Mastering Paid Media Strategies in 2025: the B2B Guide

Paid media is one of the most effective ways to promote your business online, allowing you to target specific audiences, gain visibility, and get qualified leads. In fact, social media ads are the top source of new brand discovery for young internet users, winning over word-of-mouth recommendations and company websites. 

When it comes to B2B eCommerce, using paid media to promote your business can imply different strategies than B2C: platforms, content type, and target audience can vary. 

With an average 8:1 Return on Investment (ROI) and 45:1 Return on Ad Spend on our paid media services, our growth experts are here to share some basic tips and tricks to master B2B paid media strategies and grow your audience — and your business — in 2025. Let’s dive in!

What is Paid Media?

Just a quick definition: when we talk about paid media, we refer to any way of paying to advertise anything online, including social media ads, paid search, pop-ups, sponsored content, and more. As there are many different types of paid advertising, it can be a little bit overwhelming to truly understand how and where to get started. Hiring experts is always the best option, but for those looking to learn more about the practice and how to use it for your business, here are some questions answered by our experts.

What is the best way to increase brand awareness for B2B?

For the awareness stage, start by using videos for storytelling, enriched messaging, and boosting attractiveness, showing what your brand is about. Make sure you focus your campaign on reach, engagement, and video views, and utilize platforms such as Meta, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

How to determine an ad budget for B2B campaigns?

Determining your ad budget for B2B campaigns depends on several factors:

1. Objectives: What do you want to achieve? 
2. Target Audience: Who do you want to reach? 
3. Platforms: Where do you want to advertise? 
4. Budget: How much are you willing to spend? 

For typical paid media campaigns on platforms like Google, LinkedIn, and Meta, there are no fixed or list prices. Ad costs are usually charged per click or per impression. Therefore, it’s crucial to test your ads, targeting, and platforms to gain insights and make informed decisions. After gathering some reference data, you can perform Reverse Engineering to determine your budget:

1. Average Order Value (AOV) or Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV): What is the value of a new customer? 
2. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): How much can you pay to acquire a new customer? 
3. Lead-to-Sale Conversion Rate: What percentage of leads convert to sales? 
4. Cost Per Lead (CPL): How much can you pay for a lead? 
5. Click-to-Lead Conversion Rate: What percentage of clicks convert to leads? 
6. Cost Per Click (CPC): How much can you pay for a click? 
7. Traffic Requirements: How many clicks do you need for significant traffic?

By answering these questions, you can establish a well-informed budget for your B2B ad campaigns.

How to measure the ROI of a B2B paid media campaign?

Measuring the ROI of B2B paid media campaigns involves tracking the entire journey of the leads generated. 

Here are the key steps: 

1. Follow Up After Lead Generation

• Monitor if the leads convert into sales. 
• Track the conversion rate of leads to sales. 

2. Calculate ROI

• The most straightforward way is to follow the leads’ journey and, if they convert into sales, take the generated revenue or Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV) and compare it to your paid media investment. 

3. Use CRM Tools

• If you have a high volume of leads, consider using a CRM tool to manage and track them efficiently.

How to Target More Desktop Traffic Effectively?

Targeting desktop users can be a good strategy to attract potential B2B customers. Here’s how.  

• Google: For Video, Display, or Demand Gen campaigns, you can set up desktop-only campaigns. 

• Meta: It’s possible to segment just for desktop, but it will only show ads on Facebook. 

• LinkedIn: Use the “Member Traits” targeting option to select “Device Preferences” and focus on desktop users.

What platform should I start with?

This will depend on a lot of factors, but generally, we recommend starting with Google Ads. It is probably the platform to target the lower-hanging fruits, as with search ads we can target people already searching for our products or services. Additionally, Google Ads provides excellent planning tools that offer insights into keyword volumes and costs, helping you plan your campaigns before launching them.

Best Practices for Using Google Ads in a B2B Context

In that subject, there are different tips and tricks to tailor the Google Ads capacities to B2B-specific goals.

• Branded Search: Focus on branded search campaigns to capture interest from users already aware of your brand.
• Specific Locations: Target very specific geographic locations relevant to your business.
• B2B Segmentations: Utilize B2B-specific audience segmentations to reach your ideal prospects, such as Interests in different Business Services or Business Products.
• Ad Scheduling: Schedule ads to run during business days and hours to align with B2B working hours.
• Retargeting: Implement retargeting campaigns or higher bidding, to re-engage visitors who have shown interest in your offerings.
• Lead Gen Forms: Use lead generation forms to capture contact information directly from the ads.
• Test & Optimize: Continuously test and optimize your campaigns to improve performance and ROI.

How often should I review and adjust my B2B paid media strategy?

Although there is no rule for this, we usually recommend reviewing and adjusting the strategy every 3 months. However, tactics should be reviewed more frequently, at most every two weeks.

What is the best Lead Generation Form: on my website or in-platform?

There’s a trade-off between volume and quality. Website Forms tend to drive more qualified leads, and in-platform forms tend to drive more volume. Finding the right form depends on a variety of circumstances, each company needs to determine what works best for them and the purpose of the lead. So, our recommendation is to always test!

What can I offer in exchange for contact details?

There are many ways to get contact details from potential leads. 

Free trials: You can offer free trials or free versions of your product or service, typically used by SaaS companies such as Slack or MailChimp, which give users a free version of their platform with fewer advantages than the paid versions. This allows users to try their products for free, building an instant connection with them, but with the risk of them preferring to maintain the free version over the paid ones.

Free Research Reports: This method can be used in many industry verticals, including scientific, manufacturing, marketing, legal services, and more. Offering research reports can be particularly useful in establishing your company as a voice of authority and generating organic buzz, but it does require extensive research.

Free Educational Resources: Also seen in many industries, particularly for service providers, educational content is key to providing information about your specific niche, and getting the attention of your target audience. You can leverage your in-house resources to create content such as ebooks, webinars, blog posts, and all kinds of educational material that might catch the interest of your prospects.

All in all, the best option depends on your goals, objectives, and your company’s nature and industry. If you’re unsure, you can always test different offerings to see what works best.

There it is! We hope we answered some of your doubts about the extensive world of paid media and B2B eCommerce. As you can see, there are many possible approaches to be taken, so we highly recommend working with experts to define what’s best for your company and specific goals. Contact our team today to get started building an effective paid media strategy to tackle your goals in 2025!