Online Awareness Campaign utilising LinkedIn and Google Ads
VDMA AMG Association
As part of the German Engineering Federation (VDMA), the Automation + Management for Homes + Buildings Association (AMG) represents the interests of manufacturers of measurement and control technology and automation solutions for heating, ventilation and air conditioning, as well as service providers in the field of building management. The 60 or so companies currently organised in this association represent an annual turnover of approximately 1.8 billion Euros.
Solution
Identify relevant online and social media channels to address the target groups in the real estate and construction sectors to drive traffic to an SEO-optimised online knowledge portal. In addition to several LinkedIn Ads and Google Ads Display campaigns, a LinkedIn company page was also established. Alongside the planning, set-up, and implementation on LinkedIn and Google, we also provided regular monitoring to measure the campaign's success and optimised ongoing campaigns.
Online Awareness Campaign
The cross-media image campaign was specifically designed for online marketing and social media. We set up dedicated Google Ads Display campaigns and LinkedIn Ads for the four focus topics and the relevant decision-makers in the construction and real estate sectors. The aim was to direct the decision-makers to expert articles on building automation on the online portal.
SEO optimisation of website
The online knowledge portal website is the centrepiece of the online awareness campaign. The target group can use it to find out about current blog posts, references and interviews on all topics related to building automation. We succeeded in continuously increasing the website's visibility through regularly published blog posts about relevant topics and achieved top rankings in search engines for numerous important keywords in the industry.
The graphic shows that just a few weeks after the website went live (October 2023), it was already ranking highly for important keywords. As time went on, we were able to improve continuously.
LinkedIn company profile
The LinkedIn portal has become the central social media channel for increasing awareness. For this reason, we set up a focus page for the building automation industry. We provide editorial support for this page and continuously add new content. We use a targeted mix of video content with member companies, single image posts and carousel posts to promote blog posts, cases and events. We plan, write, design and publish the creative content.
Performance measurement of the website and LinkedIn
Measuring success is an essential part of a cross-media campaign. Monthly reports on important key figures, such as the number of visits to the website or the performance of social media posts, offer full transparency. With this data, we determine the next steps with the association and optimise budget allocation regularly. The number of monthly page views increased steadily during the first year and is now averaging a five-digit range every month. The number of followers of the LinkedIn profile is also continuing to grow organically, even after an entire year.
LinkedIn ads
We used LinkedIn Ads to draw the target group's attention to the new LinkedIn channel and to inform relevant decision-makers about the knowledge portal on the website. We used A/B tests with different visuals and target group definitions to optimise the campaign's performance. The awareness campaign was supported by a retargeting campaign that played thematically relevant blog posts based on user behaviour.
Results of the LinkedIn ad campaign
Right from the start, we used A/B testing to determine the optimal definitions of the target group and the content most attractive to the target groups.
We ran the campaign in two phases, with the insights gained from the first phase being used to optimise the second phase. These insights enabled us to further increase the second phase's performance. We raised the average CTR by almost 40 per cent, which is well above the industry benchmark – and nearly half the cost per conversion.
Google Ads
As the online campaign was designed to raise awareness of topics in building automation, we opted for a Google Ads Display campaign during the first phase. The campaign's advantage is its ability to achieve a high reach tailored to the surfing habits of the target group. Different types of visuals helped counteract saturation and ensured greater visibility and attention.
Results of the Google Ads campaign
The initial campaign period of only a few months achieved over 2 million impressions and almost 30,000 clicks on the website with the display ads. Particularly at the beginning, we closely monitored the placements and excluded inappropriate sites. The CTR is more than 2.5 times the industry average – with relatively low average CPCs and cost per conversion, as desired in awareness campaigns.
