90% of SaaS PPC campaigns fail early on because businesses often focus on ads before they focus on the entire buyer journey.
They get very busy with ad text, creatives, and budget, but don’t focus on the most crucial aspects:
- a sales funnel that addresses the audience’s key pain points
- a well-thought-out journey that the prospect takes after clicking the ad
That’s a lesson learned after seeing too many CEOs frustrated by their high-investment, zero-return PPC campaigns.
And that’s what we share below – a straightforward success formula for SaaS PPC strategy, based on takeaways from over $5 million in ad spend, with both wins and losses. We’re a specialized SaaS PPC agency – Camel Digital, and we’re sharing some tried and tested tactics to help you get results faster.
What Is SaaS PPC and Why Is It Important?
There is a simple truth: people tend to click on what they see first. PPC for SaaS helps you be the first result to appear whenever people search for a keyword or phrase related to your business. This means that you can get in front of your target audience quickly and effectively, boosting your website traffic and, ultimately, conversions. Our saas ppc services make this process even more targeted and impactful.
PPC for SaaS companies is a vital marketing tactic for several reasons.
- There are instant results. You don’t wait until your site ranks on search engines to gain visibility. Instead, you pay for your desired first-page visibility immediately.
- You target a highly interested audience. SaaS PPC is not a blind marketing strategy. When you run PPC advertising, you know only the interested audience will click on your ad, providing a high conversion rate.
- You control the budget. With SaaS PPC, you have complete control over how much you want to spend and can adjust it at any time based on your business needs.
- You get measurable data. You’ll receive detailed data, allowing easy tracking and analysis of your campaigns’ performance, making it easier to make informed decisions for future campaigns.
How to Apply 4 Proven SaaS PPC Strategies
Our paid media strategist says if SaaS PPC had a constitution, it would have the following four sections…
1. Bottom Funnel: Bidding On High Intent Keywords
B2B decision-makers who have gone a long way thinking about buying your solution use a specific style of keywords. These are called bottom-of-funnel (BOFU) keywords, and they signal the user’s highest intent to find a solution:
- Tool comparisons, alternatives, X vs. Y
- Tool pricing, demo tours
- Tool brand name searches
- Very specific pain points and solutions
- Words like get, buy, try, etc.
When you manage to target these keywords with highly relevant ad copy and a matching landing page, you have the highest chance to convert. Why? Because the user has already overcome the hardest part of the journey – they’ve decided they want to buy. Now, your only job is to say: “Our tool is the best.”
But here’s the pitfall: BOFU keywords are extremely competitive and expensive. You have to tread carefully. This is where you either burn your budget or land a big client. To achieve the latter, follow these tips:
- Structure keywords into ad groups by topic. Avoid mixing keywords with different intents under one ad group.
- Use both exact match and phrase match variations of the same keyword in a single ad group. This helps the algorithm learn which search terms are most likely to convert.
- Build a strong landing page optimized for both conversions and your target keywords. BOFU clicks are costly, so higher conversion rates help you stay profitable.
- Write targeted ad copy. Include specific value propositions and features, and make sure they are reflected both in the ad and the landing page.
2. Bidding on Competitor Keywords
If the path is already cleared, there’s no need to carve a new one. Target the keywords your competitors are ranking for since that’s where your audience is already looking. Focus on tools that are closest to yours, and prioritize keywords with enough search volume and a clear competitive edge.
When we include [competitor alternative] keywords in a B2B SaaS PPC strategy, we consistently see 20% more leads compared to when we don’t. The plan is simple, and it works, forming a key part of effective b2b saas marketing.
Step 1: Pick the right alternative keywords:
Focus on competitor tools that are closest to yours. In your PPC keyword strategy for SaaS, prioritize keywords with high search volume where you have a clear competitive advantage.
Step 2: Build crystal-clear comparison content
Send traffic to a landing page or blog post that directly compares your tool to the one mentioned in the keyword. Only a feature-to-feature, pain-to-benefit comparison can win this battle.
Step 3: Send them where it counts
One of the biggest mistakes you can make is sending competitor keyword traffic to your homepage or a general features page. That kind of traffic needs direction. Instead, guide users to a clear and relevant comparison page that speaks directly to their search. List at least three standout benefits near the top so they immediately understand why your tool is the better choice.
Competitor alternative ads have a big potential to convert high-intent users who already understand your niche and may have used or considered similar products. That means you can skip many of the early funnel stages – awareness, education, consideration – and move straight to positioning your tool as the better choice.
3. Retargeting Bottom of the Funnel Users With Search (RLSA)
Remarketing Lists for Search Ads (RLSA) is a Google Ads feature that allows you to reach users who already know your SaaS product, have interacted with it before, and are now continuing their buying journey.
This is your chance to catch them at the final moment, make that last push, and turn them into buyers.
When you combine RLSA with BOFU keywords, you target users who not only intend to buy but have already interacted with your brand.
Since RLSA + BOFU keywords are often quite expensive, here’s what we do to win buyers efficiently:
- We use only broad match keywords.
The audience is limited, and people search in dozens of different ways. Broad match makes sure your ad still appears when they’re actively looking, even if the phrasing isn’t exactly what you expected.
- We never reuse the same ad copy or landing page.
This audience has already seen your earlier message, and something didn’t land. So instead of repeating it, we change direction. We write sharper, more sales-focused copy and send users to pages built for bottom-of-funnel traffic. These might include direct comparisons, proof of ROI, or customer logos that build trust.
- And here’s a small but important step that often gets overlooked:
Exclude your current customers from your RLSA lists. There’s no value in spending high CPCs retargeting people who have already converted. Instead, keep your budget focused on users who are still in the decision phase.
4. Retargeting People in the Middle of Your Funnel
We’ve said that BOFU is the most converting keyword group.
But the reality is, most of your target audience is actually sits somewhere in the middle of the SaaS marketing funnel, between not knowing about your brand and being ready to buy.
With the long sales cycles typical in B2B SaaS, bottom-of-funnel ads only reach about 5–10% of the people currently in-market. That’s why we never miss a chance to nurture middle-funnel leads through ads, usually using one of the following scenarios:
Case 1: Someone visits a blog, watches a video, or checks your social media
These people are in the awareness stage. Your goal here is to move them further down the funnel by offering something of real value, like an ebook, checklist, or whitepaper.Create content that helps them solve a problem and keeps them engaged with your brand.
Case 2: Someone downloads your lead magnet
At this stage, they’ve shown interest. So, you need to enroll them into your funnel and start a structured email nurture sequence with the goal of guiding them to a demo call or deeper engagement with the product.
Case 3: Someone visits product, pricing, or case study pages
This behavior indicates they’re further along the decision process. Here, you should retarget them using Google Display Network or social ads, encouraging them to book a demo or sign up for the product. You might also offer a comparison sheet, customer success story, or limited-time incentive, anything that may help remove friction at this final stage.
The Biggest Challenges SaaS Marketers Face With PPC Ads
Yes, we said PPC for SaaS companies is a golden opportunity, but it’s not a self-operating machine that is guaranteed to bring you success no matter what.
SaaS PPC is a process.
It is super effective when done right. But if you don’t understand the ins and outs of PPC for SaaS companies, you can waste time and money.
Clients have often come to us at Camel Digital, asking why their PPC campaigns weren’t delivering the results they expected. After analyzing their accounts, we noticed some common mistakes many SaaS companies make when running PPC ads.
We’re sharing them to help you avoid making the same mistakes.
Related reading: Digital Advertising for SaaS: All You Need to Grow in 2024
1. The Challenge: Campaigns Not Being Structured Properly
Your ad account allows you to use many tools to create tailored campaigns that suit your products or services. You can group campaigns by theme, product type, audience, and so on.
Not using those tools correctly and not having a proper structure for SaaS marketing campaigns can lead to unwanted traffic, low engagement with your ads, and low conversion rates.
In our experience doing account audits for our clients, we have often seen the same mistake: adding many different keywords under one ad group without grouping them by topics.
Let’s look at the example above. It is an AI copywriting tool. When the “AI image generator” and “ChatGPT” keywords were on, this advertiser was getting a lot of traffic related to image generation, and people were looking for ChatGPT.
Yes, there was a lot of traffic, but was that what we were looking for? Probably not.
People were looking for ChatGPT or an image or photo generator, but they ended up on an ad and a landing page about AI copywriting.
That’s a whole other type of traffic, and in this case, the conversion rate will likely be zero.
The Solution: Organize Keywords By Ad Groups
Keywords should always be grouped by relevant topics within their ad groups. Each ad group should include an ad and a landing page that match what people are looking for.
In this example, keywords could be grouped like this in one ad group:
- AI copywriting tool
- AI copywriting software
- AI writing tool
And like this in another ad group:
- AI image generator
- Create images AI
- AI image tool
Here is an example of a well-structured SaaS PPC campaign for a text messaging tool for political candidates:
All related keywords are grouped under one ad group: “Political text messaging.” The ad clearly says that it is a text messaging tool for political candidates. The headlines and descriptions highlight what matters most to them, such as: “Remind Voters to Vote.”
And, of course, the landing page also aligns with what political candidates are searching for.
2. The Challenge: Targeting Your Audience Too Strictly And Limiting Algorithms
Sounds controversial?
We know you’ve been told that the narrower the target audience, the higher conversion rates you can achieve.
While this is true, there’s a limit to how narrow you should go. When you choose a very specific target, like only CEOs of financial companies with over 100 employees and located in a particular city, you risk having a high cost per click.
Why?
- There is a high demand for very specific targets, and the ad algorithms know this. Everyone wants to target precise people, and this costs money. Usually, when you target very narrow audiences, the competition is high, and you will end up paying much more per click. This, in turn, can decrease your ROI and increase costs.
- Targeting a narrow audience means you tell the ad algorithms to show your ad to a limited number of people. But don’t forget that the ad account charges you per click, so the more chances it has to bring you those clicks, the more it will earn. And when you limit the potential reach, you limit the ad algorithm’s earning power. So what does it do? It charges you more.
The Solution: Choose a Slightly Broader Audience
The best tactic is to set a slightly broader target audience while still maintaining the key characteristics of your potential customers. This will improve conversion rates while keeping costs relatively low. As a good rule of thumb for effective machine learning, getting 3,500 impressions per ad group per week tends to perform better. The more impressions we see, the more conversions we get.
This example shows that the first ad group received 3,353 impressions per week and generated the most conversions. The machine learning algorithm performs best when your ads get more impressions. However, you won’t get those impressions if your targeting is too narrow.
Let us help you get the targeting right, based on more than five years of hands-on experience.
3. The Challenge: Optimizing for Bottom Funnel Too Quickly
Pretty similar story here. Chasing quick conversions can leave you with a handful of “almost-converting” customers who could become buyers with some more nurturing.
So what’s your slow-and-steady tactic for building long-term, loyal customers?
The Solution: Concentrate on Engagement First and Conversions Later
- Competition at the bottom of the funnel is fierce. When your first ad campaign targets bottom-of-funnel users, you’re competing with every other company going after the same ready-to-buy customers. If you’re in a low-competition niche, that might work. But in a competitive space, your biggest competitors will outspend you, and your ad may not even be seen.
- Algorithms also need time to learn how to deliver your ads effectively. If you go straight to bottom-of-funnel targeting, there’s not enough data for the algorithm to optimize and reach users with high purchase intent. It needs time to study user behavior and learn what makes a good click. That’s why it’s better to start broad and let the algorithm gather more signals.
Finally, successful ad campaigns are built on relationships. Sales come after trust. People need to know and trust your brand before they’re ready to buy. If you start at the bottom of the funnel, you risk skipping the very steps that build those relationships. The result might be conversions, but they won’t be as meaningful or long-lasting.
4. The Challenge: Skipping Basic Calculations
Folks, let’s make this clear.
SaaS PPC isn’t an expense you cut or increase based on convenience. PPC for SaaS is an investment that, if done right, can have predictable and measurable ROI.
So, when you allocate a SaaS marketing budget for a PPC campaign, don’t look at how much you would like to spend. Instead, calculate how much you need to spend to get the conversions you need.
The Solution: Focus on CLV and Conversion Rate
The best way to do this is to base your ad budget on your business’s average customer lifetime value and the average conversion rate for your industry.
Let’s walk through the steps with clear formulas.
STEP 1: Calculate Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
Let’s say you want to promote a review management tool, sell a $99-per-month plan, with 5% churn and an average renewal period of two years.
Example:
- You charge $99/month
- Your churn rate is 5% (or 0.05)
Formula:
CLV = Monthly revenue per customer ÷ Churn rate
CLV = $99 ÷ 0.05 = $1,980
STEP 2: Set a target return on ad spend (ROAS)
Once you know your Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), the next step is to decide how much return you want from your advertising spend. A common goal in SaaS is a 200% return, which means you want to make $2 for every $1 you spend.
Example:
- CLV = $1,980 (based on $99/month and 5% churn)
- Target ROAS = 200%= 200/100= 2
Formula:
Target CPA = CLV ÷ Target ROAS
Target CPA = $1,980 ÷ 2 = $990
This means you shouldn’t spend more than $990 to acquire one paying customer.
STEP 3: Set Your Monthly Customer Goal
Decide how many customers you want to acquire through PPC each month.
Let’s say your goal is 5 new customers per month.
Formula:
Ad Budget = Target CPA × Number of Customers
= $990 × 5 = $4,950
$4,950 is how much you should budget monthly to hit your growth target at a 200% return.
STEP 4: Estimate Your Funnel Conversion Rates
To figure out how many demos and clicks you’ll need, you need two key conversion rates:
- Demo-to-customer rate — how many demos turn into paying customers
- Visitor-to-demo rate — how many website visitors book a demo
For this example, we’ll use the following estimated rates:
- Demo-to-customer conversion rate: 25% (1 in 4 demos becomes a customer)
- Visitor-to-demo conversion rate: 3% (3 out of 100 visitors book a demo)
These are placeholder numbers just to show you how the math works.
In real life, you should use your own data from past campaigns or CRM reports if you have it. If you’re just starting out, look for SaaS industry benchmarks from trusted sources like ProfitWell, HubSpot, or FirstPageSaaS to get a reliable estimate for your niche.
STEP 5: Calculate how many demos you need
Formula:
Demos = Customers ÷ Demo-to-Customer Conversion Rate
= 5 ÷ 0.25 = 20 demos
You’ll need 20 qualified demos to close 5 deals.
STEP 6: Calculate How Many Clicks You Need
Formula:
Clicks = Demos ÷ Visitor-to-Demo Rate
= 20 ÷ 0.03 = 667 clicks
You’ll need around 667 high-intent visitors to your site or landing page to generate 20 demos.
STEP 7: Estimate your target Cost Per Click (CPC)
Finally, use your total monthly budget and number of needed clicks to find your ideal CPC.
Formula:
CPC = Ad Budget ÷ Clicks
= $4,950 ÷ 667 = $7.42 per click
So if your average CPC stays below $7.42, your funnel should deliver a 200% return.
Simple as that.
That’s it. You’re no longer guessing. You now have a well-calculated strategy you can use to set up your campaign for success. Of course, in the real world, your conversion rates and cost per click will vary.
If your conversion rates increase, you can afford to pay more per click to compete for more traffic.If your cost per click goes down, you may be able to get more deals from the same budget.
Let’s take a look at another example. Imagine you are a software company that creates visual proposals. You know your average CLV is $200, and your conversion rate to subscribers is 2%.
As this above table shows you, to stay profitable, you shouldn’t pay more than $2 per click to get this return on your investment.
In reality, CPC and conversion rates will vary based on how your campaigns are set up.
Even a basic table like this helps you understand what’s working and where to adjust.
If your CPC rises to $3, your actual conversion rates are likely lower than estimated. You might still land one deal at 135% ROI and break even, or come close.
Related reading: Google Ads for SaaS | Your Guide to Boost ROI
5. The Challenge: Setting Budgets Too Low for Competitive Markets
Let’s say you want to target “sales CRM” keywords and you set up a campaign budget for $15 a day.
What happens next?
In this market, a single click can cost anywhere from $9 to $100.
When someone clicks your ad, you might pay around $10 on average. Your budget will be exhausted in just a couple of clicks.
- The algorithm won’t learn properly if it doesn’t get enough quality clicks.
- Your competitors will outbid you, regardless of how strong your ad is.
- You will not even get the required amount of impressions.
The Solution: Consider the Higher Payoff of Expensive Keywords
You need to research the market carefully. Often, the cost per click is high because the market is hot. If someone pays for a year, the average CLV for a sales CRM tool ranges from $2,000 to over $10,000.
If you optimize your campaigns properly, paying more per click to attract high-CLV leads can justify the investment.
A $15-per-day budget adds up to $450 a month, which usually isn’t enough to bring in leads in a competitive space. But if your budget matches what the market demands, you’ll have a much better shot at reaching the right people and getting real results.
Summing Up the SaaS PPC Effectiveness for Your Software
Running PPC for SaaS is a bit like fishing. If you drop your bait where no one’s biting, you go home empty-handed.
It’s not about casting (bidding) wide, it’s about casting smart. The real key to SaaS PPC strategy success is knowing where your buyers are at each stage of their journey, and showing up with the exact hook they’re ready to pay for.
At Camel Digital, we don’t want you to waste your budget on cold clicks or mismatched messaging. We build a B2B PPC SaaS strategy with precise targeting, funnel-aware ad copy, and landing pages so you get a fair payoff for your ad spend.