Industry playbook
B2B paid media for CNC machining, sheet metal fabrication, welding, and contract manufacturing job shops.
Job shops and contract manufacturers compete on capacity, certifications, and lead-time more than price. Their buyers are procurement managers and engineering leads at OEMs who need parts made to spec. Paid media for this vertical lives or dies on the quote-request flow — the page-to-RFQ conversion path is the entire game.
Diagnosis
The structural failure modes that show up in this vertical — most of which generic PPC tools cannot diagnose because they do not know the vocabulary.
Buyers
Three distinct personas, each with their own search behaviour, evaluation criteria, and buying triggers. Most generic campaigns target only one of them and lose the other two.
Industrial or aerospace OEM with regular need for fabricated parts. Has approved-vendor list. Adds a new vendor only when capacity, capability, or cost changes.
Specifies parts for the OEM. Influences which shops get put on the AVL. Cares about engineering responsiveness and design feedback.
Owns supplier quality. Audits new vendors before approval. Owns ongoing PPAP, FAI, and supplier scorecard processes.
Behaviour
Real query patterns these buyers type. Note the technical vocabulary, part-number prefixes, certification language, and material grades — none of which generic keyword tools surface.
Tools
Extensions in the Langton suite that solve specific problems in this vertical.
Budget pacer for B2B Google Ads
Landing page classifier and grader
Bulk URL status checker
Shopping coverage and revenue exposure mapper
Account health checklist with persistent state
RSA copy builder + client approval workflow
Representative scenario
Representative scenario from contract manufacturing playbooks. Shop ran capacity-flat campaigns regardless of utilization — pulling spend whenever they hit 85% load. Switching to capacity-aware bid management — Pace projecting month-end spend, paired with utilization data piped in from ERP — let them maintain steady pipeline while reallocating budget toward higher-margin certifications (AS9100 aerospace work). Same monthly spend, ~25% higher gross margin on the work that came through paid search.
This is a representative scenario derived from work across accounts in this vertical, not a single specific engagement. The numbers are illustrative; the structural pattern is reliable.
Three structural moves: (1) build separate campaigns per certification tier (general industrial / ISO 9001, aerospace / AS9100, medical / FDA), (2) prioritize the quote-request flow above all else — drag-and-drop file upload, 24-hour quote turnaround in copy, no phone gate, (3) layer geographic targeting strategically; "CNC machining services [city]" outperforms generic "CNC services" 3x on conversion rate.
Two clusters: capability-driven ("sheet metal fabrication", "TIG welding stainless", "press brake bending") and certification-driven ("AS9100 machine shop", "ITAR machining services", "ISO 9001 fabricator"). Within each, geographic modifiers ("[city]", "[region]", "near me") have higher conversion rates than generic. Long-tail tolerance / material specs ("CNC machining ±0.0005", "Inconel 718 fabrication") are highly qualifying.
OEM procurement is project-driven, with longer cycles, repeat order patterns, and higher AOV. MRO is reactive — broken part, replacement need today. Different campaigns, different landing pages: OEM tracks reward portfolio breadth and capability proof; MRO tracks reward speed and stock messaging. Most contract manufacturers serve both but should not run them in one campaign.
Standard industrial machining: $80–$200 CPL. AS9100 aerospace work: $200–$400 CPL with longer sales cycles but much higher AOV. Medical / FDA-regulated: $300–$600 CPL with even longer cycles and very high AOV. The CPL number alone is misleading — true ROAS, not CPL, is the right measurement.
Drop the phone-call gate. Add a 3-field form: file upload (STEP / DWG / DXF / PDF), quantity, and target lead time. Optional fields for material and tolerance. Set expectation explicitly ("Quote in 24 hours" or "Same-day rush quotes available"). Show certifications above the fold. Show capability matrix in scannable format. Conversion rate jumps 2–4x over phone-call landing pages in this category.
Negatives against: metal art, custom metal sign, garage, hobby, etsy, decoration, jewelry, knife, sword, gun. Add positives in copy: "industrial", "production-grade", "ISO 9001". The combination filters consumer DIY hobbyists who are increasingly buying small CNCs and contaminating B2B searches.
B2B paid media for fiber-laser markers, traceability systems, and integrated marking equipment.
B2B paid media for hydraulic pumps, cylinders, manifolds, and mobile / industrial hydraulic equipment.
B2B paid media for PLC, HMI, SCADA, and process-control systems for plant automation.
B2B paid media for powder coating, plating, anodizing, and industrial surface treatment services.
Browse the 6 extensions that map to this vertical's structural problems. All open source, all free.