Heavy Industry, Logistics, and Manufacturing on Google. Why Do Technical Industries Achieve the Highest ROI from Combining Google Ads and LinkedIn Ads?

The challenge for businesses in industrial sectors is reaching the potential decision-makers who might be interested in a company’s offer. And no advertising channel allows for targeting users by professional profile as precisely as LinkedIn Ads. Because of its thematic focus and the detailed data it holds on its users, LinkedIn’s advertising ecosystem makes it possible to direct messages with great precision, taking professional criteria into account. When setting up a LinkedIn Ads campaign, you can target your ads directly to:

• CEOs and owners of companies that may need logistics services.
• Production directors and technical directors.
• Managers and engineers at industrial companies.
• Procurement and supply-chain specialists.

LinkedIn even lets you go a step beyond the job titles listed in users’ profiles. An Account-Based Marketing (ABM) strategy lets you tap into LinkedIn’s databases and serve ads exclusively to employees of specifically selected, key companies.

What Does the Data Say About LinkedIn Ads’ Effectiveness?

In its report The State of B2B Lead Generation, HubSpot analyzed traffic and conversion using data from more than 5,000 companies. The research found that the conversion rate for the B2B sector (a user who visits a site from an ad and becomes a lead) reached as high as 2.74%, compared to just 0.77% for Facebook and 0.69% for the X platform. This means that LinkedIn traffic converted nearly three times more effectively than the other advertising platforms.

Source: HubSpot

LinkedIn Ads campaigns let you build brand awareness and an expert image precisely among the people who will, in the future, be the decision-makers when choosing a service provider. This channel works effectively for reaching customers at the top (TOFU) and middle (MOFU) stages of the sales funnel. Before the customer types specific queries into Google, they will already know your brand and subconsciously perceive it as an industry leader.

Google Ads let you reach users at the bottom of the buying funnel (BOFU), who are already showing clear intent. An engineer, technical director, or logistics specialist who types the name of a specific machine or specialized component into the search engine, or who is looking for a certified supplier, is at an advanced stage of the buying process. By planning an ad campaign targeted at these keywords, you deliver your message at exactly the moment the potential customer is making a decision.

Research on B2B decision-maker behavior presented in the report The Changing Face of B2B Marketing indicates that as many as 71% of corporate decision-makers look for suppliers and business partners by typing keywords into Google. Ads within the Google Ads ecosystem allow companies to gain visibility for exactly those phrases that decision-makers in a given industry are typing.

When planning your advertising budget, limiting yourself to just one of these two channels caps their potential. LinkedIn Ads builds trust and brand image, while Google Ads captures the user who is ready to buy. Integrating the two systems allows you to effectively reach the potential customer at every stage, from evaluating suppliers all the way to sending a request for a quote.

Being present on both channels also increases touchpoints, the points of contact between the user and the company. The more such touchpoints there are along the buying journey, the greater the chance the customer will choose a trusted, familiar supplier. This allows you to acquire high-value, substantial leads, which is especially important in such a specific sector as heavy industry or logistics.

For technical and industrial sectors, campaign effectiveness should not be assessed from the perspective of traffic metrics or the sheer number of clicks on ad creatives. The main KPIs for industrial-sector campaigns should include:

1. SQL (Sales Qualified Lead): how well the lead matches your offer in terms of budget and decision-making authority.
2. Win Rate: the conversion of a marketing lead into a signed contract.
3. LTV / CAC Ratio: the relationship between the long-term value of a contract and the cost of acquiring the customer.

Keep in mind that the cost of an ad impression or a single click for a technical B2B industry can be high, but it should be considered from the perspective of the value of the signed contract.

Both industry research and our own experience working with clients in this sector show that it is precisely LinkedIn and ABM-type ads combined with Google campaigns that deliver the highest ROI of all marketing initiatives in the B2B sector.

Sources:

• https://www.academia.edu/39195932/The_Changing_Face_of_B2B_Marketing
• https://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/30030/linkedin-277-more-effective-for-lead-generation-than-facebook-twitter-new-data.aspx