Successful B2B marketing practices that combine the use of social media with the power of Google

In 2016 we started working with our client Fintrade - a non-banking, financial institution specializing in business lending. As with any B2B client, here, at the beginning of our work together, we had serious challenges, which were to research the market, define the right target audiences and choose the right digital channels to reach them. One of our main advantages at the time was that apart from banking institutions, there were no other major players in the market to take a significant advertising share, and small businesses needed a partner like Fintrade. He just didn't know it existed, and we had to fix it. This is how we implemented successful digital marketing for B2B.

The beginning

As a first step, we created a media mix based on our detailed study of the digital environment and assumptions about audience behavior that we wanted to validate with the client. We relied on mandatory channels such as Google Search, as well as purely image and traffic-generating sites such as Facebook and the Google Display Network. We wanted to achieve a large scope of the campaign, to build a serious audience and then to analyze the behavior of individual micro-audiences, which we had previously defined. In this way, we were able to correctly and easily identify the target audiences and optimize the performance of our campaigns - both at the level of requests made by users and in terms of budget. After the first 3 months of work we had the following conclusions:

1. Our highest quality audience, in terms of performance and site behavior, brings us the Google Search channel / no surprise to anyone /.
2. Google Display manages to generate good traffic at a very low cost-per-click and creates a good user base to engage in remarketing with relevant content. However, the results did not happen at the pace we wanted.
3. Facebook ads report high consumer interest and good performance, but have one major problem - they generate a huge number of loan applications from individuals. This was a case we had to deal with.

In the following lines, we will look at how Facebook can become a successful B2B channel when the right approaches and content are used.

Positioning Fintrade on Facebook is strategically important.

We use content in the form of banners, posts, videos and articles aimed at small business owners. With posts and articles we aim to give advice and present good practices in business management. They generate average monthly CTR values of around 7%, which is a high result and speaks of good levels of engagement on the part of the audience.

Two Lead Generation campaigns were a great success. One goal was to download a booklet (in pdf format) with merchandising tips, and the other was a small business management guide. More than half of the people who downloaded the books indicated that they were real business owners, which showed that the campaigns had reached the right audience.
A key factor in the success of Facebook as a channel is the screening of legal entities through proper targeting. To this end, we focus mainly on Lookalike and Remarketing audiences.

Applying the described approach, combined with increased presence in Google Search (we are talking about achieved Impression share over 98%), and limiting image formats, we managed to reduce advertising budget by 30%, improving the effectiveness of campaigns with each passing month. Because Google Search is not a channel that can influence the volume of monthly searches, budgets have varied according to audience behavior. But here we had the understanding and support from the client to be flexible and respond to the needs of the moment. Which was an important prerequisite for success.

The role of the landing page

Analyzing the indicators and digital behavior of users on the Fintrade site, after several in-depth discussions with the client, we decided it was time to make a special landing page different from the company's site. Its purpose was to provide consumers with the most important information they need, while directing them to our main goal - the implementation of conversion (in this case we measure under the term "conversion" that the client to make a request for a business loan). In the digital environment, the user's attention, including the B2B target user,  it can be lost in seconds, so it is crucial to clearly outline the consumer path in our own digital assets.

Here's how the results for the Google Search and Facebook (remarketing) channels have changed, while keeping the strategy and changing only the site with the landing page:

Apart from the fact that the results improved, they remained stable, without drastic changes in user behavior or outflow from the site. Periodically, together with the client, we updated the landing page with new activations so as to maintain the interest of the audience.

Working with the client and the importance of him understanding our work

Every agency needs to understand the business model of its clients. However, this cannot be at a level that businesses themselves can analyze and give advice and recommendations. Fintrade is an example client who gives us guidance and advice every month in terms of:

• Clients and what interests / motivates and motivates them to action

• How a meeting goes physically and the "selling" of the service

• What are the trends and innovations in business and demand

Thus, we built a process with monthly meetings, where in addition to reviewing results, we also comment on business issues, customer behavior and business services. This gives us the option to be able to "draw" a strategy for 1 to 2 months ahead, from communication and messages.

Separately here we have the option to do different tests and monitor how successful they are. An example of this, according to our client Fintrade, is that we tested using a vision of posts with the highest CTR to become a creative banner, which in itself shows great results and allowed us to be effective as an advertising and from the resources we invest in production.

Ако това case study с конкретни резултати те е заинтригувало - вероятно искаш да разбереш още за подхода ни. Предлагаме ти да се срещнем, за да обсъдим дали и как твоят бизнес може да се повлияе от добре изградена дигитална маркетинг стратегия и отлично реализирана комуникация, отчитащи твоите бизнес и маркетинг цели. Когато вече работим заедно, ще създадем концепция, съобразена с текущите и бъдещите ви дигитални активи и не на последно място - ще поемем ангажимент за конкретни резултати. Ще се ангажираме с реализацията на дигиталните активи и реклама и ще получаваш детайлни отчети за поведението на потребителите и за разходите по рекламната комуникация. Ако този подход ти допада, можеш да ни отправиш запитване чрез интуитивната ни форма за запитвания, в която избираш с няколко клика как точно можем да сме ти полезни. След което ние сме на ход

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