You've spent 25 years building trade show relationships. Now leadership wants Google Ads results — with a fraction of your trade show budget. Your inquiries are from students and overseas buyers you can't serve. Your CRM isn't connected to Google. And your sales team says 'real buyers visit our booth at IMTS.' These systems bridge the gap between traditional B2B and digital acquisition.
$0
Equipment and machinery keywords
$0K
CNC machines, industrial cutting tools
0 months
From first inquiry to purchase order
$0
Including booth, travel, and staff time
Keywords like 'CNC machine' cost $8-15 per click. At $1,500/month, you get maybe 100-150 clicks. From those, 3-4 inquiries — mostly students doing research, small shops wanting used equipment, and international buyers you can't serve. Zero closed deals in 6 months.
Your reps have spent decades building relationships at IMTS and trade shows. When you hand them a Google Ads lead, they call it a 'tire kicker' and put it at the bottom of their follow-up list. Without CRM data proving these leads are real buyers, digital will always be second-class.
Your current campaign has 15 keywords and no negative keyword strategy. Google shows your ads to anyone searching 'CNC machine' — including engineering students, DIY hobbyists, and buyers in countries you don't ship to. Without proper qualification filters, you're wasting 70%+ of your clicks.
Your company spends $180K/year on trade shows and $40K on print ads. Your Google Ads budget is a rounding error. If you can prove ROI on $1,500/month, you can make the case to shift even 10% of that trade show budget — which would be a $18K/month digital budget overnight.
“Our company has been around for 60 years and we've never needed Google Ads. Now the board wants us to 'go digital'”r/manufacturing
“How do you run Google Ads when your product costs $200K and the sales cycle is 18 months?”r/PPC
“Our sales team doesn't trust internet leads. They say 'real buyers meet us at trade shows'”r/marketing
You spend $180K a year on trade shows. If Google Ads at $1,500/month can generate even 2 qualified deals, that's a better cost-per-lead than IMTS. But first, you need to filter out the students, connect Salesforce, and give your sales team proof — not promises.
Qualified inquiries/month
Salesforce ↔ Google sync
Sales team trust
Board confidence
Each product builds on the previous one. Start where you are, progress at your own pace.
Connect Salesforce to Google Ads. Track which clicks become RFQs, which RFQs become deals, and prove digital ROI to the board and your sales team.
Keyword architecture for high-value industrial products. Filter out students and unqualified international buyers. Target purchase-intent searches for $45K–$200K equipment.
Landing pages built for industrial B2B. Spec sheets, configurators, and RFQ forms that qualify buyers before they reach your sales team.
Board-ready reporting that compares digital vs. trade show ROI. Multi-region targeting, distributor-friendly campaigns, and the full operating playbook.
Tactics, case studies, and strategies for manufacturing companies advertisers. No spam.
Start by connecting Salesforce to Google Ads so every inquiry is tracked from click to closed deal. Then build a search strategy that filters out students and unqualified buyers. When your sales team sees 3 real RFQs with company names they recognize, they'll stop calling internet leads 'tire kickers.'