B2B advertising has always posed unique challenges, and cookie deprecation will only make matters worse.
These challenges begin with the nature of B2B targeting itself, which typically involves focusing on a highly niche market. Narrower audiences mean there is a higher risk that ad spend will be wasted targeting the wrong audience if the targeting is too loose. So how are B2B advertisers targeting currently?
The go-to targeting strategy for B2B advertising is contextual. Focusing ads on specific, relevant content is the easiest way for marketers to direct spend at the right audience. But there are challenges. Content can be a tricky audience proxy. For B2B advertising, in particular, strict business content can be limited. And loosening the targeting criteria to increase reach can quickly lead to wastage. The challenge is that contextual often targets a large and diverse number of consumers, and lacks the precision needed for effective B2B engagement. This is critical, as people engage less with work-related advertising on their own time. Contextual targeting doesn’t allow marketers to differentiate traffic between business and private contexts. It also cannot target by company size; if a marketer’s company is only set up to serve enterprise-level customers, targeting small-sized companies is a waste of ad spend.
Another tried and true targeting strategy for businesses is to use deterministic signals, such as email addresses or mobile advertising IDs. Although more accurate, these signals tend to be costly and offer limited scale, a dilemma that is intensifying over time.
Google has introduced Topics as a privacy friendly targeting alternative, but it poses challenges for B2B companies that need to reach specific business audiences. The focus on user experience may not align perfectly with B2B marketing goals, potentially affecting the visibility and targeting of B2B content.
Google Ads for B2B businesses run into problems because of certain limitations of the platform. Issues such as the continued use of Single Keyword Ad Groups (SKAGs), difficulties in managing ad groups, and a lack of features specifically for B2B marketers can make it tough to get the best results from B2B advertising campaigns on Google Ads.
There’s also concern about the diversity of topics related to Google’s Topics API. The availability of topics doesn’t meet the needs of B2B advertisers that target niche audiences or specific business sectors. The result is a lack of precision, which limits the effectiveness of campaign planning and execution.
The Solution – Digiseg
Digiseg takes a unique approach to targeting, which begins with categorizing all internet traffic into three distinct groups: private, cellular, and business. Within the business category, we further refine our identification into small, medium, or large businesses. This allows for the precise exclusion of private internet usage and mobile users, enabling a focused approach towards engaging with the business-oriented segments of the internet.
Follow these three easy steps to launch your next B2B campaign:
- Select the business size you wish to target: small, medium, or large.
- Identify the right inventory. You have two choices here that you can and should AB test:
- Contextual. Identify contextual signals that resonate with your product or service target market.
- Use Digiseg b2b data and CPC (cost-per-click) or CPA (cost per action) buying algorithm in your DSP.
- When choosing the latter, select an action that is a strong proxy for success, such as booking a demo or opting to download a white paper. The algorithm will optimize quickly because it focuses solely on business traffic, thereby eliminating a lot of the noise that diminishes results.
By focusing the campaign exclusively on business traffic, the buying algorithm will more effectively identify engaged audience segments.
Start effective B2B campaigns today.
To learn more or to ask questions contact our Customer Success Director, Jakub Skwarski – js@digiseg.io
