Solved: PPC Ads for Freight Forwarding Family Business

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out! It's great you're looking at new ways to grow your family business. I'm happy to give you some initial thoughts and guidance on this.

You've hit on a really important question. Most people just assume you can throw money at Google and get customers, but for a high-value, relationship-driven business like freight forwarding, that's often the fastest way to burn through cash with nothing to show for it. The short answer is yes, paid ads can absolutely work for you, but you have to approach it completely differently to how a local plumber or an ecommerce store would. It's not about volume; it's about surgical precision.

First things first, let's talk about why most B2B ads are a total waste of money...

Most businesses, especially in the B2B world, get this fundamentally wrong. They hear "paid ads" and think they need to run "brand awareness" campaigns. They set an objective on Facebook or LinkedIn to get the most "Reach" or "Impressions," thinking that if enough people see their logo, the phone will eventually start ringing. Tbh, this is a terrible idea and I want to explain why, because understanding this is fundamental to your success.

When you tell a platform like Meta (Facebook) you want "Brand Awareness," you are giving its powerful algorithm a very specific, and very dangerous, instruction: "Find me the largest number of people for the lowest possible price." The algorithm is brilliant at its job. It will immediately go and find all the users inside your target audience who are the least likely to click an ad, least likely to engage, and absolutely, positively, least likely to ever become a customer. Why? Because those people's attention is cheap. No other advertiser wants them. You are literally paying the world's most sophisticated advertising machine to find you the worst possible audience for your service. It's like going to a car auction and asking the auctioneer to find you the car nobody else will bid on. You'll get it for a bargain, but it probably won't have an engine.

The best brand awareness you can get is a competitor's client switching to you because you solved a problem for them, and then raving about your service to their network. Awareness is a *byproduct* of doing a great job, not a prerequisite for making a sale. For a business like yours, every single pound you spend on advertising must be geared towards starting a conversation with a potential customer who has a problem you can solve *right now*. That means you should always, always be optimising your campaigns for a conversion event, like a lead form submission or a phone call, never for just "views".

The second trap is thinking you can just replicate what B2C companies do on Google. Bidding on a broad term like "freight forwarding company" puts you in a direct bidding war with global giants like DHL, Kuehne + Nagel, and a dozen other firms with marketing departments bigger than your entire company. They can afford to pay £20, £30, even £50 for a click because they are playing a numbers game at a scale you can't compete with. It's a game rigged against you. You can't win by playing by their rules, so you have to play a different game entirely.

We need to get inside your customer's head and find their nightmare...

The single biggest mistake I see is companies defining their customers by sterile demographics. You've probably heard it before: "We target logistics managers in manufacturing companies with 50-200 employees." This tells you absolutely nothing useful. It leads to generic, boring ads that say "We're a Freight Forwarder. Get a Quote." Nobody cares.

To stop burning cash, you have to define your customer by their specific, urgent, expensive, career-threatening nightmare. Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) isn't a person; it's a problem state. Let's think about this for your business.

Your Head of Logistics client isn't just a job title. She's a leader who just got an angry call from her CEO because a £500,000 shipment of critical components from Vietnam is stuck in customs, and the production line is going to grind to a halt in 48 hours. Her current provider is giving her vague answers and isn't picking up the phone. Her job is on the line. That is her nightmare. She's not idly browsing for "freight forwarders"; she's frantically searching for an "urgent customs clearance expert UK" or a "specialist in air freight from Hanoi".

Another example: The Operations Director at a fast-growing ecommerce brand is constantly getting hit with surprise fees and surcharges from his current forwarder. His carefully calculated margins are being destroyed, and he looks incompetent to the finance department. His nightmare isn't 'needing logistics'; it's 'unpredictable costs destroying my profitability.' He isn't looking for a new partner for the sake of it; he's looking for a solution that provides transparency and predictable pricing.

Once you've isolated that nightmare, you can build your entire advertising strategy around it. Every ad, every landing page, every keyword should be focused on that specific pain point. Your ad doesn't say, "We Ship Stuff." It says, "Is Your Shipment Stuck in Customs? We offer 24/7 support and can often resolve issues in under 12 hours." You're not selling freight forwarding; you're selling certainty, reliability, and peace of mind. You're selling a solution to their nightmare.

I'd say you need to pick your platform very carefully...

So, now that we've established we're hunting for specific people with specific problems, where do we find them? This is where platform choice becomes critical. Wasting money on the wrong platform is just as bad as having the wrong message.

Google Ads: The Surgical Strike

As I mentioned, bidding on broad terms is a fool's errand. However, Google can be incredibly powerful if you use it like a scalpel, not a sledgehammer. You need to focus on what we call "long-tail keywords" that signal high intent and a specific need. These keywords have much lower search volume, but the person searching them is far more likely to be a perfect customer.

Instead of bidding on "freight forwarder", you should test campaigns around keywords like:

• "urgent air freight china to manchester"
• "temperature controlled pharmaceutical shipping uk"
• "heavy machinery transport services germany to uk"
• "brexit customs clearance agent for exports"

See the difference? These aren't people just browsing. These are people with a specific, urgent, and likely high-value problem. Your ad copy should then mirror this keyword exactly. If someone searches for "urgent air freight china to manchester", your ad headline should be something like "Urgent Air Freight China to Manchester? Get a Plan in 60 Mins." You immediately show them you understand their exact problem. It also means you need a rock-solid list of 'negative keywords' to stop your ads showing for irrelevant searches like "freight forwarder jobs", "logistics training course", or "what is freight forwarding". These clicks will drain your budget with zero chance of a return.

LinkedIn Ads: The Sniper Rifle

Tbh, this is probably where you should focus most of your initial budget and effort. LinkedIn is built for B2B. While Google targets *intent* (what people are searching for), LinkedIn targets the *person* (who they are). Its targeting capabilities are unmatched for reaching specific decision-makers.

Imagine being able to show your ad *only* to:

• Job Title: "Logistics Manager", "Supply Chain Director", "Head of Operations"
• Industry: "Automotive Manufacturing", "Pharmaceuticals", "Aerospace & Defence"
• Company Size: "51-200 employees", "201-500 employees"
• Location: "United Kingdom", or even specific regions like "West Midlands"

This is your unfair advantage. You can craft a highly specific message aimed squarely at the pains of a logistics manager in the automotive sector and know that *only* they are seeing it. The cost per click is higher than on Google, but you are paying for quality, not quantity. You are eliminating almost all of the waste. In my experience, this is how you get incredible results in B2B. We ran a campaign for a B2B software client targeting very specific decision makers and achieved a cost per qualified lead of just $22. That's simply not possible on any other platform because the targeting isn't precise enough.

You probably should rethink your offer...

Now we get to the most common failure point I see in all of B2B advertising, and it has nothing to do with the ads themselves. It's the offer. The "Request a Quote" button is possibly the most arrogant and ineffective Call to Action ever invented for a service business. It presumes your prospect, a busy and stressed-out professional, has nothing better to do than fill out a long form and wait for a sales pitch. It's high-friction, low-value, and instantly positions you as just another commodity.

Your offer's only job is to deliver a moment of undeniable value—an "aha!" moment that makes the prospect sell themselves on your expertise. You must solve a small, real problem for them for free to earn the right to solve the whole thing. For a family business built on relationships, this should come naturally. You're just digitising the trust-building process.

Instead of "Request a Quote", you need to create a value-led offer that acts as a lead magnet. Here are a few ideas tailored for your industry:

• A Free "Landed Cost Estimator": This is a powerful one. Build a simple, interactive calculator on your website. A prospect can enter their shipment's origin, destination, value, and weight, and your tool provides an instant, transparent estimate of the *total* landed cost – including shipping, duties, VAT, and clearance fees. This does two things: it gives them immediate value and positions you as transparent and trustworthy. You capture their details in exchange for the result. We can build something like this.
• A "Customs Risk Audit": Offer a free 15-minute consultation where you review a prospect's most common shipping lane and point out 2-3 potential compliance risks or customs delays they might not be aware of. This isn't a sales call. It's a pure expertise showcase. At the end, you simply say, "If you'd like help navigating those risks, we're here." The value you provided does the selling for you.
• A Downloadable Checklist: Create a simple PDF: "The Shipper's Checklist: 10 Critical Documents You Need for Exporting to the USA". It's useful, it solves a real problem, and it establishes your authority. People will gladly give you their email address for it.

The goal is to change the dynamic from "Please give me your business" to "Here is some free, valuable expertise. If you'd like more, let's talk." It completely reframes the relationship and pre-qualifies your leads. The ones who engage with these offers are the ones who are serious about finding a better solution.

You'll need a realistic budget and the right metrics...

Right, let's talk money. The big question is always, "How much should I spend?" The honest answer is that it depends. But you need to shift your thinking from "How low can my cost per click go?" to "How much can I afford to pay to acquire a new, high-value client?" The answer lies in understanding your Customer Lifetime Value (LTV).

A client in your industry might not just be a one-off shipment. They could be a partner for years, providing recurring revenue. Understanding what that relationship is worth is the secret to unlocking aggressive, intelligent growth. Let's do some rough maths.

Average Revenue Per Account (ARPA): What does an average client pay you per year? Let's say it's £15,000.
Gross Margin %: What's your profit margin on that revenue after direct costs? Let's be conservative and say 30%.
Customer Lifetime (Years): How long does the average client stay with you? Given you're relationship-based, let's say 5 years.

The calculation is simple: LTV = (ARPA * Gross Margin %) * Customer Lifetime
LTV = (£15,000 * 0.30) * 5 years
LTV = £4,500 * 5 = £22,500

In this example, each new client is worth £22,500 in gross margin to your business over their lifetime. A healthy business model aims for at least a 3:1 LTV to Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) ratio. This means you can afford to spend up to £7,500 (£22,500 / 3) to acquire a single new client and still have a very profitable model. Suddenly, paying £100 or even £200 for a highly qualified lead from a Supply Chain Director on LinkedIn doesn't seem so expensive, does it? It looks like a bargain.

This is the maths that frees you from the tyranny of cheap clicks and allows you to compete. Use the calculator below to plug in your own numbers and see what's possible. It will give you a much clearer idea of what you can afford to invest.

As for a starting budget, I usually recommend clients start with at least £1,500 - £2,000 per month in ad spend for a B2B campaign. This is enough to gather meaningful data on one or two platforms without breaking the bank. You aren't aiming for hundreds of leads. You're aiming for 5-10 high-quality conversations per month that could turn into long-term, profitable clients. The metrics you must track are Cost Per Qualified Lead (CPL) and, ultimately, your Return on Ad Spend (ROAS). Ignore everything else to begin with.

So, what's the plan? Here's the main advice I have for you:

Pulling this all together, here's a phased approach I'd recommend if you were to move forward. This isn't about just switching on some ads; it's about building a predictable client acquisition machine. It takes time and patience, but it's built on a solid foundation.

As you can see, this is a much more involved and strategic process than simply "running some PPC ads". It requires a deep understanding of B2B marketing psychology, technical platform expertise, and a patient, data-driven approach. It’s easy to get wrong and waste a lot of money in the process if you're not careful.

This is where getting some expert help can make all the difference. An experienced hand can help you avoid the common pitfalls, build the foundational strategy correctly from day one, and manage the campaigns to ensure your investment is actually working to grow your business.

If you'd like to discuss this further, we offer a free, no-obligation initial consultation where we can take a closer look at your business and map out what a tailored strategy could look like for you. It's a great way to get a taste of the expertise we could bring to your project.

Hope this has been helpful and gives you a much clearer picture of the opportunity.

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh