As more B2B advertisers search for ways to get in front of their audiences during the COVID-19 pandemic, a webinar seems like an obvious option.
Webinars are a great way to draw in a specific audience, speak directly to its needs and offer a useful solution.
Enter scene: Your product.
Let’s talk about a couple of ways to reach as many potential webinar attendees as possible and how to best leverage a webinar in paid channels.
Pre-Webinar Promotion
Tracking
It has been my experience that many companies use third party programs to organize webinars. Because of this, it can often be impossible to leverage traditional conversion tracking within the channels.
It’s usually possible to track sign-ups with traditional UTM parameters and forego tracking information in the interface, it just adds a step to your process when it comes time to review performance.
While this isn’t a deal-breaker when promoting a webinar, it is something to keep in mind.
List Targeting
If it’s an option, compile lists of emails and companies that can be targeted in different channels.
LinkedIn has the best list targeting options for B2B advertisers with the ability to target companies or LinkedIn users.
In Facebook, advertisers can target lists of email addresses.
Google allows advertisers to use Customer Match targeting which targets a list of Gmail email addresses. (Keep in mind you’ll need to meet these requirements before running Customer Match ads)
Here are a few lists we would recommend:
- Email list of current leads
- Email list of previous webinar attendees
- Company list of target accounts
- Company lists from trade shows, conferences, etc.
Lookalikes
Creating a lookalike audience (sometimes called “similar audiences”) off of your target customer list can be an additional way to target net-new users.
In social platforms, lookalikes are a great additional route to finding users who are similar to target audience but may not take the additional steps to fill out a profile or “like” a Page.
If you need tips on how to create and leverage lookalikes in the channels here are some resources:
- LinkedIn: Create a Lookalike Audience for Ad Targeting
- Facebook: About Lookalike Audiences
- Google: Add similar audiences to your targeting
Video Teasers
If possible, a short 10-15 second video preview of the webinar can be a powerful way to draw in attendees.
Since it’s not always possible to have presenters on-camera ahead of the event, leveraging graphics and imagery with the addition of subtitles can be just as useful.
These videos can be leveraged in Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Google. Pair with list targeting for maximum impact.
Other Ad Types
One of my favorite ad types for webinar promotions are carousel ads. I like the ability to add multiple images and multiple headlines as a way to better engage your audience.
Carousels are available in Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Consider Time Zones & Schedules
When planning the live event, you’ll want to take into consideration the time of day and day of the week for all targeted timezones.
Currently, during this time of social distancing, most parents are juggling homeschooling their children on top of their full-time careers. For many parents, this can mean working early in the morning or late at night to make up for missed time during the day. Keep in mind there may be a portion of your audience who wants to engage with your event but doesn’t have the time.
Which brings us to…
Post-Webinar Promotion
Record It
In order to be able to promote your webinar as an on-demand webinar in the future, this step is imperative.
After it has been recorded, it can be edited and added as a gated video on your site.
As I said earlier, given that work-life balance may be a bit more tumultuous than usual, an on-demand webinar can be especially valuable right now.
Retargeting
An on-demand webinar can be a great asset for retargeting.
In addition to retargeting users you wanted to sign up for the webinar, you can also use it as a general retargeting asset for site visitors.
Editing and repurposing the video quickly after your event is complete is a great way to capture the attention of users who may not have been able to make it to the live event.
Conclusion
Webinars are a great way, especially now, to engage with potential customers in a different and more interactive way.
With a little planning, your webinar can be a success that you can repurpose for future on-demand content! A win-win!
What tips do you have for planning and executing a webinar? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!
