B2B PPC strategy: qualified leads from Google Ads and LinkedIn

A good B2B PPC strategy is not about buying as many clicks as possible, but about generating qualified leads with the right decision-makers. In short: you combine Google Ads (to capture active buying intent) with LinkedIn (to reach decision-makers by role and company), you steer on cost per lead and return on ad spend, and you accept that the sales cycle is long. In this guide you will learn how to set up that framework, how to split your budget, and when paid advertising does not pay off.

Do the math yourself: see how many leads your budget generates with our free Google Ads budget calculator.

What exactly is a B2B PPC strategy?

PPC stands for pay-per-click: you pay per click on your ad. In B2B this is a different game than in a webshop. You are not selling a product that someone pays for right away, you are generating a lead that may only become a customer months later, after multiple touchpoints and often multiple decision-makers.

A B2B PPC strategy is therefore not a list of campaign settings. It is a framework that answers three questions:

• Who do you want to reach? Which roles, sectors and company sizes make or influence the buying decision.
• At what moment? Someone who is comparing solutions calls for a different message than someone who does not yet know your brand.
• What do you steer on? Not clicks or impressions, but qualified enquiries and ultimately revenue.

That last point is where most B2B campaigns come off the rails. It is easy to report a CTR or a nice number of clicks. But an expensive click from someone with buying intent is worth more than ten cheap clicks from the curious. So steer on leads and customers, not on traffic.

Why Google Ads and LinkedIn complement each other

In B2B, Google Ads and LinkedIn draw their strength from different sides of the funnel, and that is why they work better together than apart.

Google Ads captures active demand. Someone searches for “[service] supplier” or “[service] quote” and you appear at exactly that moment. Intent is high, the searcher is already looking for a solution. That makes search ads (the basis of SEA) ideal for the bottom of your funnel.

LinkedIn captures latent demand. There, no one is actively searching for your service, but you can target precisely on job title, sector, company size and seniority. This way you reach decision-makers who are not yet searching, but who could become your future customers. That is perfect for the top of your funnel: building awareness with exactly the right people.

The logic is therefore simple: LinkedIn makes decision-makers familiar with your solution, Google Ads captures them the moment they start actively searching. Whoever only advertises on Google misses everyone who has not yet framed the problem as a search query. Whoever is only on LinkedIn pays for reach without capturing the buying intent. Alongside these two channels, Reddit Ads can also generate qualified B2B leads from niche subreddits when your audience is active there.

How do you split your budget across the funnel?

A commonly used rule of thumb is a 30/70 split: roughly 30 percent of your budget toward awareness at the top of the funnel (often LinkedIn and broader campaigns) and 70 percent toward conversion at the bottom (often Google Ads search campaigns and remarketing). The thinking behind it: most of the euros go to the moment when someone is closest to a purchase, while you still invest enough to fill the pipeline from the top.

Here is what that rule of thumb looks like split out. The largest share goes to the bottom of the funnel, where buying intent is highest, while awareness at the top gets just enough to keep filling the pipeline.

Treat that 30/70 as a starting point, not a law. The right split depends on your market and your data:

• Do you have a well-known brand in a market with plenty of active search demand? Then you can lean more heavily on the bottom of the funnel.
• Are you launching a new category that no one searches for yet? Then you need more budget at the top to create demand.
• Do you see in your numbers that awareness campaigns ultimately drive a lot of bottom-of-funnel conversions? Then shift the balance gradually.

Whatever you choose, lock in the connection between channels with good measurement. Without it, you do not know whether your LinkedIn budget contributes to the leads that later come in through Google. So get your conversion tracking in order before you scale up.

Which benchmarks are realistic in B2B?

Benchmarks help you judge whether a campaign is healthy, but in B2B they vary so strongly by sector and by keyword that a single universal reference figure says little. A few points of attention:

• For B2B services, the click-through rate is often considerably lower than in consumer markets, because the audience is smaller and more specific (feel free to compare with published Google Ads benchmarks by industry). A reference value of a few percent that circulates as a rule of thumb is at best a rough starting point, not a norm.
• The cost per lead varies widely by sector and channel. In expensive niches and on LinkedIn it is typically much higher than in broader markets, so compare above all with your own historical figures rather than with a general average.

Important: treat such benchmarks as context, not as a goal in itself. In an expensive niche with long sales cycles, a high cost per lead can still be very profitable, provided those leads often become customers and are worth a lot. So always calculate through to cost per customer, not just cost per lead.

A worked example makes that concrete. Suppose you pay 80 euros per lead, and one in four leads becomes a customer. A customer then costs you 320 euros in advertising budget. If that customer brings you thousands of euros on average over the lifetime of the collaboration, that is an excellent ratio, even if your cost per lead looks high at first glance. A cheap lead that never converts is more expensive than an expensive lead that does become a customer.

What makes B2B targeting different?

The big gain in B2B lies in precision. Your market is smaller and more expensive per click, so every wasted euro weighs more heavily. A few building blocks that belong in a strong B2B PPC strategy:

• Account-based marketing (ABM). Instead of advertising broadly, you focus on a defined list of dream clients or accounts. Your message and offer match those specific companies. That fits well with LinkedIn, where you can target at the company level.
• Gated content. Decision-makers do not request a quote right away. Offer valuable content (a whitepaper, benchmark or webinar) in exchange for contact details. This way you capture leads that are not yet ready to buy, and you build a pipeline that you warm up later.
• Negative keywords. In B2B you easily attract traffic from consumers, job seekers or freebie hunters. With a well-crafted list of negative keywords you filter that out and protect your margin in expensive niches.
• Remarketing on visitors. Because of the long sales cycle, almost no one converts on the first visit. Stay visible to people who already visited your site, so you stay top of mind until they are ready.

When does PPC not pay off for your B2B?

An honest piece of advice belongs here: paid advertising is not the right choice for every B2B company. There are situations where you are better off putting your budget elsewhere.

• Market too small. If only a handful of people search each month for what you offer, there is simply too little volume to make campaigns profitable. Outbound or networking will then deliver more.
• No buying intent in the keywords. If you sell something that people do not yet recognise as a problem, there is no search demand to capture. Google Ads then works poorly, and you are better off first investing in demand creation through content and LinkedIn.
• Measurement not in order. Without good conversion tracking you do not know which campaign generates leads. You then optimise blindly and burn budget. Set up your measurement first, then your media.

Is it running well? Then the biggest gain often lies not in more budget, but in a higher conversion rate of your landing page and a better quality score that pushes down your cost per click. This way you get more leads out of the same budget.

Frequently asked questions about B2B PPC strategy

Should I start with Google Ads or with LinkedIn? Most often, start with Google Ads if there is already active search demand for your service: you then capture buying intent immediately and quickly see whether it pays off. Do you have a new or unknown category? Then LinkedIn helps to build demand and awareness first.

Isn’t LinkedIn far too expensive for B2B? The cost per click on LinkedIn is higher, but you pay for precision: you reach exactly the roles and companies you want. Here too, think in cost per customer. An expensive click that hits the right decision-maker is more valuable than cheap, untargeted reach.

How much budget do I need to start? Enough to gather reliable data within a reasonable time. In B2B with a high customer value, that can add up seriously per month, but more important than the amount is that your conversion tracking is correct, so you know what works before you scale up.

How do I measure whether my B2B PPC strategy works? Not on clicks or CTR, but on the number of qualified leads, your cost per lead and ultimately your cost per customer and return on ad spend. Link your campaigns to your CRM so you can see which leads truly become customers.

Ready for a PPC approach that steers on customers?

A B2B PPC strategy that works demands sharp choices: the right channels, a smart budget split and measurement that steers on leads rather than clicks. We are a small team that moves fast and advises honestly, even when paid advertising is not the best route in your case.

Tell us your goal, your market and your margins, and we will see whether and how PPC pays off for you. Schedule your free intake.