FAQs
The questions B2B founders ask before launching paid search come up again and again, so here are direct answers to the ones that decide whether you start well.
How much budget do I need to start with Google Ads for B2B?
Enough to gather signal, not enough to scale. For most lean B2B, a starting budget of roughly 1,500 to 3,000 EUR a month lets you accumulate the 15 to 30 conversions smart bidding needs to learn, across a small set of high-intent keywords. Going lower is possible if your keywords are tightly targeted and your CPA is modest, but below a certain floor you never collect enough data to optimise. Spend it narrow and deep on buying-intent queries rather than thin and wide.
How is Google Ads for B2B different from B2C?
The intent is the same — harvest existing demand — but the economics differ. B2B has lower search volume, higher cost per click, longer sales cycles, and a much higher customer lifetime value. That means you optimise to qualified pipeline rather than immediate sales, you track offline conversions from your CRM because the deal closes weeks or months after the click, and you can defend a higher CPA because each customer is worth far more. Volume is lower but each conversion matters more.
How long until I see the first qualified lead?
The first clicks and form fills can come within days, but a qualified lead — one your sales process would genuinely pursue — typically takes two to six weeks. The early weeks are about gathering search-terms data, adding negatives, and letting smart bidding move out of its learning phase. Judge the channel on a full quarter, not the first fortnight; early results are noisy and usually understate what a tended account will do.
Do I really need a dedicated landing page?
Yes. Sending paid clicks to your homepage is the most common reason a well-built campaign fails to produce pipeline. A dedicated, message-matched landing page per ad group — navigation stripped, a single CTA, proof near the action — routinely converts several times better than a homepage. The lift from dedicated pages often dwarfs the lift from any bid tweak, which is why it is the highest-leverage piece of the whole system.
Should I run Google Ads in-house or hire an agency?
For a lean B2B company, a founder who understands the model in this playbook can run a tight account in 30 to 45 minutes a week, and that ownership keeps you close to which keywords actually drive pipeline. An agency makes sense once spend grows past the point where the time cost outweighs their fee, or when you genuinely lack the hours. If you do hire one, insist they optimise to qualified pipeline from your CRM, not to clicks or raw leads — many default to vanity metrics that flatter a report and waste your budget.
What should I do first?
Start with the model, not the account. Confirm there is real buying-intent search volume for what you sell, list those capture queries, and only then build a tight, intent-based account with honest conversion tracking wired in from day one. Everything else in this playbook compounds on that foundation.
If you want a structured starting point, work through this playbook from the harvesting model and build the account one chapter at a time.