If you are a B2B SaaS running a full channel ad strategy and you’re wondering if the efficacy of your ads will decrease as the holidays or quarters churn over, worry about seasonality no more.
Running Google Ads, LinkedIn Ads, Facebook Ads & retargeting campaigns will all have different answers so stay tuned.
First, let’s talk about which seasons affect B2B vs B2C.
Seasonality Means More Than Holidays For B2B SaaS
At the end of the day B2B buyers are people who celebrate holidays, have children, go on vacations and what not.
The normal periods where B2C companies would be increasing spend are often times that SaaS B2Bs might want to tighten their advertising budgets.
There is another type of seasonality to consider with B2B and that’s the fiscal quarter system.
B2B budgets are often distributed at the beginning of the quarter and buyers within B2B SaaSs have less to work with as the quarter goes on.
This is only further exasperated by the end of the year.
That being said, just because B2B buyers might not be searching as much toward the ends of quarters does not mean you shouldn’t still be targeting those keywords.
Same goes for holidays and even recession periods.
Impression Volume Vs Value
Later the distinction between different channels and funnel points will be made but first lets address volume vs value.
Seasonality, in any industry, will normally affect search volume.
However, depending on the channel that the SaaS or B2B is advertising it on, it might not change the value of each impression or click.
Highly targeted campaigns may see less searches at the end of a quarter or during the December holidays, however, if the targeting is low funnel and highly relevant, does the value change?
Seasonality Will Affect each Types of B2B & SaaS Campaigns Differently
Search intents are just as relevant when discussing seasonality in B2B SaaS advertising as when you are creating your campaigns.
If your B2B SaaS higher-ups are afraid that your target buyer will be distracted or that advertising volume might go down, it’s time to assess how certain channels and funnel stages might be affected.
For most seasonal adjustments, shifting spend from higher funnel campaigns and channels towards low funnel is a good rule of thumb.
Display & Social Ads In B2B SaaS
If your SaaS B2B marketing department is worried about seasonality, the first place to cut should be your display and social ads.
Keep in mind this advice does not apply to retargeted ads.
There are enough distractions during the holidays, and the nature of display and social ads are to distract your target customer and hope to keep their attention long enough to get a conversion.
They did not go to a news site, or open Gmail with the intent of next visiting your site.
Conversion rates are already so low in these channels (~0.59%). That’s because the intent just isn’t there.
The user didn’t ask for the ad, and so they won’t convert, especially during the holidays where distractions are plenty.
If you have to, the first thing to cut could be display and social ads.
Retargeting SaaS B2B Ads
With retargeting, the intent is still not there for B2B. Regardless of whether it’s on social or display.
The one difference is, as long as the audience you’re retargeting is relatively engaged, these users are known to be relevant.
Most SaaS B2Bs don’t spend a lot on retargeting, but if cutting your generic display and social media wasn’t enough to combat your seasonal concerns, retargeting might be next.
However, it might be better to cut your mid and high funnel search campaigns first.
High Funnel & Mid Funnel SaaS B2B Search Campaigns
When your business is facing seasonality, you have to think about the intent of the searcher.
For the sake of this article, informational searches like “how to save time with onboarding” or “what tool helps with productivity?” count for MF & HF searches.
These types of searches make up between 50%-80% of all searches depending on the market.
If you are effectively running campaigns for these search terms, you are probably mastering the art of lead volume. That’s good for your business!
However, when your buyers are less focused on buying and more focused on researching, your conversion rates will be lower.
During the holidays, the summer (in some industries) and at the end of quarters, your B2B & SaaS buyers are going to be even less likely to convert in high funnel and mid funnel campaigns.
An informational search has very low indication of commitment when it comes to B2B.
This is because there are many different solutions to these ‘problem’ searches.
However, if you have confidence in your campaign, does that make traffic for these keywords less valuable?
For example, it’s reported that two thirds of businesses experience sales slumps in the summer.
Is cutting down on searches that have high relevance and high value the right way to combat this slump?
Maybe your user won’t convert during downtimes, but you are possibly still reaching highly targeted, valuable user who might convert down the line.
In general, this is why search is one of the most effective advertising channels, because the user is essentially reaching out to your business.
As a rule of thumb, cutting search campaigns should be the last thing you cut during lower lead volume times.
However, if you had to cut some search ad spend, high and middle funnel would be the first place to look.
Low Funnel B2B SaaS Search Campaigns
In most mature accounts (4+ months), your low-funnel keywords will be driving most of the value but not most of the click volume in your account.
In B2B SaaS, searches for things like “onboarding automation tool” and “supply analytics pogram” will decrease.
But their relevance does not change.
Put yourself in the shoes of the searcher. If your search was specific, educated, nearly-transactional, does the date of Feb 1 or Dec 20 really change the value of the click?
For the accounts run at SCB we never stop running low funnel searches.
During down times, we sometimes even drop HF & MF searches and raise budgets on LF if we have the volume.
What Should You Do During Down Seasons For B2B SaaS Ads?
When seasonality is looming over your SaaS B2B, you have a few choices to counteract lower lead volume.
There’s plenty of great ideas out there depending on your industry that can make your conversions more appealing.
Do nothing!
Many advertisers will tell you that you should do nothing.
If your leads are chugging along and you have historic proof that the seasons don’t affect your sales, then absolutely you should keep things the same.
If you have historic data that shows a downturn, the best advice is to reduce spend in areas that have high-funnel intent, and otherwise unproven campaigns.
Use that budget to capture all the lead volume you can in campaigns that work.
Ultimately, reducing spend during down times will only lose your account momentum and reduce your lead volume more.
Extend your meeting calendar
For most B2Bs, booking meetings is a desired conversion.
One mistake around holidays that many B2B sales teams make is not extending their booking availability.
With sales reps and prospects taking time off, offering a further look ahead in the calendar will give your relevant visitors more options and less reason to leave your page without converting.
Again, taking time off is a necessity, however giving users the ability to book 4-5 weeks out may be a good way to get users to convert over the holidays.
Offer meeting alternatives
Your desired users are busy during the holidays.
One thing that might be reducing the volume of your leads during these times is that your customer is too busy to commit to a 15-30 minute meeting.
Asking for email, name, company info in exchange for a booked meeting might cause fear in the eye of your already-busy prospects.
Instead, it’s recommended that you offer a pre-recorded demo. Maybe it’s as easy as having a holiday pop-up that offers this when the user shows intent to exit your page.
This way you still offer the more-valuable booked meeting, however, you are offering an option to those attempting to leave.
Shift around spend
Getting pressure to do SOMETHING about seasonality for your B2B SaaS?
Move spend from unproven and high-funnel campaigns to low funnel, efficient campaigns and max them out.
Adjust your drips and sequences
Make sure your automated follow-ups and sequence steps are aware of holidays and possibly add some follow-ups.
This may help you stand out from all of the seasonal and built up emails your user will have when they sit back down at their desk after time off.
Offer discounted rates
For SaaSs that rely on purchases and no sales interactions, offering seasonal discounts is a great way to exploit the holidays.
This is where B2B SaaS marketing behavior can emulate B2C eCommerce.
Extended free trials, free months, percentages off, free upgrades are some of the offers that SaaSs extend to their customers throughout the holidays and down seasons.
Summing Up Seasonality In Google Ads
It’s quite possible that the hype around seasonality in B2B SaaS is overstated. This is often caused by osmosis seeping in from the B2C world that we all live in.
However, recessions, summer slumps, holiday distractions and quarterly spending are all real factors that can give context to your B2B buyer’s mindset.
If your industry is affected historically by seasonality in Google Ads and other channels, hopefully this article gave you some solid ideas on how to combat lower lead volume.