Generating Quality MQLs in B2B Marketing: What Actually Works

One of the most difficult and avoided areas of marketing has always been B2B marketing. A lot of performance and growth marketers avoid it, and understandably so. It is more complex and requires more effort than B2C. Also, unlike B2C, the target audience is a bit more specific and niched.

As someone that has handled performance marketing campaigns for 8 years and has managed B2B campaigns that have brought in transactions worth over $8 million, I believe I have a lot of valuable things to share when it comes to B2B marketing. I will be speaking on 4 main areas.

• How to get results on Meta ads in B2B marketing
• How to get results on Google ads in B2B marketing
• How to get results on LinkedIn ads in B2B marketing
• How to get results from cold emailing in B2B marketing

Before we go into this, I will be defining what MQLs are. MQL means marketing qualified lead. It is a lead that has gone through some prior qualification screening by people in the marketing team and deemed good enough to be handed over to sales for contact. MQLs are different from form fills or leads. Not all leads are MQLs. 

Examples of MQL Qualification Criteria

1. Leads can be defined as MQLs based on their response to a question on the lead form. e.g., they can be asked a question on their intended transaction volume, and the marketing team intentionally adds options that will render someone disqualified if they pick it. This saves the team the time of reaching out to prospects that will end up not being a good fit. This is particularly useful when you have hundreds or thousands of leads coming in daily.

2.    Leads can also go through a qualification call by the marketing team to confirm their interest before handing them over to sales.

How to Get Results on Meta Ads in B2B Marketing

1. Use lookalikes of people that fit your target audience persona 

"Lookalike," in simple layman's terms, means "similar." A lookalike audience is an audience similar to another audience. Let's say you have a customer list of existing clients that are transacting millions of dollars with you. A lookalike of that audience will be people with similar online behavior like the people on your customer list. The rationale here is since people on your customer list have converted, the chances of other people similar to them converting are high. 

In our B2B use case, you can create a lookalike of your existing B2B clients or of target accounts you have identified. To do this on Meta:

a. Get names and emails of your target prospects or existing B2B clients. 

b. Upload it to Meta and use it to create a custom audience. This is Meta matching those names and emails against its database across Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, then identifying and matching the ones it's able to find. 

c. Create a lookalike of those people in your custom audience. This is basically done from a click of a button in audiences in Ads Manager. You can create different types of lookalikes, e.g., 1%-10% lookalikes. The lower the percentage, the higher the strictness applied in the lookalike defining criteria and the smaller the lookalike audience size. 

Personally I believe Lookalike is the most effective form of targeting on Meta for B2B, and this is coming from someone that has tried them all: from Advantage+ to behavior targeting to interest targeting to device targeting to HNI residential areas targeting. These targeting options generally bring in lower-quality leads in B2B. Advantage+ may be the most effective for B2C, but when it comes to B2B, where quality plays a big role, the best targeting for driving higher-value leads is a lookalike audience of your clients or of your target accounts. This is because Meta on its own doesn't have details on people's job titles or company names. People only provide this data on LinkedIn; hence, your best bet is finding this audience outside Meta and creating a lookalike of them so you can have a broader number of people to reach.

There is, however, a catch to this. Before you can create a lookalike, your seed or custom audience size has to be a minimum of 100 from a country. The higher the number of seed audiences you have, the better the quality of your lookalike.

Now you may start asking, How do I get a B2B audience list if the brand I am pushing doesn't have an existing customer list?, This is where audience prospecting platforms like Snov.io or Clay come in. These platforms have a database of working professionals defined by their job title, company name, company size, industry, etc. You just go on them, define the filter criteria for your target audience, and download it as a CSV. Once you have your CSV, upload the list as a custom audience on Meta and create a lookalike audience from it. I recommend 3-6% lookalike.

Something to note when doing this: Because most emails that will be gotten are work domain emails, the match rate is typically low, so the more audience lists you have, the better for you.

2. Don't optimize for form fills. Optimize for actual MQLs. 

I saw a difference in the performance of my campaigns on Meta when I did this. Instead of optimizing for leads (people that just fill your form), optimize for leads that actually meet your business requirements. To do this, you will need to have a way of passing the information to Meta that xyz was a good lead and abc was a bad lead. This is where syncing your CRM to Meta ads comes in. You can do this via the integration section in Meta Events Manager. Choose Zapier or a direct CRM to Meta Ads connection if your CRM name shows.

Once you connect your CRM, import your different lead stages as events, and then optimize for MQLs.

3. Call out your target audience in your ad creative. 

This makes them take note of your ad more. You are competing against thousands of other advertisers, and people scroll through social media fast. When they see that your ad calls out their job or something that can help them do their job better, they are more likely to take note of it.

How to Get Results on Google Ads in B2B Marketing

1. Adequate keyword research. 

It all starts with intentional keyword research. Use Google Keyword Planner to find the most searched relevant keywords for your service. Make sure you pick intent-based keywords and not generic ones. Things that people interested in your service will actually search for. 

2. Use phrase match keyword targeting

Personally I believe this is the best keyword targeting type to use on Google search ads. It ensures your ad shows up for more relevant terms than when you use broad match, and it also ensures you are not too strict on the match requirements, which is what happens when you use exact match. Phrase match is basically the best of both worlds (broad match and exact match).

3. Make your search ad headlines and descriptions highly relevant

Make sure they clearly spell out what you offer and who your service is for. This can help ensure the wrong audience doesn't even bother clicking on your search ads. For example, you can call out your target audience in your search ad headline, e.g., "Built for CFOs & Finance Heads."

4. Use Search Ad Extensions

This has a way of making your search ad more noticeable. It ensures it takes up more space. Ads with site link extensions, for example, have been proven to drive higher CTR than the ones without them.

5. Optimize for actual MQLs, not form fills

Similar to what we had on the Meta end, you need to connect your CRM to Google Ads and then optimize for the type of lead you actually want MQLs. To do this, go to data manager on Google Ads and pick your CRM to connect it.

6. Constantly review your search terms report and add irrelevant search terms as negative keywords

 This is very important. You need to constantly monitor the terms your search ads are showing up for to be sure you are not wasting spend on irrelevant impressions and clicks. Once you see any search term that isn't relevant, add it as a negative keyword so you don't show up for it again.

7. Use the maximize conversion bidding strategy

Since you are trying to get MQLs, maximizing clicks won't do you any good here. Your aim should be to get as many conversions as possible. After you have enough conversion data, you can then switch to target CPA and use your average CPA gotten historically as your CPA bid cap.

How to Get Results on Linkedln Ads in B2B Marketing

LinkedIn is generally everyone's or almost everyone's first platform of choice for B2B marketing. It is the platform that naturally comes to your mind when you hear of B2B. This is because it has the data points needed in B2B. You can target by company name, company size, industry, job position, job seniority, etc. It basically has the most detailed professional targeting option. However, getting results on LinkedIn at a profitable spend is not straightforward. A lot of people later discover that LinkedIn ads can be very expensive, especially when things are not done right. I will be sharing things that have worked for me on the platform.

1. Use LinkedIn native form

Never run a direct website traffic campaign on LinkedIn. It just doesn't work. You will end up burning through your ad spend with little to show for it. LinkedIn native forms reduce your CPL significantly. 

2. Activate the Book a Meeting on Calendly option after leads fill your lead form

This ensures the leads get to book a meeting with your team at the point of filling out the form. Leads generally grow cold the more time it takes to get across to them. Get them to take that initial meeting commitment by booking a call immediately after they fill out your lead form.

3. Optimize for MQLs, not form fills

This can't be overemphasized. It is a very important part of any ad campaign you run on any ad platform. Just like we mentioned on Meta and Google, this is also very relevant here. Connect your CRM to LinkedIn Ads and optimize for actions that actually matter. In this case MQLs.

4. Test out LinkedIn message ads

In my case, I have seen message ads drive much better results at a cheaper CPL than the normal newsfeed ad format on LinkedIn. This is likely because it is a 1-to-1 form of marketing. At that moment, your T.A. feels like you are speaking to them and them alone. Hence, they are more likely to take action. When you do message ads, never direct them to your website from there; it doesn't work. Direct them instead to your LinkedIn native form or a Calendly link to book a meeting.

5. Run remarketing + LinkedIn message + native form ads

I have found this 3-cord combo to be the game changer on LinkedIn ads. When combined, your CPL has a way of reducing significantly. 

How to Get Results From Cold Emailing in B2B Marketing

This is one of the most effective channels for B2B marketing. No, cold emailing is not dead as you thought. It works and works wonders. When done right, this channel can give you a constant influx of high-quality B2B leads. The good thing about this channel is:

1. You are not spending money on ads. Apart from the platform subscription cost, there is no additional spend. 

2. You can be very specific on the people you are reaching. In this case, you can create a list of people by their company size, company name, etc. You can do this on the platforms I spoke about earlier, Snov.io, Clay, or Apollo. You then send them emails on the same platform.

I won't be going into much detail on outbound email campaigns in this particular blog post, as it is a topic on its own. However, I will be sharing some things I have found that make outbound emails work.

What Makes Outbound/Cold Emails Work in B2B Marketing

1. Personalization

 Make your email as personalized as possible. I am not talking about just the name of your prospect here. I am talking about company name personalization. job title personalization e.t.c. Have different email copy for different industries, contextual emails, etc.

2. Use social proof and link to them

For B2B email campaigns, include the names of some companies you currently work with and hyperlink to posts online that talk about your partnership with them, preferably on sites that are not your own. That way they get to hear what other people say about you and trust you more. If your brand has won awards, you can also mention them and link to them. This has a way of creating trust for your brand.

3. Ask if they are the right person

Mention in your email copy that if by any chance the person getting the email feels they are not the right person to reach out to, you will appreciate them referring you to the right individuals. This works, and I have gotten referrals in some of my cold email campaigns from it

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4. Send follow-up emails

Make sure you send at least 3 emails per prospect. As long as they don't unsubscribe or respond to your initial email. People generally need to be reminded to take action at times. A second or third nudge has been known to do the trick on some occasions.

5. Add FOMO to your follow-up emails

Fear of missing out (FOMO) always works in marketing. Adding something like: "this will be the last email I will be sending" in your final sequence email works. Let them know that after that email, if they don't respond, you will assume they don't need the service. This has driven a couple of prospects to respond to some of my outbound email campaigns.

6. Implement a multichannel outreach approach. 

It helps when you combine Email + LinkedIn InMail outreach. Some people may not respond to your email, but you find out they will respond to your LinkedIn InMail.

In summary, success in B2B marketing is very possible. I am confident if you implement the ideas I have highlighted above, you will see a remarkable improvement in the performance of your campaigns.

I really hope you have found the above blog post really insightful. If this was a good read and helped you in any way, feel free to indicate in the comments, and please share with others as well. If you have any questions, please drop them in the comments as well. Bye for now.