How to Build a SaaS PPC Strategy That Drives Leads and Boosts Subscriptions

If you’re in the SaaS industry, you just have to stand out.

With so many SaaS offerings flooding your target audience’s feeds, taking proactive measures lets you get noticed by your potential customers. And that’s where SaaS PPC, or pay-per-click advertising, comes in.

This ad tactic takes you directly to the top of search engine results pages (SERPs) whenever your target audience searches for terms related to your business. By creating hyper-targeted ads, you can reach the right people at the right time, drive leads, and get more paid subscribers contributing to your MRR. 

That’s what we call the PPC magic!

Our team at Camel Digital, a specialized SaaS PPC agency, has collected every lesson learned through our five years of experience. With millions of PPC ad spend and tens of tested PPC tactics, we’re here to help you nail the PPC for your SaaS business.

This guide will walk you through:

• SaaS PPC definition, basics, and benefits
• The biggest challenges SaaS businesses meet when running PPC campaigns
• How to create a winning SaaS PPC campaign
• Things to go for and avoid while creating a SaaS PPC campaign
• Tips and tricks to optimize your SaaS PPC strategy for maximum results

Basics for SaaS PPC

Can you recall searching for something on Google and noticing the first few results with the word “ad” in the corner? That’s PPC advertising.

The PPC for SaaS includes designing ads for your target audience for the target search queries they use to find businesses like yours. It’s a form of paid search engine marketing (SEM) that allows you to buy visits instead of “earning” them organically.

You’ll buy ad space on the SERP with a SaaS PPC. Your ad will be displayed on the first page of results as one of the top three or four in the search engine and you’ll be charged every time someone clicks on your ad.

Related reading: Digital Advertising for SaaS: All You Need to Grow in 2024

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.

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

Companies advertise with different strategies and get different results, but what will work for your software? Below, we have outlined four PPC tactics for SaaS companies that worked in 94% of cases.

1. Bottom Funnel: Bidding On High Intent Keywords

Let’s start by reaping the lowest-hanging fruits first. At this stage, people know what they want and they are actively looking for a solution you provide. By targeting high-intent keywords, you are literally putting your ads in front of your potential customers at the right time and place.

For example, bidding for these keywords can provide you with high conversions.

• Review management software
• Sales CRM with email automation 
• Interactive presentation tool
• Employee engagement solution

How to Find High-Intent Keywords?

Search for keywords ending with “software,” “platform,” “tool,” “solution,” and “app” in Google Keyword Planner.

You can also try other relevant keywords ending with “maker,” “creator,” “builder,” and “generator.”

Usually, conversion rates of these keywords are higher when people are looking to buy a solution. That’s because statistics show that when people type in a solution, platform, or similar term, they most probably want to get something to use soon.

Best Practices for Targeting High-Intent Keywords

• Structure keywords into ad groups by topics; don’t put different keywords on one plate.
• Use the same exact and broad match keywords under one ad group to improve machine learning capabilities
• Have a very strong landing page optimized for conversions and your target keywords. Keywords at the bottom of the funnel can get very competitive and expensive. Higher conversion rates can help sustain the cost. 
• Have a very targeted ad copy; use value propositions and features of your product in the ad and the landing page your ad leads to.

Optimize your campaign for conversions by setting up conversion tracking and using it to optimize bids. This allows you to focus on keywords driving conversions rather than just clicks.

2. Bidding on Competitor Keywords

People looking for competitor brand names are usually aware of the solution and are at the bottom of the funnel. Consider this audience an opportunity to present your product as a better alternative or complementary solution.

• If people are looking for things like competitor pricing and reviews, that means they are close to making a decision and they are researching. 
• If they are looking for “competitor alternatives,” they clearly show an intent to find an alternative solution.
• They can be users of competitor products when they are just googling for competitor brand names.

All of these audiences are good choices to bid on competitor keywords.

Create competitor comparison pages showing that you are a better alternative. There are three benefits to doing this: 

1. Your conversion rates will be higher because you are showing what people are looking for.
2. You will be more relevant for Google and your quality scores might get higher (reducing your CPC).
3. You get a unique chance to explain that you have more features and why your product is a better alternative. 

Best Practices to Create Competitor Comparison Pages

• Say that you are the alternative to your competitor in the information above the fold. Use a neutral tone to match the intent of the user (for example, “Looking for an alternative to X? Our product offers these benefits…”)
• In the description, show why people should switch to your tool from your competitor.

• Display social proof to gain more credibility (independent reviews from platforms like G2, Capterra, and even Google reviews will do the job).

• Put a feature comparison table, saying that you have more features than your competitors.

• Place at least three value propositions—why are you better than your competitors?

3. Retargeting Bottom of the Funnel Users With Search (RLSA)

People who have already visited your website are still googling the same keywords, which means they are comparing solutions and clearly are in the shopping mode. They fall in the consideration stage of your buying funnel. 

So, what should you do now?

Because people are in the buying mode, you can afford to pay a higher price per click to win this click back.

Keywords You Should Use in RLSA Campaigns

• Competitor brand names. If someone has visited your website and is googling for a competitor brand, that indicates that this person is in the active consideration stage. You need to put your ad in front of these people. 
• High intent keywords. If a person visited your website and is looking for the same keywords, they are researching the market. Make sure your ad is there. 
• Medium intent keywords. These keywords are higher in volume; you have more chances to be in front of someone who has visited your page. 

See the examples of each type of keywords below:

Audiences to Retarget With RLSA: 

• Your website visitors in the past 30 or 60 days. 

• People who watched at least 30 seconds of your YouTube video (that signals they are aware of your brand and are actively looking for a solution).

Best Practices of RLSA

1. Use only broad-match keywords. Because your audience is limited and people tend to search for the same things in many different ways, make sure you put your ad in front of them when they are actively researching. 
2. Use more purchase-driven ad copy. Don’t be afraid to include your pricing and features in the ad copy.
3. Make your ad copy different from regular high-intent search campaigns. For example, use stronger messaging or a call to action to entice your audience to click and convert.
4. Exclude your existing customers. Make sure you won’t be bidding for your existing customers. 

4. Retargeting People in the Middle of Your Funnel

The majority of your website visitors will not convert after their first visit. You need to retarget them to bring them back and make them reconsider your product. 

The key point here is that if someone has visited your website, they have some interest in your or related products. However, they need to compare alternatives and make sure that investing in your tool is financially beneficial for them before they decide to subscribe.

If you are a B2B SaaS product, the decision-making process in this field is very long. When you are advertising at the bottom of the funnel, you reach around 5% to 10% of the people in the market. 

But how can you reach more of your ideal customers and engage them in your buying funnel? You should apply retargeting. 

If someone visited your blog, watched a video, checked your webinar and so on, you need to retarget these people accordingly. 

Here are the key approaches that work.

Case 1: Someone has visited your page from a…

• Blog
• YouTube video
• Social media
• Google display campaign

That means these people are in the awareness stage, and you need to move them lower through your buying funnel. Offer these people to download a really valuable lead magnet like an ebook, checklist or whitepaper—something that will help them solve problems and advance through their journey.

Case 2: When someone downloads your lead magnet…

• Enroll a prospect into your buying funnel and send emails to nurture them further so they can get on a demo
• You can ask for a demo on a thank you page

Case 3: If someone has visited one of these pages on your website…

• Product pages
• Pricing page
• Case studies
• Customer testimonials
• Visited multiple pages

That indicates that this person is lower in your buying funnel and perhaps requires more information about your software. You should retarget these people using Google Display Network or social media to book them for a demo call or make them sign up for your tool. 

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 fully 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 often came to us at Camel Digital, asking why their PPC campaigns weren’t achieving the expected results. After analyzing their campaigns, we noticed some common mistakes many SaaS companies make when running PPC ads.

We share those here to help you avoid them beforehand.

1. Campaigns Are Not 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 high traffic, but is it what the advertiser wanted? Probably not.

People were looking for ChatGPT or an image or photo generator, but they saw an ad and landing page about AI copywriting. 

That is a different traffic, and conversion rates in this case will be 0%.

How to Structure Campaigns Correctly?

Keywords should always be grouped by relevant topics in their ad groups. Each ad group should have a relevant ad and landing page to ensure that you stay relevant to what people are looking for. 

In this example, keywords should 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. Ad headlines and descriptions show what political candidates care the most: “Remind Voters to Vote.”

And, of course, the landing page also aligns with what political candidates are searching for.

2. 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?

1. 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.
2. 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? Correct: it will charge you more.

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 3500 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 got 3353 impressions per week and scored the most of the conversions. The machine learning algorithm works best when you can get more impressions. However, you cannot get more impressions by targeting too narrowly.

Let’s help you with the right targeting based on more than five years of experience and expertise.

3. Optimizing for Bottom Funnel Too Quickly

Pretty similar story here. Chasing for quick conversions can leave you with a handful of “almost-converting” customers who could become real buyers with some more nurturing.

So what’s your no-hurry tactic that can get you long-term, loyal customers?

We highly recommend concentrating on engagement first and conversions later.

1. Competition at the bottom of the funnel is fierce. When your first ad campaign is directed to the bottom of the funnel, you compete with all other companies targeting those ready-to-buy customers. If you’re in a low-competition niche, go on. But if you’re in a high-competition niche, your major competitors will outspend you, and there is a low chance your ad will be seen.
2. Algorithms need time to learn how to deliver your ads for the best results. If you go straight to bottom-of-the-funnel targeting, there’s not enough data for algorithms to optimize and show your ad to people with high purchase intent. Algorithms need to study the behavior of your potential customers and learn what makes good clicks. So, it’s better to start broad and let algorithms study the audience first.

Lastly, successful ad campaigns build relationships, and only then do they look for sales. People need to know and trust your brand before they are ready to purchase. If you start with bottom-of-the-funnel targeting, these essential elements of building customer relationships may be missed. The result may be conversions that are not as meaningful or long-lasting.

4. Skipping Basic Calculations

Folks, let’s make this clear.

SaaS PPC is not an independent expense that you should cut or boost based on convenience. PPC for SaaS is an investment that, if approached right, can have predictable and measurable ROI.

So, when you allocate a 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 needed conversions.

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 break this down into simpler terms.

Let’s say that you want to promote a review management tool, sell a $99-per-month plan, your churn is 5%, and your customers renew for two years on average. Your average LTV is around $1,980.

How many deals per month do you want?

Let’s say five.

Now, assuming you want a 200% return on your ad spend…

That means you must acquire one paid customer for less than $990.

How many demos do you need to close one deal?

Maybe one out of four. Perfect. Your demo-to-sales conversion rate is 25%.

What is the average conversion from a visitor to a demo?

Maybe 3%. Good. You are halfway there.

Calculate your ad budget:

• 5 deals x target CPA ($990) = $4950

To get five deals, you need:

• 20 demos (5 deals / 25%)

How many clicks do you need on average?

• 20 demos / 3% (visitor-to-demo conversion rate) = 667 clicks

Calculate your cost per click:

• Total budget ($4950) / 667 clicks = $7.42 per click

Simple as that!

That’s it. Now, you are not guessing anymore. You have a well-calculated strategy, so set 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 can get more deals and so on. Let’s take a look at another example. Imagine you are a software company that creates visual proposals. You know that your average LTV is 200, and your conversion rate to subscribers is 2%.

So, this table explains that you should not pay more than $2 per click to get this return on your investment.

In real life, cost per click and conversion rates will vary depending on your campaign settings. Just having this table will help you understand which direction to take. If you are getting $3 per click in the real market situation, your conversion rates are lower. Perhaps you can get one deal at 135% ROI ( and still not lose money).

Related reading: Google Ads for SaaS | Your Guide to Boost ROI

5. 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 is going to happen? In this market, the click can cost from $9 to even $100. Let’s say someone clicks on your ad; on average, you pay $10 per click. Your budget will be exhausted in just a couple of clicks.

• Your machine learning will just not work—not enough good clicks.
• You will not even get the required amount of impressions.
• Competitors will outbid you no matter how good your ad.

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 LTV of a sales CRM software is from $2,000 to $10,000 or even more. 

If you optimize your campaigns properly, paying more per click and getting higher LTV leads will pay off your investment. 

If you leave campaigns just for $15 per day for a month, you will spend $450 per month and will most likely get no leads. Spending according to the market, at least, will increase your chances of getting a lead.

The Most Effective SaaS PPC Optimization Tactics We Use for Our Clients

At Camel Digital, a SaaS PPC agency, our goal is to attract the highest-paying subscribers and qualified leads without skyrocketing costs. To do this, we’ve heavily invested in testing and optimizing different approaches for SaaS PPC and have lost significant sums of money by targeting the wrong audience, bidding on the wrong keywords, or using incorrect ad copies.

Through this trial-and-error process, we’ve learned what works best for different stages of a SaaS buying funnel. Here’s what our journey has taught us about the most effective PPC optimization tactics for SaaS companies:

1. We Structure Campaigns for Relevance and Better Machine Learning

The three golden rules we follow while structuring PPC for SaaS are the following:

1. Always group keywords by related topics using ad groups. This will make sure that your ad copy matches what users are searching for and that your landing page shows exactly what they are looking for. 
2. Try to aim for 3500 impressions per ad group per week. Our experience says that the more impressions there are per ad group, the more conversions you’re gonna have. Combining multiple match types of your keywords under one ad group will make sure you have more impressions.
3. Use exact, phrase, and broad match variations of your keywords in one ad group. There is no need to create multiple ad groups for each keyword match type because the search terms for your keyword variations will mostly be the same. So it is better to keep everything under one roof.

2. We Optimize Ads for Higher CTR

CTR, or click-through rate, is the percentage of people who click on your ad out of the total number of people who have seen it. While you may think that spending more on ads (which, all else equal, should guarantee you good ad positions in the SERP) will get you more clicks, the reality is a bit reversed.

If you want better positions in the search results page, you should first strive for a higher CTR. That’s because Google is a searcher’s advocate. Everything it does is focused on improving its sers’ user experience.

And before it grants you the precious high ad position, it “tests” your ad quality by looking at its CTR. If you’re having clicks, then great! Google gives you more impressions and weighs them higher for a better user experience.

However, if few people click on your ad, this is a sign that your ad may not be relevant or appealing to users, and therefore, Google will limit its visibility to prevent harm to their browsing experience.

Translating the above to numbers, Google grants you a Quality Score, which determines how well your ads will perform.

• 60% of the Quality Score depends on the CTR.
• For every position increase you seek, you need to boost your CTR by 3%.
• And with every percentage drop in CTR, your ad positions decline.

What Comes With Good CTR?

The first part of the chain of desirable events is easy to grasp: higher CTR leads to better ad positions.

The higher your ad position is, the more clicks you’re likely to get.

More clicks (almost always) equals more conversions, which means Google sees your page as more relevant to a user’s search query.

And with relevance comes that sweet, sweet Quality Score. With a higher Quality Score, you receive a Lower Cost-per-Click (CPC)

When your ad has a high CTR and good ad positions, it means it is performing well in the auction process. This leads to lower costs per click, as Google rewards advertisers who provide valuable and relevant content for users.

So, when your CTR is high, you get better chances to attract quality traffic with your SaaS PPC campaigns.

Is it worth digging deeper into how the magic of CTR works?

3 Basic Technical Tips to Improve the Click-Through Rate (CTR)

• Include the target keyword in your headline and description. People are looking for a solution, and it’s logical that they will click if they see what they are looking for. If someone is searching for a sales CRM, most likely, you will click on an ad saying #1 CRM Software For Sales Teams—because it is relevant. That will increase CTR and ad relevance, which is another important metric of the quality score. 
• Structure your keywords by ad groups correctly. That way, you will make sure your ad is relevant to what users are searching for. We’ve discussed this in more detail above and it may be a good idea to recheck your ad groups if you’re experiencing low CTR.
• Include multiple responsive search ads in an ad group to test which ad works better. No mistake is costlier than using a single ad. It’s the most basic and easy-to-overlook mistake in SaaS PPC marketing. There is no perfect ad, so why not create several to test them out? After you have enough data, pause the underperformers and let your winners run. Don’t save on testing ad campaigns. Otherwise, you’ll end up paying a lot more for unoptimized ads.

The Most Successful Ad Copy Tips From Our Clients’ Experience

With a copy of your ad directly impacting your CTR, here are the golden tips that we have learned from our client’s experiences with SaaS PPC campaigns

1. Handle potential objections your users might have. Imagine your landing page visitor asking, “Why shouldn’t I buy this tool?” What would your answer be? Include that answer in your ad copy! For example, if the objection is “It’s too difficult to use new software, and I have to add my credit card” use the ad copy formula “Your brand + Your Keyword – It’s Easy. Free.”
2. Use the number of features in your headlines. Users are very likely to compare your offer with those of competitors. Help them and show what you have upfront. For example, if you’re in the whitepapers industry and know the race is for who has more whitepapers, use the ad formula “Your solution or keyword – How many features do you have?” The headline “Visually Appealing Whitepapers – 100+ White Paper Templates” might work perfectly here.
3. Focus on the end goal of your customers; your potential users need to solve a problem. Make them feel what they can achieve with your tool. The ad formula of “Your solution – What can they achieve with your tool” is the very best you can use. For example, if your target customers are busy entrepreneurs who struggle with productivity, say this upfront: Boost your productivity today with our time management tool! Sign up now!
4. Use main value propositions in the ad copy. The keyphrase here is the “main”. Your software may have multiple benefits and features, but what is the ultimate selling point? Focus on that in your ad copy. For example, if your software helps businesses save time and increase efficiency, use the ad formula “Save Time & Boost Efficiency – Your Keyword.”
5. Lastly, show them why they are better than competitors and what they have better than them. No modesty here. You go straight to the point and show your potential customers why they should choose you over others. Don’t be shy about writing with “[brand name] alternative: 3 things we do better than [competitor name].”

3. We Use Negative Keywords to Prevent Wasted Ad Spend

The SaaS PPC is all about making Google show you the right keywords in front of the right audience.

But to make this happen, you need to work on a crucial nuance: tell Google where it shouldn’t show you!

Using negative keywords includes excluding the search terms you don’t want your ad to appear for. This way, you prevent wasted ad spend on irrelevant clicks and focus your budget on the most qualified leads.

Here are the best tips for using negative keywords in your SaaS PPC campaigns.

• Try to exclude completely irrelevant keywords as a broad match. You never need to appear for a search query like “free software” if you offer a paid solution. That’s why excluding the term “free” as a broad match from your campaign would be beneficial.
• Don’t overoptimize. Don’t exclude similar phrases to your keywords because you will be limiting your number of impressions, and Google will just increase your costs. We mean, don’t get too critical with negative keywords. There is no need to exclude “affordable” if you sell premium software, but it’s not on the highest end of the market.
• Don’t exclude anything that can block your keyword. If you are invoicing software and you get a search term for “contact center software” – don’t exclude the “software” keyword because your desired search term can appear as “billing software” or “invoicing software.”

How to Exclude Negative Keywords Correctly

Imagine that you want to sell your CRM software to sales teams and sales professionals. You want to target the “sales CRM software” keyword to put your ad in front of these people. 

When checking the search terms, you see that you are actually getting clicks from people looking for these things:

If you want to get sales teams looking for CRM software, you should exclude these words as the BROAD MATCH: 

• “Small business”—you want sales teams, not small companies. 
• “Individuals”—you want companies, not individual people.
• “Apps to start a business”—that is not a CRM.
• “TikTok”—that’s social media.
• We didn’t exclude the word “marketing” because you can get a search term like “sales CRM tool with marketing automation”, which is a good search term and leads to a conversion. Do not over-optimize!
• “Contact center “—that is a different product.
• “Affiliate,” “Invoice,” and “Quote”—these are not relevant to what your CRM software does.

After excluding irrelevant search terms and keywords, you will get higher-quality traffic that is going to convert better. 

If you over-optimize and exclude too many similar variations, your cost per click will increase significantly. Always maintain a healthy balance.

4. We Optimize Your SaaS PPC Landing Pages for Higher Conversion Rate

The higher the conversion rate on your landing page, the more conversions you can get for the same amount of money invested into your campaign. 

In very competitive B2B SaaS markets, conversion rates can make or break your campaign. To beat increasing competitive CPCs, you have to convert better. 

Let’s do a very simple calculation to better explain it. Let’s say you want to advertise a project management software. An average CPC is $10 and the average LTV is $1,000. 

• 100 people click on your ad, and only one of them becomes a paying customer. Your conversion rate is 1%. That means you will pay $10×100 = $1,000 to acquire one paid customer. Because your LTV is $1,000 – you will get your money back over time. 
• Let’s imagine your conversion rate is 2%. You need only 50 clicks to get one paid customer: $10×50 = $500 per customer. You spend $500 and get $1,000. That’s profit. 
• But what if your conversion rate is 3%? You need around 33 clicks. $10×33 = $333 per one paid customer. That’s 300% ROAS. 

Very often, B2B SaaS is very competitive. You can even pay $30 per click and more for high-ticket products. How do we sustain such big costs? With a good conversion rate and strong SaaS RoAS!

Best Practices for Optimizing Your Landing Page for Conversions

We always recommend creating a separate conversion focused landing page for PPC purposes. Most likely, your product pages are optimized for SEO. In PPC, we want to be talking straight to the point and use a shorter message without distractions. 

Remove the Site Navigation and All Possible Distractions.

Your goal is to convert your visitor to a customer, demo, sign up, or trial. Site navigation will just distract a user from the goal you want him to make. If you paid for this click, let’s give it the highest chance to succeed. 

Use the Keyword and Core Value Proposition In Your Headline

If a user is looking for a “review management tool,” they should land on a page talking about how to get and manage reviews. That is not only gonna be relevant to the user, but also increase your quality scores. 

Get a Simple and Clear Description

The description should explain what people can get or solve from using your tool. Simple and clear. 

Example 1: Review management tool

Example 2: CRM and marketing automation tool

Add Social Proof to Increase Credibility

Add your most popular client logos or reviews from independent SaaS review websites like G2 and Capterra. Even Google reviews will do the job—as long as they are real. 

Add Three or Four of the Most Important Value Propositions

What are the biggest problems and pain points your product can solve? What can your customers get from using your tool? Use your biggest value propositions in a text-image-image-text format ( like a chess board ). 

Example 1: Review management

• More reviews, more leads, more business—that clearly illustrates what is the value of using a review management tool
• Manage and respond to all reviews in one place—that means people literally can do everything in one tool. 

Example 3: CRM and marketing automation software

• Look at the description part. It describes exactly what customers can do with this tool
• Email and SMS marketing automation – that is one of the most important features people need in their CRMs

Add a Call to Action After Each Block

You want your visitors to reach the end goal. Give them the options. Add a call to action after each block with an action they need to complete. 

List Your Most Important Features at the End

What are the most important features you have? List six to eight features. What do people use the most? 

5. We Improve the Quality Score of Your Keywords

Ask us what’s the best long-term strategy to make the SaaS PPC campaign work. We’ll tell you to focus on the quality score of your keywords. It will bring your CPC down and conversions up.

Sounds like what you need? Here’s how it works.

What’s a Quality Score?

In simple terms, Quality Score is how well your ad matches the intent of a user’s search query. Google calculates it based on several factors.

• Expected click-through rate: Google will check how likely your ad will be clicked when shown for a particular keyword. It will measure this metric against what is considered similar ads.
• Ad relevance: People don’t like clicking on the ad expecting one thing and ending up on some irrelevant page. Google doesn’t like to see this happening in its area, either. So it will check how well your ad represents the product or service offered and how the landing page your ad takes to matches the ad.
• Landing Page Experience: Google will check how user-friendly and relevant your landing page is. If it’s slow, has a lot of pop-ups or ads, and doesn’t offer what people are looking for, you’ll get penalized with a low-quality score.

Where Does Quality Score Help You?

AdRanks determines where your ad appears with the AdWords formula, where a lot depends on your Quality Score. The AdRank formula is the following:

Ad Rank = CPC Bid x Quality Score

When users type in a query, Google checks on all the advertisers currently bidding on the searched keywords. Then, it uses the above formula to decide where to rank each ad.

If you have a high Quality Score, you’ll need less CPC bid to appear higher in the search results. This will lower your ad’s cost per click and cost per conversion and ultimately increase your return on investment.Meanwhile, if your Quality Score is low, you’ll need to compensate with a higher CPC bid to appear higher in the search results. This could lead to spending more money on advertising while still receiving fewer clicks and conversions compared to those with a higher Quality Score.

How Can Ad Relevance Be Improved? 

We won’t get tired of saying that you should group keywords into ad groups by topics. For example, if you are a review management software, then keywords like “review management software,” “review management,” “manage online reviews,” and “get more online reviews” are good to group together.

Then, your ad should include these keywords in your headlines and descriptions. That will make sure your ad is relevant to what your customers are searching for.

If they need review management, your ad will include “review management tool” in your headlines and descriptions.

In this example, people are looking for a review management tool. They got this ad, which clearly says that you have what they are looking for and that your ad is automatically relevant. Your quality score goes up. 

How Can CTR Be Improved? 

We’ve talked about this a bit in the previous sections, and here’s a quicker rundown. 

• If your ads are relevant to what users are looking for, you’ll automatically have a higher CTR. Knowing your audience inside out is your treasure in this case.
• An attractive and unique ad copy, something that makes users curious, interested or provokes them to take action will surely get a higher CTR. 
• Lastly, ads that have your MAIN value propositions in the headline get a higher CTR. People don’t have much time to waste figuring out what they can get with your tool. It’s in your best interests to convey that message as soon as possible. 

How Can Landing Page Experience Be Improved

Now, let’s take a closer look at how you can improve your landing page experience. This is an important aspect to consider because it directly affects your quality score and, ultimately, the success of your ad campaign.

Here are some ways you can improve your landing page experience:

• Make sure your landing page is relevant to your ad copy. If a user clicks on an ad that promises a certain product or service, they should be directed to a landing page that clearly features that product or service. This will ensure relevance, reduce bounce rates and increase conversion rates.
• Design a visually appealing and user-friendly landing page. Your landing page should be easy to navigate and aesthetically pleasing so that users are more likely to stay and explore your site. This includes having a clean layout, clear calls to action, and high-quality images.
• Optimize your landing page for mobile devices. With the increasing use of smartphones, it’s ensuring that your landing page is optimized for mobile viewing is important. This means having a responsive design and fast loading times.
• Use trust signals on your landing page. Trust signals such as customer reviews, ratings, and security badges can greatly improve the credibility of your landing page and make users feel more confident in making a purchase.
• Test and refine your landing page. Continuously monitor its performance and make changes based on user behavior and feedback. This could include A/B testing different elements to see what works best for your target audience.
• Mention the target keyword in the headline and description or at least write relevant headlines and descriptions of what people are searching for. 
• Ensure the landing page answers the user’s questions, problems, and pain points they are searching for. 
• Mention relevant information to your keywords further down on the page in headlines and paragraphs. 

Here’s an example of a landing page for the keyword “text messaging software for political candidates.”

Summing Up the SaaS PPC Effectiveness for Your Software

SaaS PPC saves you time, money and effort for your software marketing campaigns.

You pay for the traffic you want, drive users to your landing page, and convert them into customers.

To succeed in this simple chain of events, you need highly technical and professional experience in how Google Adwords and PPC campaigns operate. Being one of the best ad platforms in the world, Google allows you to have plenty of leverage over your business.

The question is: are you able to handle all these technicalities to make the best out of it?

Camel Digital is a highly special SaaS PPC agency with a 5-year hands-on experience in PPC marketing campaigns.

We are able to drive the quality traffic to your website with reasonable cost and high conversion rate because we’ve invested huge money in learning how best to use Google Ads.

With millions spent on testing and refining, we’ve gained a better understanding of how to leverage Google AdWords for the best results. Contact us if you want to boost subscribers to your SaaS within a reasonable time frame and budget.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is PPC in SaaS?

PPC (Pay-Per-Click) in SaaS refers to a digital marketing strategy where SaaS companies pay for ads that drive traffic to their website or product, charging them each time a user clicks on an ad. It’s an effective way for SaaS businesses to generate leads and drive conversions by targeting specific keywords and audiences.

What is SaaS in digital marketing?

SaaS (Software as a Service) in digital marketing is a business model where software is delivered online, often through a subscription. Companies use digital marketing strategies like PPC, SEO, and content marketing to promote these software solutions and gain new customers.