Developing a strong customer relationship is crucial for any business, regardless of size or industry. It doesn’t matter if you’re a small startup or a large corporation, nurturing leads is essential for growth and success. Often, potential customers may not be ready to make a purchase immediately after their initial interaction with your brand. This process can take days, weeks, or even months. During this time, it’s important to stay engaged with potential customers and guide them through their buying journey, preventing them from switching to competitors. This is where lead nurturing comes in.

Lead nurturing encompasses the strategies used to guide a potential customer through the sales funnel, transforming them from a casual browser into a paying customer.

Many businesses mistakenly believe that email marketing is the only way to nurture leads. However, while email marketing can be effective, it’s not the only solution. In this article, we’ll explore how paid search and social media advertising can significantly enhance your lead nurturing strategy. To provide comprehensive insights, we consulted with our paid acquisition expert, Brett McHale, who highlights three key benefits of using AdWords and Facebook for lead nurturing:

• Building brand awareness
• Providing value
• Addressing concerns Brett emphasizes that “lead nurturing is all about value – the value of your brand and what you offer. Facebook and AdWords help you connect with specific segments of your audience. If you can demonstrate that you have the solution to their problem without relentlessly pursuing them online, you’re on the right track to gaining a loyal customer.” We’ll delve into various ways to nurture leads using PPC shortly, but first…

The Drawbacks of Email Nurturing…

Everyone’s doing it, but it’s not always effective. Two primary reasons to incorporate PPC as a core element of your lead nurturing program are low open rates and email fatigue. Here’s a screenshot of the promotions tab in my Gmail inbox from just one morning last week:

I haven’t opened a single one of these emails. Unless your subject lines are incredibly compelling, the promotions tab is where nurturing emails go to die. With PPC, you bypass this obstacle. By reaching your audience directly through search engine results pages (SERPs), relevant websites on the Google Display Network, or social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, you’re only competing with other advertisers in those spaces. You’re also gaining an edge over competitors who may solely rely on automated email funnels for lead nurturing. Another issue impacting your email nurturing efforts is low open and click-through rates. Check out this list for industry benchmarks from MailChimp. While these rates don’t warrant abandoning email marketing altogether, they aren’t particularly encouraging. Now, email nurturing still holds value. If a prospect opens an email and finds it valuable, they’re more likely to engage with your future emails. We’ve seen this firsthand at nexus-security.

However, it’s important to acknowledge that email nurturing alone isn’t enough. Paid search and social media advertising can fill the gaps. Let’s explore 11 strategies to convert prospects into customers using paid search and social media.

#1: Keyword Research + Audience Targeting = Recipe for Success

Start by reaching the right audience to make lead nurturing more effective.

The main advantage of paid search and social advertising is the ability to target specific segments of your audience. This is especially beneficial for small businesses. This advantage extends to lead nurturing as well.

How Does It Help with Lead Nurturing?

Keyword research and audience targeting ensure that the right people see your ads at the beginning of their customer journey.

For instance, if you sell athletic footwear, targeting the broad keyword “shoes” would be ineffective. Even bidding on “sneakers” might not be specific enough. Instead, consider the searcher’s intent: what are they hoping to achieve by searching for a particular keyword? By narrowing down your targeting, you reduce the workload of your lead nurturing efforts. Instead of guiding someone from a general search like “what is a shoe” to a purchase, you can focus on more informed prospects. This means your nurturing content can concentrate on building brand value and moving qualified leads closer to becoming customers.

Similarly, Facebook offers extensive targeting options to reach your ideal audience. You can target based on demographics, interests, and behaviors to ensure your ads are seen by the right people.

For example, you wouldn’t market high-end basketball shoes and minimalist running shoes to the same audience. Doing so would create a negative first impression and drive potential customers away.

Instead, by segmenting your audience based on interests and demographics, you can ensure that your interactions with potential customers start positively by showcasing products they’re genuinely interested in. This targeted approach simplifies the lead nurturing process, as prospects enter the sales funnel closer to making a purchase.

#2: Choose the Right Ad Format for Your Offer

Your lead nurturing program likely consists of various stages, guiding prospects through a series of interactions that lead to a purchase. While this may seem straightforward, it’s crucial to recognize that prospects enter your sales funnel at different stages of awareness. Some prospects may be completely unfamiliar with your business. Let’s call this individual Prospect A.

Others may have some knowledge of your offerings and are actively searching for a solution to a problem. This is Prospect B. The way you interact with these two types of prospects should differ. Presenting Prospect A with an offer they’re not ready for can be off-putting. Conversely, offering Prospect B something too basic might make them perceive your product or service as inadequate. The way you present your offer is just as crucial as the offer itself.

How Does It Help with Lead Nurturing?

Selecting the appropriate ad format for your nurturing offers is essential. As discussed earlier, email marketing can be unreliable due to inbox clutter. The internet is saturated with ads, so your nurturing content needs to stand out and reach the right people in the most effective format, whether it’s a text ad, a video, or another engaging format. At nexus-security, one of our top-of-funnel nurturing offers is a whitepaper titled “How to Compete in AdWords Without Just Raising Bids.” This guide provides valuable insights for beginners learning about AdWords best practices. The design of the Facebook ad promoting this whitepaper reflects the straightforward nature of the offer.

On the other hand, we use a short video ad to promote our AdWords Performance Grader tool, which helps advertisers evaluate their account performance and identify areas for improvement. The dynamic and informative video format effectively conveys the tool’s value to potential customers. While prospects who receive the whitepaper might find the AdWords Performance Grader useful, reading the whitepaper first provides them with a better understanding of the insights the Grader offers. This reinforces the value of both the tool and nexus-security as a trusted resource.

#3: Maintain Consistent Messaging Across Platforms

For optimal performance, your nurturing efforts should be interconnected across different channels.

Think of it this way: AdWords is like the quarterback, and Facebook is like the wide receiver. A potential customer sees your text ad, clicks on it, and downloads the whitepaper. Afterward, they’re served a highly targeted Facebook ad that directly addresses the problem highlighted in the initial search ad and presents a data-driven solution. The quarterback throws the ball, the receiver makes the catch, and it’s a touchdown!

How Does It Help with Lead Nurturing?

By aligning your messaging across platforms, you acknowledge that each channel should work together harmoniously. If you’re investing in advertising, it’s essential to use Facebook and AdWords in tandem. One nurturing strategy, multiple platforms, increased leads. The audience you reach on Facebook likely overlaps with your AdWords audience to some extent. Instead of bombarding them with repetitive messaging, aim to solve their problems in a way that feels natural and helpful.

#4: Ensure Tracking Codes Are Properly Implemented

Lead nurturing is incredibly valuable, but it’s ineffective if you’re not tracking website actions. Without proper tracking, the strategies we’ve discussed become impossible to implement. Your landing pages, or ideally your entire website, should include the necessary tracking codes. It’s crucial to ensure these codes are tracking the right metrics. There are few things more disheartening in digital advertising than realizing a seemingly impressive metric is meaningless due to incorrect tracking.

Let’s briefly examine the tracking code differences between AdWords, Facebook, and Google Analytics.

AdWords Tracking Code

While I recommend using Google Analytics to track AdWords conversions, the tags generated within AdWords are also effective. Simply define your conversion parameters and add the code to your landing page.

Facebook Pixel

The Facebook Pixel offers more flexibility, allowing you to track various on-site actions. Implement the Facebook pixel across your website, customizing it for specific pages as needed. If you’re tracking conversions as revenue on some pages and email addresses on others, make sure to differentiate them within the pixel code to avoid data discrepancies. Pro Tip: Use the Facebook Pixel Helper Chrome extension to verify if your pixel is firing correctly.

Google Analytics UA Code

You likely already have Google Analytics code installed on your website to track organic traffic. Google Analytics is also invaluable for creating highly targeted remarketing lists and understanding how visitors navigate your website. This information can inform your lead nurturing strategy. For example, if you notice frequent traffic flow between two specific pages, you could create gated content based on the second page’s content.

How Does It Help with Lead Nurturing?

Without tracking conversions, prospects, and their actions, it’s impossible to determine if your efforts on a particular channel are successful, let alone build an effective lead nurturing funnel. Failing to track is essentially wasting your advertising budget. If all these code snippets seem overwhelming, don’t worry: nexus-security offers a unified pixel that simplifies tracking and an implementation team to assist you.

#5: Create Highly Targeted Remarketing Lists

Remarketing can sometimes feel like forceful and intrusive lead nurturing. This is ineffective remarketing. However, when used strategically, remarketing through AdWords and Facebook can be a powerful nurturing tool. The key is to be specific. Instead of targeting “All Site Traffic,” focus on inferring intent from on-site behavior and provide relevant solutions through your ad creative.

How Does It Help with Lead Nurturing?

By creating highly segmented remarketing lists, you can showcase ads that directly address the specific interests of potential customers.

If all you know about a prospect is their age, location, and a recent website visit, your ad creative will be limited to generic messaging. However, if you know they spent a significant amount of time on specific product pages, you can infer a strong interest in those offerings. This allows you to tailor your advertising on both AdWords and Facebook, using various creative formats to demonstrate why your product or service is the best solution for them. This targeted approach is far more effective than bombarding potential customers with generic banner ads for weeks on end.

#6: Utilize IF Functions in Your Ad Copy

According to Google, “IF functions allow you to display specific messages in your text ads based on certain conditions.” This enables you to tailor ad copy based on device or audience, ensuring your message is highly relevant to each prospect. For instance, if you’re struggling to convert mobile users, you can create targeted offers specifically for those searching on their smartphones.

IF functions provide a powerful way to adapt your ads in real time to meet the specific needs of your prospects.

How Does It Help with Lead Nurturing?

Let’s say you’re an online retailer who effectively uses remarketing. You understand that cart abandoners – those who add items to their cart but leave before completing the purchase – are valuable leads. This week, you decide to offer a 10% discount sitewide and advertise it accordingly in your AdWords account.

By using IF functions, you can display an exclusive offer of 15% off plus free shipping to cart abandoners. This highly appealing offer encourages them to complete their purchase. Other website visitors will see the standard 10% discount, while these high-intent prospects receive an irresistible incentive to convert.

#7: Set Frequency Caps for Your Remarketing Ads

“What’s frequency capping?” - A common question among advertisers.

While it’s acceptable to remind potential customers about the products or services they’ve shown interest in, excessive advertising can be detrimental. This is where frequency capping comes in.

How Does It Help with Lead Nurturing?

The ideal frequency cap depends on factors like industry and average buying cycle. For low-cost, impulsive purchases, showing ads within a short timeframe after a website visit is acceptable. However, for high-ticket items requiring significant research, a more subtle approach is necessary. Spreading out reminders across search, display, social media, and email over time provides prospects with ample opportunities to engage with your nurturing content without feeling overwhelmed.

To track how often your ads are shown to potential customers, monitor your reach metrics. These metrics, available at the campaign level in AdWords, indicate how many unique users have seen your ads within a specific period.

#8: Utilize Facebook to Guide Leads Through the Funnel

Facebook’s pixel offers powerful audience segmentation capabilities. Even if you’re not actively advertising on AdWords, you can create an effective nurturing funnel using Facebook alone. This strategy not only improves the prospect experience but also reduces cost per acquisition (CPA) for advertisers. By targeting a smaller audience of qualified prospects with ads featuring more advanced offerings, you increase the likelihood of conversions.

By creating custom audiences, you can leverage pixel data to ensure that the most relevant ads and offers are shown to each prospect. We touched upon this earlier when discussing ad format selection. Now, let’s explore custom audience creation.

How Does It Help with Lead Nurturing?

Custom audiences in Facebook allow you to mirror the stages of your nurturing funnel within the platform. The example below illustrates this concept.

A prospect encounters a Facebook ad for your Performance Grader, clicks on it, and uses the tool. They’re then added to a new custom audience called “Grader Run.” Thanks to this audience segmentation, they’ll no longer see ads for the Performance Grader. Instead, they’ll be targeted with ads promoting a free trial – a logical next step in their journey toward becoming a paying customer.

#9: Utilize Exclusionary Audiences

Exclusionary audiences are essential for many of the techniques discussed in this article. As the name suggests, these audiences allow you to refine your targeting by excluding specific groups. For example, you can exclude existing customers from seeing ads targeting new prospects.

How Does It Help with Lead Nurturing?

Let’s imagine you have two remarketing audiences: a 60-day audience and a 90-day audience, each with different offers.

Exclusionary audiences allow you to showcase the appropriate offer to each group, even though those in the 90-day audience are also part of the 60-day audience. The 90-day audience won’t see the 60-day offer; they’ll only see the offer tailored specifically to them. It’s worth noting that you can use this technique to exclude other audience types, such as previous purchasers.

#10: Use Lookalike and Similar Audiences to Expand Your Reach

What’s more effective than marketing to complete strangers online? Marketing to strangers who share characteristics with your existing customers!

Lookalike audiences (Facebook) and Similar audiences (AdWords) allow you to leverage your current customer data to discover new potential customers.

How Does It Help with Lead Nurturing?

Your well-established nurturing program should have no problem converting warm leads into paying customers. In AdWords, you can target audiences similar to your remarketing lists for either direct targeting or bid adjustments. Facebook takes things a step further.

Using a single seed audience, Facebook allows you to create multiple lookalike audiences based on their similarity to the original audience. This similarity level helps determine where these new prospects might fall within your nurturing funnel. Through testing and analysis, you can refine the creation and nurturing of these audiences, generating a consistent flow of high-potential leads.

#11: Implement Dynamic Remarketing to Recover Lost Sales

If keyword research and audience targeting effectively drive qualified prospects into your sales funnel, Dynamic Remarketing is what pushes them toward the finish line. Dynamic Remarketing is the reason why those shoes you browsed on Amazon seem to follow you around the internet. While it can be annoying, it’s undeniably effective.

How Does It Help with Lead Nurturing?

If you’re an ecommerce business, this strategy is crucial. Just be careful not to overdo it. As a general rule, reserve Dynamic Remarketing for cart abandoners. This highly personalized approach targets potential customers with ads showcasing the exact products they left behind in their carts. You can implement Dynamic Remarketing on both AdWords and Facebook to create a sense of urgency. When executed effectively (within minutes or hours of cart abandonment), Dynamic Remarketing is a powerful conversion driver.

11 Tips to Convert Prospects into Customers: TL;DR

You’re welcome.

1. Keyword Research + Audience Targeting = Recipe for Success
2. Choose the Right Ad Format for Your Offer
3. Maintain Consistent Messaging Across Platforms
4. Ensure Tracking Codes Are Properly Implemented
5. Create Highly Targeted Remarketing Lists
6. Utilize IF Functions in Your Ad Copy
7. Set Frequency Caps for Your Remarketing Ads
8. Utilize Facebook to Guide Leads Through the Funnel
9. Leverage Exclusionary Audiences
10. Use Lookalike and Similar Audiences to Expand Your Reach
11. Implement Dynamic Remarketing to Recover Lost Sales