B2B Targeted Advertising: How to Reach the Right Leads at the Right Time

Back then, they didn’t have website visitor tracking tools to assist in targeted advertising.

The problem? It's tough to predict who might pick up a specific magazine or tune into a particular radio channel or drive by a specific billboard. 

You can guess, of course. A teen magazine is most likely to reach teens. But do those teens play video games, buy organic food, or like to read sci-fi? There's no way to tell. 

B2B companies had an even smaller pool of potential advertising opportunities. They might advertise in trade magazines or in the newspaper's business section, for example.  

What if you want to reach c-suite executives in manufacturing with annual revenue of 2 million or more? You'd have to pay to reach thousands of people and hope a few of the right ones saw your ad and picked up the phone. 

Luckily, it's a lot easier now, thanks to targeted advertising. 

By leveraging targeted advertising, your business can use intent data to reach the right people at the right time. 

Note: Leadfeeder is a B2B intent data tool that helps identify companies that visit your website and turn them into customers. Sign up for a free 14-day trial. 

What is targeted advertising? 

Targeted advertising is a type of marketing that delivers promotional messages or advertisements based on a specific customer's traits, location, or actions. For example, Grammarly targets LinkedIn users who might need their grammar tool in their professional lives: 

Targeting advertising can be more effective than previous marketing strategies because it delivers relevant messages (which customers prefer.)

It also improves ad ROI, because you select exactly who you want to reach, rather than paying to reach thousands of people who might be in your target advertising. 

Targeted advertising isn't new. Businesses have used targeting options on platforms like Linkedin, Facebook, and Google Ads for years now. 

What has changed, however, is the ways we can target users — and those changes make advertising much more effective. 

What are the different types of targeted advertising? 

There is a multitude of ways to target your advertising. 

This is awesome because it means you can target extremely specific users. For example, you can target high-level executives at startups in Greenland with 100+ employees and 2 million+ in revenue. 

But it also makes it challenging to understand the different types of targeted advertising. The truth is, that your targeting options vary by platform. 

For example, Facebook might let you target people who like your competitor — which can be handy but isn't particularly precise.  

On the other hand, a tool like Leadfeeder can provide detailed behavioral data — so you can find people who visited your website, stay on your pricing page for more than two minutes, and meet all your demographic needs. 

Let's look at a few of the most popular types of targeted advertising: 

Targeted advertising allows organizations to target incredibly precise audiences. But there are several other benefits for B2B organizations. 

Benefits of targeted advertising for B2B 

Targeted advertising is especially beneficial for B2B companies. That's because it provides direct access to thousands of qualified prospects without wasting ad spend on prospects that aren't ready to convert. 

Let's look at the other benefits of targeted advertising: 

Reach buyers in the right stage of the buying cycle

Not all customers that match your ideal customer profile are ready to purchase. With intent-based targeting, you can reach buyers in the right industry and location and in the right stage of the buying cycle. 

For example, a sales tool company might target a search term like "best sales tools," however, those searchers are likely still in the consideration phase of the buying cycle. On the other hand, targeting a term like "Salesforce CRM vs Zoho" is more likely to reach buyers closer to converting. 

Increase ad ROI 

Ad spend can get out of control — especially when you waste money reaching prospects that aren't in your target audience. By showing more relevant offers to only the most qualified audiences, you can increase conversion rates, which means a better return on investment. 

You can also use targeted advertising to find customers in your ICP by testing different targeting options. For example, you might think enterprise businesses are your bread and butter, but after targeting them, discover the cost of acquisition is far too high. 

Better analytics

Targeted marketing provides access to real-time performance, advanced analytics, and more data about your customers. In Facebook advertising, you can see who you target, how often they click, and even whether they convert. 

That data makes it much easier to make adjustments quickly, driving ROI up and keeping ad costs down. 

The data can also power other business decisions. For example, you might notice that users in a specific location are clicking on your ads but not converting. Armed with that data, you might choose to end ads to those prospects or adjust your approach. 

Improved personalization

Personalization is powerful. In fact, 80 percent of customers say personalized offers increase the likelihood they'll buy from a brand. 

Targeted advertising helps you understand who your audience is, what types of content they prefer, and even what actions they are likely to take. 

That data can help you create more personalized content, like blog posts, white papers, or landing pages. 

Leadfeeder can power your targeted advertising campaigns

Leadfeeder is a B2B website tracking tool that identifies who visits your company website and the actions they take on your site using IP and domain address data. 

That's data you won't find in any of your standard analytics platforms, including Google Analytics. 

Leadfeeder data can then be imported to your CRM, sent over to your sales team (automatically, in many cases), and used to target high-value audiences. 

Note:Learn more about Leadfeeder or sign up for our free 14-day trial.