Avoiding Google Ad Mistakes That Most SaaS Companies Make

Google ads is a hostile place to learn from your mistakes. Given that mistakes in search ads can end up costing thousands of dollars or more.

If you are new or nervous about spending your money in Google Ads, this is a good place to start.

Avoiding These Google Ads Mistakes Will Save Your SaaS Time And Money

If your SaaS is running (or about to run) Google Ads, this article may save you from some pain down the road.

You’ve Already made these mistakes in your SaaS account? Have no fear, fixing these issues will set you on the right path.

If these isolated tips aren’t enough, here’s a guide on setting up a quality ads strategy from the start.

You cannot define a clear goal for Google Ads.

If you haven’t established (and don’t continue to establish) your goals in Google Ads, your SaaS will have no direction and therefore can’t have a good strategy. 

According to CoSchedule, goal-setters are 377% more successful than peers!

Being able to define conversions, key performance indicators, landing pages and so on rely on on having clear goals. 

What is your SaaS trying to accomplish with each campaign? 

Great campaigns have keywords, ads, landing pages all geared towards achieving a specific conversion at a specific point in the funnel.

A common SaaS mistake is to throw a bunch of conversions and a handful of keywords into an account and wait.

While some non-software-based companies may be able to get away with that, your SaaS will not.

Knowing your goals will act as a sturdy framework for your campaign.

Setting your SaaS Goals

Setting your goals for your SaaS campaign is easy.

Take your most important conversion (basically it’s always sales/purchases) and walk back a step in the funnel (maybe two).

If your SaaS requires sales team involvement, make sure you have goals for MQLs, SQLs, Opportunities and other important steps.

With SaaSs that allow purchase on their landing page; free trials, form steps, add to carts are all valuable things to track. 

For Google Ads, start setting 3-month goals. Look at your cost per clicks, set a desired cost/conversion for each step and try to achieve those in 3 months.

If you are running your ads for the first time, don’t expect 5x ROI in the first three months. Set realistic goals. 

You are using generic keywords with no intent structure.

Every SaaS search term has ‘intent’ behind it. The searcher is looking for something specific and you are trying to meet their query with a good answer.

To avoid wasting you money in your account, organizing your SaaS keywords by intent is a must.

In general, there are three main types of search intent:

• Informational
• Transactional
• Navigational

Sometimes you’ll see transactional split into two which makes sense but these are the main ones.

When I see SaaS companies using keywords with no intent structure, their ad groups often look like this:

Remember these are ad groups, so all of these keywords share the same landing page and ad copy.

The searchers behind each of these searches are looking for completely different things.

All of these keywords have a place in the account. However, they each require their own ad copy and landing pages.

It’s said that using well-organized intent can boost your ROI by 54% or more. 

Be careful though, keyword intent for SaaS is a lot different than it is for product/physical service based businesses…

You do not have quality ads

Not having quality ads is a big mistake for your SaaS, but appealing to Google isn’t the only way to have them.

Google breaks it down into four categories, each of which are columns with scores in Google Ad’s keyword view:

• Expected CTR
• Landing Page Experience
• Ad Relevance

Perfecting these scores can lower your costs per click and therefore lower your cost per conversion.

However, quality score is a very imperfect system and Google keeps their scoring formula close to their chest. Optimizing these can be very hard.

That’s why you focus on the scores later on.

If your keywords are closely related to your ad copy and landing page, then you should be good. Even if you are seeing this annoying warning:

Landing page does not meet expectations.

As mentioned above, your landing page is part of Google’s arbitrary scoring algorithm. Letting Google be the sole judge of what a good SaaS landing page is would be a mistake.

Instead, focus on landing pages that hold up in your market. 

Search for your main competitors and landing pages in other SaaS categories. You’ll notice that landing page trends often happen in parallel with other SaaS markets. 

The key here is to make your user feel comfortable navigating your landing page while standing out.

Here’s a recent article with some SaaS landing page examples. 

There are plenty of case studies that show how optimizing your landing pages can lead to conversions increasing by 400%, CPAs decreasing by 79% and so on.

But before you optimize, focus on your foundation.

Most importantly, keep the keywords that brought the user to the page in mind. Feature those keywords early on and expand on them. Be sure to answer the intent behind those keywords.

You can break down those important landing page elements to this list:

• Uniform intent
• Keyword filled headline
• Relevant subheading
• Consistent and clear lead capture
• Badges/Social Proof
• Product Imagery

You do not have a strategy for managing Google Ads.

At Search Click Boom it’s common practice to have a documented strategy for each SaaS campaign. They’re high-level but but they give our daily adjustments some perspective.

For example, at launching, each campaign should have a specific conversion goal in mind, core keywords to accomplish that goal and a visualized structure to exhibit how that goal will be executed. 

You must have purpose to your decisions or your day-to-day will stray from the goal. 

Laying out the specifics of this strategy can be hard and there are a lot of free resources to do so. But what’s easiest is having a free conversation with a professional who is thinking about Google Ads for SaaS 60+ hours a week. Get a free SaaS Google Ads strategy here.

Wrapping Up

Avoiding common SaaS mistakes is a bit of a paradox, no? If they were easier to avoid, they wouldn’t be so common. 

However, hopefully provided some common pains so you can face them before you have problems. 

Thanks for reading!