Ad serving to businesses and professionals
While a good number of ads that you see online are aimed directly at the average consumers, those are not the only types of advertising to be found. There are countless businesses out there who place ads that target other businesses, as well as industry professionals. It goes without saying that you cannot take the same approach to business-to-business (B2B)
ad serving as you would to business-to-consumer (B2C) adserving. In this article, we are going to take a look at some of the differences you will find when advertising to businesses and professionals.
Targeting a niche audience
In many cases, advertisers who try to attract other businesses do so by offering up products and services that are very specific to the industry that being targeted, to the point that the average consumer might have no idea about what is being sold. These are things like industrial products or services, but they can also include things such as technical writing services offered on a B2B basis only. Those copywriters are not going to be available to write a piece for your blog about your favorite hobby.
No impulse buying
When creating ad campaigns for the general public, advertisers will try to tap into certain emotions that they believe will sway potential buyers. This includes selling up the luxury aspects of an item, as well as showing how happy a consumer would be if they owned the specific product being sold. Since business transactions are very different, those emotions are not emphasized and even removed from the equation.
Just facts and features
In many cases, advertisers try to sell the consumer a dream as opposed to just talking about the product being sold. That usually means talking about how your life can change when you own said product. Again, these types of scenarios are removed from B2B ads because it’s all about practicality and how exactly the advertised product and service can help their business. This is why you will often see specifications, performance and technical data talked up more than anything else. Facts and numbers are what matter to businesses.
Longer conversion process
If an online
adserver displays an ad that interests you, the next step is generally to click on the banner and link to get a little more information about the product being presented. If you like what you see, you can then go ahead and make the purchase, with the whole process taking as little as a few minutes. That is not how things work with advertising to businesses because there are generally more formal protocols and procedures in place that need to be adhered to throughout the purchase process. A B2B conversion from click to sale is not quick or spontaneous. It often involves multiple people with different titles and from different departments. There are gatekeepers and decision makers. Therefore, fast and clear communication with different people is key to ensure the purchase goes smoothly.
Higher switching cost
While the actual conversion process may be a little longer, the good news is that a happy customer is very likely to continue doing business with you because they are well aware of the time and cost associated of switching to a different vendor. One of the reasons why the initial process takes so long is because businesses want to make sure that they find and choose the right business vendor often for a long term relationship.
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