Goal: qualified enquiries
Google Ads for B2B leads
Fewer enquiries, better ones, and bidding that learns from the deals you closed
A B2B campaign is judged on qualified leads and, as they arrive, on closed deals, because a form fill from a student in Fallowfield and a quote request from a buyer in Trafford Park look identical to Google until you tell it otherwise. So the campaign is built around the feedback loop: a form that asks a qualifying question, a click ID captured with every lead, your CRM's verdict on each one uploaded back as an offline conversion, and bids that follow the leads that became customers. For a Manchester manufacturer, supplier, consultancy or software firm the management fee starts at £249 a month.
The loop
Four steps that turn “leads” into “customers” in the account
Google can only optimise for what it can see. Each step below makes one more thing visible, and the account gets better at exactly the rate the loop is fed.
The form captures the click
A hidden field records Google's click ID with every submission, so a lead in your CRM can be matched to the search, the keyword and the ad that produced it.
You mark the lead
Qualified or not, quoted or not, won or lost, in whatever system you already use. A spreadsheet is enough to start; a CRM integration is better.
We upload the outcomes
The qualified leads and the closed deals go back into Google Ads as offline conversions, with values where you have them, against the original click.
Bidding follows the revenue
Smart Bidding now sees which searches produced customers, not which produced forms. The target moves from cost per lead to cost per qualified lead, and the report shows both.
What bidding sees, and what you see
The B2B cycle problem, and the early signal that solves it
A bid strategy cannot wait six months for a purchase order. It needs a conversion within days of the click, so the campaign is judged on the stage of your sales process that predicts the sale, and corrected later by the sale itself.
| Stage | When it happens | What the account counts it as | Who sees it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Form or call | Minutes after the click | A lead. The primary conversion in month one, so the strategy has something to learn from | Everyone |
| Qualified by you | Same day or next | A qualified lead, uploaded as an offline conversion and made the primary once there are enough | The report, by campaign |
| Quote sent | Days to weeks | A value conversion where a quote value exists, which lets bidding chase the size of the enquiry, not only the number | The report, with values |
| Deal closed | Weeks to months | Revenue against the click that started it, uploaded when it lands, however long that took | The report's worth line, and the bidding |
Words are shared
“CNC machining Manchester” is typed by buyers, apprentices and the curious
B2B searches share their vocabulary with people who will never buy. A search for industrial flooring is a facilities manager or a student writing an essay; a search for payroll software is a finance director or someone wanting a job in payroll. The negative list is longer for B2B than for any other goal and it grows every week from the search terms: courses, jobs, salaries, apprenticeships, definitions, DIY, free, template.
The ad does the second half of the filtering. It says who it is for, what the minimum order or the typical project looks like, and where you are, so the reader who is not a buyer does not click. A lower click-through rate on a B2B ad is often a sign it is working.
Desks and hours
Office hours, weekdays, and the second search engine
B2B buyers search from desks: Monday to Friday, mostly mid-morning and mid-afternoon, on a laptop as often as a phone. The schedule follows that, the device bids follow it, and the landing page is checked on both. A B2B campaign spending at ten on a Saturday night is usually buying clicks from the wrong person.
The same buyer is often on Microsoft's search engine, because it is the default on the corporate laptop and nobody changed it. The Google campaigns are imported into Microsoft Ads once they are clean, at a lower cost per click and with the same negatives, and the report keeps the two engines on separate lines so each earns its own budget.
Keep reading
Next door to this page
Questions about ads for B2B leads
What is an offline conversion, and why does B2B need it?
A conversion recorded after the click, outside the website: a lead marked qualified in your CRM, a quote sent, a deal closed. Uploaded back into Google Ads against the click that started it, it tells Smart Bidding which clicks became customers rather than which became form fills. Without it the account optimises for the easiest enquiry, which in B2B is usually the worst one.
How do you stop students and job seekers filling the form?
Three ways. Negative keywords for courses, jobs, salaries, 'how to' and 'what is'; ad copy that says who it is for and what it costs, which puts off the wrong reader before the click; and a form that asks a qualifying question, such as company name or order quantity, so the unqualified do not finish it.
Our sales cycle is six months. How can the ads be judged in three?
On the early signal that predicts the sale: a qualified lead, a site visit booked, a quote requested. You tell us which early stage correlates with revenue, we count that as the conversion, and the closed deals are uploaded later to correct the bidding. The report shows both the early number and, as they arrive, the real ones.
Should we run LinkedIn ads instead?
Different job. LinkedIn reaches people by job title whether or not they are looking; Google reaches people who typed the problem into a search box today. For a B2B firm with a product people search for, Google comes first. We do not run LinkedIn, and we say so rather than sell it.
Is Microsoft Ads worth it for B2B?
More often than for any other goal. Bing is the default on a great many corporate desktops and the buyer at a desk in Trafford Park or Salford Quays at eleven in the morning is often on it. The Google campaigns are imported once they are clean, and the report keeps the two apart.
What does it cost?
The management fee is set by spend: £249 a month up to £1,000, £399 up to £3,000, £599 up to £8,000, excluding VAT. Offline conversion import from a CRM sits in the Scale tier because of the hours it takes; the form-and-negatives work is in every tier.
Can you target only businesses, not consumers?
Not directly; Google does not know who is at the keyboard. In practice the search terms, the ad copy, the schedule (office hours, weekdays) and the form do it between them, and the search terms report shows how well each week.
Do you need access to our CRM?
Only a way to receive a list of leads with their outcomes, which can be a spreadsheet you export monthly, a HubSpot or Salesforce integration, or a Zapier connection. The click ID is captured on the form at setup so each lead can be matched back to its click.
Which parts of Greater Manchester matter for B2B?
Fewer than for a consumer business. Trafford Park, Salford Quays, the city centre, Stockport, Bolton and the industrial estates in Oldham and Rochdale hold most of the buyers, but a B2B firm usually sells nationally and the campaign targets accordingly. Local matters for the ad copy and the reviews, not the radius.
Say what the ads are for. The fee and the first three changes come back in writing.
Calls, sales, bookings or leads, roughly what you spend, and the part of Greater Manchester you sell to. Daniel Stoychev reads it himself and answers within one working day with the tier, the fee and what he would change first. Already spending? The free check reads your account in 72 hours.