PPC for Manufacturing: Tips, Costs, Mistakes + Checklist

PPC advertising is a digital marketing strategy that manufacturing companies can use to build visibility, generate leads, and increase sales. Learn expert strategies, mistakes to avoid, and how to pick a PPC agency.

Many manufacturing companies have been slower to embrace the digital-first preferences of the modern B2B buyer.

But when done right, online marketing strategies like pay-per-click (PPC) advertising can help manufacturers connect with high-quality leads and increase revenue.

This guide offers expert tips to create powerful PPC campaigns that drive clicks and boost conversions, with expert insights from HawkSEM Lead Strategist Ian Dawson.

What is PPC for manufacturers?

PPC advertising for manufacturing companies is the marketing strategy of creating online ads that appear across search engine networks like Google and Bing.

Not to be confused with production planning and control, PPC stands for pay-per-click, a method where the advertiser pays a small fee every time a user clicks an ad.

In other words, manufacturers don’t have to pay to publish their ads — they pay for engagement. A great choice for small businesses and large manufacturing corporations alike.

Benefits of PPC advertising for manufacturers

The manufacturing industry is competitive, highly specialized, and has a longer sales cycle than most. PPC advertising helps manufacturing businesses target more high-quality leads faster.

Here’s how PPC can benefit industrial businesses:

• Precise targeting: PPC allows you to dispatch ads to your ideal manufacturing clients by targeting based on location, job title, industry, interests, and more. Whether you manufacture raw materials or finished goods, PPC helps ensure your ads get in front of the right buyers, making sales forecasting easier and more accurate.
• Faster results: While SEO takes months to show results, PPC campaigns can launch quickly and be optimized in real time. That means manufacturers can respond swiftly to market trends, supply chain shifts, or changing objectives of production planning.
• Budget control: With the performance-based pay model, PPC enables your company to set specific spending allocations and ensure your marketing strategy aligns with your company’s financial objectives. Budget control is essential to running a profitable manufacturing operation. Since PPC campaigns are fully digital, you won’t have to worry about inventory control of marketing materials.
• Measurable analytics: PPC campaigns offer a wealth of data. You can track and analyze how your campaigns work at every point of the sales journey.
• Supports B2B sales: For an industry with long sales cycles and niche offerings, PPC advertising helps manufacturers connect with the right audience to expedite the sales process.

PPC platforms for manufacturers

A common question manufacturers new to PPC ask is, “Which platform should I use?” Google Ads and LinkedIn are the two leaders.

Google Ads provides extensive scale and incredible targeting tools that can engage your ideal audience. Keyword capabilities make it ideal for driving site traffic and conversions. But its popularity means higher competition.

Other search engines like Bing (Microsoft Ads) can replicate Google campaigns and expand your reach with a higher-intent audience.

LinkedIn, on the other hand, offers precise targeting of B2B leaders. Pinpointing manufacturing professionals means reaching highly targeted audiences, but at a higher cost per click (CPC).

Meta Ads, which include Facebook and Instagram, might not be where your target audience goes to make business decisions, but it’s the perfect place to remind them of your offering in a gentle way.

The same can be said for other social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter). These paid social strategies can complement your Google and LinkedIn campaigns.

Finally, YouTube offers the appeal of demonstrating your manufacturing process in an engaging, visual way. With tutorials and testimonials, YouTube helps build credibility and turn prospects into customers.

Evaluate each platform against your budget, target KPIs, and existing sales funnel to select the right fit.

A blended approach combining the scale of Google and the precision of LinkedIn often provides an optimal balance for manufacturers.

9 expert PPC tips for manufacturing companies

There are some unique steps manufacturers can take to build stronger PPC campaigns that yield higher results.

1. Understand your audience

PPC advertising requires a nuanced strategy tailored to your target customer. End-clients and distributors require different approaches, so your strategy must align with who you want to reach.

“For manufacturers, it is vitally important to understand how your company works with customers throughout their journey. Without this first step, ad efforts will be inefficient,” says Dawson.

The relationship between your company’s marketers and your company’s sales team is central to this understanding.

“Our most successful marketing strategies are born with a complete roadmap of the buyer’s journey supplied by sales teams,” says Dawson.

“Sit with your sales team and learn about what makes a prospective customer valuable and what roadblocks they face during their consideration phase. This information becomes helpful when crafting ads, selecting keywords, and leveraging audience signals.”

For end-clients, showcase how your products deliver direct benefits like cost savings, efficiency gains, and innovation.

Craft ads that speak to client pain points and position your manufacturing solutions as the solution. If manufacturing processes are difficult to understand, use clear language to communicate with your potential clients.

For distributors, highlight your strengths in production management. Emphasize your supply chain strength, procurement process, production scheduling reliability, and production capacity.

Distributors must trust partners to meet demand without hiccups, so highlight your capacity planning, quality control, and production processes.

2. Use your long sales cycle to your advantage

“Your longer sales cycles will also help to identify opportunities during your buyer’s journey,” explains Dawson.

“It is very common for a B2B sales cycle to be months and up to a year in some cases. During this time, your marketing efforts can keep your prospects moving along the funnel in a variety of ways.”

Unlike an ecommerce purchase with a consideration period of days or sometimes minutes, manufacturers can utilize the longer sales cycle to further educate prospects.

Unique selling propositions can be leveraged to educate a potential buyer and increase the chances of closing a deal.

3. Use industry-specific keywords

Thorough keyword research is the foundation of effective PPC. Look beyond generic terms to find high-intent keywords specific to your manufacturing niche.

These keywords tend to be lower in volume, but ultra-targeted queries signal immediate buyer needs and convert at far higher rates.

“Production scheduling software” and “material requirement planning” will bring better results than “software” or “inventory management.” Specificity gets results.

4. Use location-specific targeting

Manufacturing companies typically serve specific locations, from regional distributors to local B2B customers.

Leveraging location targeting with PPC ads helps these businesses tailor their messaging and connect with users in those high-value geographic locations for a higher ROI.

Location targeting also offers valuable data, like which cities generate the most leads or whether certain markets are underperforming. These insights allow for more effective PPC optimizations and can improve the overall marketing strategy.

5. Avoid irrelevant traffic with negative keywords

Job seekers and consumer searches make up a percentage of manufacturing-related search terms. To avoid irrelevant traffic and connect with the right audience, leverage a negative keyword list.

Negative keywords are search terms you exclude from your PPC campaigns, which prevents your ads from showing up for those irrelevant or low-intent searches.

Further reading: Learn more about negative keywords in our complete guide.

6. Create specific landing pages for each offer

Routing clicks to a tailored landing page that matches the CTA and messaging of your ad copy ensures a positive user experience, increases trust, and drives more conversions.

Optimize your landing page with relevant keywords. Keep your content readable. Use attractive design elements that align with your ads. And close with an irresistible CTA.

Check out this guide to creating landing pages that convert for more expert tips.

7. Address pain points and benefits in the ad copy

Just as your master production system reflects meticulous attention to detail, your ads should showcase your brand through clear, error-free copy, strong visuals, and a compelling call to action.

Be sure to highlight specs, certifications, and applications to provide as much information as possible.

Further reading: How to Create SEM Ad Copy that Clicks

8. Track conversions

As with every industry, tracking your conversions is crucial to optimizing your PPC campaigns and receiving the highest ROI possible.

Measure desirable actions like downloads or quote requests with conversion tracking.

Further reading: How to Set Up Conversion Tracking for Google Ads: A Quick Guide

9. Optimize your campaigns

Don’t just set it and forget it. Monitor your campaign KPIs so you know how your ads are performing.

If you see some of your metrics are underperforming, take action. Experiment with variations for continuous improvement so you can get more from your ad spend.

How to set up a PPC campaign for manufacturers: Google Ads

Google Ads is the PPC platform with the largest reach. While the setup process might look intimidating, it doesn’t have to be. Here’s how to get started:

1. Create your Google Ads account

Head over to Google Ads and create your account. You’ll need to provide basic information about your business, including your business name and web address.

You can link your account to a Google Analytics account to get a wide range of metrics on all your ads.

2. Perform keyword research

Research relevant keywords to make sure your ads are aligned with search terms. Google’s Keyword Planner is a terrific free tool you can use as a starting point.

Use a mix of general and long-tail keywords to make the most of your marketing spend — and maximize your ad’s impact. In general, competitive keywords like “manufacturing execution system” are harder to target than low-competition keywords like “cnc machining.”

While $5.82 per click might seem like a lot of money, that’s a small amount to spend if it consistently brings clients in the door, especially compared with a $1.33 keyword that doesn’t.

3. Create your campaign

Create your campaign. Define your campaign objectives, like getting more purchases or increasing page views, and identify your search themes.

Search themes are the primary search keywords you want your campaign to show up for. You might set target keywords like “small business automation” or “small factory automation” if you want to target small manufacturing businesses.

With Google Ads, you can target up to 25 keywords. This gives you the chance to choose keywords relevant to multiple different services or products you offer.

4. Create eye-catching ad creative

Now it’s time to create your ads. Build your creative workflow so copy and design can complement each other, with concise, compelling copy, attractive visuals, and a powerful call to action.

5. Define your ad spend

Google Ads makes it easy to set your daily budget. You can always adjust this as you monitor your campaign performance, so don’t overthink this step.

You’ll also choose a bidding strategy at this point. You can choose to manually bid if you like, but for most people, it’s easier to go with Google’s automated bidding strategies.

6. Include assets

Using assets like snippets, callouts, and site links makes your ad more impactful.

Formerly called ad extensions, assets make your ad more engaging by adding interactive elements, and they also ensure that your ad takes up more screen real estate, so it grabs viewer attention.

Further reading: 11 Google Assets: How to Set Them Up (+Examples and Tips)

Common PPC mistakes for manufacturers to avoid

When starting a PPC campaign, it’s easy for anyone to stumble into pitfalls — manufacturers are no exception.

Here are a few of the most common mistakes to watch for when crafting your first PPC campaigns:

• Neglecting thorough keyword research. Invest time in discovering high-intent keywords specific to your niche and discovering which broad terms drive irrelevant traffic. Precision targeting can make campaigns resonate better.
• Not focusing on ad quality. Make your ads clear and conversational, and include an irresistible call to action.
• Failing to clean up landing pages. Landing pages must align with the messaging on your ad and provide relevant content that drives conversions. Misalignment between ads and landing pages creates conversion bottlenecks that send potential customers looking to your competitors to meet their needs.
• Not maximizing ad real estate. Assets like contact info, product links, and promotions make ads more prominent in the search results. They also make it easy for your potential new customers to contact you and find your page.
• Not tracking and learning from metrics. One of the great strengths of PPC is the ability to provide data insights. Follow up on how your ads perform and review PPC metrics regularly.
• Overlooking proper mobile optimization. Many users access advertisements by phone. Make your user experience cohesive across all devices so mobile customers have a strong buyer’s journey, too.

Treat your PPC campaign like a well-run production line. Regularly audit your analytics data to avoid pitfalls throughout every stage of your campaign.

How much does PPC cost for manufacturers?

The average PPC management price is between $1,500 and $10,000 per month as a flat-fee model, or 10%-20% of your budget as a percentage of ad spend model.

However, a lot of factors play into ad spend for a PPC campaign, including keyword competitiveness, CPC, and campaign quality.

High-intent keywords often come with a higher CPC since they’re more competitive.

For example, “manufacturing execution system” has a low search volume, according to Google Keyword Planner, but it reflects a high purchase intent and comes with a CPC starting at $7.90.

On the other hand, “lean management” has a similar search volume, but doesn’t reflect a high purchase intent. So, it’s no surprise it has a CPC range that starts around $1.38.

To keep costs manageable, refine keywords and identify long-tail variants that’ll attract your targeted audience. Tools like Google’s Keyword Planner provide cost estimates for bidding.

Other costs to consider? Copywriting and design — so factor these in as you plan your campaign.

Checklist for an effective manufacturing PPC campaign

Following this checklist can help you navigate producing your first successful PPC campaign.

• Define your campaign goals, including the metrics you’ll use to define success.
• Use specific targeting criteria to get crystal clear on your target audience.
• Identify long-tail, high-intent keywords that are aligned with your product.
• Develop clear, conversational ad copy that’s relevant to your target buyer.
• Use assets to make the most of your ad real estate.
• Ensure that landing pages are aligned with your PPC ad messaging.
• Use performance data to drive decision-making and continuously improve results.
• Consider bringing in a PPC agency to draw on their expertise and improve profitability.

Key PPC terms every manufacturer needs to know

Here’s a look at some of the key terminology you should know:

• Cost per click (CPC) is what you pay each time someone clicks on your ad. CPC is one of the prominent production costs of a PPC campaign. You aim to acquire the highest-quality clicks at the lowest possible cost to maximize your return on investment.
  CPC is driven by factors like competition for specific keywords and overall market demand. The more businesses go after a specific keyword, the more CPC will vary. Look for keywords that align with your product or service, with a combination of a decent search volume and low competition to maximize your chances of a solid ROI.
• Click-through rate (CTR) compares the impressions of your ad to the amount of engagement you get. If your ad is seen by millions but hardly anybody’s clicking through, you’ve got a poor CTR. A high CTR means ads are moving readers through to the next stage of the customer journey effectively, like a well-optimized production line. On average, click-through rates in the manufacturing sector are around 2-3%.
• Quality Score is Google’s metric to assess ad relevance, expected CTR, and landing page experience. It’s like quality control, ensuring your PPC components meet standards for performance. Higher Quality Scores can lower your CPC costs.
• Conversion rate relates to how many site visitors take your desired action. This could be completing a form or making a purchase. In the manufacturing sector, conversion rates are typically around 3.4%.

Like an efficient production flow, an optimized campaign maximizes your ROI and drives more revenue. Focus on these metrics to get the results you’re looking for.

How to choose a PPC agency for manufacturing businesses

If the DIY approach to PPC is too intimidating or if you want a partner who offers proven results, hire a PPC agency.

When researching PPC experts, keep these tips in mind:

• Look for a track record of experience in the manufacturing sector. Identify agencies that excelled in PPC in the manufacturing sector. Case studies should relate to your distinct challenges and objectives.
• Ensure complex analytical capabilities. Strong PPC agencies can turn data into results.
• Emphasize strategic collaboration. Your PPC agency should work with you. Look for a partner who offers open communication and transparency when running your campaigns.

The takeaway

PPC campaigns can have an exceptional impact on your bottom line, but they require planning, monitoring, and upkeep.

That’s where working with an expert PPC agency like HawkSEM can be a smart choice. We specialize in building profitable, effective PPC campaigns that attract more of your ideal customers and help you reach your business goals.

If you’re ready to accelerate your manufacturing business’s growth, schedule a consultation today. Together, we can build a PPC strategy that takes your business to new heights.

This article has been updated and was originally published in January 2024.