PPC campaigns from INTEG SOLUTIONS: bringing your business to foreign markets

We will develop a customised PPC strategy to promote your business in foreign markets. Get a 30-minute consultation for free:

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Alena Dyrmovskaya

PPC traffic manager

You launch an advertising campaign (AC), spend your budget, but instead of a stream of requests you get only a handful of irrelevant leads? A situation familiar to many companies trying to enter foreign markets without a clear strategy.

But now you know exactly who your customer is, what their pains are and how your product can solve them. Your adverts are only shown to those who are ready to buy, and clicks bring real sales. This is exactly how a PPC campaign works, customised with all the nuances of the business and the chosen market in mind.

At INTEG, we don't just run contextual advertising - we create systems that work for you 24/7. Our clients are B2B companies (in some cases B2C) with a high average check, who want to attract targeted traffic, get quality leads and increase sales.

PPC is a key tool for entering the international arena

PPC (Pay Per Click)

is an online advertising model where every click on an ad is paid for. Therefore, it is very important for advertisers to have as few ‘empty’ clicks as possible, so that each click becomes a step towards conversion. If advertising does not give applications and sales in the required volume, it becomes a meaningless waste of budget.

Contextual advertising

is one of the most powerful promotional tools, especially when you need to bring your business to the international market in a relatively short time. But PPC works only when the campaign is set up correctly.

RESULT

We build a PPC strategy so that your business gets relevant and already warmed up clients ready to buy, and the costs are paid off.

How INTEG builds PPC campaigns: stages and key metrics

Product analysis and semantics collection

The first thing we do is to do an in-depth analysis of your product/service and collect semantics. But it is important to understand: semantics for PPC and for SEO are different things. In PPC, we filter out all queries that are not clearly commercial in nature.

WHAT WE DO

Collect all possible queries related to your product. Semantics includes not only obvious queries, but also keys with long tails that may be useful for narrow niches. Special tools and services are used to collect the most complete list of keywords.

Filter, leaving only semantics with commercial potential. For example, to advertise a developer of corporate CRM-systems, we exclude queries ‘what is CRM’, ‘history of CRM-systems’ and similar queries. Instead, we focus on queries with a clear commercial intent, such as ‘order CRM-system development’, ‘cost of CRM implementation for business’ or ‘CRM for real estate agency / car service / beauty salon’.

Prepare basic lists of minus-words to exclude irrelevant traffic. Minus-words are queries you don't want to show up for. For example, if you are developing cloud storage solutions but do not provide ready-made cloud services, we add the following queries to the minus-words: ‘rent a cloud server’, ‘cloud hosting provider’, ‘personal cloud for storing files’. This avoids traffic from users who are looking for ready-made products rather than development services.

Landing page optimization

Landing pages are a key element in the success of a PPC campaign. If a page doesn't convert, even the highest quality traffic won't bring results.

WHAT WE DO

We audit landing pages according to a checklist.
We make changes to the structure of the site, if necessary.
We optimize the UX so that the customer's path through the funnel is as simple and clear as possible.

Why change the structure of the site

Structure is not just a set of web pages, it is the path your customer takes from touchpoint to action. If the structure is not well thought out, the user may get lost on the site and leave without finding the necessary information and, consequently, without leaving a request.

HOW WE WORK ON THE SITE

Analysing your current structure

We examine how your website is structured and assess how well it meets the needs of your target audience. For example, if a software developer's website doesn't have clear sections describing services, case studies, and team, it could be a drain on potential customers.

Optimizing the customer journey

If necessary, we rearrange the structure of the site so that each step of the user logically leads him to conversion. What should be guided here:

Home page - clearly shows what the company does and what problems it solves;
‘Services‘ section - contains a detailed description of services with a focus on benefits for the client;
‘Cases‘ - a section/page to demonstrate expertise, real examples of successful projects or announcements of them are placed here;
‘About Us’ page - aims to inspire trust, contains information about the team as a whole and/or about each of the specialists;
‘Contacts’ - to ensure that the company's services are in line with the customer's needs.

Eliminating weaknesses

In this phase, we identify areas where users are most likely to leave the site. Improvements are required to increase engagement and conversion:

drop-off points - where site visitors stop their interaction;
pain points - areas that cause users difficulty or frustration;
friction points - places where the process becomes difficult for the user.

Adaptation for PPC traffic

If you run PPC campaigns, landing pages should be as relevant as possible to the queries from the adverts. We create separate pages for key query clusters so that the user finds what they are looking for immediately.

Frequent mistakes of website owners

Company information (TIN/VAT number, office address, email, phone, details) is not available.
The competences of the team are not clearly described, there is no portfolio with examples of work.
Difficult navigation, confusing menu.
No call to action (CTA).
No ‘Thank you’ page and no goals are set up for it.

TAKE NOTE

When promoting on the foreign market, it is very important to include a VAT number on the website. It confirms the legitimacy of the company, compliance with EU tax legislation, and increases the confidence of counterparties and clients. Specifying VAT also demonstrates business transparency and readiness to follow European rules, which is important for international trade.

Case Study

A client that develops IoT devices had a website with a structure unsuitable for PPC promotion. After the audit it turned out that:

potential customers could not find information about the team and experience;
had no sections showing expertise (cases, description of technologies, expert materials);
link to the page with contact information was ‘hidden’ in the footer.

We redesigned the structure of the site:

added a section ‘Team’ with photos and descriptions of experts;
created a menu item “Cases”, added a section and pages with detailed descriptions of completed projects;
simplified navigation, moved the link to ‘Contacts’ to the top menu;
added clear calls to action.

RESULT

the site's Conversion Rate (CR) increased

from 2% to 5%

and the cost per lead decreased by half

Proper website structure:

Simplifies the customer's path to conversion

Increases trust in the brand

Increases sales

Can lower the cost per lead

If your website isn't ready for PPC traffic, we can help you optimise it so that every click gets results.

Setting up the technical part

Technical setup is the basis for collecting data and evaluating the effectiveness of campaigns. Without correctly configured analytics tools, it is impossible to understand which adverts really work and which only waste budget.

WHAT WE DO

Set up goals in Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager. Define key user actions on the site: sending an application, downloading a commercial offer, going to a certain section of the site and other actions that are considered conversions. Targets help you track how well your adverts are performing.
Connect Google My Business (especially important for local services). If a business is focused on the local market, setting up Google My Business is essential to ensure that the company shows up in search and on maps. It also allows you to collect conversions directly from the business card (calls, route requests, etc.)
Test goals and set up UTM tags to accurately track conversions. PPC specialists create UTM tags for each ad to see exactly where the user came from (ad campaign, ad group, keyword). This allows us to analyse which channels and queries bring the most leads, and to optimise campaigns quickly.
We set up Google Looker Studio (more details in the reporting section).

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

Data accuracy

Analytics allows you to evaluate the effectiveness of each ad and not waste your budget on irrelevant ones.

Real-time optimization

Based on conversion data, you can quickly make changes to advertising campaigns.

Cross-cutting analytics

Setting up UTM tags and goals allows you to track the entire customer journey: from the first touch to closing the deal.

Case Study

For a client that develops SaaS solutions, we set up targets in Google Analytics to track requests for a product demo. Thanks to UTM tags, we found out that 53% of targeted requests come from the RCs related to the SaaS application hosting request. This allowed to reallocate the budget and increase the number of leads by 38.7%.

TAKE NOTE

Correct settings of analytics, goals and UTM-tags allow you to measure the effectiveness of advertising, so that every euro of the budget works for the result.

Create and run adverts

At this stage we create adverts that are not just relevant to the market, but also set the advertiser apart from the competition.

WHAT WE DO

Group and analyze key query clusters. For each semantic group, we create relevant ads (precisely answering the user's query). For example, for a company offering outsourced programming services, the clusters may look like this: ‘1C programmer services’, ‘outsourcing of programmers’, ‘order a programmer’, ‘remote SaaS developer’.
We study how competitors promote themselves. Analyze competitors' ads to understand what wording and UTPs they use. This helps to emphasise your benefits and create ads that will dominate and attract attention. Example: if competitors are emphasising low cost, we can highlight your team's expertise or specialisation in complex projects.
We create ads that increase Click-Through Rate (CTR). Our PPC specialists use compelling headlines, clear Call to Action (CTA) and emphasis on customer benefits.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

Attracting attention

Unique adverts hook your audience and increase clickability.

Accurate targeting of queries

Relevant texts increase the probability of conversion.

Increased CTR

Persuasive headlines and specific CTAs encourage more clicks.

Reduced PPC payback time

A well-designed ad maximises the return on your PPC advertising investment.

Algorithm training and optimization

From 2021 Google has completely switched to automatic algorithms, and our task is to ‘feed’ the neural network with the right data. The success of the RC now depends on the accuracy of the information passed to the system, primarily about who your target audience is (gender, age, geo, etc.) and what actions are considered successful (click, bid, sale, etc.)

WHAT WE DO

Keep an eye on key metrics:
- CTR - shows how attractive ads are to the audience. To increase CTR, work on improving texts, headlines and ad display;
- bounce rate - analyse why users leave the site. To increase retention rates, we make changes to landing pages;
- ad quality - we evaluate the relevance of ads to user queries and improve them to reduce cost-per-click (CPC).
Optimise advertising campaigns. Our PPC specialists constantly test hypotheses: change ad texts, add new keywords, adjust bids, eliminate ineffective queries. This allows us to reduce CPC and increase the number of conversions.
We maintain a stable flow of leads for 3-4 months. Learning Google algorithms takes time. In the first months, we accumulate data on conversions so that the system can understand who is in your target audience, and in the future can attract this segment. After training, the RCs start to work steadily, attracting quality leads.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

Advertising effectiveness

The better the algorithms are trained, the more accurately they engage your target audience.

Cost reduction

Optimisation allows you to reduce the cost per click and increase ROI (return on investment).

Stability

After a period of training, RCs start to work predictably, providing a constant flow of leads.

Case Study

The client develops solutions for business automation. For 2.5 months we trained the advertising system, tested various hypotheses and optimised the RC.

RESULT

CTR increased by 1.7%

Click cheaper by 15.1%

Number of leads increased by 25%

Launching and scaling campaigns

After algorithm training and a test period, when advertising campaigns are already showing stable results, we put them into permanent operation. At this stage, our task is to maintain efficiency and scale successful campaigns to increase leads and sales.

WHAT WE DO

Analyze the results of the test period. We study which adverts, keywords and landing pages performed best. We focus on the most effective elements of RC.
Scale up successful campaigns. If certain campaigns or ad groups show high CTR and low cost per lead, we increase their budget and expand their reach. For example, we add new keywords, test additional geos or launch campaigns in new languages (if it meets the client's needs).
Optimize for new goals. If the business sets new goals, such as entering a new foreign market or promoting additional services, the PPC specialist adapts the RC to these goals (creates new ads, sets up additional landing pages, reallocates the budget, etc.)
We continuously monitor and improve performance. We continue to monitor key metrics (CTR, CPC, CR) and make improvements based on the data received. Let's say that one of the queries ‘drops’ and starts bringing in fewer leads, in which case it is excluded from the RC or its bids are adjusted.

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT

Stability

After the test period, campaigns begin to perform predictably, providing a steady stream of leads.

Expansion

Successful campaigns can be replicated to attract more customers and increase sales.

Flexibility

To keep RCs relevant and effective, it is important to quickly adapt them to new business goals.

Case Study

After the test period, the successful campaigns launched for the data centre were scaled up. New keywords storage migration service, dedicated server rent, gpu dedicated server hosting) were added, and coverage was extended to additional regions.

RESULT

Number of leads increased by 40,1%

Cost per lead decreased by 14.3%

Signed 3 large contracts for 3-5 years

Maximizing results: video advertising and Performance Max

Working with us on PPC services opens up additional opportunities for your business. If your company has media content, we can use it to warm up your audience and increase conversions. This is especially effective for complex B2B niches where customers need time to make a decision. If you don't have media content, we can help you create media materials and use them to build a sales funnel.

We write scripts for short videos that guide the client through the funnel.

We develop a chain of videos that gradually warm up the audience. Here is an example of a scheme for a video advert for a service provider.

The first video

Introduces the company manager, tells about a service that can help solve the advertiser's problem. For example, a video about the importance of reliable data storage and the risks of information loss.

The second video

A tour of the office and data centre where the service provider hosts resources. The goal is to show the company from the inside, to demonstrate reliability, security, and prestige. In particular, for a German provider, you can emphasise that the company is located in Germany.

The third video

Leads the customer to action. For example, the video talks about the advantages of the data centre and then offers to sign up for a demo tour or get a consultation.

This chain allows the customer to gradually immerse in the topic and gain trust in the company, stimulates a targeted action and increases the probability of conversion. Each video should be concise, informative and interesting to keep the audience's attention all the way through the funnel. The number and scripts vary depending on the complexity of the product/service and the level of audience engagement.

We use Performance Max type campaigns that combine YouTube, search network and CMC

Performance Max is a very powerful marketing tool that allows you to reach audiences at all stages of the funnel.

YouTube

Publish videos to warm up cold audiences.

Search network

Adverts for those Russian users who are already looking for solutions. For example, for a data centre the relevant queries might be ‘rent servers in a data centre’ or ‘cloud for data storage’.

CMC

Conversion maximization campaigns in Google's contextual media network - we enable retargeting for those who have already interacted with your content but have not yet left a request.

We set up these campaigns so that they are automatically optimised to achieve your goals, be it leads, calls or sales.

WHAT PERFORMANCE MAX DOES

Firstly, it warms up the audience. YouTube videos help to attract the attention of a cold audience and, gradually warming them up, prepare them for conversion actions. Secondly, it expands reach. By combining multiple channels, Performance Max allows us to reach users at all stages of the sales journey. That is, we can attract both people who have just learnt about your product and those who are already ready to buy. And finally, it automates processes. Google's algorithms independently optimise campaigns to attract the most promising customers. The system is constantly learning from conversion data, which saves time and improves the effectiveness of advertising, reducing the cost of customer acquisition.

Transparent reporting, prompt feedback

For our clients we have developed a convenient reporting system, which includes:

Excel tables, where project data is collected and promptly corrected (including changes in the quality of requests according to the results of each day);
visual reports in Google Looker Studio, automatically uploading data from the advertising cabinet (allowing you to track both the overall performance of the entire account and individual RCs).

Thanks to constant monitoring, we can immediately take action in case of deviation from the desired indicators.

All reports are available in real time. The client sees changes in the RC every day and receives feedback from us on a weekly basis.

Geography of our campaigns: Europe and America

Our team can work with countries in Europe and the Americas, including the US, Brazil, Mexico and other Latin American countries. Latin America, for example, has a high demand for digital services, making it a promising region for PPC promotion.

Above we've covered the basic steps of setting up and running PPC campaigns, but that's just the basics. Depending on the specifics of your business and market, we use many additional tools and features. For example:

media loading – pictures, videos and other visual materials increase the attractiveness of ads;
different attribution models – to understand exactly which channels and touch points influence conversions;
price and bid refinements – flexible adjustment to the client's budget and goals;
localization – adapting ads to the language and cultural peculiarities of the region.

Advantages and disadvantages of PPC

The Pay-Per-Click model provides businesses with a number of tangible advantages, especially in the context of quickly attracting the target audience and effectively controlling the advertising budget. Below are the main advantages of using PPC-campaigns.

Targeted spending. The PPC model allows you to pay only for clicks and not for impressions, so you can attract the maximum number of leads and save on irrelevant traffic.
Fast results (compared to other internet marketing channels). Advertising starts working immediately after launch, which allows you to quickly attract traffic and customers.
Transparency. The advertiser knows exactly what he is paying for, as he pays only for clicks on the adverts, so he has full control over the budget.
Precise targeting. It is possible to fine-tune advertising - by demographics, interests, geographical location, etc.
Measurability. Allows you to analyse the effectiveness of advertising with the help of metrics such as CTR and ROI.
Flexibility. By analysing key performance parameters, PPC-specialist can adjust the settings of the advertising campaign, affecting its effectiveness.
Scalability. In PPC, it is easy to reach more audiences by increasing the budget in successful ads.

When choosing PPC advertising, it is important to understand both its strengths and potential limitations. Among the main disadvantages of PPC is the high competition for popular keywords and ad placements, which leads to higher cost-per-click (CPC). PPC advertising does not guarantee conversions, and if landing pages or website content is not optimised, there can be a low CR if the CTR is high.

In addition, once a PPC is launched, it needs to be constantly monitored and optimised to ensure a high ROI and that it is achieving its goals (attracting traffic, leads, increasing sales). Monitoring and management requires not only time, but also experienced professionals.

Properly setting up and adapting a campaign to changes in the market and user behaviour can have a significant impact on its success. Expertise in PPC allows you to avoid common mistakes, effectively allocate budget and maximise return on investment.

What is the optimal budget for PPC promotion?

The average cheque of your product or service must be at least 15 thousand euros for PPC promotion to pay off. The fact is that advertising does not give instant results, setting up and optimising campaigns takes time - from 3 to 6 months. During this period we train Google algorithms so that they learn to attract your target audience. And an advertising budget of less than 1.5 thousand euros for a certain geo or language segment (recommended from 3 thousand euros) will not allow you to achieve the right amount of data for training algorithms, which will lead to low effectiveness of campaigns and high costs of attracting customers.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

Learning algorithms

Modern PPC campaigns are based on machine learning. For Google's algorithms to start attracting the right customers, they need to be ‘fed’ a sufficient amount of data about target customer behaviour, conversions, etc. This takes time and budget.

B2B deal cycle

In the B2B segment, the deal cycle can take anywhere from 30 to 180 days, in some cases up to a year. The leads you receive often don't convert until months later.

Safety margin

In order for a project to be sustainable, it is necessary to have a financial safety margin of 3-6 months. Such a ‘cushion’ will allow not only to cover advertising costs, but also to wait for the first serious sales.

Return on investment (ROI)

A high average cheque allows the company to compensate advertising costs through more substantial sales. If each client brings a significant amount of money, even a small number of attracted clients can provide a positive ROI from advertising campaigns.

CALCULATION EXAMPLE

Let's assume that your average cheque is 20 thousand euros and your PPC budget is 8 thousand euros per month. Based on the average data, you will get:

~ 800 clicks

at an average cost 10 euros per click

~ 16 leads

with 2% conversion rate

~ 8 qualified leads

at the MQL-qualification stage about 75% of the initial number remains, after SAL-qualification about 25% more falls off, the total ‘loss’ is about half

~ 1-2 closed deals

depends on the efficiency of the sales department, usually ~10-20% of qualified leads are closed, the figure for 8 leads is from 0.8 to 1.6

With this investment, PPC pays for itself, but you need to be prepared that it will take time to succeed, during which you will have to invest in it.

If your average cheque is less than 15 thousand euros, we recommend considering other promotion channels, such as SEO, targeted advertising in social networks or email marketing.

Examples of niches for which PPC is suitable

Promotion through the PPC model is suitable for businesses that seek to quickly attract the attention of the audience, increase their online presence in a foreign market, and boost sales.

In the B2B segment, if we are talking about the IT niche we specialise in, these are primarily:

Companies offering outsourcing of programmers..
SaaS application developers.
SaaS + IoT (internet of things) developers.
“Hardware” old business in telecommunications (service providers, data centres, developers of data collection terminals, etc.) offering both new functionality and standard service packages, for example, with some additional services.

As for the B2C segment, the range of activities suitable for promotion via the PPC advertising model is even more limited. PPC promotion is not suitable for all B2C businesses, because the cost of clicks in competitive niches can be high, which makes advertising unprofitable for companies with a low average cheque or small margin.

It also requires maintaining constant monitoring and optimisation of campaigns, and for small businesses with limited budgets and resources, this is financially challenging. For products that are bought impulsively, PPC is also ineffective - other channels such as social media work better here.

PPC promotion is most profitable for B2C businesses with high cheques, margins or high turnover, where advertising costs can be justified by sales revenues. This can include:

real estate – characterised by high income from each sale, so even a small number of successful transactions attracted through PPC can recoup advertising costs and bring significant profit;
premium medical services (plastic surgery, elite dentistry);
other premium and luxury goods/services (designer clothes, accessories, jewellery, luxury cars, VIP-tourism, etc.);
e-commerce – marketplaces and online shops.

What is the difference between PPC campaigns for B2C and B2B

Both niches require customised PPC strategies, but there is a significant difference between them, which lies in the target audience and the sales process. PPC advertising in B2C is focused on broad consumer groups and ‘quick’ sales. The business roles of the people targeted by the ad are usually not particularly important. Whereas PPC for B2B targets highly specialised audiences and focuses on “getting to” decision makers (LPRs) - sales executives, senior managers, business owners. B2B emphasises account-based targeting and longer decision-making processes.

PPC for B2B allows you to reach the right people (decision makers), in the right place and at the right time, using messaging that encourages targeted action.

PPC promotion can be compared to a personal concierge who brings to your door only those customers who are really interested in your services. This way of advertising is especially relevant for B2B niches, where there are no quick transactions and large audiences as in B2C, but time and trust are required.

PPC does not ‘shoot from a cannon at sparrows’, like conventional advertising, but gives you the opportunity to have a precise impact on LPRs, offering them specific solutions to specific problems and tasks.

HOW IT WORKS AS AN EXAMPLE

A developer sells a CRM system for construction companies (CC). Instead of showing ads to everyone, we set up PPC so that they are only shown to people who search Google for ‘CRM for construction business’, ‘construction process automation’ and similar queries. When the PPC person responsible in the IC for strategic planning and important management decisions (e.g. the director) clicks on the advert, they are taken to a special landing page. It describes in detail how the proposed CRM will solve the problems of the construction firm, such as material accounting, project control, team management, etc.

Three pillars of a successful B2B PPC campaign

Narrow targeting

We don't target everyone, but only decision makers in target companies.

Solving specific problems

Offer a solution to the potential customer's problems, not just talk about the product.

Building trust

Build long-term relationships with customers by providing useful content and expert support.

By running PPC, you pay for engaging potential customers, not just for shows or clicks. And thus gets the best return on your marketing investment.

PPC advertising is an effective way to enter foreign markets, but only if it is properly set up and optimised. At INTEG, we offer a comprehensive approach that includes product analysis, landing page optimisation, fine-tuning of campaigns and constant monitoring of results.

If you are ready to invest in business growth, PPC can become for you not just one of the advertising models, but a powerful tool for increasing sales and developing new markets.

Don't waste your budget! Set up adverts that actually bring in customers. Leave a request for a consultation.