When we think of Facebook advertising, we tend to view it as a place for B2C. Facebook is where users go to stay in touch with friends and family, read the news and be served ads from their favorite retailers, right? But how many times have you (as an employee) been browsing Facebook and seen an ad for an awesome new integration for your internal software? It happens!
When done right, SaaS lead generation on Facebook can be very successful for B2B companies. Business decision makers are people, just like us, who browse Facebook and Instagram the same as any consumer. B2B brands that know this can start using Facebook ads to reach their audience and drive leads on the platform.
What are some examples of businesses doing B2B SaaS marketing well on Facebook? Here are our current favorite campaigns.
5 Examples of B2B SaaS Marketing on Facebook
Great Simple
Great Simple is a B2B company selling a wireframing tool. As marketers, we know wireframing can often be a time consuming part of the website building process, especially if you don’t have the right tools. Great Simple claims their product is “as easy as Tetris.” To prove this point they use a quick tutorial video to show how easy the product is to use. You get a feel for the interface without even leaving your Facebook newsfeed.
Slack
If you’re an agency and don’t use Slack, you are seriously missing out! Slack’s ad copy rings true to their product. By using a simple, clear statistic that is sure to speak to the pain point of any marketer, they don’t have to explain their product in any further detail.
Limelight Platform
Limelight is a platform in the experiential marketing space, helping brands plan, build, personalize and measure live experience. Because their services are a little more niche and complicated than a product like Slack, it could be too aggressive to prospect to a brand new audience with ads about their services. Instead, they created a free e-book for download. Offering a free e-book download on the “rules of experiential marketing” allows them to introduce themselves to a new audience in a less aggressive way, capturing the information of users who might be interested in what they do. They can then remarket to anyone who downloads their e-book with service focused ads.
SharpSpring
SharpSpring is an automation platform that takes a different approach to prospecting. Instead of running ads about their own product and claiming it is “the best” (like so many companies do), they instead appeal to the question every marketer faces when picking an automation platform. Who really IS the best? And how can we help you figure it out?
Their headline reads: “Need a Hand Picking Marketing Automation?” At first glance, you don’t even realize they are a marketing automation platform themselves. When clicking on the CTA button to Learn More, you’ll quickly see that they used Facebook’s Lead Gen ad unit to offer users a chance to download their 2018 Marketing Automation Vendor Guide, which compares the top 6 vendors. Again, no mention of their own product, other than a subtle option to request a demo of SharpSpring.
This is a great way to offer potential leads something useful that they will gladly give their name and email for. Even if they don’t opt for the SharpSpring demo, SharpSpring has now collected their information and knows they are interested or in the process of choosing a marketing automation vendor. SharpSpring can use this information to enroll users in email campaigns and remarket to them with ads that promote their own product.
Box
Box is a platform similar to Google Drive that lets you secure, share and edit your files all in one place. Box is a widely-used platform among all types of customers. Recently, they capitalized on the buzz around GDPR compliance and created a webinar that would appeal to a general audience. It’s an offer that didn’t ask viewers to start using Box.
When clicking “Sign Up,” the user is prompted to provide their information to Box (which Box can then use for remarketing) in return for access to the webinar.
These five examples show the potential for B2B businesses to successfully advertise on Facebook. True, it calls for a different strategy than B2C, but your ideal audience is on Facebook too. Taking the step to advertise to them on Facebook results in more leads and more business for B2B companies.
Interested in marketing your B2B SaaS product on Facebook? Learn about our approach to B2B paid social media marketing.
Posted In: B2B, Paid Social, SaaS, Facebook
Jordan Katz
Jordan helps businesses of all sizes get more leads, generate sales, and reach their target customers online. Jordan has an extensive background in both organic and paid social, most recently working with Estee Lauder Companies to execute strategic paid social campaigns for their portfolio of brands.