• Not the decision-maker
  “I don’t have the authority to decide.”

Non-qualified leads can result in a waste of time, money and resources. This can be easily avoided by targeting the right audience, making adjustments to your marketing campaigns and choosing the right platform. 

How do we determine a qualified lead? 

This differs for every business, here are some guidelines for determining a qualified B2B lead:

• Organization
  What is the size of the company?
  Are they in your region?
  Are your products/ services a good fit for their business?

• Stakeholders
  Are you speaking with the decision-maker?
  Is the proposal/ quotation within the client’s budget?

Increasing lead quality 

Here are some methods that have proven to be effective in improving the quality of your leads:

Improving your marketing message

One way to enhance lead quality would be to tweak the message on your ads and landing page.

You can also employ words such as ‘premium’ to indicate high-quality products and/ or services. This allows you to filter some, if not all, clients with low budgets.

An understanding of what’s happening in the field can help. Salespeople, who are on the frontlines in customer acquisition can provide valuable feedback. 

Optimizing ad campaigns through data analysis

Another method would be to adjust our targeting based on converting audience demographics. It would take some time in acquiring sufficient data, which allows us to identify the audiences that have responded positively to our ads. After which, we can match this data with the results of our sales appointments.

Here is a hypothetical example:

Grace, who runs B2B lead generation ads for her accounting client is generating a low cost per lead for clients aged 30 and below. In fact, her marketing campaign generates the most leads from this age group.

However, after checking the data from the sales appointments, she realises that none of the clients aged 30 signed up with her client’s firm.

Assuming that the client’s team has no issue with regards to their selling technique, we can conclude that the leads which fall under the age group (30 and below) are of low quality to our campaign. 

Cutting the budget for this age group would allow Grace to focus on other age demographics, increasing the overall sales revenue.

Pausing ads with audiences that don’t perform allows us to maximize return on investment (ROI) without increasing our budget. 

Enhancing your lead generation form

While a simple lead generation form drives more leads, it also waters down the quality of each inquiry.

Wasting time on low-quality inquiries could result in opportunity loss, undermining your overall sales performance.

Since B2B campaigns are more expensive, one effective way to increase lead quality would be to enhance your lead form.

Consider the lead forms below:

Form A (Less Details)

Form B (More Details)

We can see that the second form (form B) requires more details. Having more rows to fill allows us to filter away who are not serious in making a purchase. This increases overall lead quality, ensuring that your salespeople spend their time on leads that are genuine.

Testing different form variants allow us to identify the best performing lead form for lead quality and performance.

Factors to consider when generating b2b leads

Your industry

Every industry is different, even across B2B businesses. How do you know if your industry is competitive? How are your competitors generating leads?

One method of assessing competition would be to derive insights from Google (more than 85% market share worldwide). This can be done by generating insights from the Google keyword planner. 

The Google keyword planner helps you to:

1. Understand how your customers search
2. Access competition, and
3. Evaluate your website’s performance. 

Click here for our comprehensive keyword planner guide. 

Budget and resources

Lead generation requires time and money. Accessing your budget allows you to identify the activities that you can engage in.

Outsourcing your marketing efforts is a huge time saver and in most cases, has greater cost-efficiency than hiring in-house. 

What if you have a huge budget? Should you spend everything?

It depends. Every marketing campaign has an ideal budget, overspending may lead to disastrous consequences, such as ad fatigue. 

Business location(s)

Consider your location(s) as well. 

Lead generation campaigns are generally more effective in developing countries compared to developed countries.

Do you have a presence in your target area? (E.g. a sales office)

Which area(s) has the ideal clientele for your business?

Your team 

Assess your team members to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses. 

Do you need to outsource certain aspects of your lead generation efforts? Getting expert help would surely give your business a competitive advantage. 

As leads generated would be handled by your sales team, it is important to be sure that your sales teams are capable of closing these leads effectively as well. 

Your current lead generation activities

Are you running any marketing campaigns right now? Do check if your lead generation efforts are cost-effective! 

One way of getting more leads without increasing your budget would be to scale down any inefficient marketing campaigns.

Ready to take your B2B lead generation to the next level?

Click here to speak with our digital experts today!