Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a crucial element in B2B marketing and advertising, driving strategic innovation. Using AI for B2B marketing might seem like a complex endeavour but it is easier than it seems. Let’s see how you can use AI to improve audience targeting, automate important tasks, and gain valuable insights.

Embrace Smart Bidding for Optimized Campaign Performance

What is Google Smart Bidding?

Smart Bidding is an AI-powered tool that automates the bidding process for your Google Ads campaigns. The system analyzes live signals from massive datasets, improving your bids for each auction instantly. This results in a tailored approach that maximizes the effectiveness of your ads. It includes strategies like Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximize conversions, and Maximize conversion value.

Benefits of Google’s Smart Bidding for B2B

• Advanced machine learning: Smart Bidding uses algorithms trained on large datasets to make accurate bid predictions that surpass human capabilities.
• Wide range of contextual signals: During auctions, Smart Bidding considers various identifiable attributes, going beyond manual bid adjustments.
• Flexible performance controls: It allows customization with performance targets, attribution models, and device-specific goals.
• Transparent performance reporting: Smart Bidding provides detailed bid strategy reports, statuses, campaign drafts, experiments, simulators, and alerts for comprehensive insights.

Smart Bidding helps all businesses, including B2B companies, by using data from all campaigns to improve performance. It can be effective for new campaigns that do not have their own data.

However, you would need more time to accurately evaluate its performance. This evaluation should include a minimum of 30 conversions (or 50 for Target ROAS). Here are some practical examples of how Google’s Smart Bidding works.

How to Use Smart Bidding with Google Ads

Video Ad Conversion Attribution

Video ad conversion attribution is the process of assigning credit for a conversion to a specific video ad. Understanding the impact of video ads helps you decide how to spend your advertising budget wisely.

In the past, video ad conversion attribution was often based on last-click attribution. Only the ad that the user clicked on before converting received credit for the conversion. This method may not be accurate. It doesn’t consider the impact of other ads the user saw before making a purchase.

With the advent of AI, video ad conversion attribution has become more accurate and sophisticated. AI tools can analyze factors to find which ads are likely to have influenced a conversion. These factors can include:

• the user’s engagement with the ad (e.g., whether they watched the entire ad or not)
• the user’s past interactions with the advertiser’s brand
• the user’s demographics and interests.

AI tools can analyze factors to show how video ads contribute to conversions with more accuracy. You can use this information to optimize video ad campaigns and improve ROI.

How Smart Bidding Predicts the Likelihood of Conversion

For video ads using Smart Bidding, Google Ads predicts the likelihood of conversion based on engagement data. Clicks or 10 seconds of viewing time are counted as engagements. Conversions attributed to ad clicks occur within the conversion window.

A fleet maintenance person in a delivery company watches a video ad for a truck. The person sees the ad for 15 seconds. They click on it and go to the advertiser’s website.

A few days later, the company buys some trucks. Smart Bidding says the video ad caused the purchase because the person watched and clicked on it.

Video ad conversion attribution helps you measure the success of your video ads and increase your return on investment. With AI tools, you can monitor how your video ads affect conversions, website visits, and brand awareness. Use this information to improve your video ads and decide how to spend your advertising budget effectively.

Broad-Match Keywords with Smart Bidding

Broad match keywords work well with Smart Bidding strategies, enhancing optimization without the need for match-type segmentation. The bidding system adapts bid strategies for each auction and learns faster with the inclusion of broad match keywords. 

Smart bidding with broad-match keywords for campaign optimization has many benefits. The algorithms, powered by machine learning, analyze a wide range of search queries associated with broad match keywords. This allows for dynamic bid adjustments in individual auctions based on user intent. This flexibility maximizes reach and opportunities, ensuring that a larger audience sees relevant ads. 

Smart bidding continuously learns from campaign performance and quickly adapts and optimizes bidding strategies with new data. This provides an efficient and responsive alternative to manual bid management. Ultimately, using smart bidding with broad match keywords simplifies campaign management. It reduces the need for manual adjustments and allows you to focus on strategy and creativity.

Using Smart Bidding Coming with Third-Party AI Tools

Combining Google’s Smart Bidding with third-party AI bidding tools is a good practice. Using extra AI tools and solutions to complement Google’s AI for advertising can significantly boost your ad performance. Basically, you get a multiplied AI power that helps you to bid even more granularly. It results in better outcomes for your business, be it clicks, leads, conversions, etc.  

One of BrighBids’s clients, Bodylab, a health and nutrition company, improved its Google Shopping ads. And all that without making major changes to product titles and descriptions. A pivotal aspect of the strategy involved integrating BrightBid’s AI-automated bidding algorithm. This ensured timely bid adjustments, ensuring campaigns aligned with desired outcomes.

So Why Use Smart Bidding in B2B Advertising?

Smart Bidding goes beyond simply increasing visibility. Instead, it focuses on strategically targeting the right audience at the right time. By analyzing data and adapting to user behavior and market trends, it improves strategies to boost campaign ROI.

Smart Bidding enables a dynamic and responsive approach. It saves time and resources while ensuring a sophisticated and adaptive campaign.

It shows your ads to the most promising prospects. It also displays them at the best times. Additionally, it ensures that the bid amount matches the value of the ad placement.

Harness AI-Powered Audience Segmentation

AI-powered audience segmentation has transformed the way B2B businesses approach advertising. Using machine learning and big data, B2B marketers can now accurately find and focus on their ideal customer profiles. This targeted approach allows for highly personalized and relevant messaging, leading to increased engagement, conversions, and ROI.

The benefits of AI-powered audience segmentation for B2B businesses include 

• enhanced targeting
• personalized marketing
• improved ROI
• predictive insights
• dynamic segmentation. 

Enhanced Targeting and Personalization

AI algorithms possess the ability to analyze a wide range of datasets, detecting patterns and trends within the information. This can help you to create highly focused segments that closely match your Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs). B2B businesses can customize their messages and offerings to meet the specific needs and challenges of different audience segments. As a result, you can build stronger connections with the audience, significantly increasing the chances of conversions.

Moreover, by precisely targeting the right audience with resonating messages, you can optimize advertising expenditure. Aligning messages and target audience boosts marketing budget impact, resulting in higher ROI. AI helps B2B businesses improve advertising strategies by analyzing data and targeting customers more efficiently and effectively.

Improved ROI

B2B companies can improve their advertising ROI by using AI to improve ROI. 

Firstly, AI tools can help target the right audience, ensuring that ads reach the most relevant potential customers. Secondly, AI can personalize B2B ads, tailoring messages to specific buyer personas and increasing engagement. 

Thirdly, AI-powered predictive analytics can help companies anticipate trends and adjust advertising strategies for maximum impact. Besides that, automating routine tasks through AI saves time and resources. 

Additionally, AI-driven lead scoring helps prioritize high-value prospects. Implementing AI for dynamic pricing strategies allows you to adjust pricing based on real-time market conditions. Lastly, continuous analysis of campaign performance through AI-driven insights enables data-driven decision-making, refining strategies and improving ROI over time.

Predictive Insights and Dynamic Segmentation

With AI-powered segmentation, you can gain predictive insights that help engage with audience in a proactive manner. This technology also enables AI algorithms to update audience segments continuously. This becomes possible because of new data and real-time insights, so you are always targeting the most relevant and up-to-date segments. Using AI, B2B companies can stay ahead and give their audience the best experience.

Examples of AI-powered audience segmentation in B2B advertising include 

• identifying industry-specific segments
• predicting purchase intent
• creating lookalike audiences
• personalizing ad creative, 
• and optimizing ad placement. 

AI can analyze firmographic data to identify businesses within specific industries, allowing for tailored messaging that resonates with industry-specific challenges and opportunities. 

By analyzing behavioral data, AI can identify potential customers who are actively researching and considering purchasing solutions, enabling businesses to prioritize high-intent leads. 

AI can also create lookalike audiences by analyzing existing customer segments and identifying individuals with similar attributes. This expands the reach of marketing campaigns to individuals likely to be interested in the company’s products or services. 

AI can generate ad creatives based on user preferences and engagement patterns. This increases the relevance and effectiveness of advertising campaigns. Traditional B2B advertising often relies on generic messaging. It fails to capture the unique needs and interests of individual prospects.

AI-powered ad creation tools can transform your approach with personalized ad copy and images. As a result, you get ad creatives that are tailored to each user’s profile and interests. 

Finally, AI can use real-time data to find the best channels and platforms to reach different audience groups.

Leverage AI for A/B Testing

A/B testing is an essential part of optimizing your ad creative. Yet, it can be time-consuming and resource-intensive.

AI-powered creative optimization tools can streamline this process by automatically testing and analyzing different ad variations. These tools can identify which elements of your ad creative are performing best. They suggest improvements, helping you refine your campaigns for maximum impact.

Incorporating AI into A/B testing is like adding a secret ingredient to enhance your ad creativity. We all understand the importance of A/B testing in making our ads shine, but let’s be honest, it can be quite time-consuming. That’s where AI-powered creative optimization tools come in. They make A/B testing feel effortless. Thesetools eliminate the need for manual labor in analyzing different ad versions. Not only do they save you time and effort, but they also act as detectives, uncovering what works best in your ad creatives.

The beauty of these AI tools is that they’re like ad wizards, spotting the hidden gems and providing you with valuable insights on how to make things even more impressive. So, for B2B individuals looking to take their ad game to the next level, incorporating AI into the A/B testing process is a logical choice. It’s all about infusing some data-driven magic into your creative journey and ensuring that your ads have the impact necessary to stand out from the crowd.

Gain Insights with AI-Driven Attribution Modeling

Traditional attribution models often struggle to capture the complex interactions leading to conversions. AI-powered attribution modeling provides a complete view of customer interactions. You can assign conversions more granularly to different touchpoints in the customer journey with it.

Benefits of AI-Powered Attribution Modeling for B2B

B2B businesses can gain valuable insights through AI-driven attribution modeling, transforming their understanding of marketing effectiveness. 

• AI enables the analysis of vast datasets to identify the touchpoints and interactions that contribute most to conversions. This sophisticated analysis goes beyond traditional models, providing a more nuanced understanding of the customer journey. 
• AI-driven attribution modeling considers multiple touchpoints and channels, offering a holistic view of the customer’s interactions across various platforms. This method helps B2B businesses assign credit correctly to each touchpoint, showing the real effect of different marketing channels. 
• Machine learning algorithms can dynamically adapt attribution models, considering the evolving landscape and adjusting weights assigned to different touchpoints based on changing customer behaviors. This adaptability ensures that attribution models remain relevant and effective over time. 
• AI-based attribution modeling assists B2B companies in tailoring their strategies for optimal impact. Identifying patterns across various touchpoints and devices helps achieve this. 

How AI-Powered Attribution Modeling Works in B2B Advertising

Here’s an example of how AI-powered attribution modeling work. A SaaS company is looking to improve its understanding of marketing effectiveness and optimize its advertising budget. They choose to use AI to get a better understanding of how well their marketing is doing. AI attribution model shows that SaaS purchases involve many touchpoints across different channels in the customer journey. 

Using AI data, the SaaS company changes its marketing strategy after learning valuable information from the attribution model:

• increasing the budget for LinkedIn advertising 
• enhancing email marketing campaigns
• optimizing website content for organic search,
• and encouraging customer reviews. 

By implementing AI-driven attribution modeling, the SaaS company gains a deeper understanding of the customer journey. It identifies the marketing channels and touchpoints that are most effective in driving conversions.

Overall, AI-driven attribution modeling empowers B2B businesses to make informed decisions, optimize marketing spend, and enhance overall campaign effectiveness.

Automate Routine Tasks with AI

B2B marketers often spend a significant amount of time on repetitive tasks like bid adjustments, performance monitoring, and reporting. AI-powered automation tools can handle these tasks effortlessly. By automating routine tasks, you can streamline your workflow, improve efficiency, and enhance productivity.

B2B companies have a range of options when it comes to automating routine tasks with AI:

• Performance tracking: AI can keep a constant eye on campaign performance, monitoring key metrics and offering valuable insights. Automated alerts notify users of any significant changes or issues, enabling them to make prompt adjustments.
• Effortless reporting: Instead of spending time compiling and analyzing data manually, AI can generate comprehensive reports with valuable insights. This not only saves time but also provides accurate and up-to-date information for data-driven decision-making.
• Content creation: AI tools can lend a hand in creating ad copies, social media posts, and other content. By utilizing natural language processing, these tools can generate relevant and engaging content, saving marketers time and effort.
• Automated email campaigns: AI can personalize content, send targeted messages, and optimize delivery times in e-mail campaigns. This ensures a more tailored approach to engaging with leads and clients.
• Efficient lead scoring: AI-driven lead scoring systems can automatically evaluate and prioritize leads based on various criteria. This helps sales teams focus their efforts on leads with higher conversion potential.
• Streamlined social media management: AI tools can schedule posts, analyze engagement data, and even suggest content ideas. This streamlines the social media management process and enhances online presence.
• Quick customer support: Chatbots powered by AI can handle routine customer queries, provide information, and assist with problem-solving. This ensures a quick and efficient response to customer inquiries.

How B2B Can Automate Lead Capture with BrightBid AI

Amity, a B2B global tech company specializing in in-app community building through the Amity Social SDK, engaged BrightBid to extend its reach to 69 markets via paid search, resulting in a remarkable 47% reduction in Cost Per Sales Accepted Lead (SAL).

Achievements:

• -47% Cost Per SAL
• +39% Sales Accepted Leads
• -34% CPC Decrease

BrightBid assisted Amity in generating quality global leads within the niche B2B tech sector. Facing a challenge in 2022 due to keyword confusion with the launch of ChatGPT, we swiftly revamped their paid search campaigns to combat irrelevant clicks.

With precision in excluding keywords, adjusting bids, and pausing historically high-performing terms, BrightBid navigated the issue of irrelevant clicks. Implementing 151,000 bidding optimizations, we honed in on the right audience and effectively bid on high-quality keywords, reducing the cost per SAL

Our strategy involved refining the campaign structure, crafting relevant ad copy, using top-tier keywords, and optimizing audience targeting. This approach successfully cut down on expensive leads, exemplified by a notable reduction in the cost per SAL.

Amity’s challenge markets—UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, and Canada—posed a high cost per SAL, and BrightBid not only met but exceeded expectations, achieving a 20% reduction as requested.

Integrate AI with CRM and Marketing Automation

Why B2B Businesses Should Integrate AI with CRM

By combining AI tools with CRM and marketing automation, you can seamlessly connect customer data. This integration allows you to move beyond traditional segmentation and identify individual preferences, behaviors, and past interactions. This deep understanding enables targeted messaging that resonates with each customer on a personal level.

AI, CRM, and marketing automation work together to streamline data management and boost the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. With AI algorithms, you can analyze vast amounts of data. As a result, you can get deeper insights into customer journeys. This enables the delivery of timely and relevant content tailored to each customer’s unique profile.

To put it simply, the combination of AI, CRM, and marketing automation is more than just linking data together. It establishes the groundwork for crafting significant customer interactions. AI’s analytical features paired with CRM and marketing automation systems can unleash the potential for personalized engagement. This combo can also cultivate enduring customer connections across all channels.

How B2B Can Integrate AI with CRM Systems

Let’s consider a use case of AI integration with a CRM system in a B2B company. A tire casing manufacturer, operating globally, is encountering difficulties in engaging with its intended audience of automotive engineers and procurement professionals. 

The tire casing manufacturer is currently relying on generic white papers and product brochures in their marketing strategies. However, these materials often lead the company the wrong way. They fail to catch the attention of busy executives and meet their specific engineering and supply chain needs.

The company turns to AI in its CRM and marketing automation to improve marketing and reach decision-makers.

The integration of AI allows the tire casing manufacturer to achieve several benefits:

• AI algorithms analyze data to find car manufacturers and individuals that match the tire casing manufacturer’s ideal customers. This targeted approach ensures that we focus marketing efforts on the most promising leads, maximizing the return on investment.
• AI customizes marketing content and messages for engineers and procurement professionals. It uses data on their interests, past interactions, and industry trends. This personalized approach increases the likelihood of engagement.
• AI algorithms predict when engineers and procurement professionals want to buy new tire casings by analyzing real-time data. This allows the manufacturer to trigger timely interventions, such as personalized sales outreach or targeted technical content offers.
• AI improves lead nurturing campaigns by analyzing data from past sales and successful customer interactions. It then uses this information to determine the most effective strategies for different groups of leads. This makes sure that lead nurturing campaigns are customized for each group, increasing the conversion rate.
• AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants engage with engineers and procurement professionals on the manufacturer’s website and industry forums. They provide personalized support, answer technical questions, and offer tailored case studies and product demos.

The tire casing maker used AI to improve its understanding of the target audience and their engineering and supply chain problems. This data-centric approach empowers the company to offer personalized experiences across diverse marketing channels. As a result, there is a rise in customer interaction, enhanced conversion rates, and ultimately, business expansion.

Use Google AI Tools for Advertising

How can the power of Google’s AI help advertisers, besides the above-mentioned Smart Bidding? Google leverages AI to automate paid search advertising, optimizing campaigns and introducing engaging ad formats in several other ways. This evolution continues, with AI advancements showcased at Google Marketing Live.

Generative AI in Search (Search Generative Experience)

Generative AI in Search marks a groundbreaking frontier where Google is pioneering advancements to revolutionize the creation of ads. This cutting-edge technology involves the development of artificial intelligence that goes beyond traditional ad creation methods. Instead of relying solely on predefined templates, Generative AI delves into the realm of creativity and context understanding.

Search Generative Experience (SGE) introduces a novel search approach, utilizing artificial intelligence to produce more informative and comprehensive results. This technology can potentially affect B2B advertising, offering a more personalized and effective means of reaching target audiences.

Here are some of the ways in which SGE is likely to impact B2B advertising:

• B2B advertisers must pay more attention to the intent of their target audience’s searches with SGE. This is because SGE can pinpoint the exact information that each user is seeking and deliver more personalized results.
• B2B advertisers can create more personalized ad experiences for their target audience with SGE. SGE uses user data to show ads that are more relevant to each user. This data includes search history, past interactions with advertisers, and demographic information.
• SGE will focus on pictures and videos because it is better at understanding visual information than regular search engines. To do well in the SGE results, B2B advertisers need attractive and informative ads.
• SGE enables B2B advertisers to create engaging and interactive ad experiences. It can respond to user input instantly. You can design ads that cater to users’ specific needs and provide personalized product recommendations.

Overall, SGE is a powerful new technology that has the potential to significantly impact B2B advertising. B2B advertisers who are able to adapt to this new landscape will be well-positioned to succeed in the future.

These are just a few examples of the many ways in which SGE is likely to impact B2B advertising. As this technology grows, we will see more creative ways to use it for marketing and reaching target audiences.

Performance Max Campaigns

How can B2B companies use Performance Max?

Performance Max is a powerful advertising campaign type that B2B companies can use to enhance their digital marketing strategies. 

Performance Max simplifies advertising by automating campaign management. Here’s how B2B companies can benefit from PMax campaigns.

• Multichannel advertising: Performance Max allows B2B companies to advertise on various Google networks. This helps them reach their target audience on platforms like Search, Display, Gmail, YouTube, and Discover.
• Automation and simplified management: Google’s machine learning algorithms automate bidding and targeting processes, simplifying campaign management for B2B companies. This frees up time to focus on strategy and creativity while the system optimizes in real-time.
• Broad reach and audience expansion: Performance Max optimizes bids in every auction. It helps B2B businesses reach more customers for whom traditional marketing strategies did not work.
• Data-driven insights: Performance Max provides transparent reporting tools, offering detailed insights into campaign performance. B2B companies can access bid strategy reports, bid strategy statuses, and simulators to make informed decisions.
• Applying data-driven attribution: Performance Max enables B2B companies to better understand their customers’ journey. It achieves this by utilizing data-driven attribution models to assign value to various touchpoints along the customer’s path. This helps optimize advertising strategies based on actual customer interactions.
• Dynamic ad formats: Performance Max supports responsive search ads and adapts to different ad formats based on performance. B2B companies can optimize their content based on user responses, improving ad effectiveness.
• Optimized for conversions: Performance Max allows B2B companies to focus on conversion goals, such as lead generation or product sales. Its automated bidding and targeting enhance the likelihood of successfully reaching these objectives.

Here are some examples of how B2B companies can use Performance Max: 

• A tech company is using Performance Max to generate leads for its new cloud-based software. 
• A manufacturing company is using Performance Max to drive traffic to its white paper on supply chain optimization. 
• A financial services company is using Performance Max to increase brand awareness among potential customers. 
• An e-commerce company is using Performance Max to retarget website visitors who have abandoned their shopping carts. 
• A healthcare company is using Performance Max to nurture leads and move them closer to a purchase decision.

See these blog posts for more tips on PMax optimization:

• How to Fix and Avoid Low Ad Performance on Google Performance Max
• How to Exclude Products from Performance Max Campaigns and Why
• 10 Tips for Optimizing Google Performance Max Shopping Campaigns

Bard AI—Experimental AI Chat Tool

An evolving AI tool for questions, content creation, and potential customer support. To access Google’s Bard AI, go to bard.google.com and Sign in with your Google account to start. Bard AI is a handy tool for advertising, be it B2C or B2B.

Currently in development, Bard offers features such as answering questions, creating creative content, and providing customer support.

How to Use Bard AI in Online Advertising

• Create interactive content: Bard can help in crafting engaging and innovative ad content. Its ability to generate diverse and compelling messages can contribute to the development of unique advertising campaigns.
• Enhance customer interactions: By offering personalized and responsive interactions, Bard improves the customer experience in advertising. This can involve answering queries, providing product information, or guiding users through the purchase process.
• Generate content: Bard’s creative content generation extends to advertising copy. It can assist in creating persuasive and relevant ad copy, targeting specific audiences.
• Real-time customer support: You can utilize Bard’s capabilities for real-time customer support. It can address queries, troubleshoot issues, and provide assistance, leading to enhanced customer satisfaction.

Bard’s development phase still brings uncertainty. The precise integration of advertising is yet to become more clear. But it also holds the promise of a vibrant and engaging advertising environment. This could include personalized ad recommendations, interactive ad experiences, and AI-driven advertising conversations.

Conclusion

Using AI for B2B marketing is important for enhancing your company’s performance. This brings about a landscape of strategic innovation, incorporating sophisticated machine learning algorithms, analysis of contextual signals, and adaptable performance controls. These improvements have useful advantages like tracking video ad conversions and working well with broad-match keywords.

Besides that, B2B businesses should pay attention to AI-powered audience segmentation. It offers numerous benefits such as improved targeting, personalized marketing, predictive insights, dynamic segmentation, and increased ROI. A/B testing, attribution modeling, and integration with CRM and marketing automation can boost sales and marketing cycles.

Google’s AI tools, including Generative AI in search, are already having a significant impact on B2B advertising. Performance Max Campaigns help B2B companies boost their ads with multichannel advertising, automation, wide reach, and data-driven insights.

Additionally, the introduction of Bard AI, an experimental tool, opens up new possibilities for B2B companies. This AI tool helps with creating content, supporting customers, and improving online advertising, giving businesses an advantage in marketing.

AI is more than a tool for visibility. It helps B2B marketers target audiences, personalize experiences, and optimize campaigns for maximum ROI. Embracing AI in its various forms becomes imperative for businesses seeking to effectively navigate the dynamic and rapidly evolving B2B advertising landscape.