5 New B2B Lead Generation Techniques For Success In 2020
By: Nathan Sikes, Founder & CEO
January 21, 2020
January 21, 2020
With the start of a new year (and decade) it seemed appropriate to examine some new lead generation techniques to explore in 2020. Although there are a variety of ways to re-engaging prospects and existing customers, I wanted to focus this article on some new tactics that will help marketing professionals generate brand new leads. A majority of the techniques I’ve included are still in BETA, but I think all of these new features are worth exploring.
Every Marketer knows that Google Ads is a terrific channel for generating new leads, but Google’s new Lead Forms will be a helpful addition for many organizations looking to improve their conversion rates on mobile.
According to Google, “Lead form extensions help you capture interest when potential customers are searching for your company, products, or services on Google”. That’s a pretty generic description, so let’s see if we can do better.
Simply put, this new Google Ads feature allows you to collect prospect’s information within the Google search results page, without sending them to your website. If the user is already signed into their Google account, the form will pre-populate with the information you’re requesting. Pretty cool right?
This tactic is excellent for organizations looking to increase conversions on mobile devices. I’ve used this feature to help promote freemium products, thought leadership content, and new demo requests with success. Because the user interacts with the form directly in the Google search results page, conversion rates can be significantly higher than other forms of Google advertising.
Lead form extensions are specifically made for mobile and tablets. This feature also may also not be available for every industry due to potential data privacy issues.
Microsoft Ads has slowly caught up to the competition over the past few years and their new Linkedin targeting feature is immensely helpful for B2B companies looking to enhance their conversions on Bing. Although still in BETA, this has been a powerful new addition to my lead generation arsenal.
According to Microsoft, Linkedin Profile Targeting allows you to “target highly relevant audiences using LinkedIn profile information. You can serve text ads, Dynamic Search Ads and shopping campaigns to customers based on their company, job function, and industry. This feature is the perfect complement to other audience targeting solutions” available in Microsoft Ads.
Microsoft Ad’s Linkedin Profile Targeting is a great way for B2B organizations to target both firmographics and demographics in their PPC and display campaigns. Targeting things like job title and company size helps marketing professionals pursue their Account-Based Marketing (ABM) efforts and maximize ad spend without abandoning traditional digital advertising channels.
As I mentioned above, I believe this is a game-changer for Microsoft Ads, but implementing Linkedin Profile Targeting is very manual and a bit painful at the moment. Hopefully, Microsoft will update the UI and emphasize on making these scalable.
There are nearly 5 billion videos watched on Youtube every single day. With that much traffic, there’s an incredible opportunity for B2B Marketers to drive meaningful interaction to their business. Youtube Sitelink Extensions is just another way Youtube allows users to leverage their immense amount of traffic and content.
According to Google, with Youtube’s “sitelinks extensions, you can add relevant links like product detail pages or promotional pages under your video.” This feature is still in BETA, but Google plans to roll out Youtube sitelinks extensions in Google Ads within the next several months.
Considering that more than 56% of Youtube users are looking to learn something new or solve a difficult problem, this is an excellent way for large organizations to amplify video content and generate interest in a variety of relevant products or services.
I’m still in the process of looking into this one, so I haven’t uncovered any potential drawbacks yet.
Google continues to expand its machine learning offerings to help digital marketers automate and optimize their campaigns. Responsive Search Ads is another Google Ads type that allows users to take advantage of Google’s commitment to artificial intelligence.
According to Google, “Responsive search ads let you create an ad that adapts to show more text—and more relevant messages—to your customers. Enter multiple headlines and descriptions when creating a responsive search ad, and over time, Google Ads will automatically test different combinations and learn which combinations perform best”.
I’m always a bit wary of giving complete control to an algorithm, but in my opinion, Google’s responsive search ads provide an additional way to test new ad creative in addition give ads the opportunity to compete in more auctions and match more queries.
As long as you’ve filled out enough headlines and descriptions and you’re not competing with other ad groups (this can happen with responsive search adds), there aren’t any major drawbacks to testing this feature. As with anything you automate, make sure you’re watching carefully.
Twitter continues to expand its advertising capabilities with the new Promoted Trend Spotlight ad type. I’ve had less success utilizing Twitter Ad campaigns when compared to other digital channels, so this is an exciting change to help large b2b organizations get the word out.
According to Twitter, “This takeover ad placement pairs the undeniable stopping power of video with the premium real estate of Twitter’s Explore tab.” This feature supports 6-second videos, gifs, or static images and will appear at the top of the Explore tab for the first two visits per person, per day. This is an excellent resource for companies looking to drive awareness of new products or services on a mass scale.
Excellent for product/services launches, events, or brand campaigns, Twitter’s Promoted Trend Spotlight gives organizations the ability to leverage the Explore tab’s enormous visibility to expand their marketing reach.
This ad type has historically been very expensive (around $250K per day), so it will only make sense to larger advertisers.
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