Paid advertising playbook for B2B growth

Introduction

When I first ran Google Ads in 2010, it looked very different. Still, the core mistake I made is the same one I see marketers make today. I wasted most of the budget in the first two weeks. Not because the channel didn’t work, but because I didn’t fully understand what made people click or what made them convert. I picked keywords that felt right, wrote ads that looked clever, and assumed the rest would follow.

It didn’t.

What I learned through painful trial and error is that paid search only works when you treat it like a precision engine. You have to know exactly what your buyer is searching for, why they are searching, and what they need to see to trust that you are the right answer.

This playbook exists to help you skip that painful learning curve. It shows you how to pick intent-driven keywords, write ads that earn the click, and set up your account for fast feedback and real pipeline instead of vanity traffic.

If you’ve been meaning to launch paid search for your B2B company but weren’t sure where to start, or if you’ve tried it before and didn’t see results, this playbook is for you. It is practical, step-by-step, and focused on getting your first profitable campaign live.

Chapters

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Paid advertising

tools

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per month

Google Analytics

Web analytics that tracks user behaviour and conversions, essential for understanding traffic and lead sources when configured well.

Explore tool

My review

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per month

Google Tag Manager

Tag management that lets you add and control scripts, events and pixels with versioning and consent rules.

Explore tool

My review

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per month

HubSpot

All in one CRM with marketing, sales and service, strong when you want one system that teams adopt.

Explore tool

My review

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per month

Looker Studio

Free dashboard tool that pulls data from many sources, great for quick reports and shareable views.

Explore tool

My review

Books

Breakthrough Advertising

Eugene M. Schwartz

Rating

A field guide to message market fit. Use stages of awareness to pick angles, craft offers and brief ads that speak to real pains and jobs.

My review

Traffic secrets

Russel Brunson

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A broad look at audience building. Useful ideas for content, partnerships and email that compound over time.

My review

Traction (channels)

Gabriel Weinberg

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A method to discover your best channel. Prioritise, test and focus resources where traction is most likely.

My review

Dotcom Secrets

Russel Brunson

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Translate funnel templates into clean journeys. Focus on offers, sequences and pages that convert instead of tactics that age badly.

My review

Wiki

Landing page

Create focused standalone pages for paid campaigns that remove distractions and guide visitors toward one specific action to improve conversion rates.

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Cost per click (CPC)

Calculate what you pay each time someone clicks your ad to evaluate channel efficiency and determine if paid traffic costs justify the leads generated.

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Paid social advertising

Target prospects based on demographic, firmographic, and behavioural data, interrupting their social feeds with relevant offers and content.

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Cost-per-X

Master the economics of customer acquisition by tracking what you pay for each meaningful action across channels.

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Paid search

Capture high-intent prospects actively searching for solutions by bidding on relevant keywords and appearing in search engine results.

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Click-through-rate

Measure engagement quality by tracking the percentage of people who click after seeing your content or advertisement.

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Other playbooks

Marketing automation setup

Manual lead management breaks at scale. Automation captures every lead, scores them by intent, and keeps them warm until they're ready to buy all whilst you sleep.

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Lead capture system

Capture mechanisms turn anonymous traffic into known leads you can follow up with. Make it easy for prospects to signal interest at any moment in their journey without creating friction or annoying people.

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Paid advertising

Introduction

Chapters

Paid advertising

tools

Google Analytics

Google Tag Manager

HubSpot

Looker Studio

Books

Breakthrough Advertising

Traffic secrets

Traction (channels)

Dotcom Secrets

Wiki

Landing page

Cost per click (CPC)

Paid social advertising

Cost-per-X

Paid search

Click-through-rate

Related topic

Demand generation

Other playbooks

Marketing automation setup

Lead capture system

Keep reading