The quest for the best B2B SaaS campaign strategy is one that all ad managers try to figure out, and I think I’ve cracked the code.
Now, before you click off this post thinking that I’m arrogant, I should probably mention that I run my own paid ads agency and have managed millions in ad spend for multiple SaaS brands, so I’m confident that I know what I’m talking about when it comes to PPC advertising and how to effectively implement it in your SaaS marketing strategy. And I want to share that with you.
Because here’s the thing, many people have asked me how I actually set up SaaS campaigns for paid ads. So much so that I made a video about the topic, which you can watch here. Or you can keep reading this post – it’s up to you.
Either way, I hope this post gives you all the insight you need, so let’s dive into how I’d set up a SaaS PPC campaign.
Set the stage
If you’ve watched a few of my videos or read a few of my blog posts, you will know that I love coming up with hypothetical businesses when I try to teach others about paid ads – I feel like it’s much easier to conceptualise this way.
So, let’s imagine that I need to come up with a PPC campaign for a SaaS business that offers a great alternative to Google Analytics. This is just me hoping my dreams will come true because I detest Google Analytics but haven’t found a great alternative.
Let’s say this company is a decent size, they get a lot of referrals, and their SEO strategy is good. Plus, they have a decent ad spend of £15,000. Now onto the golden question: what would I actually do???
Which platforms would I use?
Google Ads is often my go-to ads platform because it works so well with nearly any product or service, and this is no exception.
However, it’s stupid to not use LinkedIn Ads for SaaS PPC campaigns so let’s throw that into the mix as well. Of course, Meta Ads can also be a good option for a marketing channel, but we’ll be focusing on the other platforms for today. Facebook can get the spotlight some other time. We’re going to skip over Bing Ads for now as well, as I think Google has much more to offer a SaaS business in terms of marketing campaigns.
So, Google and LinkedIn it is!
Google Ads
When it comes to Google Ads campaigns, I’m a big fan of search campaigns combined with small brand campaigns, so that’s what I’d do here as well. After all, they are already an established company, so there’s no need to spend all their money on brand campaigns, just because Google Ads lets you. Still, we shouldn’t neglect their brand strategy entirely, as they do have competition and they need to hold their name.
Within the aforementioned search campaigns, there’s endless potential for segmentation to really make the ads perform their best.
With a big ads budget like this, we can start with ten to thirty ad groups right off the bat, all of them focusing on user intent keywords (for example, for this company, an ad group focusing on the keyword “Google Analytics alternative” will be a goldmine as it has such high overlap between the service offered and the user’s intent).
But we can also narrow it down even further, to keywords like “B2B brands for analytics” or “B2B Google Analytics alternatives”. These keywords are even more complete and accurate, so they’re more likely to bring in the ideal customers. You can use Google keyword planner to assist with this. Or you can hire a Google Ads agency to manage your Google Ads strategy for you.
LinkedIn Ads
As mentioned, LinkedIn is targeted specifically at B2B businesses wanting to run ads, so you can make use of its really strong demographics and data. LinkedIn gathers a lot of information about its users, so you can use this to your advantage.
For this scenario, I’d have a top-of-funnel strategy for new users as well as a middle-of-funnel for those people who have interacted with your business but haven’t taken any steps yet. The top of funnel will be mostly video campaigns so that we can test which ads the target audience responds best to. Of course, there are loads of other things to test such as ad creative and ad copy – and you can play around with geography and other target audience demographics.
In fact, I’d even recommend trying a “value-added” strategy. This is when you run a video ad that simply offers advice. That’s it. There’s no CTA. No bigger aim. You just show your face to a bunch of people, and show them you know your shit. It’s more enjoyable and less aggressive.
The middle of funnel will then consist of a ninety-day stack containing people who have engaged with your posts, visited your website, subscribed to your email newsletter, or watched a video. And I’d again test this with a thought leader post that doesn’t have a call to action as well as a more traditional ad that does have a clear CTA.
At this stage, I’d also throw in some images alongside videos because this format is easier to consume, especially when it comes to remarketing.
Closing words
If you’re staring at your screen, wondering what the hell I’m going on about, don’t stress. It’s a lot to take in, especially if you’re new to SaaS ad campaigns. As mentioned at the top of this post, I also have a video on the topic where I go through things step-by-step, in real-time, so that may be helpful.
And of course, I’m also always here to help, so fill in the form below if you’re eager to chat about paid ads for your SaaS business.