Fixing UK B2B Google Ads: The Complete Performance Blueprint

Right, so you're running B2B Google Ads in the UK and, to put it bluntly, the results aren't exactly setting the world on fire. You’re likely seeing clicks—plenty of them—but the leads coming through are either trying to sell you something, looking for a job, or they're small businesses with zero budget. It’s frustrating.

I’ve audited enough ad accounts to know the drill. You spend a fortune on clicks in London, thinking that's where the money is, only to find your budget drained by 10 am with nothing to show for it. The UK market is unique. It’s expensive, it’s competitive, and British decision-makers are incredibly skeptical of sales fluff. They don't want to be "empowered"; they want to know if you can fix their problem before tea.

In this guide, I’m going to walk you through exactly how we fix these campaigns. No vague "best practices." Just the brutal reality of what works for B2B lead gen in this country.

Why is B2B advertising in the UK so difficult?

First off, let’s acknowledge the elephant in the room: cost. The UK, particularly London and the South East, has some of the highest CPCs (Cost Per Clicks) in the world for B2B terms. If you're bidding on terms like "IT support London" or "enterprise software," you could be paying £15, £30, or even £50 a click. If you don't have your strategy dialled in, that money evaporates fast.

Secondly, the volume is deceptively small. Unlike the US where you can scale almost indefinitely, the pool of genuine B2B decision-makers in the UK for niche services is limited. You can’t just "scale up" by spending more money; you have to get smarter about squeezing value out of the traffic that exists.

And then there's the audience. British buyers are risk-averse. We don't like hype. If your ad screams "World Leading Solution," we assume you're lying. We need trust signals, and we need specificty.

The "Keyword Trap" most businesses fall into

Most B2B campaigns fail at the keyword level. You pick keywords that describe what you do, not what the problem is.

Let’s say you sell commercial HR software. You bid on "HR software." Seems logical? It’s a disaster.

Who searches for "HR software"?
- Students writing dissertations.
- Competitors checking your pricing.
- Small cafés looking for a free rota template.
- Job seekers looking for HR admin roles.

You are paying premium rates for all of them. In our experience managing UK B2B tech Google Ads, the fix is intent layering. You need keywords that imply a business need and a budget.

Instead of "HR software," you bid on "HR software for enterprise," "GDPR compliant HR system," or "workforce management integration SAP." The volume is lower, but the intent is there.

Visualizing Keyword Intent vs. Cost

Negative Keywords: Your Best Defence

If there is one thing you take away from this guide, let it be this: Negative keywords are more important than your active keywords.

In B2B, you are constantly fighting against consumer traffic. We maintain a "Master Negative List" for all our B2B clients in the UK. You should be blocking these terms immediately:

• Career hunters: jobs, career, salary, internship, apprenticeship, training, course, learn, university, degree, cv, resume.
• Price shoppers: free, cheap, discount, open source, template, diy, definition, what is, meaning, wiki, pdf, whitepaper (unless you are offering one).
• Consumer noise: home, residential, personal, private, ebay, amazon, used, second hand.

I recall one client, a Medical Job Matching SaaS, that was bleeding cash. We looked at their account and found a huge amount of budget was being wasted on the wrong intent. We refined the targeting and their Cost Per Acquisition dropped from £100 to just £7. It's simple, but people forget to do it.

Location Targeting: Don't Just Target "United Kingdom"

Targeting the whole UK is lazy. If you sell high-ticket services, your clients are likely clustered.

For tech and finance, you want to be aggressive in London (City, Canary Wharf, Shoreditch) but maybe bid down on residential areas. For manufacturing, look at the industrial corridors in the Midlands or the North West.

Also, beware of the "People in, or regularly in, your targeted locations" setting. This is the default setting Google uses, and it allows people from outside the UK to see your ads if they show "interest" in the UK. For a local B2B service, this is useless. Switch it to "People in or regularly in your targeted locations" (wait, actually, switch it to "Presence: People in or regularly in" specifically—Google changes the wording often, but you want to exclude "Interest").

We wrote a specific playbook on this for the capital, detailing how to manage London Google Ads strategies effectively, because the competition there is a different beast entirely.

Ad Copy: Speak Like a Human, Not a Corp-Bot

I see so many ads that say things like:
"Leverage synergy with our cloud-based paradigm shifting solution."

What does that even mean? Nobody speaks like that. Your ad copy needs to be punchy. It needs to pass the "Pub Test"—if you said it to a mate in the pub, would they understand you, or would they throw a pint at you?

Bad Copy: "Leading Accountancy Solutions."
Good Copy: "Stop Overpaying Corp Tax. Expert B2B Accountants."

Bad Copy: "Digital Transformation Services."
Good Copy: "Move Your Legacy Servers to Cloud. Zero Downtime."

Also, pre-qualify in the ad text. If you are expensive, say it. Or imply it. "Services starting from £5k/month." It scares away the tyre kickers. We’ve found that being brutally honest about pricing in the ad text can improve lead quality significantly, even if CTR (Click Through Rate) drops. You don't want clicks from people who can't afford you.

For a deeper dive into writing copy that actually works in this market, check out our guide on UK Google Ads that convert.

The Landing Page: Where Campaigns Go to Die

You can have the best keywords in the world, but if you send that traffic to your homepage, you might as well set your money on fire. Homepages are full of distractions. "About Us," "Blog," "Team."

You need a dedicated landing page. And please, for the love of god, stop using "Request a Demo" as your only Call to Action (CTA).

The Problem with "Request a Demo":
It’s a big ask. You are asking a busy person to commit 30-60 minutes of their time to be sold to. It creates friction.

The Solution: Low-Friction Offers.
Give them something of value first.
- "Get a Free Audit"
- "See Your ROI Calculator"
- "Download the 2024 Industry Report"
- "Watch a 5-min Walkthrough (No Signup)"

I remember a campaign for an Environmental Controls company where we reduced the cost per lead by 84% by optimizing the funnel. Why? Because we removed the friction and gave them a reason to convert.

Ad Spend Calculator: Are Your Expectations Realistic?

One of the biggest issues I see is unrealistic budgeting. A client comes in with £500/month wanting 50 enterprise leads. In the UK B2B market, that's just not maths.

Use this calculator to work out what you can actually afford to pay per lead based on what a customer is worth to you.

Audience Signals: The Secret Weapon

Google has moved away from strict keywords and towards "Audience Signals." This is especially true if you are using automated bidding strategies (like Maximize Conversions). You need to tell Google who your ideal customer is.

Don't just leave it blank. You should be layering these audiences onto your campaigns in "Observation" mode at the very least:

• In-Market Segments: "Business Services," "Enterprise Software," "Commercial Real Estate."
• Demographics: This is a bit of a blunt instrument, but excluding the bottom 50% of household income can sometimes help filter out entry-level employees or students, although it's not always accurate in the UK as it is in the US.
• Customer Match: Upload a list of your best offline clients (hashed emails). Google will try to find similar people. This is usually the highest performing audience we use for our clients.

If you're unsure how to set these up or how to interpret the data, it might be worth looking into our complete B2B Google Ads guide, which covers audience strategy in more detail.

Tracking: If You Aren't Using OCT, You're Flying Blind

This is where the pros separate from the amateurs. Most people track "Form Submissions" as a conversion. The problem? Google's algorithm will optimize to get you more form submissions. It doesn't care if those submissions are from unqualified leads.

You end up with 100 leads, but 90 of them are junk.

The solution is Offline Conversion Tracking (OCT). You need to connect your CRM (Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive) to Google Ads. When a lead turns into a "Qualified Opportunity" or a "Closed Deal" in your CRM, that data is sent back to Google.

You then tell Google: "Don't optimize for form fills. Optimize for Qualified Opportunities." Suddenly, the algorithm stops chasing cheap clicks and starts chasing the expensive, high-value clicks that actually result in money. It takes a bit of technical setup, but it's a game changer.

Competitor Bidding: Cheeky but Effective?

In the UK, it is perfectly legal to bid on your competitor's brand name. Should you do it?

My take: Yes, but be careful.

If you bid on a competitor, your Quality Score will be low (because your website isn't their website), so you will pay a lot for the click. However, the intent is incredibly high. If someone searches for "Salesforce pricing," they are in the market for CRM software right now.

If you run these ads, do not pretend to be them. That gets you sued. Instead, offer a comparison.
Headline: "Alternative to [Competitor Name] - Easier to Use."

Troubleshooting Common UK B2B Issues

Problem: "I'm getting clicks but no leads."
Diagnosis: Your offer is weak or your landing page is confusing. Alternatively, you are bidding on "informational" keywords (like "how to manage payroll") rather than "transactional" ones ("payroll services london").

Problem: "The leads are too expensive."
Diagnosis: Your Quality Score might be low (irrelevant ads/landing page), or you are competing in a saturated market (like London IT support) without a unique angle. Try targeting niche locations or long-tail keywords. Also, check out our guide on reducing high local CPCs.

Problem: "The leads are low quality."
Diagnosis: Your targeting is too broad. Add negative keywords like "cheap", "free", "student". Tighten your location settings. Switch your bid strategy to optimize for lower funnel conversion actions (like booked calls rather than just file downloads).

Strategy Breakdown by Industry

For SaaS companies specifically, there is a lot more nuance to lead generation. If that's you, have a read of our ultimate guide for B2B SaaS lead gen.

Conclusion: It's About Precision, Not Volume

Fixing B2B Google Ads in the UK isn't about spending more money. It's about spending your money with surgical precision. It's about realizing that 10 good leads are worth infinitely more than 100 bad ones.

You need to strip away the waste (negative keywords), speak directly to the pain (ad copy), and offer genuine value (landing page). And you need to track it all properly so you aren't just guessing.

If you’ve read all this and are thinking, "This makes sense, but I don't have the time to audit my entire account," that's where we come in.

I've detailed my main recommendations for you below:

We offer a free initial consultation where we review your strategy and account together. It’s usually super helpful and gives potential clients a taste of the expertise they'll see going into their project if they decide to work with us. We can look at your specific CPCs, your competition, and tell you straight up if Google Ads is viable for your business or not.

Hope this helps!