Introduction
If you are a SaaS company looking to drive growth and increase your return on investment, then Pay-per-click (PPC) marketing can be a powerful tool. Using platforms like Google Ads, you can build brand awareness, validate buyer personas, and find new segments, all while rapidly growing your user base with targeted ads.
We at WeScale, have worked with around 40 SaaS companies to help them grow and scale with the help of SaaS PPC marketing. In this guide, we’ll explore the benefits of PPC marketing for SaaS companies and provide tips and best practices for creating and optimizing campaigns on Google Ads. Let’s go.
Table of content
Why SaaS PPC Marketing is beneficial for companies.
Strategies, tips, and tricks you can use for successful SaaS B2B marketing campaigns.
How much should your B2B SaaS Company pay for a product-qualified lead with paid channels?
Why SaaS PPC Marketing is beneficial for companies
There are a handful of benefits to applying SaaS PPC strategies - some of them include building brand awareness, simplifying the process of getting an investment, rapidly growing the user base, and increasing ROI. Let’s break down each of these benefits and see what levers you can pull to achieve more with PPC.
Building awareness about the brand and achieving fast and scalable growth
SaaS PPC marketing can help build awareness about your product and achieve scalable growth by reaching a large audience quickly and effectively. A few methods that we at WeScale apply for this are the following:
Targeted Ads: By targeting ads to specific segments and buyer personas, you can reach a large audience quickly, which can help build a user base and generate revenue more quickly than traditional marketing methods.
Keyword Research: By researching the keywords most relevant to your SaaS product and target audience, you can create ads that are more likely to be seen by potential customers. This will increase the visibility of the SaaS product among the target audience.
Remarketing: Remarketing allows SaaS companies to target ads to users who have already interacted with their website or platform. This can be a powerful tool for increasing brand awareness, as it allows to reach users who have already shown an interest in the product.
Simplifying the process of getting investments due to scalable growth
Let’s first think about traditional ways of getting an investment. Usually, the founders work on this, right? They create elevator pitches, do presentations, and network. PR teams can also help since they can reach out to media platforms and journalists and present the product to get media attention and get covered by Forbes, TechCrunch, or similar outlets.
These are all great ways to increase brand awareness and eventually be able to get an investment. However, from the perspective of scalability, some of these methods are limiting. The found can do a limited number of pitches or attend a limited number of networking events. However, with SaaS PPC, you can reach a laser-focused audience with high intent to learn more about your product. This can potentially increase your chances of getting an investment.
Let’s understand what scalable growth means. PPC Marketing can help SaaS companies achieve scalable growth. And that itself can simplify the process of getting investments by demonstrating to investors that the company has a clear path to profitability. Here are a few ways scalable growth can streamline the process of getting investments:
Proven Demand: Scalable growth shows that there is a proven demand for the SaaS product, which can make it easier for the company to secure funding. Investors are more likely to invest in a company with a proven track record of success and a large user base.
Revenue Streams: By researching the keywords most relevant to your SaaS product and target audience, you can create ads that are more likely to be seen by potential customers. This will increase the visibility of the SaaS product among the target audience.
Predictable Growth: Scalable growth can provide investors with a clear idea of how the company is likely to perform in the future, making it easier to assess the potential return on investment.
Cost-effective Marketing: SaaS PPC marketing is cost-effective and allows companies to reach a large audience quickly and at a lower cost. This can help demonstrate to investors that the company can generate revenue with minimal expenses.
Scalable Business Model: A scalable business model can demonstrate to investors that the company has a clear strategy for scaling its operations, making it more attractive to investors.
Validating the buyer persona or finding new segments
Another way SaaS PPC marketing can benefit your company is by helping you validate buyer personas or find new segments by allowing you to gather data and test different targeting strategies. Here are a few ways PPC can help you achieve that.
A/B Testing: This is a favorite thing for us to do at WeScale. By testing different ad variations, we help SaaS companies determine which ads are most effective and adjust accordingly. This allows our clients to validate their buyer personas and find new segments by identifying which ads resonate with which audience.
Audience Insights: Platforms such as Google Ads and Facebook Ads provide audience insights that can help your SaaS company understand more about your target audience. This data can be used to validate current buyer personas or identify new segments interested in your product.
Conversion Tracking: By tracking conversions, SaaS companies can see which ads and targeting strategies drive the most conversions. This can help you validate your buyer personas and find new segments by identifying which groups of users are most likely to convert.
Customized Audiences: By creating customized audiences, we help SaaS companies target specific groups of users based on their behavior and demographics. This helps validate buyer personas and find new segments by identifying which groups of users are most likely to be interested in your product.
Landing Page Testing: By testing different landing pages and measuring the performance, you can understand which landing pages resonate with your audience and which segments of audience are interested in the product.
Validating product-market fit
The above-mentioned tactics - A/B testing ads, landing pages, tracking conversions, using custom audiences, and then analyzing audience insights also help SaaS companies validate product-market fit. Be it for the overall product or a new feature the company is considering building.
By carefully monitoring your PPC campaigns and using the data collected, you can make informed decisions about product development and marketing strategies. You can eventually validate that your product is a good fit for the target market and make any necessary adjustments to improve performance.
Helping SaaS companies build laser-focused campaigns
Another benefit to utilizing SaaS PPC is that it can help build laser-focused campaigns by applying targeted keywords and ad groups to reach specific demographics and customer segments. Using tools such as Google Ads, we at WeScale create and run ads that only appear to users who have searched for certain keywords or fit specific demographic criteria.
Additionally, we use conversion tracking and other analytics tools to measure the effectiveness of our campaigns and make adjustments as needed to improve performance. This can help ensure that your company reaches its intended audience and that its marketing efforts are as cost-effective as possible.
Increasing ROI
Lastly, SaaS PPC marketing can help increase ROI with the help of targeted ads and conversion tracking. These will allow reach potential customers who are most likely to convert into paying users. By creating and running ads that only appear to users who have searched for certain keywords or who fit specific demographic criteria, you can increase the chances that your ads will be seen by potential customers who are most likely to convert. Additionally, using retargeting ads to reach users who have previously visited your website but have yet to convert can also help increase ROI.
Another strategy to increase ROI is to optimize the landing pages designed explicitly for PPC campaigns, with clear calls-to-action and forms to capture leads and track conversions. This way, you can get valuable information from the users and nurture them with email marketing campaigns, which can help increase the conversion rate.
Additionally, A/B testing different ad formats, headlines, images, and calls-to-action, can help optimize the campaigns and improve results. You can learn which product elements appeal to potential customers by testing different aspects and adjusting your campaigns accordingly.
Finally, by carefully monitoring your PPC campaigns and using the data collected to make informed decisions about product development and marketing strategies, you can ensure that your PPC marketing efforts are as cost-effective as possible, thus increasing ROI.
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Strategies, tips, and tricks you can use for successful SaaS B2B marketing campaigns
Here are some strategies, tips, and tricks to use for successful SaaS B2B marketing campaigns. We at WeScale apply these daily to help our SaaS B2B clients achieve their milestones.
Understand your target market: Before launching any marketing campaign, it's essential to have a clear understanding of your target market, including their pain points, needs, and decision-making process.
Utilize account-based marketing: Use account-based marketing strategies to target specific companies and decision-makers within those companies.
Optimize your website: Make sure your website is optimized for conversions, with clear calls-to-action and lead capture forms.
Use email marketing: Use email marketing campaigns to nurture leads and keep potential customers engaged with your brand.
Use analytics and testing: Use analytics tools to track the performance of your marketing campaigns and test different strategies to see what works best.
By following these strategies and tips, you can create effective B2B marketing campaigns that help reach and engage potential customers, ultimately driving more sales.
How much should your B2B SaaS Company pay for a product-qualified lead with paid channels?
We usually call this kind of calculations “understanding the baseline.” The first thing you can do is calculate the target cost per lead (CPL). But before that, let’s look at a few industry terms and definitions.
𝐀𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐋𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐞𝐫𝐦 𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞-𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞: A measure of the total income your SaaS business can expect from a typical customer for as long as that person or account remains a client.
𝐌𝐚𝐱𝐢𝐦𝐮𝐦 𝐀𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐂𝐀𝐂 𝐭𝐨 𝐋𝐓𝐕 𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨: Helps you determine what percentage of income your SaaS company is willing to pay to acquire new customers.
𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐂𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐞: This is the proportion of qualified leads of a company that result in actual sales.
𝐂𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝: Defines how much you should pay to acquire a new lead (free-trial signup, demo registration, access a freemium account, etc.)
The next step is to find the best channels and strategies to reach CPC and Signup Rate combinations that will drive the desired CPL.
Below is an example of calculating CPL:
Imagine you have an LTV of $5000. The CAC to LTV ratio is 30%, meaning you can pay only $5000*30%= $1500 to acquire a new customer. The free-to-paid conversion rate is 7%, meaning we need to obtain a new lead with $1500*7%= $105.
Calculating N of clicks
Now that we have calculated the CPL, let’s focus on understanding how many clicks you need to get the desired CPL.
The formula for the number of clicks needed is the following:
N Clicks Needed = (Demos/Signups Per Month Needed) / (Visitor to Demo Conversion Rate)
Continuing with our example, let’s say your website visitor-to-demo conversion rate is 5%. That’s your denominator for getting to your clicks needed. You still need to calculate the number of demos per month you need.
To figure this out, you’d divide your target number of closed deals (in this case 2) by your demo conversion rate. If you have a demo conversion rate of 10%, the result would be:
2 (Closed Deals Per Month) / 10% (Conversion Rate) = 20 Demos Needed Per Month
Accordingly, the N of clicks needed would be:
20 (Demos Needed Per Month) / 5% (Visitor to Demo Conversion Rate) = 400 Clicks Needed
Calculating the Budget
What’s next now that you know how many clicks you need and how much you should pay per lead? The next step is deciding on your SaaS PPC budget. There is a formula for that, too, and it’s the following:
PPC Budget Needed = Clicks Needed x Avg CPC
CPC stands for "cost per click." It’s a pricing model in which advertisers pay for each click on one of their ads. For example, if an advertiser's CPC is $1 and someone clicks on their ad, the advertiser will pay $1.
The last paragraph of this guide is about setting up a systematic optimization process to ensure your PPC efforts are effective. Want the paragraph to be sent to your inbox? Submit your email address, and we’ll send it to you right away.
