The Four Main Types of Ads and What Works for B2B Businesses
Ever wondered about adding ads to your B2B marketing strategy but felt a bit lost in the sea of options? Don’t worry, we’ve got your back.
In this blog, we’ll explore four effective types of ads for B2B businesses, breaking down how they work, what they look like, and how they can support your marketing strategy. Let’s get started.
Search Ads
Location: Throughout Google Search results
Best for: Promoting web pages related to targeted keywords
Key features:
- Cost-effective
- Text-based
- Highly targeted using real-time search queries, ensuring your ads are displayed when users are actively searching for relevant information.
What are Search Ads?
Search ads, often labeled as “sponsored” or “ad,” prominently display at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs) when users enter particular keywords.
Because its search engine is Google’s bread and butter, Search ads are the bread and butter of Google’s advertising program. Current Search ads fit fairly well into the search results (as shown in the photo above).
These ads are valuable for B2B businesses, serving as a prime opportunity to catch the eye of potential customers who are actively seeking solutions to their challenges or requirements.
For example, if someone is searching for “where to start with an estate plan,” having your wealth management firm appear among the top search results can greatly increase your visibility to potential clients in need of your services. However, this does not come cheap; you will need to outbid your competitors.
Display Ads
Display ads offer flexibility in how they appear across different formats. For example, take this series our team designed for Mango Fresh Laundry:
Location: On millions of webpages, apps, and Google properties in the Display network
Best for: Building awareness to new markets across content formats
Key features:
- Visually oriented
- Covers 35 million+ apps and websites plus Google properties
- Follows users across advertising surfaces based on behavior
What are Responsive Display Ads?
Ever get the feeling you’re being watched—seeing ads for something you Googled yesterday, over and over? You’re not imagining it. Display ads operate just like that, displaying visual advertisements to users across various devices and platforms.
In Google Ads, the “Responsive Display Ad” type stands out as the most effective form of display advertising. These ads possess the unique ability to automatically adjust their size according to the available space for the advertisement.
How Responsive Ads Work:
Responsive display ads offer B2B marketers a versatile way to showcase their brand across the Google Display Network. With these ads, marketers have the flexibility to choose their headlines (H1, H2, H3) and select images, allowing for customized messaging and visual representation.
Once the elements are chosen, Google automatically reformats the ads to fit various ad sizes and placements across websites, apps, and other platforms within the Display Network. This dynamic adaptation ensures that the ads maintain their effectiveness and visual appeal across different devices and screen sizes.
For B2B businesses, responsive display ads provide an excellent opportunity to reach a broader audience and drive engagement. By leveraging Google’s machine learning algorithms, these ads can optimize performance by delivering the most relevant messaging and visuals to individual users based on their browsing behavior and interests.
Video Ads
Location: Before, during, and after videos on YouTube; in YouTube search feeds; on the YouTube home feed; and across the Google video partners network
Best for: Promoting video content or reaching highly engaged users with dynamic video ads
Key features:
- Ideal for promoting products via video or boosting the visibility of existing videos
- Various formats are available, including pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll ads during YouTube videos
- Opportunity for display across third-party apps, games, and websites
What are Video Ads?
Video ads are hosted on YouTube and play mainly on YouTube, playing in a range of formats (such as before the video, after, in-feed ads and so on).
Video ads on YouTube provide B2B marketers with a powerful platform to reach their target audience through engaging visual content. With YouTube’s extensive targeting options, marketers can precisely define who they want to reach based on demographics, interests, and online behavior.
How Video Ads Work:
With YouTube Video Ads, you get to pick who sees your ads and where they appear. Then, you create short videos that match your audience’s interests. These videos can showcase your products, happy customers, or helpful tips, depending on what you want to achieve.
Retargeting
Location: Websites and social media platforms frequented by your target audience
Best for: Reconnecting with users who previously engaged with your brand, such as those who abandoned carts or visited specific product pages.
Key features:
- Reach users based on their past interactions with your website or social media pages.
- Tailor ads to match the specific products or pages users previously viewed.
- Show users products or content they’ve shown interest in, increasing the likelihood of conversion.
What are Retargeting Ads?
Retargeting ads, also known as remarketing ads, specifically target users who have previously visited your website or interacted with your brand online.
Why? Not everyone who visits your website is ready to buy right away. Some might need more time or want to check out other options. That’s where retargeting comes into play. It helps you reconnect with those visitors who didn’t make a purchase on their first visit, giving you another chance to win them over.
How Retargeting Ads Work
These ads work by tracking users’ behavior and displaying relevant ads to them as they browse other websites or social media platforms. The goal of retargeting ads is to re-engage users who have shown interest in your products or services but haven’t yet made a purchase or taken the desired action.
By staying top of mind and reminding users about your brand, retargeting ads aim to increase conversion rates and drive valuable actions such as completing a purchase or filling out a form.
Yes, We Still Need to Talk About Organic Marketing
Let’s talk about organic marketing. We’d be remiss if we didn’t bring up organic strategies when discussing effective advertising for B2B businesses. Seriously, both paid and organic methods are absolute musts for promoting B2B enterprises and raking in those leads.
Picture this: Every second, there are around 40,000 Google searches going on. That’s a massive crowd potentially checking out your business. And get this—people trust the regular search results way more than those flashy paid ads. The top organic results snag clicks about 28.5% of the time, while paid ads? Well, they’re lucky to even get 2% of the action.
So, why should you care about organic marketing? Because it’s not just about getting eye on your stuff; it’s about building genuine trust and credibility with your audience. By slipping organic strategies into your digital game plan, you’re not only boosting your search engine visibility but also earning major brownie points with your customers.
Need Help With Your Marketing?
Plan to succeed in 2024 with a thoughtful, strategic, and well-researched marketing budget – Your future self will thank you.
As a digital marketing agency, we know firsthand the challenges and opportunities that businesses face when it comes to budgeting and executing effective marketing campaigns.
Our mission is to understand your business inside out, grasp your unique brand voice, and then let the world know just how awesome you are. We don’t just focus on the “what” of marketing; we dive deep into the “why” and “how.” We start every engagement with a Brand Storytelling Session to identify your brand’s essence. From there, our team utilizes bi-weekly client calls and shared content calendars to keep you in the loop every step of the way.
We bring fresh, innovative ideas from our kick-a** creative team, all rooted in a relationship built on trust. Because that’s the essence of digital marketing – it’s not just about numbers and algorithms; it’s about connecting with your audience authentically and leaving a lasting impact.Interested in learning more about us? Let’s chat.