Building Brand Awareness with PPC: Smart Strategies for B2B Marketers

Brand awareness in B2B often gets the “we’ll do it later when we can afford it” treatment. It’s the broccoli of digital marketing: undeniably good for you, yet strangely avoided.

But here’s the truth every B2B marketing leader quietly knows: demand generation doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Someone remembers you before they need you. And PPC is one of the most reliable ways to make sure that “someone” is the exact right buyer.

This guide walks through the strategic levers worth pulling, across Google ads, LinkedIn, Meta, and Microsoft Ads, and how to balance smart targeting with scroll-stopping creative that doesn’t feel like a cringey startup meme.

Let’s get into it.
‍

1. Why B2B Brand Awareness Needs PPC (and Why It’s Not Performance’s Poor Cousin)

Brand awareness campaigns sometimes get dismissed because they don’t immediately tie back to MQLs and ROAS slides. And, yes, it’s true that you won’t close deals just because someone viewed a video for 3 seconds.

But here’s what the data consistently shows:

• 65% of B2B buyers say they won’t engage with a vendor until they’ve consumed 3–7 pieces of content. Source: Edelman B2B Thought Leadership Study
• Brands with high “mental availability” see significantly lower acquisition costs across paid channels.

That means brand awareness isn’t fluff, it’s future ROAS insurance.

With PPC, you can:

• Put your message in front of your exact ICP
• Shape the narrative before competitors do
• Build warmth that later makes your performance campaigns cheaper
• Test messaging long before it hits your website or sales deck

Think of awareness PPC as your “soft but strategic handshake.”
‍

2. The Three Core Brand Awareness Levers in B2B PPC

a) Relevance (Audience + Message)

Get hyper-specific about who you want remembering you, not “business professionals aged 25–65 with an interest in SaaS.”

I mean:

• FinOps managers at companies with >100 employees
• HR Directors in the public sector
• Heads of Customer Operations in companies using Salesforce
• Marketing leaders at Series B fintech startups

Brand awareness only works if the right people are doing the “awarenessing.”

b) Repetition (Consistency + Frequency)

You don’t need to harass people, but you do need them to see you more than once.

Aim for:

• LinkedIn: 1.5–3 impressions per week
• Meta: Slightly higher (3–6/week) due to faster-scrolling environment
• Google Display/YouTube: Use frequency caps to avoid turning into background noise

c) Recognition (Creative + Memory Structures)

This is where creative becomes unavoidably important.

Buyers don’t remember your features.

They remember:

• Shapes
• Colours
• Characters
• Tone
• Consistent visual elements

You don’t need Pixar. You do need coherency.

3. Yes, the Creative Matters. No, You Don’t Need to Be Nike, but you should ‘just do it’.

Top-of-funnel PPC strategy lives in a visual ecosystem. Even Google, the last bastion of text-only ads, is now pushing images, logos, and brand visual elements into search formats.

This doesn’t mean you need a brand bible thicker than your quarterly plan, but it does mean the difference between:

• 💤 “Growth for modern teams”
• 🔥 A sharp headline paired with a visual that actually signals who you are

Types of creatives that work exceptionally well in B2B brand awareness:

• Motion graphics showing a before/after workflow
• Short 10–20s videos introducing a core belief (“Here’s what we think is broken in your industry…”)
• Social-first carousel formats to tell a micro-story
• Static ads with bold headline + subtle brand codes (colour, typography, iconography)
• Customer proof points presented visually rather than text-only

4. High-Quality B2B Creatives You Can Reference (Without Falling Into SaaS marketing Beige)

Here are some brands known for doing brand awareness well, and the types of creatives worth exploring:

→ Notion

• Clean, distinctive iconography
• Perfect micro-animations showcasing product value
• Their YouTube ads are a masterclass in simple, memorable storytelling

‍
‍

→ Pleo

• Character-driven, design-led campaigns that don’t scream “expense software”
• Their LinkedIn videos are consistently scroll-stopping

→ Deel

• Razor-sharp, bold typography
• Simple explainer motion graphics made premium
• Excellent landing page + ad synergy
  ‍

→ Ramp

• Minimalist, clever brand design
• Crisp, product-led storytelling
• Their paid social showcases how to make complex finance topics look easy
  ‍

→ Vanta

• Niche humour
• Very simple messaging
  ‍

‍

These are perfect examples to include in stakeholder conversations to show “this is how modern B2B brand awareness feels.”

5. Smart PPC Tactics to Build Brand Awareness (Without Burning Budget)

Below are the tactics I’d recommend (and regularly use) when building B2B awareness campaigns that actually convert later.

1) LinkedIn Thought Leadership + Light Motion

You don’t build awareness with a single static ad.

You build it with a rhythm of valuable moments.

Best formats:

• 10–20s motion ads
• Carousel storytelling
• Promoted blogs/guides
• Founder POV videos (subtle, not TED Talk)

Winning themes:

• Industry frustrations
• “We believe…” positioning
• Micro case studies
• Category misconceptions
• Simple frameworks or “ways of working”

(LinkedIn confirms that video ads increase brand recall by 22% on average — usually enough to nudge warm audiences into active demand later.)

2) YouTube “Explain the Problem” Campaigns

YouTube is the most underrated channel in B2B, full stop.

Best-performing concepts:

• “Why X is broken in your industry”
• 15-second product teasers
• Animated explainers
• Founder narration + b-roll

Bid on:

• Custom segments based on competitor searches
• Industry keywords
• Intent-based audiences
• Remarketing lists from performance campaigns

3) Google Display With Brand Codes (Not Stock Photos)

Display works if:

• Your brand codes are strong
• Your headlines are legible
• Your frequency control is sensible
• You’re targeting the right placements

Avoid:

• Lifestyle stock photos
• “People staring at whiteboards”
• Anything you'd see on a 2010 HubSpot blog

Use:

• Bold shapes
• Product UI elements
• Abstract visuals
• Strong typography

4) Meta Ads for Visual Narrative (Yes, even for B2B)

Meta works for B2B when you lean into culture and design rather than sales messaging.

What works:

• Behind-the-scenes culture clips
• Design-led storytelling
• Motion-first explainers
• Short POV videos from your team

Meta is cheap for reach, which makes it a perfect brand-awareness companion to LinkedIn.

6. (Optional) Add Search to Anchor the Memory

Brand awareness is softer, but pairing it with brand search campaigns:

• Protects your brand when interest spikes
• Keeps your cost per click down
• Helps you measure demand lift
• Gives you cleaner attribution

Look for:

• Increase in branded search queries
• More direct traffic
• Lower CPA on retargeting
• Higher click-through on performance ads

Brand search won’t create demand, but it catches the spillover beautifully.

7. Bringing It All Together: What Marketers Should Do Next

If you’re planning 2025 budgets, here's the practical, no-nonsense version:

1. Pick 1–2 hero creative formats you can repeat consistently
2. Choose the channels where your ICP actually spends time (not where “B2B should be”)
3. Develop strong brand codes — simple, consistent, recognisable
4. Run awareness + demand gen as a single ecosystem
5. Measure memory, not just MQLs
6. Tie brand campaigns tightly to product value and market problems

Brand awareness PPC isn’t a “nice to have.” It’s the thing that makes your performance campaigns work better, faster, and cheaper.
‍

‍

If you’re curious how a strategic blend of brand awareness and performance PPC could look for your business, and you’d like something that isn’t a dusty template, request a free proposal from Lever Digital. We’ll show you what a real, growth-ready plan looks like.

‍