An unprecedented pivot to remote working took place last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, putting a spotlight on just how essential software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions can be. Not only did they ensure business as usual throughout this challenging past year for many companies, but their winning combination of innovation with usability, security, and cost benefits also made many SaaS solutions indispensable.
Source: Search Engine Journal
Adding this to the continued shift from on-premises license software, SaaS holds the largest market segment for cloud services and is forecast to grow to a whopping 140.6 billion by 2022.
Galactic Fed understands the unique needs of SaaS companies when it comes to paid media, gained from our partnerships with several SaaS companies over the years. As the install number of cloud workloads continues to grow rapidly (reaching 380 million in 2021!), the focus remains on capturing new customers’ attention.
What’s the secret to reaching new SaaS customers through paid media? It’s not so much a secret but a proven data-driven strategy. We’re sharing our five top tips for taking your SaaS paid media strategy to the next level. From creating fresh content to making your demo irresistible, read on to learn our tried and tested ways to reach many more potential customers through pay-per-click (PPC) ads as a SaaS company.
Oh, and before diving into our tips, you may want to check out our overview of B2B SaaS content marketing.
Now, let’s get started!
Go after problem keywords
Source: Giphy
Taking a problem-solving approach to what keywords you target in your paid media strategy can help you rise above the rest in the eyes of potential customers online.
When performing keyword research, pay close attention to issues your customers face and the solution your SaaS software provides to each problem.
Perhaps your customers are struggling to collect, track and store compliance documents from their vendors. In this instance, you could consider keywords such as “vendor compliance guide” or “manage vendor compliance.”
Research what main problems your potential customers face, what keywords they would likely use to search when it comes to their problem, and target those keywords in your paid media strategy. Your product or solution should present as a solution to their pain point in the most transparent and direct way possible.
Create fresh and useful content
Existing fresh, relevant, and valuable content is so important and should be at the center of any paid media strategy. Before spending a cent on PPC ads, you need to ensure there is content on your site that’s fresh and adds value to the customer.
Each paid ad you place will take potential customers to a landing page on your website, most likely, so each of those pages needs to be as helpful as possible to people while staying relevant to the copy included in your ads.
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Make your demo irresistible
There’s a good chance your call to action (CTA) of asking a customer to request a demo of your product or software could be improved upon when it comes time to include it in a PPC ad.
First things first, review the language of your demo CTA. Every CTA on your site should:
- Tell customers why they should request a demo,
- How to do it, and
- Weave in your brand’s voice.
The top-performing CTAs are also concise – which can be no easy feat when trying to hit all of the marks of a meaningful CTA within a paid search ad.
Be transparent about the steps involved in requesting a demo. Is your demo live? Is it free?
You’ll most likely be collecting customer data to fulfill a demo request, so make this journey as simple and straightforward as possible and make sure you continue to frame the demo as a solution to your customer’s main pain points. Make it crystal clear which fields are required, for example, like name and email. Think about including any details on the length of the demo or timeframe in which they should expect to hear back from your SaaS business to set you apart from the competition and amplify your unique offering.
Use responsive display ads
No matter if you are offering live demos, freemium subscriptions, or free trials, you need more conversions to scale your SaaS. And as a SaaS business, you may be operating in a crowded space.
How can you create relevant ad experiences that cut through the noise and put you ahead of the competition while producing quality leads?
We are big advocates of data-driven digital marketing here at Galactic Fed, and that’s why we like responsive display ads. Using multivariate display ad testing, Google produces ad variants for you and tests them with various audiences.
Source: Google
You can provide up to 5 logos, five headlines, five images, and five descriptions for each responsive ad you deploy. Google shows your ad combining your assets in various ways, identifying the best performers from thousands of possible combinations of your ad. Your ad performance is optimized thanks to Google’s hard work.
This paid ad approach is particularly useful for SaaS companies looking to scale as it casts a wide net and engages new customers through responsive display ads across Google’s Display Network.
Remarket for the win
Our last tip, but by no means the least important tip, is about remarketing. Every SaaS digital marketing strategy can benefit from including a remarketing approach.
Why? Because SaaS companies can tend to have long sales funnels. A remarketing approach to your paid media strategy can be extremely powerful when converting customers or generating quality leads.
Remarketing allows you to effortlessly follow your site visitors who already had a peek at your product or software. Your ad will appear when a previous site visitor is surfing the web or searching out solutions to problems online. It’s a great way to remind past visitors of your solution and ensure they don’t forget about you, enticing them to return to take another look at your offering.
You can shape your ads to cater to your potential customers who may be further down the sales funnel. A consistent visual from your website may be just the ticket to refresh someone’s memory of your landing page.
Convert more customers for your SaaS business
It’s no surprise the SaaS market continues to grow at an accelerated pace, given the reliable, accessible, and cost-effective solutions they provide to companies.
When it comes to SaaS paid media, it’s all about solving customer pain points and articulating your unique offering through irresistible ads that speak to potential customers. Develop fresh and valuable content so that your paid ads take people to landing pages that are useful to them and perfectly meet their needs.
Be transparent and upfront about demos and free trials, and let Google do some of the heavy-lifting with responsive display ads.
Remarketing your ads can capture the attention of people who have already considered your software, addressing the longer-than-average sales funnel that SaaS companies can have.
\ Galactic Fed has years of experience when it comes to crafting effective paid search campaigns for SaaS businesses. Whether you’d like help with creating your marketing strategy, writing a high-converting landing page, or finessing your paid search ad copy, we’d love to help you scale your SaaS and reach more customers online. Contact us today and let us scale your SaaS business through data-driven paid media.
