Are your paid social campaigns getting the results you want?
B2B (specifically SaaS) brands may not be able to rely on demand alone. Therefore, you need to help generate that interest efficiently and effectively to generate qualified leads and a positive ROI.
On October 7th, I moderated a webinar sponsored by Search Engine Journal presented by Garrett Mehrgoth, CEO at Guidance consulting.
Share how B2B and Saas can unlock paid social media to increase revenue and convert qualified leads into customers.
Below is a summary of the web presentation.
SaaS companies can use paid social media to generate mass qualified leads for their sales force.
Routing and research on paid social media for software companies and B2B organizations have been tested to gain insight on this topic. Mehrguth took us through some of the company’s results and outlined tactics that worked for publicly traded and mid-market organizations.
The performance dilemma marketers face
Search intent and Google Ads Lack of fixed graphics
To explain this concept, let’s say Directive wants to be a paid media agency, and they find that 100 people are looking for a “paid media agency”.
However, the directive only wants to serve SaaS companies with larger budgets.
Therefore, Mehrgoth wants to make sure his team only talks to potential clients who have at least 100 employees or $25 million in funding. This is something Google can do.
It is possible to have a niche in Google Ads, but it is not expanding:
- Expanding your targeting reduces the quality of your leads
- More emphasis on bullet quality reduces volume
Downloadable assets are another option. You can go to LinkedIn and offer a digital download like “The Ultimate Guide to B2B Order Generation,” for example.
But if someone downloads it and sends it to a sales development representative, that potential customer will most likely tell you they’re not ready to buy right now. So, you’re spending $40 to $100 on a lead that didn’t convert.
The real problem starts when sales development takes your budget because they can buy the same lead for 75 cents from ZoomInfo.
There is no difference between the intent you got from downloading an asset and trying to buy it directly from the data provider.
Intention matters. Without it, marketers struggle to attract qualified sales leads from social networks because no offer is strong enough to overcome the lack of intent.
You usually get more leads by sending more emails. The same is often true of social networks – you increase your MQL by expanding your targeting or budget.
But MQLs do not turn into revenue. So, you’re in this dilemma – why pay for a lead without intent?
Test this hypothesis
What if you gave some of your budget back to leads instead of platforms?
When you say you will spend $10,000 on LinkedIn, you will spend it all on the platform.
What if I used $10,000 to move a target away from LinkedIn?
Here are some concepts you should think about:
- What if you focused more on activation rather than acquisition?
- What if you focused more on getting potential customers to take action?
- What if you used most of that $10,000 offer instead of just plugging in the ad?
That’s what the directive did. And this is what completely changed the business center customers. You can start to see the differences in ROI, where those efficiencies lie, and what the keys are.
3 spreadsheet templates
To have the confidence to make a gift card business, you need to improve your financial models – do a study showing that spending $100 to get someone to a sales meeting is cheaper than not paying.
Prove to your board of directors, your CMO, and your executive team that spending on gift cards will save you money. Here are the different ways to do this:
Model 1: LTV: CAC Sheet
This tool calculates leads, demos, LTV, ROI you can get by spending a specific budget and whether the channel is valuable.
Next, build hypotheses and calculate the cost for each demonstration. What would happen if you were able to bring people directly into a demo?
By viewing this form, you will know if you need to increase the price for advertising.
Another advantage of using this tool is that it allows you to increase your targets, defend budgets for management, and set up your campaigns for success.
Plus, the board will know how much money they would leave on the table if they didn’t give you more budget and why.
Model 2: SaaS ROI projections
Many marketers today make the mistake of not predicting the future and associating that with real hard dollars. Whether your agency or an in-house marketer, designing the future and proving your worth is essential.
By comparing factors like incremental annual revenue recurring versus doing nothing and showing how much leads and demos grow as your monthly ad spend increases, you can get a subscription.
Form 3: Budget Approval Sheet
With a budget approval sheet, you can calculate how many leads you need for your marketing efforts to be worth it.
When you send it to your team and they suggest marketing ideas, they can design it too and see the financial side of it. Therefore, it is an essential tool for getting more organization out of your team.
Conversational ads
Mehrguth also calls this generation of customers. With his team, they have developed a new methodology for going to market where they only advertise on manually verified accounts.
Total addressable market (TAM)
With LinkedIn, you can get an idea of your TAM by using a combination of company names, sizes, industries, job titles, and seniority.
Now, you can be confident that you’re advertising to the right people and the right companies.
Audience segmentation
You can separate your TAM by category and job title. From here, go into more detail within countries, industries, etc. This allows you to craft a very specific message for your chosen target audience.
It also allows you to track performance for each segment, giving your team more insight into which segments generate the best returns.
Use of UVPs and offers in ad copy
When using a gift card, use your copy to draw focus to your unique value proposition and your cash gift card display to entice a potential customer and get them to take action. Motivation is essential here. This is an example:
As you can see in the copy, the unique value proposition is the company’s rigorous software focus and offering with a $105 gift card that entices a potential customer to take action.
Using a gift card gives the user instant value while allowing you to get your foot in the door. You can then ask a more qualifying question before booking the meeting.
Even if those conversations don’t convert directly into leads from the bottom, you can still get them in your database by offering another valuable asset, or in the case of Directive, inviting them to their Slack pool of other B2B marketers.
That way, you’re still providing potential customers with value, networking opportunities, and contact information from the users on TAM, as well as giving your sales team something to work with.
One person campaigns
Using one-person campaigns allows you to maximize the potential of your offer by talking to each person one-on-one.
You can also take advantage of LinkedIn’s demographic reports and see exactly which segments are performing best.
You can then segment even further, craft a highly personalized message, and make more aggressive quotes to stand out to potential customers as much as possible.
How to target B2B on Facebook
Target hundreds of millions of business users on Facebook and Instagram by driving high-quality traffic and conversions using 100+ B2B targeting filters, including title, industry, company size, and technology used.
Creativity is everything
When you feel confident in your targeting, you can invest more and create ads and copy that speak to your specific target audience’s goals and weaknesses. As a result, you will feel more confident when you give them a gift card.
Retargeting + Internet Computer (ICP)
One of the biggest difficulties with SaaS retargeting is not filtering your lists using static data but relying on behavioral data alone.
What you can do now is use these infographics and start enriching your retargeting.
Track only the specific types of buyers who fit your targeting, and you’ll get a more efficient way of spending.
main sockets
- Step 1: Create a Total Addressable Market (TAM) and manually verify each account.
- Second Step: Create a good pitch so that you can easily book a sales meeting on the platform.
- Third Step: Perform financial modeling to prove your ability to afford the offer. The offering saves your organization money by improving the product/service life cycle at management-like percentages. Activation is more important.
- Standout designs make all the difference.
- Facebook works. It can be powerful for your business.
Download directive templates here:
LTV: Kak Channel and tactic comparison
Return on investment projection model
Connect Directive community turned on slack.
[Slides] SaaS Marketers: The paid social approach that works for you
See Slideshare below:
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Featured ImagPureSolution / Shutterstock
All screenshots were taken by the author, October 2021
