4 new paid media channels I would use to grow Xero
Xero is a high-growth global SaaS company that sells accounting software. They leverage the power of accountants to refer between 6–31 customers to Xero depending on the country (see slide 16).
In Xero’s 2 most developed markets (Australia & New Zealand) >90% of Xero paid subscriptions come from their accounting partners (see slide 18).
According to Xero’s own estimates, they have only tapped into 30% of the total addressable market (TAM) in their most developed market (New Zealand), and <5% in their least developed market (North America).
In this article I’m going to demonstrate how I would use new paid media channels and strategies to drive more leads into the top of Xero’s accounting partner sales funnel in NZ, AUS, UK and USA.
Leveraging the partner channel has already been a proven winner for Xero, so the goal of these 4 strategies will be to:
- Move the Australia, UK and USA partner channel maturity from “Early” and “Developing” to “Developed” faster
- Increase Xero’s TAM % on a global scale
1) Leverage the Xero accountants partner list
I would get a complete email list of all Xero partners in every country. I would then upload it to Facebook to create 4 different custom audiences:
- New Zealand accounting partners
- Australia accounting partners
- United Kingdom accounting partners
- North America accounting partners
For each custom audience I would then create one Lookalike audience for each (I would start at a 1% lookalike audience, then scale up as I see results). This will allow Facebook to use their algorithm to target an audience of people who are the most similar to Xero accounting partners.
I would then use Facebook Lead Ads to advertise a TOFU (top of the funnel) lead magnet (eg: white paper, guide, video, webinar, etc) to them.
This would allow Xero to capture more accountants names and emails to put into their marketing automation, educate them through their XeroU and XeroTV training resources and nudge them towards becoming a partner.
2) Promote Xero to accountants across the web
I would create a Custom Affinity Audience inside the Google Display Network to create a targeted audience of accountants who have visited specific accounting blogs and industry publications.
I would then target this audience of accountants with display ads that go to a landing page with a TOFU lead magnet.
Like with paid social ads, people who see display ads won’t necessarily be interested in the Xero partner program just yet. That’s why I would use a lead magnet, instead of taking people to Xero’s partner program page.
3) Get in front of accountants in their inbox
I would take the list of accounting websites I identified above in strategy #2 and use domain placements to target Gmail ads to the email subscribers of those websites.
I would focus on using a TOFU lead magnet offer inside the email ads to educate and drive more accountants into the top of Xero’s accounting partner sales funnel.
I would use the subject line of the email to pre-qualify decision makers in accounting firms to open the email ad (eg: 5 services to grow your accounting practice). This will generate more qualified clicks and avoid wasting ad spend on accountants who don’t have clients.
4) Convert highly engaged accountants into the Xero Partner Program
I would make sure that Xero have Google, Facebook and Twitter PageView tracking pixels on every one of their partner pages.
These would include all their website URLs that start with:
- https://www.xero.com/us/partners/
- https://www.xero.com/us/accountant-bookkeeper-guides/
- https://www.xero.com/us/resources/accountant-bookkeeper-stories/
I would then create a Retargeting campaign based on the number of partner pages a website visitor has visited in the last 30 days.
If someone has viewed 3 or more pages in the last 30 days (and not signed up for the Xero Partner Program), I would retarget them with ads that go to Xero’s accountant case study pages:
Each of these pages have a call to action (CTA) in the middle of the case study page:
And also a CTA at the end of the case study page:
Both CTAs link to Xero’s Partner Program page, so they are the perfect landing pages to build trust, social proof and convert accountants into Xero partners.
If the person didn’t convert after reading the first case study, I would rotate the case study ads so the accountant would see the next case study.
This would give Xero a second chance to convert the accountant with a new case study. I’d continue to do that with all 12 of Xero’s evergreen case studies so accountants see new, fresh Xero case studies all the time, to keep the Xero brand top-of-mind with accountants who are aware about the Xero partner program, but haven’t committed to being a partner yet.
Conclusion
Today there are a lot of new media channels you can use as lead generating mechanisms to grow lead volume for your SaaS.
But too many subscribe to one lead gen model as the only model.
The reality is… there are many.
Xero is one of the best performing brands in the world that leverages their accountant partners to put viral and word of mouth to work in driving extraordinary marketing performance.
The strategies I’ve covered in this article all focus around adding gasoline to the amazing marketing platform Xero has already built, by using new media channels to leverage existing marketing assets.
Use the core ideas from these strategies and the marketing assets you have to craft your own lead gen model for your SaaS.
But remember the real value comes when you can identify the #1 customer acquisition driver in your SaaS (for Xero that is accountants) and come up with innovative solutions to create your own organic and viral growth loop around that #1 customer acquisition driver.
That is when your paid media spend will see compounding returns.
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If you’d like to see more new paid and organic media strategies that have driven millions of leads for my clients and the world’s fastest-growing SaaS companies, download this spreadsheet.
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