In this article, you’ll learn how Google Ads B2B prospecting can help you reach a wider audience with digital marketing PPC strategies. We’ll summarize the findings from the B2B Academy Google Ads workshop.
Let’s talk about Google Ads
Google Ads are an essential tool for most marketing campaigns, and for good reason. Google is used by millions of people every day.
In this article, we’ll cover the fundamentals of lead generation with Google Ads and explore how these elements can shape your long-term strategy.
The Importance of the Landing Page
Let’s start at the beginning: the landing page. It’s critical to have a landing page ready for your B2B business before launching a campaign. All the information you’ll need to develop your campaign stems from your landing page.
Setting Up Your Google Ads B2B Goals
Setting goals is fairly straightforward:
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Sales goals: Ideal for online stores; they help track purchases and transactions.
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Leads: Useful when you’re trying to get people to sign up for a newsletter, fill out a form, or watch a video.
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Website traffic: Helps drive visits to your site.
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Product and brand consideration: Primarily used for brand awareness.
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Display ads: These generate high impressions but typically have lower conversion rates.
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App promotions: Meant for driving installs or usage of apps.
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Local store promotions: Best for businesses with physical locations.
For our hypothetical B2B campaign, let’s go with website traffic. This is important because when you first start using Google Ads, Google doesn’t know your audience. The campaign helps Google learn how to segment and target your ideal customers.
Types of Google Ads Campaigns
Once you’ve selected your goal, it’s time to choose a campaign type:
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Search campaigns: The most basic and often the most efficient. They have a medium cost-per-click (CPC) and a relatively high conversion rate.
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Display campaigns: Image-based ads, controllable via keyword targeting, website placements, or user interests.
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Shopping ads: Used for listing products from your eCommerce store.
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Video campaigns: Appear on platforms like YouTube.
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Discovery: Google determines the best channels and formats to use, but this approach can be hit or miss.
For this guide, we’ll go with a Search campaign. Google’s automation has improved dramatically, so many tasks that once required manual input are now handled automatically.
Campaign Name, Segmentation, and Location
Once you set your campaign name (which you can change later), configure your segmentation. Let’s target both desktop and mobile users. After the first month, review results and adjust accordingly.
Next, choose your location. For example, let’s say we select Canada. You can target:
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People physically located in Canada
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People interested in the services offered in Canada
If you’re selling online courses, targeting both makes sense. Choose based on what fits your business goals.
You can also choose multiple languages. If you’re offering content in both English and French in Canada, running the campaign in both languages could be very effective.
The Importance of Budgeting for Lead Generation
Now comes the big question: What budget should you use?
Google offers a free Keyword Planner tool to estimate search volume and CPC based on keywords relevant to your business. Google will also suggest keywords; some useful, others less so.
Focus on the lowest CPCs for your keywords. By refining your keyword list, you might reduce your CPC from $1 to $0.50 and still increase the number of daily clicks.
Matching Options
There are 3 main types of keyword matching:
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Broad match: Google can show ads based on broadly related terms.
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Phrase match: Ads are shown for searches that include the meaning of your phrase.
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Exact match: Ads are shown only for exact search terms you specify.
Negative Keywords
One of the most overlooked steps in B2B lead generation campaigns is negative keywords.
For example, use “free” as a negative keyword if you’re not offering free services. This ensures people looking for freebies won’t waste your budget, improving both click-through and conversion rates.
Watch Your Budget Closely
If your campaign only brings impressions and very few clicks, check for:
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Low demand in your selected location
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Language mismatches (e.g., Hungarian ads in Ecuador)
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Bids that are too low
If nothing changes after a few days, start adjusting your bid manually. With consistent tweaking, you might end up paying 2–3x less than Google’s initial estimates while maintaining results.
This is especially relevant for seasonal products, like Christmas decorations, where search intent spikes for a short period.
Conclusion
That’s it, the basics of Google Ads for B2B lead generation!
Luckily, your campaigns are always easy to modify. If something goes wrong, don’t panic, just iterate and improve.
Want to learn more from the full workshop?
Download the recording here.
