Straight to the point, B2B SaaSs need a solution to one of these B2B SaaS pain points:

• Predominantly sales-driven leads
• Limited success with various PPC channels
• SEO only brings in top-of-funnel traffic
• Growth channel agencies wasting budget
• Competition with bigger budgets and better SEO
• Bottom-of-funnel keywords with low search volume

B2B & enterprise SaaS companies alike face these problems year after year. The ones who end up meeting their growth goals create a solution that fits their specific needs. No generic strategies.

At Search Click Boom we specialize in handling these woes and help SaaSs understand how they can handle them too!

To address these pains, we’ve developed processes (in SaaS they’re called features) to create a partnership where we overcome these issues and meet client growth goals year after year.

This article will cover the tools we use and the ways we used them on three different B2B SaaSs to improve their lead gen.

The three arc types of companies we cover will be the:

• Enterprise SaaS With A Lead Quality Issue
• B2B SaaS Who Had Exhausted BoFu Search Volume
• Enterprise SaaS That Was Burned By A Crappy Agency

But first, the methods we used.

Google Ads For B2B SaaS Results

It’s important to understand the benefits that can come from great alignment between growth strategy, market, and goals.

Before we get into it, here is a list of the tools in our PPC growth tool kit (along with proof that it works).

Sales Enablement Outlines For Google Ads & PPC

Only about 5% of potential customers are searching for bottom-of-funnel terms. Meaning SaaSs must nurture customers higher on the funnel until they are ready to buy.

To convert these users, we help meet them with matching landing pages and drip campaigns to keep them in the funnel. We also interact with sales teams to engage them when leads are ready.

Specifically, we help SaaSs to:

• Outline landing page content
• Deciding drip campaign content and structure
• Re-purposing existing blogs and sales enablement content for conversions
• Outlining new conversion content

Our clients still use their CRM, sales processes, email automation software, web pages and all other practical aspects. We just provide outlines and structure to maximize PPC efforts.

Sales enablement results

• Andros saw their MQL to opportunity rate increase by 120% from using drip campaigns with sales engagement that we helped outline for leads at mid-funnel stages.
• ChAI benefited from an arsenal of 20+ landing pages designed to match 6 identified levels of intent with an average of 10 SQLs a month.

ICP Building & Targeting

Talking to sales, marketing leaders, client success and clients themselves is a key part of understanding what SaaS users do before converting.

Whether that helps us bid on the right keywords, create audiences (in-market or retargeting), etc, we can gain valuable insights from this process.

We help create ideal customer profiles and build our targeting around them to increase conversion rates and multi-funnel lead attraction.

Believe it or not, this is a relatively simple process, it’s the act of doing it that helps us strategically frame our campaigns.

Our examples of success with ICPs include:

• ChAI saw their clicks to leads rate increase by 130%
• DataSpark saw customer acquisition increase 293%

Funnel-Based Audience Creation

We utilize traffic from all sources to B2B or Enterprise SaaS websites to build audiences for retargeting with Google Search Ads, LinkedIn Ads and for creating data segments used to lower account-wide conversion rates.

We’ve found this to be an efficient way to progress users down the funnel. Especially when we meet them with the right conversions (which we test).

Some successes we’ve seen with funnel-based audience usage:

• DataSpark uses middle funnel search terms while targeting only previous visitors to achieve conversion rates 139% higher than the account average
• DataSpark also uses retargeting audiences to get new customers at 40% below the account average.

Smooth & Thorough Onboarding

The #1 way we see B2B SaaS accounts become frustrated is when goals aren’t met due to lack of agency insight into the client’s offering and target audience.

We offer a minimally intrusive, yet thorough onboarding process which minimizes money spent learning and increases our ability to target conversions up and down the funnel.

We ask these questions to pivotal members of our B2B SaaS clients.

Some examples look like this:

• How do customers use your product?
• How does [PRODUCT] fit into their role? How does help them reach their KPIs?
• How do they use the [PRODUCT]? How do they use [PRODUCT] during their day-to-day activities?
• When did they first realize they needed a new solution?
• What is the primary benefit that you have received from (Product or service Name)?

Scrutinous Negative Keyword Filtering

Other than our strategic approach, what we offer is hard work.

Filtering out keywords to keep search intents pure in each ad group is the lifeblood of every account.

It’s not glorious work and most agencies skip out on it for that reason. Our keywords and search terms match 1:1, which means our offer matches the intents of the searches we are paying for.

What scrutinous keyword filtering will look like in a Google Ads account:

• Virtually 1:1 Keywords To Search Terms

CTRs will increase as negative keyword lists build. This will lower average cost per click and increase the number of relevant eyeballs that land on the site.

These are the tools we use to achieve common B2B SaaS Pain points, the goal of this case study is to show high-level concepts like these can be applied in specific SaaS cases.

We will look at three of Search Click Boom’s SaaS clients to see how these features were applied to enable us to get the most out of our PPC strategies.

B2B & Enterprise SaaS Case Studies

ChAi – Enterprise SaaS With A Lead Quality Issue

Here’s a brief customer introduction:

• ChAI is a commodity forecasting tool for purchasing & finance teams of manufacturers
• They’re an enterprise SaaS with an average deal size of ~$90,000
• They tried in-house & agency growth for years
• ChAI was frustrated since true bottom-of-funnel (BoFu) KWs had no volume

ChAI had spent nearly $30,000 in Google Ads while seeing NO quality leads.

Their account had 579 conversions reported but none of them turned into SQLs.

They also had the added challenge of having no BoFu keywords. Aka no searches for things like ‘raw materials forecasting tool.’

Their previous agency had relied heavily on broad keywords and automation which led them to spend a lot on mismatched/irrelevant searches being sent to irrelevant landing pages and offers.

They didn’t know how to feed their funnel and were afraid of spending much more money.

Solving ChAI’s Enterprise Lead Issue

ChAI had battle scars from previous efforts with PPC. They put Search Click Boom on a short leash from the start of their relationship.

However, Search Click Boom has overperformed using thorough onboarding, mid-funnel ICP targeting, keyword filtering, and sales enablement consulting:

• Achieved 130% conversion increase
• ChAI saw 2.1% of those conversions turn into SQLs
• Cost per SQL sits at $397

Thorough Onboarding

The first step to solving ChAI’s poor lead quality issue was learning everything we could about the platform.

We conducted an audit of their old Google Ads to glean any insights available. Then, we distributed some questions to their sales & customer success to understand the journey the buyer takes before purchasing.

We also analyzed competitor search campaigns to discover the keywords working for them using tools like SEM rush, SpyFu, and their website content.

Finally, we finished off our qualitative research with an analysis of ChAi’s, competitors and alternative reviews to help with targeting and copy.

Middle of Funnel Keywords Revealed Through ICP Creation

Using the aforementioned materials, we created ideal customer profiles (ICP) for PPC.

These ICPs are scoped down to be helpful with PPC targeting, meaning we gain glimpses into what the users are searching for before and while they convert.

ChAi’s ICP revealed that our users either forecasted themselves or looked up short-term forecasts prior to finding their SaaS.

We used this to target searches for short-term reports which had much more volume.

Understanding the pains, alternatives and commercial readiness of ChAI’s target customer helped us not only choose which keywords to target but also what landing page, offer, and follow-ups to use to maximize our budget.

We guided the creation of over 20 landing pages and currently manage 60+ ad groups to intricately target the mid-funnel keywords we selected based on these profiles.

The results YoY were astounding.

ChAI saw 130% conversion increase compared to the year before using only 80% of the spend.

Matching the search intent to the offer was what made the difference here.

For example, instead of offering users looking for a ‘Copper Price Forecast’ a schedule a demo CTA, we offered them a free 1-week forecast.

In general, B2B & enterprise SaaS have been seeing a shift away from the traditional ‘Schedule Demo’ offer in order to acknowledge complex buyer journeys and shift towards more accurate targeting.

Scrutinous Keyword Filtering

With such a high contract value, it was important to ChAI to pay for clicks that only aligned with the targeted intent.

Google Ads has considerably loosened its keyword-to-search term matching in the last five years.

With these new rules, targeted terms like ‘Copper Price Forecast’ will be allowed to bid for searches as different as ‘Scrap Metal Pricing Chart,’ for example.

For ChAI, we make sure the search terms we show up for precisely match the ones we target.

Landing Page Intent Matching

Since our targets ranged from bottom-funnel competitor queries to middle-funnel alternative searches, a one-size-fits-all page would not convert well.

Over time, we have developed 20+ pages to meet the intents of the searchers.

We also made some pages for retargeting audiences as well.

Sales Enablement With Google Ads Scope

Part of our sales enablement package is assisting in creating landing page content outlines as previously mentioned.

The other half is our collaboration to create follow-up campaigns to help nurture our captured leads down the funnel.

We helped take some of ChAI’s existing sales enablement content and blogs to create a drip campaign that has since turned 2.1% of their leads into SQLs, and continues to do so.

The prior year, they had 500+ leads, none of which turned into SQLs. Now we get about 10 a month.

We merely created a 6-step drip campaign designed to re-engage contacts in order to hand them to sales personnel.

Email content in these 6 steps included:

• eBook describing how forecasting manually works – Middle Funnel
• Short-term AI forecast PDF – Middle Funnel
• Product overview – Bottom-Funnel
• Case Study – Bottom-Funnel
• Hedging strategies for procurement – Middle Funnel

The idea was to offer more middle-funnel content with a few BoFu pieces to help nurture the lead along.

These SQLs were showing up to meetings and only cost $397 apiece.

Remember, the deal size for customers is around $90,000.

DataSpark – B2B SaaS Who Had Exhausted BoFu Search Volume

Here’s a brief introduction to DataSpark:

• B2B SaaS tool improving listings on Walmart marketplace
• DataSpark’s average customer value was $365
• They were under the belief that Google Ads had fully used to its limit, largely brand name driven.
• Cost per acquisition was their most important KPI.

Since their product is in a niche market that’s adjacent to a more popular Amazon marketplace, most keywords including competitor keywords risked having mixed intents.

DataSpark believed that their low-funnel keywords were maxing out on volume and really didn’t want to increase their CPCs since they were focused on customer acquisition cost (CAC) instead of ROI.

Additionally, DataSpark thought they could target mid-funnel KWs but weren’t really sure what that would look like.

At the time, this was a newer product with few direct competitors. The DataSpark founders wanted to understand their customers more but didn’t have the time to fully facilitate that.

Busting Through DataSpark’s Stunted Growth

With a historic data audit, ICP keyword journey mapping, audience-based retargeting and value-based optimization, we were able to achieve amazing results for DataSpark.

Here are some of the highlights we will go over:

• We increased paid conversion volume by a factor of 2.96
• Multiplplied their positive account ROI by 3.5
• Much of this was made possible by utilizing retargeting audiences which have a 30% lower customer acquisition cost than the account average.

Historic Data Audit

First, since DataSpark had a sustainable cost per acquisition, we looked through historic account data to determine what foundational elements of the account could be expanded.

We looked at high-converting keywords and used keyword tools to expand those themes.

Search Click Boom used those seed terms to compare with competitors and pull keywords from their successful strategies.

From this, we were able to increase search volume for already successful campaigns by 29%.

One thing we noticed is that DataSpark had overcomplicated their ads account in the name of control. This consequently lowers possible search volume.

ICP Journey Keyword Mapping

To enable the targeting of middle-funnel keywords, we had to better understand DataSpark’s customers.

Namely, we wanted to understand the pains of users who were optimizing their Walmart listings manually.

Our specific interests included what tools they were using to do it manually and what alternative products they tried first.

We selected a set of questions and conducted interviews to help us do this.

We discovered other things through this process as well.

A messaging test we conducted revealed that due to the low cost of the SaaS, we were able to get away with asking for full paid conversion when targeting lower mid-funnel terms.

3-month ROI increased 24% when we offered users searching ‘Walmart keyword research’ a bottom-funnel conversion page instead of a middle funnel gated content piece.

Overall, the effects of our ICP research spoke for themselves. Our overall conversion volume increased by 296% YoY.

From understanding the customer and journey to conversion, we were able to discover relevant keywords and offer them intent-focused landing pages which converted at a higher rate.

ICP Journey Keyword Mapping

Since some of the targeted traffic was further up the funnel, we acknowledged that we would need to touch in with them 10-15 times (by the way, it’s almost twice as much for Enterprise SaaS).

These touch points include retargeting ads, search ads, drip follow-ups, sales engagements and more.

DataSpark had thousands of users coming to their top-funnel blog posts. We used this traffic to segment tiered retargeting based on the page they last visited.

Because we approach our PPC lead gen for SaaS with an intent-to-offer approach, for DataSpark we pre-organized audiences based on the types of pages visited.

For users who visited the middle-of-the-funnel (MoFu) pages, we showed middle-of-funnel offers.

Likewise for BoFu pages.

These efforts led to tangible results. At the time of writing this article, DataSpark’s most recent 365 days of retargeting has led to a CAC that’s 30% lower than the account cost per acquisition.

Value-Based Optimization

Prior to working with us, DataSpark was not tracking customer lifetime value.

We facilitated the tracking for each tier of their subscription and factored in each tier’s average lifetime value.

This allowed us to pursue traffic with higher conversion values and eventually start using some conversion value-based automation.

The account-wide ROI has gone from 2.1 the year before our working together to 7.35.

That’s an increase of 350%!

Andros – Enterprise SaaS Burned By A Bad Agency

Andros helps large health organizations certify their providers to stay compliant. Here are some relevant stats on them:

• Enterprise SaaS with $70,000+ LTV
• Andros got burned by an agency that overspent & didn’t listen
• The product is very niche and requires in-depth knowledge
• CMO priority #1 was to get more MQLs (at the time it was a sub-1% click to MQL rate)
• MQLs were not turning into opportunities (cost per opportunity was $45k)

Prior to working with Search Click Boom, Andros was getting MQLs but they were MQLs by name only. They were rarely qualified and after a year of spending $139,439, they only had 3 opportunities.

Their previous agency was mostly cashing their paychecks and didn’t take the time to intimately understand the business and customers.

Andros also had to frequently request the agency to stop spending over the desired budget.

Fixing Andros’s lead quality and volume issue

Andros was sore from previous mistreatment from an agency. They needed to feed their pipeline and fast. Search Click Boom got to work with creating ICP-aware keyword targeting structures, sales enablement consulting, and made this all possible with a smooth & thorough onboarding process.

ICP-Aware Keyword Targeting

Since we wanted to start small, we built a campaign around our BoFu keywords which we decided based on some extensive questioning of the sales team and CMO.

We got really picky with our targeting given that clicks were averaging around $25.

Our ideal bottom funnel keywords would have looked something like “demo provider credentialing saas.” However, there is not enough search volume to target those keywords.

We instead targeted ‘provider credentialing saas’ which is not as BoFu as we’d like.

To compensate, we offered shorter forms on the landing page to make conversions easier.

This focused strategy increased opportunities by 333% in the last 365 days compared to the previous period.

Sales Enabled Sales Follow-ups

To meet the MQL goals of leadership, we targeted higher-volume, mid-funnel terms like ‘provider credentialing.’

This would mean our leads would be less ready to schedule demos and other low-funnel conversions.

We created an eBook download offering to match the intent of these searches and offered that as our middle funnel conversion goal.

We then repurposed various sales enablement and blog content to create an engaging 10-step drip email package. This drip is geared towards handing these leads off to sales when they engage.

Meeting the intention of each lead with landing pages that include mid-funnel CTAs allowed us to increase MQL volume by 366%.

Reducing Wasted Spend With Onboarding

The crux of our success ultimately was taking our time pre-launch to understand the business, prior to spending ad dollars.

Fully understanding Andros’s ideal customer and their state of mind throughout the journey allowed us to create a ‘cheat sheet’ that we frequently referenced as we developed our campaigns.

As a testament to how fast we were able to learn about Andros, we achieved the aforementioned 333% more opportunities and 366% more MQLs with 61% less budget spent year over year.

Conclusion

We continue to help dozens of clients meet their growth needs using these strategies.

Once SaaSs understand their customer, their needs and their journey prior to purchase, it becomes easy to see how different keywords and audiences fit into different parts of the sales funnel.

Once B2B SaaSs start attracting qualified leads, it becomes important to offer value for the user to help them slide down the funnel.

Remember, most of these changes did not happen overnight and neither does the buying cycle.

It’s easy to be very product-focused with content, however, Search Click Boom has been able to achieve success by focusing on bringing value to the user and listening to what they are asking for.

Take the guesswork out of SaaS PPC growth strategy and follow these processes to get it done right the first time.