Lead Campaigns on Social Media: Case Study Primetals Technologies – Part 3

One of our biggest challenges to date? A lead campaign for an industrial group specialising in the construction of steel plants. Social media isn't the right place for that? Think again!

Through a clear plan, a little tinkering and close collaboration with the client, it turned into a showcase campaign.

The following article is the third part of our article series on the topic.
Part 1: Using Social Media for B2B Lead Campaigns
Part 2: How to: B2B Lead Campaigns on Social Media
Part 3: Case Study: Primetals Technologies

Task

Primetals Technologies is a globally active industrial group headquartered in Great Britain, specialising in the construction of steel plants. This means: the number of potential customers is manageable, the initiation process is complex, and the order volumes are substantial.

We were commissioned for a lead campaign in the spring of 2019. The goal was to find interested parties for a meeting at the Metec 2019 trade fair.

Approach

We chose LinkedIn and Facebook as advertising channels for the campaign. On LinkedIn, we were able to work with the list of potential customers provided by Primetals, which was uploaded to the platform as a seed audience. On Facebook, we worked with niche interests and used the data collected by the Facebook Pixel for retargeting website visitors.

Focus markets were defined in advance. The aim was to reach users primarily in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. This helped balance the very granular segmentation in targeting, as the broad geographical distribution allowed us to compile appropriately large target audiences.

Advertising Materials

The advertising materials for all markets were created in English for both platforms. Key elements in the design of the ads were clear CTAs, industrial imagery and prominent placement of the sender, Primetals. A voucher was also communicated initially. However, it turned out that the lead volume was sufficiently large even without a voucher.

On Facebook, carousel ads with various images of Primetals plants were used:

Carousel ads were also used on LinkedIn. In addition, the campaign also made use of Sponsored InMails:

Process

Incoming leads were downloaded by the marketing team and transferred into a spreadsheet. In this spreadsheet, the quality of the lead was noted directly by sales. This allowed the leads to be evaluated easily.

In a first step, unusable leads were filtered out. After initial contact, an assessment was made as to whether they were marketing-qualified leads and should be transferred into the CRM, or if the lead should not be pursued further. This step can be automated if the CRM can be connected to Facebook and LinkedIn via an interface.

A weekly coordination call was used to report on the quality of incoming leads. This allowed us to react quickly and flexibly to feedback and make adjustments while the campaign was still running.

Results

The numbers speak for themselves. Numerous, high-quality leads were collected in all target markets. The results far exceeded expectations. Furthermore, the client highlighted that the campaign brought a better understanding of markets that had previously barely been worked by marketing and sales:

„We didn’t only exceed the estimated results, we also gained essential knowledge about our markets in many ways.“
Martin Reitbauer, Marketing & Communications Primetals Technologies

This once again shows that direct-response market data can be collected quickly, easily and globally via social media – even if none of the tools whose results are statically valid (Brand Lift Study, Conversion Lift Study, A/B testing) are used.

Conclusion: Key Learnings

• Social media campaigns are extremely effective for sales, especially lead ads.
• For global campaigns, advertising costs vary enormously between continents.
• While leads on LinkedIn are more expensive, the lead quality is significantly better. The campaign showed how much the prices are put into perspective because of this: Pure leads were much cheaper on Facebook, but the price for a high-quality lead was ultimately almost the same on both platforms.
• Regular feedback from the sales team to marketing is important in order to get the best out of the campaign while it is still running.

More on this topic in Part 1 and Part 2:
Part 1: Using Social Media for B2B Lead Campaigns
Part 2: How to: B2B Lead Campaigns on Social Media
Part 3: Case Study: Primetals Technologies

Conclusion