The greatest media buying strategy for B2B SaaS marketers
This strategy is not ideal for all businesses.
It is designed for aggressive B2B SaaS marketers who want to scale fast and large.
By aggressive, I do not mean unethical or illegal either.
I just mean companies with proven software offers and the cajones to play big.
Overview
There are new ways to squeeze out more ROI.
Our digital media buying strategy for B2B SaaS marketers is designed to explode your number of new trials, demos and enterprise leads and leverage new cutting edge digital advertising options for unheard of ROI.
The strategy is built around solid marketing fundamentals, leveraging your highest converting marketing assets to move prospects from the top of your funnel to the bottom of your funnel faster and more cost efficiently.
It starts with something proven to work over and over again for B2B SaaS companies: Branded content [BC]. By combining a single piece of well-researched, data-backed content with conversion copywriting you can be confident that your targeted cold traffic [CT] will convert into signups.
Next is the hottest new trend in retargeting: Content retargeting [RMG]. By using Google Remarketing lists you can use Google remarketing ads to remarket your most engaged website visitors with relevant top-of-funnel [TOFU] lead assets.
We’re seeing massive drops in CPAs from organic blog traffic with remarketing ads going to TOFU lead asset landing pages (instead of a trial or demo) for complex enterprise software offers.
Use content retargeting as a way to recycle your bulk clicks into top of funnel leads if you have a proven marketing automation sequence to turn TOFU leads into new trials, demos and enterprise leads for your SaaS.
Finally, just like you would use your marketing automation sequence to push people through your sales funnel, if you have a large amount of people opt-ing in for your TOFU, you can use FB website custom audiences, FB lookalike audiences, Google remarketing audiences and Google similar audiences to push your visitors through the rest of your sales funnel (middle-of-funnel [MOFU] and bottom-of-funnel [BOFU]).
Proof
For the last two years we’ve worked with a handful of the top B2B SaaS companies. We’ve consulted on split tests, media buys, ad networks, audiences, and we’ve seen the results of those tests.
We also use competitive intelligence tools like AdBeat, iSpionage, SimilarWeb, BuzzSumo (etc) to analyze trends of leading B2B SaaS companies and their competitors.
This gives us a lot of data and a lot of experience to draw from.
Based on all of our experience and the data that we’ve seen, we believe this media buying strategy is the strongest digital advertising roll out strategy for aggressive B2B SaaS marketers.
If you’ve ever thought to yourself “Man I just wish I knew what works,” then this article is going to give you some of the biggest insights you’ve seen all year.
To make sure you don’t think I’m just making this up, below I’ve included screenshots showing results from applying this media buying framework to a B2B SaaS clients Google AdWords account…
First 90 Days SMB Demo Leads
Second 90 Days SMB Demo Leads
Did you notice that in the first 90 days leads more than doubled and cost per lead more than halved (while spending $5,000 less ad budget)?
Then in the second 90 days we were able to double the ad budget and scale the number of conversions proportionately.
Listen, I’m not making this stuff up. We have access to an overwhelming amount of data that shows this strategy is a collection of “cream of the crop” digital marketing strategies.
Just look at how the worlds largest B2B SaaS companies like Slack, HubSpot and Intercom grow. They lead with content.
Combine our media buying framework with high converting content and low cost retargeting, and you have a recipe for success.
The best part is, it doesn’t matter if you’re a one man shop or you have a team of internal media buyers, anyone can drive millions of clicks profitably with this strategy (providing you have a decent sales funnel).
Obviously, some customization might be needed based on individual needs, but we felt this is a good template for companies to start with.
Detailed Breakdown: SaaS DNA Profile
In this video I go over how to create a media plan that will be the foundation for your media buying campaign.
In the video above I use 5 contextual targeting options (Software, Celebrities, Blogs, Topics, Competitors). When selecting your own targeting, make sure to test as many of these targeting options as possible:
- Contextual
- Behavioural (eg: blog visitors > 45 secs)
- Curated (eg: all newsletter leads)
- Lookalike (eg: all newsletter leads lookalike)
- Placements (eg: Forbes, CNN, ESPN)
Detailed Breakdown: Hockey Stick Growth Accelerator
In this video I go over how to convert cold traffic into sales qualified leads.
In the video above I mention Google Display Network [GDN]. GDN is commonly used by top media buyers because it provides massive traffic at a great CPC with precise targeting options.
However remember this golden rule: this media buying framework can be applied to ANY ad network.
It’s not about which ad network is “the best for B2B SaaS”, it’s about which ad network will reach YOUR B2B SaaS audience at “the most cost efficient scale”.
Here are several ad networks you should be considering to get bulk clicks to your strategic content piece:
- Google Display Network
- Outbrain
- Taboola
- Revcontent
Detailed Breakdown: Lifetime Value Maximizer
In this video I go over how to track your sales for each marketing channel.
In the video above I show you the type of simple reporting you can get when you connect your advertising data to your customer revenue data, so you can see the true ROI of your media buying campaign.
Wrap Up
When we start a new media buying campaign at our agency for a SaaS client, one of our main goals is to hit a target CPA that we both agree on (so we are both clear on how our performance will be measured from the start).
Since B2B SaaS companies have a long lifetime customer value, they are often willing to spend a lot to acquire high quality leads.
Because of this, you will often see intense competition with $30+ clicks for high buy intent “software” keywords on Google.
But what if you’re not VC-backed, or you just want to acquire customers more cost efficiently than bidding on expensive Google keywords?
You need to use a proven media buying framework that will scale.
If the media buying framework I outlined looks overwhelming to you, or if you don’t know what ad networks are right for your B2B audience, or if you don’t have the time to learn how to use each of the different ad networks, then you should get our 1-on-1 consulting help.
Our agency has built repeatable, scalable B2B SaaS growth marketing campaigns through leveraging content. We can guide you through the compliance rules and help you scale the campaigns.
What you need…
- Proven/tested sales funnel that is capable of converting the highly targeted clicks we send into sales (Note: we do not work with newly built sales funnels)
- Tracking already set up — we recommend GTM to quickly roll-out tracking pixels across your whole site
- You must commit at least $25K/mo on ad spend and be willing to spend a lot more than that once your campaigns are dialed in
If this is you, for 1-on-1 marketing help click here 👈💰
For everyone else download our amazingly useful growth hacks spreadsheet.
