How to generate exactly the right B2B
leads
07/31/2015
With the right targeting, you can find many potential
customers on Facebook
It is one of the great Facebook myths: you can’t generate business-to-business leads on Facebook, or if you can, it isn’t easy. Even if you are offering your customers something really useful, such as an eBook, white paper or a high-quality checklist.
But why does this myth exist and how can it be dispelled? To understand this, you have to take a quick look at Facebook’s past.
It’s true that Facebook started off as a student network used primarily by teenagers and young adults. Not much remains of its student past and now young people are moving, in ever-increasing numbers, to platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat or WhatsApp.
High-quality B2B leads can be found on Facebook
That doesn’t mean that Facebook has become less relevant when it comes to reaching specific target groups — quite the opposite! For B2B in particular, Facebook can be a real treasure trove that you can use time and time again with just one caveat: you must know what you are doing and how you will do it.
amongst Germany’s almost 30 million Facebook users. Whilst it is likely that these people don’t use Facebook to maintain personal contacts as frequently, they are guaranteed to use it for informational purposes, even if they do so passively and never like, comment on or share posts.
Attract the attention of the right Facebook user
Directors, department managers, etc.: your Facebook content must address these key decision-makers. Provided that your content is useful and offers real value to your B2B target groups. If this is the case, all doors are open to you. This is how it works:
1. Simple demographic targeting
You always start by searching for the basic characteristics of your target group. Which Facebook users belong to this target group depends on your requirements.
The first step is to identify the countries and the age of the people that you want to target.
When it comes to targeting countries, the language setting is particularly important as not all people in Switzerland speak German, for example. If your “advertising material” is in German, however, then you will waste a lot of money if your linguistic targeting isn’t right.
So now, you have defined the language and region with simple demographic targeting. Although not a bad start, if you want to reach the right person, you need to do more.
2. Advanced demographic targeting
Above all else, profession is what distinguishes B2B leads from B2C leads. It makes no sense for you to target people on Facebook who do not come from a relevant professional background.
You are searching for decision-makers, as these are the only people who can ultimately ensure that your product is consumed or utilised.
Advanced targeting ensures that you address the right people. Ultimately, waste coverage will be correspondingly low.
By doing this, you can safely assume that your campaign will actually reach the place where it can have the most impact. The effectiveness of your campaign comes down to whether you are really able to offer the people you have identified in your target group something that they need and have been searching for.
4. What makes your campaign special?
No matter how perfect your campaign targeting is, it will not yield any results if your “advertising material” doesn’t have the power to penetrate. So make sure that your campaign design is as effective as possible!
Make sure that your corporate design is recognizable in the campaign
Don’t muddle your campaign with complicated advertising ideas and demonstrate what makes it different
Use one of Facebook’s call-to-action buttons in your campaign Write a headline that immediately grabs the reader’s attention
Combine this headline with a question that increases the reader’s curiosity Use a headline that is short and snappy
Present your “advertising material” (eBook, etc.) with a high-quality graphic Use less than 20% text in the graphic
Integrate an additional call-to-action button in the graphic Use words such as “free” or “new” to increase CTR
5. Budget and reach
It is not a case of reaching as high a number of Facebook users as possible: in all cases, you want your “advertising material” to have the highest possible chance of completely penetrating a target group.
Downloading an eBook, for example, should always be tied in with subscribing to a newsletter. By doing this, you lock in potential new customers and can gain highly qualified leads, as these people are already familiar with you and your work.
With a reasonable budget, you can be sure that the right people, within your target group, will see your campaign. For this article, we created a sample campaign with a distinct but very particular target group.
This target group is relatively small but for this reason, very precise. Depending on how good the graphics in your campaign are, this kind of targeting can be used to generate B2B leads using Facebook’s standard Ads Manager tool.
practical if you have several campaigns or want to use your budget to greatest efficiency. Title image: Kravka, Shutterstock.com
