How we generate B2B leads for a software development company?

One of our clients had some experience in lead generation campaigns, but there were two major issues obstructing their path to success.

WHAT WERE THE ISSUES THERE?

Average lead cost was too high, which make relying on Google Ads as a way to grow a business impossible.
Lead quality was lower than expected and contact queries didn’t lead to sales.

Our job was to better understand our client’s mode of operation and to alter the sales funnel in order to increase the average lead quality and to reduce the price for each conversion.

What we should keep in mind is that most keywords that software development companies cover in Google Ads campaigns are really expensive. They may not be as expensive as keywords related to law, insurance or medical fields, but covering dozens of keywords related to software development can be pricey.

After looking at some generic keywords above, we can come to the conclusion that each click would cost us $10 on average. Our client was with high CPC as long as it attracted potential customers – except it didn’t. Most of the submitted contact forms didn’t bring any money and this alarming trend had to be reversed.

First, we needed to audit existing campaigns and analyze their performance to find out what worked and what had to be improved. What we found out gave us a better perspective on the situation: most keywords that the campaigns were based on were expensive short-tail low purchase intent phrases. This strategy could have worked in a consideration phase (and under very specific circumstances), but not if we wanted to increase sales. Once we had ascertained that, we were able to plan all the necessary countermeasures:

– create several ad groups with long-tail keywords with higher purchase intent to make sure we can decrease average CPC and reach people who know exactly what they are looking for (tech stack, platform or any other information that implies that the customer is ready to sign a contract, but is looking for someone who understands their needs);

– optimize Landing Pages and create multiple versions of ads in each group to make them as accurate as possible. Design numerous A/B tests to determine which ads, LP versions and ads extensions work best;

– due to the nature of the offered service, it was important to measure with utmost precision what was going on on-site and to take advantage of interaction rate that was higher than average – and doing it was pivotal to the creation of remarketing lists for Google Display Network campaigns and RLSA search campaigns. In the case of such campaigns, potential customers almost never find what they want straight away after, so it was a top priority for us to make sure that they would still consider the company even after they had left the website. We used scrolling depth, session time and website traffic checker to create remarking audience lists that included people who seemed interested in what our client had to offer;

We realized that we can’t miss out on any potential leads simply because they required a little bit more time. We segmented the traffic based on the consumed types of content to apply a proper sales funnel and push visitors from consideration to direct contact. We made sure that after visiting a website they saw ads regarding other similar projects, blog posts about the professional approach to software development our client was known for, and, last but not least, reminders to contact our client for a free quote. All those steps – taken in the right order and within the right time frame – could increase the conversion rate.

Our strategy was a bit more complex and included several stages, so our client was slightly concerned about the potential costs of employing this method but most expenses at that time, however, were related to highly competitive short-tail keywords. Implementing a change to long-tail keywords would have decreased average CPC by several dollars if we had also taken care about optimizing ads and Landing Page to improve the Quality Score.

Search campaigns were just a start in our funnel. Of course, there were also RLSA campaigns; they were not aimed, however, at driving large traffic, but at reminding potential customers of the brand. The real magic happened in remarketing campaigns in Google Display Network, as we successfully guided potential leads through a journey that allowed them to learn more about why the company in question was exactly what they had been looking for.

After just one month, we not only to increased the volume of conversions by 166 free estimations, contact form submissions or mailing lists signups, but also improved Conversion Rate. And the cost? We did all that without spending even one dime more than in the previous month.

Below we share several tips to help you make your campaigns equally successful:

Create proper funnel. It may seem more expensive, but it’s not always the case. And even if it is, would you rather have cheaper leads that don’t buy or a bit more expensive ones that do?
Remind the audience of your brand. Use RLSA campaigns, GDN remarketing, include Facebook campaigns. Don’t let people forget that they have once been interested in what you offer.
Analyze and track everything that happens on your website. You may use that information to learn more about your potential customers and locate the bottleneck in your funnel.
Provide a journey – don’t think sending user to your Landing Page will do the work. Educate them, tell them more about your company and what they need. Services like these are never purchased overnight.

How we generate B2B leads?

WHAT WERE THE ISSUES THERE?

IMPROVEMENT AFTER 1 MONTH OF RUNNING THE CAMPAIGN