Buy visibility while your organic channels build
Rasp International runs Google and LinkedIn ad campaigns for exporters who need enquiries now rather than in six months. Paid search puts you in front of a buyer at the moment they are actively looking for a supplier. LinkedIn puts you in front of a named procurement role whether or not they are searching.
Both are expensive if run badly and both are run badly by most exporters, usually because the campaign targets the wrong geography, the wrong intent, or sends clicks to a home page.
Google Search Ads
1. Intent-led keyword selection
The commercially valuable searches are supplier-intent searches: a product plus supplier, manufacturer, exporter, or wholesale, restricted to your target country. Broad product terms attract students, researchers, and consumers, and burn budget without producing enquiries.
2. Geographic precision
Target the countries from your market research shortlist, not the world. The most common exporter ad failure is a global campaign spending most of its budget in markets that cannot buy from you.
3. Negative keywords
Aggressive exclusion of jobs, courses, free, price lists, wikipedia, and consumer terms. Without a serious negative list, a large share of your spend goes to clicks that could never convert.
4. Landing page match
Every campaign points to a market and product specific landing page. This is not optional. Ads to a home page waste most of what you pay for.
LinkedIn Ads
5. Role and company targeting
Procurement manager, sourcing head, category manager, supply chain director, filtered by industry, company size, and country. This is the only channel where you can target the exact human who signs off supplier decisions, which is why cost per click is high and often still worth it.
6. Format and message
Single image and document ads outperform video for B2B supplier awareness. The message leads with a specific capability or certification, not a company introduction. LinkedIn users scroll fast and a corporate boast does not stop them.
Measurement
Every campaign measured to enquiry, not to click. Clicks and impressions are vanity numbers that agencies love reporting. The only questions that matter are how many qualified enquiries arrived, what each cost, and what order value followed. If a campaign cannot be traced to enquiries, it gets cut.
Budget realism
B2B export clicks in competitive categories are not cheap, and LinkedIn is several times Google’s cost per click. A budget too small to gather data produces neither enquiries nor learning. We would rather tell you a channel does not fit your margin than take a budget that cannot work. Paid should run alongside a compounding channel, not instead of one, because the day you stop paying the enquiries stop.
Common failures
- Worldwide targeting. Budget spent in markets you cannot serve.
- Broad product keywords. Consumers and students clicking your supplier ad.
- No negative keywords. The silent budget drain.
- Home page destination. Paying for a click and throwing it away.
- Measuring clicks. Reporting activity instead of outcomes.
- Running paid alone. A pipeline that dies the day the card is declined.
Who this service is for
Exporters with margin to support paid acquisition, a defined target market, and a landing page or willingness to build one. Poor fit for razor-thin commodity margins where the cost per enquiry exceeds the profit per order.
Frequently asked questions
Which is better for exporters, Google or LinkedIn?
They do different jobs. Google search catches a buyer at the moment they are actively looking for a supplier, which is high intent but limited to people already searching. LinkedIn puts you in front of a named procurement role whether or not they are searching, at a substantially higher cost per click. Most exporters start with Google search on supplier intent keywords.
What keywords should an exporter target?
Supplier intent searches: your product plus supplier, manufacturer, exporter, or wholesale, restricted to your target countries. Broad product terms attract students, researchers, and consumers, and burn budget without producing enquiries. An aggressive negative keyword list matters as much as the positive one.
How much budget do I need?
Enough to gather data, which depends on your category’s click costs. A budget too small produces neither enquiries nor learning, and we would rather tell you paid does not fit your margin than take money that cannot work. Paid should also run alongside a compounding channel, because the day you stop paying the enquiries stop.
Why are my ads getting clicks but no enquiries?
Usually the landing page. Ads pointed at a homepage waste most of what you pay for. Sometimes it is targeting: a worldwide campaign spending its budget in markets that cannot buy from you. Both are fixable and both are extremely common.
Related services and resources
- All export growth marketing services
- Market specific landing pages
- Meta ads and retargeting
- Export market research
- Export lead generation
- International SEO
How to engage Rasp International
Tell us your product, target countries, and monthly budget range. We will tell you honestly whether paid fits your margin before we take the work.