The 2018 guide to B2B sales, Part 3: Use CRM data for lasting benefits

In Parts 1 and 2 of this B2B blog series, we discussed how to effectively use different channels for your B2B efforts as well as how to build your audiences, then segment and leverage the right content for mid-funnel remarketing and your overall nurture program.

In the last part of this series, we are going to discuss tying back-end results to front-end metrics so that you can ensure you are reaching qualified audiences with your paid media efforts.

With your paid media efforts, you can track and optimize toward on-site conversions. However, in B2B marketing, those onsite conversions are typically leads and more shallow conversions that do not indicate a sale.

At the end of the day, you want to understand what keywords, audiences, targeting methods, etc., are driving eventual sales – and reallocate focus and budget accordingly.

In order to do this, it is important to pass through parameters within your URLs to track at the most granular level possible; doing this allows your CRM system to identify what drives leads.

You’ll want to pass through campaign-, ad-, and keyword-level parameters in search or campaign-, ad set-, and ad-level parameters in social to identify how those areas are performing.

Back-end CRM data helps you do the following:

• Campaign – understand what campaigns are performing to sales goals and invest more budget into the right campaigns and pull back on the underperformers.
• Ad set (social) – understand what audiences are performing well (or not). You can then use this to test other similar audiences and push budgets accordingly.
• Ad – identify what type of creative or messaging is pushing performance. This will help you in additional creative testing and message development.
• Keyword – get down to the most granular level in search: understanding what keywords are driving the most qualified users

Now you will want to set up a frequency for matching up the back-end data with your front-end metrics. Think about how often sales volume comes in and the duration it will take to get significant data for optimization efforts.

You may want to set up a reporting cadence to be analyzing data anywhere from weekly, to biweekly, to monthly depending on the amount of sales you get.

As you continue to collect data, remember to take a step back and understand what is truly driving sales at a high level. Look at specific keyword themes, different types of messaging, and the audiences contributing the strongest value.

As you analyze this data, you not only want to optimize bids and budgeting accordingly; you also want to think about next strategic steps.

How can you continue to capitalize on these themes? Are there additional opportunities for keyword expansion? Can you test different variations of your top messaging theme? How can you expand on the audiences you see working – are there different ways to reach similar personas or types of people?

At the end of the day, you want to get out of the weeds when it comes to optimizations based on sales; you need to look at a higher level and refine your strategy to capitalize on what is working best.