Below are other articles I've written about search engine marketing, many featuring specific advice for B2B campaigns.

• 5 Reasons for B2B Search Engine Marketing:
  Explains why a search marketing presence is necessary for B2B companies.
• 3 Reasons to Hire a Search Marketing Consultant:
  Three quick and compelling reasons why hiring a search marketing consultant is in your best interest.
• B2B Search Marketing Lead Gen Best Practices:
  Covers 6 steps to increase the performance of your lead generation campaigns.
• 4 Elements of B2B Online Marketing Campaigns:
  An overview of 4 possible elements on online marketing for B2B companies, all of which can be achieved through variations on search engine marketing.
• B2B Pay Per Click Search Engines:
  An article for those ready to add to the mainstays of Google AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing. Provides a concise list of B2B search engines that should be considered for expansion.
• Importance of Negative Keywords:
  An often forgotten part of search engine marketing optimization, negative keywords are a great way to limit your exposure and, thus, increase your ROI from qualified prospects.
• 4 Ways to Reduce Customer Anxiety:
  Details 4 quick things you can do to improve your conversion rates by making your website more appealing, and less anxiety causing, for your prospective customers.

Avoid Common Mistakes

Avoid common mistakes that could start your campaign off on the wrong foot. The average landing page has a conversion rate that is 50% better than the standard home page. An optimized page can achieve many times that achievement as well. If you didn't know this information, how would you know where to start out? Or where to place the focus of your time, as limited as it is?

Agencies Outperform In-House Staff

A MarketingSherpa study notes that pay per click agencies really can outperform your in-house marketer because they are focused exclusively on one topic. Agencies typically achieve a 20-25% higher click through rate and conversion rate than an in-house marketer whose time and experience is stretched across multiple areas.

In my experience, this small of a gain only applies if you already have an optimized campaign with a savvy in-house marketing team. For many B2B companies, search is managed as an afterthought by the Director of Marketing, who certainly doesn't have the time to pursue it among his or her other duties. My clients have seen improvements from 50-1250% depending on the element and timespan in question.

Lower Cost Overall

Additionally, bringing on a consultant will likely prove much less expensive than hiring a full-time employee and training them to do the work. Since you're not paying for benefits or taxes, savings on management fees alone can be significant. This is, of course, in addition to the savings you'll experience from a fully optimized pay per click campaign.