This B2B marketing case study demonstrates how we overcame one of the most challenging scenarios in digital marketing: targeting farmers and agricultural processors with virtually no search volume. Our client, a sunflower seed processor, needed to source raw materials from farmers but discovered that their target B2B segment barely used traditional search queries. Through market research and creative campaign structuring, we created a targeted B2B marketing campaign that delivered 74 high-quality leads despite the challenging conditions.
B2B Market Research Case Study: Understanding the Agricultural Procurement Landscape
The year 2019. Early autumn, harvest time.
Our client was a confectionery sunflower seed processor in Luhansk region. They manufactured halva, kozinaki, and packaged seeds, requiring regular procurement of confectionery sunflower seeds from farmers and agricultural producers.
The challenge: The client already had a supplier database but needed to refresh and expand it. The primary obstacle? Search queries like “sell confectionery sunflower seeds” had practically zero frequency in keyword planners – a common issue in B2B marketing case studies involving niche agricultural sectors.
When a client insists on targeting only highly specific queries, but their search volume is virtually non-existent, creative approaches become necessary.
B2B Segmentation Case Study: Identifying and Targeting Different Farmer Segments
Target audience segments:
- Farmers and agricultural producers with their own land
- Seed calibrators (processors and resellers)
- Medium-sized agricultural producers
Niche characteristics:
- Seasonality (harvest period: August-October)
- Distinction between confectionery and oil sunflower varieties
- Farmers – not always active internet users
- Heavy dependence on harvest yields and weather conditions
Key B2B Marketing Campaign Challenges
Most B2B marketing case studies showcase strategies with established search volume, but we faced the opposite scenario. Our market research revealed that many farmers didn’t even search online for buyers – they relied on established relationships or regional connections.
Digital Marketing B2B Case Study: Our Strategic Approach to Agricultural Targeting
Phase 1: Comprehensive Semantic Collection
Instead of searching for target queries, we collected all possible semantics around the words:
- “seeds”
- “sunflower”
- “semena” (Russian equivalent)
- “podsolnuh” (Russian equivalent)
Sources:
- Google Keyword Planner
- Search suggestions
- Keyword databases (Bukvariks, SerpStat)
- Similar search queries
Result: Thousands of queries collected around seeds and sunflowers – typical for a comprehensive B2B marketing campaign case study approach.
B2B Marketing Case Studies Show the Power of Negative Keywords
Initial setup:
- 3 keywords in broad match
- 4,020 negative keywords
What we excluded: seeds for planting, pumpkin seeds, fishing bait, pomace, oilcake, waffle makers, corn, and other irrelevant terms. This approach distinguishes our B2B digital marketing case study from others that focus primarily on adding keywords rather than strategic elimination.
Intent Challenges and Segmentation
The dilemma: “buy” vs. “sell”
Problem: Farmers search differently:
- “sell sunflower seeds”
- “sunflower purchasing prices”
- “where to deliver sunflower seeds”
- “sunflower processors”
Solution: Cover both intents but separate them into different ad groups – a strategy validated by multiple B2B marketing case studies.
Segmentation Through Ad Texts
Ad Example 1:
Want to sell sunflower seeds? We purchase raw calibrated confectionery sunflower seeds Varieties: Champion, Lakomka, Almaz [Additional links with varieties]
Ad Example 2:
Farmers, Agricultural Producers! Looking for sunflower seed buyers? Call us! Let's negotiate. We'll buy at competitive prices.
Regional Management: Real-time Optimization
Client insights: Born and raised in this industry, the client knew the market perfectly.
Operational bid adjustments:
- Monitoring agricultural news
- Information about yields by region
- Drought and crop failure zones
- Client recommendations on promising regions
Result: Dynamic budget redistribution between regions depending on the harvest situation – a dynamic approach rarely covered in standard B2B marketing case studies.
Display Network: Unexpected Search Assistance
Strategy in the Google Display Network:
- Manually selected agricultural classified sites
- Topic: “Agricultural crops and seeds”
- Similar audience based on agricultural site visitors
- Look-alike audience of search traffic
- Remarketing to visitors without conversion
Interesting observation:
Experiment: We disabled GDN to focus on search.
Result: Total conversions decreased!
Conclusion: GDN indirectly affects search volumes. Users visited the site through display ads, then searched in Google and converted through search – a cross-channel effect not commonly discussed in B2B digital marketing case studies.
N-gram Analysis: Script for Search Query Optimization
What the script does:
N-gram analysis breaks down all search queries into:
- Individual words (1-grams)
- Two-word phrases (bigrams)
- Three-word phrases (trigrams)
Result: A table with statistics on spending and conversions for each word/phrase.
Practical application:
Step 1: Finding negative keywords
- Words with high spending without conversions
- Analysis at account → campaign → ad group level
- Adding to negative keywords at the appropriate level
Step 2: Finding new keywords
- Bigrams/trigrams with good performance
- Adding to exact match type
- Expanding semantics through the planner
Results from This B2B Marketing Case Study: 74 Conversions in a Near-Zero Search Volume Niche
Overall statistics:
Across the account: 74 conversions
GDN brought: 13 conversions
Key findings:
- Broad match type converted better than exact match
- GDN provided cheaper conversions than search
- Most conversions came from queries with “sunflower price”
Attribution challenges:
- GDN does not attribute with search campaigns
- Call tracking complicates attribution between campaigns
- Imperfect conversion import from Analytics to Ads
Conclusions for Low-Volume B2B Marketing Niches
For business owners:
If demand is not established:
- Focus on the problems your service solves
- Use informational queries to warm up the audience
- Build multi-stage funnels with remarketing
- Be prepared: advertising costs may exceed profits in the first 2 years
Technical recommendations:
- Massive negative keyword use instead of precise targeting
- Broad match type + strict negative keyword control
- GDN as search assistance, not a competitor
- N-gram analysis for optimization based on real data
- Content strategy for warming up an unprepared audience
Final wisdom:
In low-volume B2B niches, success comes not from technical settings but from deep market understanding. Client insights about seasonality, regions, and product specifics proved more important than all scripts and automations.
Main lesson: When a niche is so narrow that Google shows zero search volume, think broader. Your audience is there – they just formulate queries differently.
Working in a low-volume B2B niche? Share your experience with similar challenges in the comments below.
