Two things that are integral to a successful PPC advertising campaign are the click-through-rate (CTR) and the conversion rate. For business-to-business (B2B) advertisers, however, if consumers are clicking on their PPC ads, then a high CTR quickly exhausts the advertiser's budget without yielding a decent conversion rate. Consequently, B2B advertisers should consider using better ad-copy to pre-qualify the users that are clicking on their PPC ads.

Today on Search Engine Watch, Patricia Hursh explores this problem. She writes:

According to Marketing Sherpa's Benchmark Report, the average click cost on Google in 2006 for a B-to-B service organization was $2.77.
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While $2.77 might not sound unreasonably high, keep in mind it is an average. Some B-to-B firms advertise in highly-competitive sectors where click costs are in the $10 to $35 range.
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B-to-B advertisers know that when your universe of potential buyers is limited, and when each visitor comes at a significant cost, you must ensure that the right people are clicking.
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This is where ad copy comes in. Many marketers have learned through experience to be very specific with their search advertising text. Using a measly 95 characters, marketers must try to explain just who should -- and who shouldn't -- click on their ad.

Some ads should be designed to reduce response.
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Reducing an ad's response rate might seem like a strange marketing goal. But this approach ensures that clickers, and expensive Web site visitors, are actually more qualified.
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Many marketers have found that targeting their ads by network, searcher location and keywords just isn't enough. The reality is, oftentimes ad copy is required to further explain an offering and qualify a searcher.
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Interestingly, the fundamental challenge for B-to-B marketers is that Google, Yahoo, MSN and other ad networks don't reward this type of behavior. In fact, they penalize it!

Of course, it is in the interests of adservers to favor ads that bolster their bank accounts. For marketers, however, this represents a conflict of interest between themselves and the adserver. If your competition is not pre-qualifying users with their ad-copy, even though they might be experiencing a low conversion rate, their ads will likely display above your own. Before you engage in a frivolously expensive advertising-cold-war, however, understand that the #3 position in paid search results is often more lucrative than the #1 spot.

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