Plenty of companies selling to other companies spend on advertising and find the result disappointing: lots of views, few messages, and most of them from the wrong people.
The reason is not that the advertising is bad, it is that selling to companies is completely different from selling to consumers, and advertising was designed for the second.
Why is selling to companies different?
- The number of customers is small. The entire market in Egypt might be one or two hundred companies. An ad reaching a million people reaches five of them by chance.
- The decision is collective. More than one person approves, and each has a different objection.
- The cycle is long. Months can pass between first contact and first payment.
- Trust is a condition. The company risks its own work by dealing with you, not just its money.
Those four make mass advertising an unsuitable tool, because it buys attention from people who are not decision makers at a time that is not the moment of decision.
Solution one: direct outreach
If your potential customers are a hundred companies, you do not need advertising — you need a list.
Write the names of the target companies, who is responsible in each, and start direct contact: a LinkedIn message, an email, a call, or an introduction through a mutual contact.
That looks slow, but it is actually faster: a hundred considered messages produce a better result than a month's advertising budget.
Solution two: events and exhibitions
The strongest place to build a B2B relationship in the Egyptian market is still meeting in person. Specialist exhibitions and conferences put you in front of decision makers in a mood to talk.
The condition is going with a plan: know who you will meet, what you will say in thirty seconds, and how you will follow up afterwards.
Solution three: specialist content
Content works differently in B2B: it does not bring direct sales, but it makes you the option on the table when the decision comes.
Write about your sector's problems with real depth — cases, numbers, execution detail. Someone reading that feels you understand their work, and that is what opens the door.
LinkedIn is the natural home for that type, not because it gives large reach, but because the reader is the right person.
Solution four: partnerships
Look for companies serving the same customer with something different, and agree to exchange referrals.
If you provide accounting services to factories, whoever sells them software or equipment has the same customers. A referral from a trusted party halves the sales cycle.
And when is advertising useful in B2B?
It is not always useless, but its role is different:
- Retargeting people who visited your site or dealt with you — cheap and highly effective as a reminder.
- Very precise targeting by job title and sector on professional platforms.
- Reinforcing credibility — the company seeing you present respectably before the meeting.
So advertising here is supporting rather than primary, and its budget should be small relative to the direct effort.
Measure by different metrics
Do not measure B2B by message count. Measure it by meetings with decision makers, proposals submitted, deal size, and cycle length.
And patience is part of the calculation: a B2B campaign is judged over six months rather than a month, because the person you spoke to today may decide next quarter.
Have a follow-up system
The biggest loss in B2B is not failing to know people, it is forgetting to follow up.
Keep a simple file for every company you contacted: the date, who with, the last exchange, and the next follow-up date. Most deals close on the fourth or fifth follow-up, and most people stop at the second.
In short
If you sell to companies and advertising is not delivering, that is normal — the market is small, the decision is long, and trust is a condition.
Work from a targeted list with direct outreach, attend your sector's events, write specialist content, and build partnerships. And keep advertising as a reminder rather than a primary source.
This is part of a series on ads and SEO — which also covers why ads do not work from day one, and when not to do digital marketing at all.