Best Platforms for B2B Ads 2022

Best platforms for B2B ads & their audience targeting

1. LinkedIn

“Do business where business is done” - LinkedIn outrightly calls their platform a business platform, and rightfully so. With over 30 million active businesses, LinkedIn is a hub for networking and promoting B2B products and services.

97% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn for content marketing. LinkedIn accounts for over 80% of social media leads for B2B advertising.

Why should B2B brands choose LinkedIn Ads for B2B Ads?

• Take advantage of LinkedIn’s incredibly specific targeting options, such as account-based marketing. You can target ads based on business-type, job title, seniority level, and years of experience, all of which ensure that you reach the right audience.


• You can use the relevant information from 675 million LinkedIn profiles to better target your ads.


• LinkedIn’s Sponsored Content allows you to promote your native ads beyond your current followers in the newsfeed. This helps create brand awareness and generate leads. You can also add CTA buttons to these promoted posts and direct users to a landing page.


• The platform is a go-to social media platform for B2B marketers to build their brands and network with each other. It's a great place to stay updated with industry trends, do competitor analysis, and engage in a variety of other lead-generation activities.


• LinkedIn’s lookalike audience feature also known as Matched Audiences, helps you market to a new audience similar to the characteristics of your current audience. Businesses can upload a custom audience, and the platform will create additional lookalike audiences from this.


• Within the LinkedIn interface, you can send direct message ads from a team member's account, which is an excellent way of delivering content with more personalized messages.


• LinkedIn's business manager platform provides a centralised dashboard for managing 'people, accounts, and Pages,' as well as the marketing activities linked to them. This streamlines the management of all of your LinkedIn business activities.

It's also an excellent platform for educating prospects about your product or service, as it drives more traffic to B2B blogs and websites than Facebook and Twitter combined.

B2B businesses should make content marketing on LinkedIn a priority, engage in LinkedIn groups in your industry, and employ employee advocacy, which are all excellent ways to generate leads. Not advertising on LinkedIn can give B2B marketers serious FOMO (fear of missing out).

2. Google Search Network

Who in the world doesn’t Google search when looking for something? Displaying your ads on the SERPS (search engine result page) is the best way to be found by millions.

Showing up on the first page of Google search with organic marketing might take you a while, and if your strategies are not good enough, it might never happen. Because the competition is huge, huge.

But there’s no need to worry about it because Google provides a space at the top of the SERPs (search engine results pages) for paid advertising. You can also advertise on websites and apps where you can pay to have your ads displayed.

The drill is simple; you create an ad and tailor the information to a particular search term. Whenever a customer searches for a related keyword, Google will display your ad, potentially generating leads.

Why should B2B brands choose Google Ads for B2B Ads?

• Google Search Network works on a Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising model where you only have to pay when someone clicks your ad. It allows you to have total control over your budget, targeting and ad placements.


• You can perform detailed keyword targeting and target high-value converting search terms. Keyword targeting is a critical component of B2B advertising.


• Your ads can appear at the top of a Google search results page within a matter of hours of launching a campaign and get you instant traffic.


• The Google Ads platform has an excellent dashboard and reporting tool that enables in-depth analysis of outcomes to inform ongoing optimization.

The most important part of creating successful Google search ads is comprehensive keyword research. Start with a small pool of keywords; otherwise it's very easy to spend money without getting results.

You should also analyze the search queries triggering your ads and the quality of leads that you’re getting from them. Then use different keyword match types to get better control over which search queries can trigger your ad.

Learn more about running effective Google Ads campaigns.

3. Google Display Network

Google Display Network (GDN) is a group of more than 2 million websites (including Google sites such as Gmail and YouTube) that show Google Ads.

Advertising on the display network is not limited to Google’s results page and bidding on keywords. You can advertise on various websites and hand-pick website placements that fit your target audience. Your ads reach a broad audience, which is beneficial for brand awareness and lead generation.

The two main advantages of advertising on display network is its affordability and reach, for which you might end up spending a hefty sum on other platforms.

Why should B2B brands choose Google Display Ads for B2B Ads?

• Display network has a lower cost per click than Google Search Ads and other advertising networks. Which means that you can target people who are interested in your product or service without having to pay a large amount.


• You can use the display network to create visually engaging content that persuades people to click on it.


• The Google Display Network's remarketing capabilities is one of its most significant features. It allows you to create a campaign that only targets people who have previously visited your website.

While these ads can have great reach, they can also be perceived as spammy, and users can block them using ad blockers. Therefore, it’s essential to consider the purpose of your promotion, who you are targeting, and whether or not these advertisements fit with your business image.

Learn about creative guidelines for various B2B ad platforms.

4. Facebook

Facebook is one of the best platforms for B2B ads. The platform has 1.84 billion active users each day. With Instagram's inclusion, the two networks now have billions of daily users and millions of business pages.

According to Facebook, business decision makers spend 74% more time on the platform than the general public. Advertising on Facebook allows you to reach a large user base while also reaching an important demographic of B2B marketers - business decision makers.

Why should B2B brands choose Facebook Ads for B2B Ads?

• Businesses can create a business page and account on Facebook to promote their products and services to relevant audiences.


• You can employ bots in Facebook Messenger to nurture business leads on autopilot. The automated chat helps you with marketing, sales, and customer service while saving you time from individually responding to each customer's message.


• Facebook provides in-depth targeting capabilities, such as the option to target based on user profiles/activity, or Google searches, etc.


• You can always A/B test your ad creative, its placement and target your prospects based on location, age, interests, and behaviors. It gives you the ability to gather data and see what works best for your business.


• Facebook and Instagram have lower cost-per click rates on average than LinkedIn and provide more creative options to choose from.


• Facebook Groups are valuable sources for brands to engage in conversations. You can invite CEOs and business owners to join your Facebook group, where you can nurture and eventually sell to them. That’s why they are being called the future of B2B social media marketing.


• It's important for B2B marketers to build a social community. It's the best way to create brand awareness, generate leads, nurture customers and build customer loyalty.

People who view your ad on Facebook are not always the ones who are actively looking for you or would have searched for any related keywords, as opposed to Google Search Network. Hence, you can reach audiences who may not yet be aware that they need your services.

Learn more about generating high quality real estate leads from Facebook ads.

5. Twitter

It might seem like Twitter is now an old platform and advertising on it would not be as fruitful as the new social media platforms.

However, Twitter has 330 million monthly active users and 500 million tweets are posted every day. And, because almost every business now has a Twitter account, it's one of the best platforms for B2B ads and staying up to date on what's going on in your market.

Why should B2B brands choose Twitter for B2B Ads?

• Twitter, particularly during industry events, uses paid advertising campaigns to generate exposure around product debuts and other critical occasions.


• Unlike other social media platforms, Twitter ads blend in with your feed. Your paid ads are fully interactive and work just like regular tweets. People can retweet, like and comment on them, which encourages engagement and conversations.


• Twitter is also an excellent resource for social listening. B2B marketers can search mentions and hashtags to see what your target audience is saying about your brand. This helps you get a better understanding of your consumers needs and keep up to date with current trends.


• The more that your company engages in personalized interactions, the more it will be viewed as a helpful and trusted brand, resulting in increased brand loyalty and retention.


• Many B2B businesses have customer support accounts on Twitter, which helps to deepen client interactions and leads to higher consumer advocacy.

On Twitter, you need to show how your brand is unique, what it stands for, and be as authentic as you can be. This way you can stand out from your competitors and build a unique brand image in the minds of your customers.

Twitter's paid search capabilities for B2B brands have certain limitations, and there is a large volume of content on a Twitter feed, so your ads may well get buried.

However, by remaining updated on industry events and trends, you can overcome the barrier and use paid advertising.

Conclusion

Instead of investing your time and effort across multiple platforms, I recommend you to conduct research to determine where your target audience spends the majority of their time. Based on this, you can choose a platform or combination of platforms for your business.

Every business is different, so don't be afraid to take a test to see which B2B ads platform is bringing in good results for your business. What are your experiences with running B2B ads? I am waiting to hear your thoughts in the comments.

At Mediaqart, we help B2B brands improve and scale their advertising performance. Talk to us for a free consultation.