Meet B2B buyers where they are
Display ads, one of the most popular types of online advertising today, are used by B2B marketers almost exclusively to build top-of-funnel brand awareness. The problem with that, however, is B2B buyers simply don’t go from scrolling to sales calls like they used to. Today, buyers research anonymously, expect direct access to information when they want it, and often prefer a rep-free experience.
This means marketers must incorporate strategies to inform and nurture buyers and buying groups at every stage of the funnel, from awareness to nurture to sales acceleration. Doing so can help your ads reach the right buyer, at the right place, with the right message, at the right time.
This guide will show you practical examples of digital ads that speak to buyers at every stage of their research. We’ll do this using an example company, Acme Co., showing you how they use digital ads throughout the B2B research process.
About Acme Co.
Acme Co. is an imaginary B2B enterprise SaaS company that we’ll use to illustrate display ad examples for raising brand awareness, nurturing prospects, and supporting sales team initiatives.
Acme Co.’s offerings include a cybersecurity platform and related software. Their revenue marketing team uses a unified ABM and demand marketing approach, which results in marketing that focuses on target accounts, acquires and engages buying groups, and delivers cross-channel journeys that are personalized and relevant to buyer interests.
- Company Size: 1,200 employees
- Location: North America
- Industry: Cybersecurity Technology
- Annual Revenue: $250 million
Build better ads for brand awareness
At the brand awareness stage of B2B marketing, the goal of display ads is to elevate your brand with an anonymous audience researching tools that solve their pain points. You want to make sure that your brand is top of mind throughout their journey, and there are a few simple things to keep in mind as you’re creating your ad flights to achieve this.
Your display ads should:
- Prove you understand the buyer’s pain points.
- Establish trust.
- Demonstrate that you’re a viable vendor.
- Confirm your expertise in the space.
With awareness ads that speak to your company’s reputation and product development in hand, you can then:
- Use digital advertising with a target account list, along with buyer job function, seniority, and other criteria, to tell your brand story via digital ads.
- Use display ad retargeting, messaging individuals and accounts after their anonymous browsing.
- Serve up ads using intent data to target accounts that are actively researching problems you solve, industry terms, and relevant pain points.
Nurture your audience
At the next stage of the buying journey, the most common tactic used to nurture prospective customers is email, even though email open and click-through rates are notoriously low (not to mention an email only goes to one buyer in the buying group). Display ads, however, can offer effective nurture support when used strategically.
At the nurture stage, display ads should demonstrate that you understand the depth and nuance of your prospective buyers’ problems and the benefits of using your solution to address them. Try:
- Using intent data to target ideal customer profile (ICP) accounts actively researching brand terms and product terms with relevant display advertising.
- Using display ads to retarget buyers from accounts, identified by reverse IP lookup, who you know have visited your website, downloaded your existing content, or subscribed to your email list.
- Leveraging “lookalikes” and “matched audiences,” resulting in a richer strategy that builds on what you’re already doing.
- If you don’t have reverse IP lookup technology, intent data, or ABM software, matched audiences are an excellent option for you to use. Matched audiences include retargeting, contact targeting, account targeting, and lookalike targeting.
Accelerate sales
As buyers move toward making a purchase decision, your digital ads should support your sales team to close on opportunities. Ads should convey more precise messages that differentiate you from the competition and demonstrate real customer ROI. At this stage, it’s more important than ever to reinforce your offering with potential buyers. Because sales may not be speaking to everyone involved in the sales process (that is, all the people in the buying group), display ads can help reinforce their efforts with all members of the buying group, and provide prospects with valuable information for their purchase decision by:
- Pointing buyers to downloadable educational content on your website, such as case studies, ROI calculators, etc.
- Supporting account-based marketing approaches where certain account tiers are enrolled into bottom of funnel advertising with bottom of funnel content (product information, on-demand demos, ROI calculators, total cost of investment/ownership content, third-party analyst ROI studies, business case content).
- Highlighting existing customers and the success they have with your product, including recognizable brands, their use cases, and success metrics related to them.
Turn storytelling into sales
As buyers move toward making a purchase decision, your digital ads should support No matter where your potential customers are in their buying journey, display advertising can take your marketing strategy from simply telling your brand story to measurable pipeline and revenue impact. Whether delivered sequentially or not, display ads let anyone in prospective buyer groups know:
- Who your company is.
- What problems your company solves.
- How you solve those problems.
- How other customers have succeeded with your product.
- How, once they’ve become a customer, you can continue helping solve
their pain points. - Who to contact to speak with for more information.
Digital ads that reach buyers consistently at the right time, in the right place, with the right message can keep your brand top of mind during today’s long sales cycles, provide buyers with content to aid in purchasing decisions, and bolster sales.
