B2G digital marketing is different from B2B and B2C marketing strategies because the target audience operates on a different level. Regulations are stricter. Transparency is non-negotiable. Compliance is compulsory. 100% accountability is required. For these reasons, it’s always best to work with a B2G marketing agency that knows the ins and outs of the industry.
However, if your small business is still growing or you’re new to public sector procurement and don’t have the budget for professional services, we’ve put together a guide on how you can maximise your ROI in 2025.
How To Maximise Your Digital Marketing Budget
Before you can maximise your budget, you must have a budget. The amount doesn’t matter as much as how you use it. Think about the digital marketing channels available (PPC, SEO, social media, display advertising, email, Facebook ads, etc.) and choose the ones that you think are the most budget-friendly.
A marketing budget breakdown helps allocate funds across different channels by providing a comprehensive overview of common expenses based on a company’s specific needs and preferred marketing methods.
Then think about how you want to divvy up the budget, that is the percentage you are willing to spend on marketing activities. You can start with the easiest to manage (relatively speaking), like Google and Facebook ads.
Both platforms have features that let you set daily and overall budgets.
Test marketing methods before you commit
Never put all your eggs in one basket, especially if it has holes.
The trouble is, you only notice the holes when your eggs hit the ground.
You can avoid this by investing small amounts in a few digital channels and testing their success. A/B testing is a simple, effective method that helps you determine the impact of specific details. For example, which heading is more effective on Google ads or which CTA (call to action) is more effective in an email campaign?
Use the data to allocate resources to the top-performing channels.
Keep monitoring your results, in case your eggs fall out of the CTA basket and you have to adjust your strategy and marketing budget allocation.
Strategic Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns
PPC (paid) advertising can be deceptively simple. You choose some relevant keywords and run with them. There’s more strategy to it than that. To start with, only use exact or phrase-match keywords. This pins down your target market as your ads only appear for relevant users. This improves the value (ROI) of paid ads.
Remember to include negative keywords so you don’t appear for searches that don’t reflect your products, services, or works. For example, “cheap” is not really a keyword you want to use to advertise to the public sector.
Keep monitoring the ads so you can swap poorly performing keywords for those more likely to deliver the results you want.
Develop a Strategy That Fits Your Marketing Budget
Several strategies affect a marketing budget’s ROI. We look at four strategies below:
1) Percentage of Revenue
A fixed percentage of your income goes to marketing efforts; for example, you commit 5% of your revenue to your marketing budget. This is convenient because it grows with your business, which extends your reach, which grows your business.
It’s not so great if you’ve hit a plateau or are losing business. In this instance, you can closely analyse your marketing data to reallocate your shrinking funds to successful marketing activities.
Or, increase your overall budget.
But, adjusting your budget allocation is the smarter move to optimise marketing spending.
2) Marketing Objectives
Allocating a greater percentage of your budget to your business goals helps manage marketing expenses effectively. For example, you want to increase attendance for an upcoming event. Email marketing or Facebook ads might be your best bet.
3) Zero-Based
Each year the budget is zeroed and reset according to the results of in-depth data analysis. It’s a hard look at how each marketing campaign performed, including the marketing channels, keywords, cost analysis, etc. Funds are allocated by performance and objective to optimise marketing spend. For example, PPC generated the most leads, but email had the highest conversion rate.
What does your business want to achieve in the coming year? Are you prioritising lead generation? Then paid ads are the way to go.
4) Seasonal
The marketing budget is allocated according to purchasing patterns. Government purchasing spikes in November/December and April in line with the national budget. At the end of the year, contracting authorities want to spend their remaining procurement budget. In April, they are motivated to spend their new budget on new projects or initiatives.
You can set your marketing budget to capitalise on these heightened purchasing periods.
How to Measure the Performance of Digital Marketing Campaigns
Regardless of your chosen marketing methods, you’ll need to know how each marketing strategy performed. You want to set specific measurable goals.
One of the most commonly used goal-setting and performance-testing tools is SMART.
Specific: What exactly do you want your marketing plan to achieve?
Measurable: Establish relevant key performance indicators (KPIs)
Achievable: Set realistic expectations
Relevant: What will achieving the goal do for your business?
Time-bound: Set a deadline for marketing initiatives
Your marketing strategy must be designed to meet your goal in the cost-effective manner possible.
Metrics?
What are metrics, right? Metrics are anything measurable. That’s not helpful, is it?
Let’s look at some common metrics for different types of marketing campaigns.
Website traffic metrics
Source: What is the primary source of traffic? Facebook ads, email click-through rates, guest blogs?
Bounce rate: Think of a rubber ball that hits a web page and bounces right off in another direction. These visitors land on one of your web pages, decide it’s not for them, and bounce off to a competitor’s site.
New and returning visitors: A large number of new visitors is a good thing unless they take off without taking any action. Returning visitors are much better because they represent qualified leads likely to turn into conversions.
Comprehensive marketing plans can help improve website traffic metrics by aligning strategies with business objectives and ensuring a well-structured budget.
Social media marketing metrics
- Followers: Increase in followers on social media platforms. You can focus on one platform or look at all your social media accounts.
- Engagement: The number of likes, shares, comments, reviews, etc.
Email metrics
- Open rates: The number of people who opened your email after reading the subject line.
- Click-through rate (CTR): The percentage of people who followed through on your call to action (CTA). For example, clicking the link that takes them to an event registration page.
You know what metrics are, but how do you get them?
Several analytics tools are available to measure the success of your KPIs or website performance. Marketing teams use these tools to measure success in customer relationship management, digital content creation, website management, and data analysis.
The most well-known tool is Google Analytics. There is a free version that is perfectly fine for many businesses just starting their B2G journey.
There are also subscription options for more in-depth data.
Some eSourcing platforms have analytics features and there are third-party platforms that provide specific analytics; for example:
- Mixpanel: Primarily for product-based companies.
- Heap: Simplified analytics for businesses that aren’t tech-savvy.
- Piwik Pro Analytics Suite: Meets compliance requirements for entities that manage sensitive information, including the public sector.
- Clicky: Provides real-time analytics.
Real-Time Data in Digital Marketing
Real-time data is revolutionising digital marketing.
Imagine the power of adjusting your marketing campaign within minutes of receiving real-time information; for example, in reaction to political disruption. You could hyper-personalise customer interactions based on previous behaviour and resolve customer complaints a mere minute or two after they’re logged.
Real-time data analysis enables quick adjustments to marketing spending, which is particularly handy during crunch times, like the lead-up to a product launch. You can adjust your marketing strategy in response to changing compliance regulations or a hiccup in your social value project.
There’s no need to wait weeks for marketing data to come in. All you need is a trigger event (cancelled attendance to your upcoming event) and you can leap into action.
You can combine real-time data analytics with automation to streamline things like customer interaction. Take customer service, for example. The trigger event could be a complaint on social media. It generates an automatic response apologising for the experience and offers something in recompense – maybe a voucher. It could ask for additional feedback which is then used to assess and adjust campaigns across relevant marketing channels.
This is a lot to take in – no one ever said digital marketing was easy. If you really want to maximise the ROI on your marketing budget, you should get in touch with a B2G marketing agency. You needn’t go the whole hog. Cadence Marketing offers a choice of services, so you can opt for help on a new email marketing campaign or you can use their post-campaign research to adjust your current and future strategies.
Don’t wait and see how your marketing campaigns are going to turn out. Contact Cadence for a free consultation and we’ll help you optimise your budget for stellar ROI.
