Behind Firefish Software’s Paid Media Strategy
Hey everyone 👋
I’m Campbell Nelson, Marketing Director at Firefish Software, a CRM designed for recruitment agencies.
Over the last 12-18 months, I’ve led Firefish Software’s transition from a traditional lead gen strategy to a demand gen approach, which has helped us significantly increase both pipeline and brand awareness.
I’ll be breaking down our entire paid media strategy & sharing my learnings below👇
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Background
Last year, we made the transition from lead gen to demand gen for the following reasons:
1. While we were generating a ton of MQLs, our lead to opportunity and opportunity to closed won conversion rates were poor. We hypothesised that by going ungated, we could build more trust and increase conversion rates.
2. New clients acquired through lead gen campaigns had a relatively low LTV and were problematic when it came to stickiness, which seemed to indicate a lack of brand affinity. By switching to a demand gen approach, we believed that we could solve this issue and increase retention further through the lifecycle.
3. In the CRM space, buying cycles are dictated by contract renewals which can sometimes run for up to 4 years, meaning that most prospects are out of market. By shifting to ungated content, our goal was to maximize distribution and increase long-term mental availability, which would be crucial for predictable growth.
4. When attending conferences and expos, a lot of prospects mentioned our blog but had no idea that we were a CRM software – this was indicative of a lack of product awareness. We decided that ungated content would be necessary to distribute our value propositions more widely and be in the consideration set when prospects entered the market.
So far, this shift has been highly successful. Since going ungated and removing lead gen forms, we’ve seen a 40% year-on-year increase in opportunities from direct and organic branded search channels. Further down the funnel, we’ve seen a 50% increase in closed-won revenue from branded organic search and each quarter we are seeing incremental improvements in our win rates from each demand focussed channel – all associated with increased awareness.
Our Strategy
Here’s the full breakdown of the paid media strategy that has led to our success👇
30% of our LinkedIn budget goes to content. These are typically playbooks and other resources that will help recruiters (key members of the buying committee) become better at their jobs. If everyone in the buying committee trusts us and has an awareness of our value, we know that they’ll champion us and push deals over the finish line.
50% of our budget goes to product ads, aimed at our key decision makers (C-suite, VPs, Directors). These ads are all related to our main value propositions, and they clearly articulate how we can solve their biggest problems.
By consistently highlighting these pain points, we know that we’ll be top of mind when decision-makers start actively searching for solutions.
Finally, the remaining 20% of our LinkedIn budget goes to social proof. We show these ads to both champions (recruiters) and decision-makers (VPs and execs) that have entered our remarketing audience, either by visiting our website or engaging with other ads in some capacity.
The goal of these ads is to continue to build trust and increase the likelihood of a conversion.
YouTube
While most of our spend happens on LinkedIn, we also run YouTube Ads to stay in front of prospects across multiple channels.
All of these ads clearly highlight our value propositions and show exactly how our product works.
To minimize wasted spend, we run these 30-second video ads to our warmest audiences:
1. Remarketing, staying in front of people who have already visited our site
2. Prospecting, targeting people who have searched our dream product-related keywords on Google (doing this via YouTube is great because we can get in front of high-quality prospects without paying Google’s insanely high CPCs)
Lessons Learned
By leading Firefish Software’s marketing and implementing this strategy, I’ve learned a lot of important lessons – here are the biggest ones:
1. It’s okay to make mistakes
You’re not going to get everything right the first time around. Sometimes your message won’t resonate and your ads will flop, and that’s okay. Marketing is all about failing, learning from the failures, and trying again.
2. Nail down your value proposition
This is something that so many B2B SaaS companies get wrong 😢
In the early days, we were testing a lot of different messages in our ads, but we hadn’t clearly outlined our value proposition or the problems we were solving with our product.
Now that we’ve clearly outlined our core value props, all our ads highlight them in some capacity. Also, most of our content now relates to these value props as well, so we can easily repurpose it for our ad campaigns.
Ultimately, having alignment across your entire marketing department on overall messaging is essential to maximize your ROI and return on effort.
3. Create a memorable experience
It’s so easy to fall into the trap of copying exactly what’s already being done in your industry.
But by doing this, you’ll likely end up with vanilla B2B ads that your prospects won’t remember. I know we definitely fell into this trap, running generic ads with boring “click here” CTAs 🥱
No matter what type of ads you’re running – product, content, social proof, etc. – the most important question you should ask yourself is:
Are my ads memorable?
If they aren’t, prospects probably won’t think of your brand when it’s time to buy.
4. Figure out attribution
If you’re switching to a demand gen strategy, you need to get good at stakeholder management and bring your CRO/CFO along on the journey – otherwise, they might be alarmed by the sudden decrease in leads.
To prove that your strategy is working, I highly recommend using an attribution tool like Dreamdata or HockeyStack (Dreamdata has a free version that you can get started with) to demonstrate that certain touchpoints are having an impact on pipeline.
In addition to this, it’s a good idea to set up microconversion events, such as engaged visits, to demonstrate that your ICP is finding value in your content.
Finally, make sure you’re also tracking positive comments and mentions of your ads in self-reported attribution – showing these to the leadership team will increase their confidence in your new demand gen approach.
5. Have fun
We often forget this in B2B, but marketing is supposed to be fun.
It’s supposed to be about creativity and testing new ideas, not just measurement and graphs. If you’re having fun, your prospects will take notice, and will likely be more interested in working with you.
Hope you found this article helpful!
Feel free to reach out on LinkedIn with any questions about paid media or B2B marketing.
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People Also Ask
How can transitioning from a lead generation to a demand generation approach impact the quality of leads and overall customer retention?
Shifting to demand generation focuses on creating awareness and interest, potentially attracting more engaged prospects who have a genuine need for your solution, leading to higher-quality leads and improved customer retention.
What are the key considerations when deciding to ungate content in a B2B marketing strategy?
Consider the trade-off between lead quantity and quality. Ungating content can enhance trust and reach, but it’s essential to have alternative methods for capturing prospect information and nurturing leads effectively.
How can a company effectively measure the success of a demand generation strategy compared to traditional lead generation?
Evaluate metrics such as brand awareness, website engagement, lead-to-opportunity conversion rates, and customer lifetime value to assess the effectiveness of demand generation efforts.
What challenges might arise when shifting from a lead generation to a demand generation model, and how can they be addressed?
Challenges include aligning internal teams, redefining success metrics, and adjusting marketing tactics. Address these by providing training, setting clear goals, and maintaining open communication across departments.
How can a demand generation approach be tailored to accommodate long buying cycles, such as those influenced by multi-year contracts?
Implement strategies that maintain ongoing engagement with prospects, such as regular content updates, nurturing campaigns, and staying top-of-mind until they are ready to make a purchasing decision.
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Other Articles You May Enjoy.
SEO for B2B SaaS: 10 Tips to Drive Pipeline and Revenue
Over the past five years, I’ve helped B2B SaaS companies like Clickhouse, WildSparq and EventsAir drive millions in pipeline and revenue through SEO.
My lesser-known strategies have been featured by CXL, Ahrefs, The Marketing Millennials and more.
Along the way, I’ve developed an SEO playbook that B2B SaaS companies can follow (step by step) to start seeing high quality inbound leads in a matter of months.
I’ll be breaking down my entire process below 👇
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Tip #1: Define Your Money Keywords
- Tip #2: Understand What's Already Ranking
- Tip #3: Build a Best-in-Class Page
- Tip #4: Nail the basics
- Tip #5: Build Quality Backlinks for $0
- Tip #6: Publish At Scale
- Tip #7: Design Pages That Convert
- Tip #8: Leverage sales calls, customer success calls, and customer research
- Tip #9: Keep Improving
- Tip #10: Scale as you grow
Tip #1: Define Your Money Keywords
Most B2B SaaS companies see SEO as a checkbox on their to-do list.
The CMO or CRO says, “Competitors are outranking us, we need to do some SEO.”
And marketers, who are already juggling a million different tasks, simply go to Semrush or Ahrefs, find some keywords with low difficulty and high search volume, throw them into ChatGPT, and publish a few articles.
Unsurprisingly, this doesn’t yield inbound leads and has minimal impact on revenue.
For SEO to actually drive results, you need to focus on the keywords that your dream clients are searching, or what I like to call “money keywords.”
Here’s a matrix that you can use to identify them:
Column 1: Make a list of your main offers (ie calendar scheduling)
Column 2: Make a list of the industries you serve best (ie sales, HR, marketing, etc.)
Column 3: Make a list of your main competitors (ie Chili Piper, Calendly, HubSpot)
Column 4: Make a list of the problems you solve, or jobs to be done (ie struggling to route leads efficiently)
Now, you can use these columns to create high-intent long-tail keywords. For example:
1. Best calendar scheduling software
2. Calendar scheduling for sales teams
3. Chili Piper alternatives
4. How to route leads more efficiently
Keep in mind, these “money keywords” will probably have a low search volume, and that’s okay. At the end of the day, you want traffic that will convert into pipeline, not a large number of visitors outside of your ICP.
When you’re doing this exercise, make sure to involve your founder (if you’re a smaller founder-led company) or your sales team (if you’re a larger sales-led organization) – they’ll likely have great insights related to the problems you solve.
Tip #2: Understand What’s Already Ranking
Now that you’ve identified those money keywords, type them into Google to see what type of content is already ranking organically.
For example, if you type in “Chili Piper alternatives” you’ll find that the top organic search results are something along the lines of “Top 10 Chili Piper alternatives to consider”, or what is commonly referred to as a product listicle.
Look through these existing articles and think about what your company can do even better. Can you include a comparative table or social proof, and clearly demonstrate why you’re the best without sounding overly biased?
Or, if you’re creating an article on how to speed up the lead routing process, look at the guides at the top of the SERP and think:
How can I create similar articles that are even more helpful? How can I demonstrate greater experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness?
Maybe it’s by going much more in-depth, or weaving in relevant videos, or highlighting screenshots of your product.
Pro tip: Don’t be afraid of highlighting your product throughout your articles. As marketers, we often worry about sounding too promotional, but the truth is, you need to show that your product is the obvious solution to a problem in order to drive revenue.
Tip #3: Build a Best-in-Class Page
Once you’ve researched what top-ranking pages are doing, it’s time to figure out how to blow them out of the water.
If you’re creating a listicle, can you add better visuals, weave in your product more, or add relevant CTAs?
If it’s a how-to article, can you link to a lead magnet or a YouTube video with more helpful context?
If it’s a landing page, can you add a more comprehensive FAQ section that answers all of your prospect’s questions?
Pro tip: Always consider where your prospect might be in their journey based on their search query. For a more top of funnel how-to article, you can include more subtle CTAs and connections to your product, while for a competitor comparison article, it makes more sense to include a clear demo request CTA.
Tip #4: Nail the basics
Technical SEO is important for e-commerce sites with thousands of pages, but most B2B SaaS websites (which are often 50 pages or less) don’t need a ton of technical SEO to win.
Sure, you still need the basics.
For example, let’s say you write an article related to the keyword “Best calendar scheduling software.”
You’d want your slug to be “best-calendar-scheduling-software”; you’d want to include your keyword in your H1, meta title, and meta description; and you’d want to incorporate the keyword naturally throughout your article.
You’d also want good UX, a clear menu nav, solid design and UI on both mobile and PC, some internal links to relevant topics throughout your website, and some other pages linking back to your article.
That’s really all you need.
After you have these basics in place, focus on producing a high volume of content that’s relevant to your prospects, and don’t lose sleep over technical optimizations.
Tip #5: Build Quality Backlinks for $0
Even if you have the best content, ranking for your dream keywords isn’t easy, especially if your competitors have been around for decades and have extremely high domain authorities.
To compete against the giants and set yourself up for success, you need high quality backlinks to your website.
Here’s one of my favorite ways to get them:
1. Go to Semrush or Ahrefs, whichever keyword research tool you prefer, and paste the LinkedIn profile URLs of your thought leaders (Founder or other execs) into the backlinks tab.
2. In the results, you’ll find a list of all the articles featuring your thought leaders and linking out to their LinkedIn profiles.
3. Message these companies and see if they can update the articles to link to your website, not just to the LinkedIn profile URL. Even better if you can get a backlink to one of your high-intent pages.
After doing this, you can go a step further and visit the podcast search engine Listen Notes, type in your niche (ie B2B ads, recruitment, sales enablement), filter by top podcasts in your space, and make a list on a Google sheet.
Next, have your thought leaders reach out to the podcast hosts via LinkedIn.
The message can be short and simple, such as: Hey Sam, enjoyed your recent episode on X, had an unusual idea for your show. Are you against a conversation?
From my experience, around 20% of hosts will respond, and your thought leaders will start getting featured on amazing podcasts, which will eventually lead to more backlinks to the company website.
Pro Tip: To start seeing results quickly, aim to send 5-10 messages per week to podcast hosts in your space.
Tip #6: Publish At Scale
With SEO, quality matters, but quantity is a massive competitive advantage.
Larger companies are spending a lot of money on ads, content marketing, and events, but they typically have a ton of red tape.
They may take two weeks to approve a topic, a month to plan out the content, a month for design, a month for web development, a month to publish… Which is to say, by the time they’ve published 2 or 3 pages, you could have published 30, 40, or 50 quality articles, and started stealing some of the market share.
To start seeing results, publish as much content as possible focused on your money keywords (occasionally weaving in more top of funnel content).
Also, remember, unless you’re a super authoritative company, it’ll usually take 2-3 months for Google to crawl your pages, so the content you publish today is setting you up for success 90 days from now.
Tip #7: Design Pages That Convert
If you’re investing a lot of money in content, make sure you also invest in great design. The better the user experience, the more likely you are to drive conversions.
Here are some questions to ask yourself:
- Are your pages aesthetically pleasing?
- Is your content skimmable on both mobile and PC?
- Are you including screenshots, videos, or aha moments that relate to your product?
- Can you add more social proof (customer quotes, guides, walkthroughs) to increase trust?
- Are you sprinkling relevant CTAs throughout your content?
- Can you add sticky CTAs that are aligned with the funnel stage of each article (ie subscribe to newsletter for more top of funnel articles, request a demo for more bottom of funnel content)?
These changes, which might seem small, can lead to massive improvements in performance.
Tip #8: Leverage sales calls, customer success calls, and customer research
You can rank pages using generic AI-generated content that says things like “turbocharge your revenue” or “10X your productivity,” but prospects will immediately bounce.
If you want them to stay on your page – and possibly even schedule a demo – you need to write in-depth content that resonates with their exact pain points.
Looking at customer research and listening to calls is a great starting point. Even better if you can take your sales and CS teams out to lunch, walk them through the topics you’re tackling in your content, ask for additional insights, and weave these insights into your articles.
This way, all the content you create will be amazing for sales enablement in addition to SEO.
Tip #9: Keep Improving
As I mentioned previously, to win with SEO, you need to publish content quickly – when it’s ready, not when it’s perfect.
That being said, you should always be looking for ways to improve the content you’ve already published.
About 2 or 3 months after publication, check how your article is ranking.
For example, let’s say you write an article, and after a few months it settles at position number 7. You could look at this article more closely, and think of ways to get it closer to number 1.
Could you add a more comprehensive FAQ section, embed a relevant YouTube video, add nicer images of your product, include more customer quotes, or earn a few high quality backlinks?
These consistent optimizations can go a long way if you want to move up in the rankings.
Tip #10: Scale as you grow
SEO isn’t something you can set and forget – even if you’re an established company, there’s always room for improvement.
Once you’ve implemented tips 1-9, think of ways you can scale your efforts even further.
Can you increase your article production by hiring more team members or working with freelancers? Or create incredible resources (such as custom tools) that will be highly valuable to your ICP?
Also, don’t just think about SEO – after all, SEO is only a piece of the marketing ecosystem – think of ways to improve your ads, your YouTube channel, your podcast, your LinkedIn page, etc.
Improvements in all these areas will lead to greater brand awareness and trust, which will lead to more successful SEO.
Hope you found this article helpful!
Feel free to reach out on LinkedIn with any questions, or check out the Breaking B2B website or Breaking B2B podcast for more unusual B2B/SaaS SEO insights.
Resources for mastering B2B advertising
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People Also Ask
How can I effectively measure the ROI of my SEO efforts in a B2B SaaS context?
Utilize key performance indicators (KPIs) such as organic traffic growth, conversion rates, and customer acquisition costs. Implement tools like Google Analytics and CRM systems to track the journey from organic search to lead conversion and revenue generation.
What are the best practices for conducting keyword research tailored to B2B SaaS audiences?
Focus on identifying high-intent keywords that align with your product’s solutions to specific business challenges. Consider the different stages of the buyer’s journey and develop content that addresses each phase, from awareness to decision-making.
How can I optimize my website’s technical SEO to support scalable growth for a B2B SaaS company?
Ensure your website has a clean architecture with logical URL structures, fast load times, and is mobile-friendly. Regularly audit for issues like broken links or duplicate content, and implement structured data to enhance search engine understanding.
What role does content marketing play in enhancing SEO for B2B SaaS, and how can I develop an effective content strategy?
Content marketing is pivotal in attracting and engaging your target audience. Develop a strategy that includes creating valuable, informative content such as blog posts, whitepapers, and case studies that address your audience’s pain points and demonstrate your expertise.
How can I build high-quality backlinks to improve my B2B SaaS website’s domain authority and search rankings?
Engage in thought leadership by contributing guest posts to reputable industry publications. Develop shareable content assets like original research or infographics, and foster relationships with industry influencers to encourage natural backlinking.
10 Tips to Create Winning LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads
Since their introduction in 2023, I’ve run hundreds of LinkedIn thought leader ads, for my demand gen agency, Omni Lab, and for my clients in B2B SaaS.
Through my experimentation with this format, I’ve developed a list of best practices to maximize the chances of success.
I’ll be sharing all my insights below 👇
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Tip #1: Remember that thought leader ads are just sponsored posts
- Tip #2: Make sure your ads connect to your product
- Tip #3: Create content people would pay for
- Tip #4: Add Premium CTAs to your LinkedIn profile
- Tip #5: Test Non-Employee Influencer Campaigns
- Tip #6: Optimize your LinkedIn profile as if it were a landing page
- Tip #7: Look at the right metrics
- Tip #8: Give yourself a reality check
- Tip #9: Put yourself in your buyer’s shoes
- Tip #10: Focus on Awareness, Not Conversions
Tip #1: Remember that thought leader ads are just sponsored posts
First of all, remember that thought leader ads are not a silver bullet that will save your marketing program – they’re simply sponsored organic posts that can fit into your larger content strategy.
This isn’t to downplay the power of this format; targeting your ICP with content from your thought leaders is one of the most effective approaches to build brand awareness and mental availability.
That being said, your thought leader ads won’t be successful if you don’t have great positioning, messaging, content, or targeting.
The standard rules of marketing still apply.
Tip #2: Make sure your ads connect to your product
If you’re putting ad dollars behind organic posts, make sure they connect back to your product in some capacity.
I don’t mean adding a demo request CTA to every post, but the content you promote should have a core dotted line back to your product.
For example, at Omni Lab, I could promote a post highlighting our unique POV and approach to Google Ads, which is one of the services we offer. If this POV resonates with my audience, they’ll most likely think of me when they’re looking for support with their Google Ad campaigns.
Personal posts, such as occasional pictures of food or selfies on the beach, are okay, but they don’t deserve to be promoted.
At best, they won’t generate significant awareness for your product, and at worst, they’ll end up confusing your audience.
If your ICP loves you but they have no idea what you do, you probably won’t be in business for long 😬
Tip #3: Create content people would pay for
No matter how great your targeting or technical setup, you won’t get very far if you don’t have amazing content that people would be willing to pay for – this is true for ads in general, and especially true for thought leader ads.
Take some time to reflect on your offer. Are you just providing generic tips that people have heard many times? Or are you offering something unique and valuable that will pique the interest of your audience?
To give an example, for Omni Lab, I could run thought leader ads highlighting Google Ads bidding strategies. But it would be more effective to share in-depth campaign recommendations for my target accounts.
Or, if you’re a company like Navattic, you could run ads talking about interactive demos, but it would be more powerful to build out personalized interactive demos for your dream companies.
Next time you run a thought leader ad campaign, focus on increasing the perceived value of your offer, and you’ll see a massive improvement in performance.
Tip #4: Add Premium CTAs to your LinkedIn profile
If you’re looking to funnel people into an owned audience, such as your newsletter, consider adding a Premium CTA to your thought leader ads. This is something I do at Omni Lab, and it’s helped me generate hundreds of high quality email subscribers.
This CTA option is only available to LinkedIn Premium users: you can add CTAs such as View my newsletter, Visit my website, View my blog, etc., depending on the action you’d like your audience to take.
If you don’t have LinkedIn Premium, consider editing your post once the organic reach has died down (usually within 72 hours), adding a CTA with a link to your website.
Even though the primary goal of thought leader ads should not be to drive direct clicks and conversions, adding a CTA allows people to learn more about your company without having to go on a scavenger hunt.
Tip #5: Test Non-Employee Influencer Campaigns
After running hundreds of thought leader ads, both for Omni Lab and for my clients, I’ve found that thought leader ads from non-employees consistently outperform promoted posts from employees.
For example, at Omni Lab, we built out a media plan and campaign strategy for Navattic, and their Head of Growth and Operations (Natalie Marcotullio) made a post related to this.
We boosted this post to our target audience, and it was one of our top performing ads of all time, significantly outperforming all the thought leaders ads from me and my cofounder.
Clay is another great example of non-employee thought leadership. Members of their creator program post about how they use the software, and Clay promotes these posts to increase awareness for their company, while simultaneously expanding the reach of their creators – they’ve created a symbiotic relationship where everybody wins.
If you’re working with well-known people in your industry, consider how you might be able to partner with them: this could look like an audit, a strategy, a discount, access to exclusive features, etc. in exchange for promotion on LinkedIn.
Tip #6: Optimize your LinkedIn profile as if it were a landing page
When you’re running thought leader ads, your LinkedIn profile turns into your landing page – it’s the place where people go for more information about you and your company.
Here are a few tips to optimize your profile that I always share with my clients:
1. Make sure you have a banner image explaining what you do at a high level.
2. Make sure your profile photo is up to date, and use your primary brand color as the background.
3. Add what you do + the category you play in to your headline
4. Use the About section to explain why your company exists and how you approach things differently (bonus if you can also add a few testimonials)
5. Use the featured section to highlight your core CTA + top performing posts demonstrating your expertise
Tip #7: Look at the right metrics
Let’s say you have all the fundamentals in place: an optimized profile, great content, solid targeting, etc.
Now, the next step is to ask yourself: What metrics should we look at to understand if our content is working?
Here’s what I recommend to my clients:
1. First of all, check your LinkedIn demographics report to make sure that you’re actually reaching your ICP.
2. Check in-platform metrics such as impressions, engagement, and CTR. If these metrics look healthy, you’ll know that your audience is finding value in your content.
3. Look at smaller microconversions, such as engaged visits on your website. Are the people reading your thought leader ads eventually navigating to your site to learn more?
4. Look at the self-reported attribution field on your demo request form. Are more people mentioning your thought leaders? If the answer is yes, you’ll know that your content is building trust with the right people.
5. Finally, you can look at more bottom of funnel metrics, such as sign ups or meetings booked, but ultimately, DO NOT obsess over these metrics. Prioritize numbers 1-4 to understand if your content is resonating – it might take a while to see a significant impact on pipeline and revenue.
Pro Tip: If you’re not sure what content to promote as thought leader ads, look for posts that had a 2-3% CTR organically. In my experience, these posts with a higher organic CTR are also the top performing ads.
Tip #8: Give yourself a reality check
Most people – and B2B buyers especially – aren’t making impulse decisions and can’t be pushed through a funnel.
As the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute has highlighted, if you look at how often prospects make a purchase in your category, you’ll quickly realize how few of the people you’re targeting are actually in-market.
Even if you run the greatest ads in the world, you can’t expect people to schedule a demo if they aren’t actively looking for a solution.
And even if they do book a demo, if you have a higher ACV, you’ll probably have an extremely long sales cycle.
My point is, you can’t expect hundreds of demos or millions in revenue right away.
Tip #9: Put yourself in your buyer’s shoes
This is a fun exercise I like to do with my clients.
I ask: “When you see posts on LinkedIn, what actions do you usually take?”
Usually, the response is something along the lines of:
“I read and keep scrolling…” or “If I like something, I might react or leave a comment…”
Then I ask the follow-up question: “If you see a post you like from a company you’ve never heard of before, would you immediately book a demo?”
And typically the answer is “No, of course I wouldn’t.”
Our prospects aren’t that different than we are; if we wouldn’t buy immediately, they probably won’t either.
If you’re getting good engagement and starting to see other signs of life (such as engaged website visits), you’re headed in the right direction, even if you’re not seeing more demos and sign ups right away.
Tip #10: Focus on Awareness, Not Conversions
Think of thought leader ads as a brand awareness play, not a direct response tactic.
Like any good brand marketing, your thought leader ads should relate to key buying situations, or category entry points.
For example, if I promote posts about how we help our clients improve their lead quality, prospects may think of Omni Lab if they ever run into lead quality issues.
Or maybe I talk about how we use paid media to increase brand awareness, and prospects may think of us if they’re having a brand awareness problem.
The key to succeeding with thought leader ads is putting the right messages in front of the right people. If you do this over a long enough period of time, the pipeline and revenue will follow.
Hope you found this article helpful!
Feel free to reach out on LinkedIn or Omni Lab with any questions about demand gen or paid media.
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🎯 B2B LinkedIn Ads 102 - The Blueprint for LinkedIn Ads Optimization
- Monitoring: How To Spot Performance Trends
- Auditing: How To Find The Darlings You Need To Kill
- Reporting: How To Transform Data Into Insights
- Optimization: How To Make Your LinkedIn Ads Profitable
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People Also Ask
What are LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads?
LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads are sponsored posts that promote content from personal profiles, allowing companies to leverage the personal brand and credibility of their thought leaders to engage target audiences authentically. 
How can I ensure my Thought Leader Ads align with my product?
Ensure that the content in your Thought Leader Ads connects back to your product or service, even subtly. While not every post needs a direct call-to-action, there should be a clear link between the content and what your company offers to maintain relevance and drive interest. 
What type of content works best for Thought Leader Ads?
Content that offers unique, valuable insights or information that your target audience would find beneficial tends to perform well. Aim to create posts that people would be willing to pay for, as this indicates high value and relevance. 
How should I optimize my LinkedIn profile for Thought Leader Ads?
Treat your LinkedIn profile like a landing page: use a banner image that explains your role, ensure your profile photo is professional, craft a headline that clearly states what you do, and utilize the ‘About’ section to detail your company’s mission and unique approach. 
What metrics are important to track for Thought Leader Ads?
Monitor metrics such as impressions, engagement rates, click-through rates (CTR), and audience demographics to assess whether your content resonates with your target audience. Additionally, track website visits and self-reported attribution to understand the broader impact on your marketing funnel.
How To Create a B2B Google Ads Optimization Workflow [+Free Template]
Hey there, B2B Marketer. If you don’t have a well-structured optimization workflow, managing just a handful of Google Ads accounts can be a struggle (been there, done that 😅)
In this article, I’ll walk you through the Google Ads Optimization Workflow template, the exact process I used to go from barely managing five Google Ads accounts to easily managing 30+ 🚀
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Google Ads Optimization Workflow Process
- Daily Google Ads Optimizations
- Weekly Google Ads Optimizations
- Monthly Google Ads Optimizations
- Quarterly Google Ads Optimizations
- Free Resources to Master B2B Ads 🔥
Why You Need a Google Ads Optimization Workflow Process
Without a consistent approach, managing Google Ads can feel chaotic. You may get lost in metrics that don’t matter or, worse, miss out on key optimizations that could boost your profitability.
I developed the Google Ads Optimization Workflow Template to help me stay organized and focus on impactful daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly optimization tasks.
👉 Grab your free copy of the template in Module 2, Lesson 1 from the B2B Google Ads 102 - How To Convert Clicks Into Profit course.
If you follow this approach, you’ll find yourself in control of your accounts, not the other way around.
Now let’s dive deep into the tasks by timeframes ⏰
Daily Google Ads Optimizations
Daily optimizations are essential for ensuring that your accounts are running smoothly. It’s your first line of defense against overspending and wasted ad spending.
Each day, you should:
1. Review your budget pacing
This way, you’ll ensure that you are not overspending or underspending.
2. Check for irrelevant search terms in the Search Terms Report
You want to add any irrelevant negative keywords. So every single day, you should review your search terms report and compare your search terms to your keywords to find the irrelevant ones and add them to your negative list.
3. Adjust bids as needed
If you’re using manual bidding, make sure to adjust your bids accordingly to get visibility.
If you’re using something like maximize clicks with a bid cap, make sure that you take a look at your average cost per click in relation to your bid cap. If you notice that your average cost per click is really close to your bid cap, you could be throttling yourself.
If you’re using Target CPA bidding, ensure that the CPA amount you set is large enough to get enough deliverability. I recommend increasing it by 20% if you notice you’re not spending your budget.
Pro Tip: Setting up Google Calendar reminders can be helpful, and something that I always tell my team that manages client accounts internally at our agency is to block an hour on their calendars every single day to go through their accounts and optimize them. We call it “optimization power hour”. ⚡️
By doing that, you will be proactive, and you’re going to catch things much sooner before they become potential fires.
Weekly Google Ads Optimizations
Weekly optimizations allow you to step back and review broader trends instead of getting caught up in the day-to-day fluctuations.
Instead of getting caught up in the day-to-day fluctuations, here you should:
1. Review weekly performance trends (visibility, cost, volume)
Every week you should look at search impression share, search lost to rank, search lost to budget, and search top impression share.
You also want to look at how much you have spent, your cost per conversion, your cost per custom conversion, meaning the cost per SQL, converted user, or whatever that KPI is that you’re measured against.
You will also want to look at volume. How many conversions are you getting? Is it trending up? Is it trending down? These are the things to keep an eye on every week.
Another thing you can do is check the charts in Google Ads to map different metrics and quickly see the trend of search impression share with this graph 👇
🚨Important: When you’re optimizing and looking at things weekly, don’t freak out if you see changes like 25% down search impression share. But if you see it happen consistently for two or three weeks in a row, then there’s definitely something that you need to make a decision about.
Lastly, breaking down your campaigns by themes like brand, non-brand, and competitive will help you to quickly identify underperforming segments and reallocate your budget where it will be most effective.
This will make the optimization process much more manageable.
2. Pause underperforming keywords
Pausing underperforming keywords is an opportunity to give more budget to the keywords with good performance.
You can quickly go to the keyword section in your account and filter by conversions to see which keywords have no conversions. Then, you can sort by cost and understand which ones are hemorrhaging the most budget and can be paused.
3. Add new relevant keywords
When you check the Search Terms report, there are certain search terms that can make sense to add to your campaign as keywords.
You can also go to the Google Ads Keyword Planner and find net new keywords that you might not be covering. This is an opportunity to expand your scope and reach, and it’s a good best practice to get into the habit.
4. Pause underperforming ads and add new ads to replace underperformers (<5% CTR)
Pausing underperforming ads is as simple as going to the ad section in your account and then pausing any ads that are not performing anymore.
So if you notice you have some underperformers, ideally anything less than a 5% click-through rate (but always compare it with your average performance), it’s time to shut off the underperforming ad and add a new ad into the mix.
This way you can continually improve your overall click-through rate performance to help boost your expected click-through rate and improve your quality score.
Monthly & Quarterly Google Ads Optimizations
Monthly and quarterly tasks focus on more strategic, higher-level adjustments.
Monthly Optimizations
It’s crucial to ensure that your campaign settings, quality score, and budget allocation align with your overall goals and haven’t been altered unintentionally.
This is also the time to assess the impact of your Google Ads efforts on your sales pipeline and to make necessary changes.
So at the end of each month, you should:
👉 Audit campaign settings (networks, bidding, location options)
This step is crucial if you manage multiple campaigns or accounts.
It’s important to double-check if you’re targeting the right network and don’t have display and search combined together.
You want to make sure your bids haven’t been updated by accident, or God forbid, you have the auto recommendations still turned on, and they’re automatically updating your bids without your consent. 💀
You also want to ensure that your location options are set to “presence” and that people are actually in your target location or regularly in, not people who are potentially in other areas and are interested in that location.
👉 Review month-over-month pipeline impact from Google Ads
We’re running ads to generate revenue, and revenue comes from initially having pipeline.
So you need a dashboard to track the performance month-over-month and connect your activity to revenue.
It can be as simple as having a report on a spreadsheet where you can see the evolution of your KPIs every month. You can create one from scratch or search for a template on the internet.
Pro tip: Check out our free Building a Paid Media Program course (Module 3, Lesson 2) to learn how to build an automated dashboard for less than $200/month using Google Sheets + a connector like Dataslayer or Supermetrics.
👉 Review performance by campaign theme (visibility, cost, volume)
The same analysis we discussed in the weekly optimizations above should be done on a monthly basis too.
How much are you spending per theme? What is your cost per conversion? What is your conversion rate? And what are the volumes?
Are you driving more volume in a certain theme versus another? Should you move the budget around?
These are the questions you should answer here.
👉 Review quality score (ad relevance, landing page experience, expected CTR)
How is your quality score by campaign theme? Is it increasing or decreasing month-over-month?
Ideally, you should aim for a quality score of 7 or above. If it’s lower than that, optimizing your ad relevance, expected CTR and landing page experience will improve things.
Check out this Quality Score Guide to learn the 80/20 of what you need to know about quality score to improve it.
👉 Review geographic performance and budget allocation
Here you want to go ahead and see how the campaigns you’re targeting in each region are performing so you can make the necessary adjustments.
I also recommend checking the Locations report to have a granular view of how each country grouped into a region is performing.
By doing this, you can find opportunities for new campaigns targeting a single country if it has a good performance and the campaign is limited by budget, or excluding low-performing countries to free up some budget for the top performers.
👉 Review device performance and budget allocation
In B2B, desktop usually performs better than mobile and tablet, so if you’re targeting all devices you can find opportunities to maximize conversions by breaking out the campaigns into different devices.
👉 Review keyword/match type performance and budget allocation
Are there certain keywords that are doing better for you than others? Certain match types? All of these are insights that will help you optimize your Google Ads campaigns.
👉 Review landing page performance and experiments
How are your landing pages performing? Are you running experiments? If you're not, that's definitely an opportunity.
👉 Implement new campaign experiments
If you’re not testing new experiments, this is a massive opportunity to improve performance, and you can run experiments easily in Google Ads with their campaign experiments tool.
Quarterly Optimizations
Every quarter, take time to conduct a competitor analysis and review your goals. It’s a great practice to see what new ads and keywords your competitors are using, giving you inspiration and helping you stay ahead in the market.
Pro tip: The channel ad libraries are great resources for competitor research. Check out these 10 tips for free competitor research using them.
This periodic check-in will ensure that your optimizations are aligned with your business objectives, providing a clear path for growth 🙌
Stay organized with the Google Ads Optimization Workflow template
If you get your free copy of our Google Ads Optimization Template, you’ll notice that we have daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly tasks discussed above on the template.
The way this template works is very simple. We have our tasks on the left, the task title, and the different timeframes. There’s also a space for you to take notes while optimizing your account.
Then you can change the status of each task, so you and your team will know if a task is done or if it’s in progress, as well as define the task owner.
There are also some formulas where, based on the timeframe, the due date will automatically update. So for example, if you set the Last Complete date of a daily task as 2/2/24, it’ll automatically say the due date for that task is 2/3/2024.
In addition, if you do the same thing for a weekly task, it will add seven days to the due date, and now it will say 2/9/2024.
Lastly, you’ll also find all the different tutorials covered in this guide linked to each task. The goal of these tutorials is to show you how to do each step so you can use this as a reference.
By implementing these daily, weekly, and monthly optimizations, you’ll stay ahead of potential issues and make data-driven adjustments that boost your account performance.
I hope this guide helps you to manage your accounts efficiently 🙌
If you have any questions, feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn.
From Clicks to Conversions: Master Google Ads for B2B 🔥
If you want to become a Google Ads pro, check out our free B2B Google Ads courses, where you'll learn how to launch, optimize, and scale your campaigns to drive pipeline and revenue.
Here's what you'll learn in each course:
⚙️ B2B Google Ads 101 - How to Launch Dangerously Effective Campaigns for Beginners
- The Googleverse: The Game You're Playing & How To Win
- Measurement: How to Make Sure You're Profitable
- Targeting: How to Show Up For the Right Searcher
- Planning: Putting It All Together
🎯 Google Ads 102 - How to Clicks Into Profit
- Visibility: How To Find the Hole Sucking Profits
- Workflows: How to Optimize On a Daily, Weekly, Monthly & Quarterly Basis
- Experimentation: How to Test & Automate Profitability
- Troubleshooting: How To Solve Inevitable Problems
🚀 Google Ads 103 - How to Scale Google Ads For Advanced Advertisers
- Methodology: How to Vertically Scale Google Ads From A-Z
- Campaigns: Scaling Horizontally Through Campaign Themes
- Channels: Scaling Outside of Paid Search
Click Here to Join 1,000+ B2B Marketers Today and start leveling up your advertising skill set.
Takes < 90 seconds to sign up (seriously we timed it 😂)
People Also Ask
How can I effectively prioritize optimization tasks within my Google Ads workflow?
Assess tasks based on their potential impact on key performance indicators (KPIs) like conversion rates and return on ad spend (ROAS). Focus on high-impact areas first, such as budget pacing and search term relevance, to ensure efficient use of resources.
What tools or templates can assist in organizing and tracking my Google Ads optimization activities?
Utilize the Google Ads Optimization Workflow Template provided in Module 2, Lesson 1 of the B2B Google Ads 102 course. This template helps structure daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly tasks, ensuring a systematic approach to campaign management. 
How can I ensure that my optimization efforts align with my overall B2B marketing objectives?
Regularly review your marketing goals and ensure that your Google Ads strategies support these objectives. Align optimization tasks with broader business aims, such as lead generation or brand awareness, to maintain strategic coherence.
What are the common pitfalls to avoid when implementing a Google Ads optimization workflow?
Avoid neglecting regular reviews of budget pacing and search term reports, as this can lead to overspending or irrelevant traffic. Ensure that optimization tasks are performed consistently to maintain campaign effectiveness.
How can I adapt my optimization workflow to accommodate changes in campaign performance or market conditions?
Stay agile by regularly analyzing performance data and being prepared to adjust your workflow in response to trends or shifts in the market. Flexibility allows for timely optimizations that keep campaigns aligned with business goals.
Using the Jobs To Be Done Framework to Maximize Revenue in B2B Ads [+Free Template]
Understanding the Jobs To Be Done framework developed by Tony Ulwick can be confusing and overwhelming because most of the information you’ll find is focused on product development.
In this article, I’m going to unpack the Jobs To Be Done framework from a B2B advertising perspective.
Why? Because identifying what job your customers are truly “hiring” your product or service to do will be the secret to launching a powerful ad campaign.
This article is part of our B2B learning track so if you’re serious about learning B2B advertising you’re in the right place!
Let’s dive into it 👏
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
- Understand Why Customers Choose Your Product
- Using the Jobs to Be Done Interview Matrix Template
- Customize Your Messaging with Personality Insights
- Real Use Case of the JBTB Matrix Template
- Free Resources to Jumpstart Your B2B Marketing Career
Understand Why Customers Choose Your Product
In any industry, people don’t buy products, they invest in solutions to get a job done. It’s not just to buy another thing like your cat-hoarding grandmother. 😅🐈
For B2B marketers, Tony Ulwick’s Jobs to Be Done framework should be focused on why your customers “hire” your product or service, so you can put them and their needs at the heart of your advertising story.
This will help you to identify what pain points you’re helping your customers solve to get to the root of what motivates them because your advertising campaign should be about them — not you.
But how can you do that?
You can use the Jobs To Be Done framework when you're launching a new advertising campaign or when you want to improve the conversion rates of your existing advertising campaigns (aka your ads that aren’t converting)
The most impactful way to start is by identifying three to five recent customers who fit your target market (or Ideal Customer Profile - ICP).
If you need help identifying your ideal customer profile, check out this article: “How to Craft B2B Buyer Personas for Ad Targeting”
Select customers who either recently purchased or have the potential to represent your ideal buyer. These interviews will reveal why they chose your service and what specific pain points you helped them solve.
To make your life easier, I developed a free template called Jobs to Be Done Interview Matrix 🙌
You can find it in Module 2, Lesson 3 of my free B2B Advertising Foundations course, and it’s your roadmap for collecting insights during interviews.
Using the Jobs to Be Done Interview Matrix Template to Gather Actionable Insights
In this JTBD Interview Matrix Template, you’ll be looking for five key points that highlight your customer’s journey with your brand:
- Situation and Pain Points - What challenges are they facing?
- Motivation - Why did they start looking for a solution?
- Trigger - What prompted them to move forward with your service?
- Ideal Outcome - What result are they seeking?
- Competitor Evaluation - What other options were they considering?
The matrix helps you organize answers by each customer’s profile and offers a side-by-side comparison of their unique characteristics.
It also offers 8 helpful interview questions you can use to uncover the right golden nuggets that will make your campaign shine. ✨
Customize Your Messaging with Personality Insights
Finally, understanding your customer’s personality type is like having the key to crafting messaging that lands with confidence.
Resources like Crystal can help you determine each customer’s DISC personality type (Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, Compliance) by scraping their LinkedIn profiles, labelling how they like and prefer to be communicated with, and their style and tone because this will ultimately influence the messaging that you can create for each of your advertising personas.
Here’s a real use case for you to understand each step of the JTBD Interview Matrix
Let’s take Spotify as an example. I love Spotify, so if I were doing an interview with a Spotify customer, it would look like this:
Situation & Pain Points
I get tired of hearing the same songs on the radio. I can’t easily listen to the exact song I want to hear.
Motivation
I want to listen to specific songs when I want
Trigger
I’m in the gym, and I need a song to pump me up
Ideal Outcome
I want to listen to the music I choose, everywhere
Other Solutions/ Products Evaluated – Competitors
Radio, XM Radio, Pandora, Apple Music, Silence
Personality characteristics (DiSC type, DiSC archetype, etc)
Trailblazer - ID. Confident style, with a mix of informality and formality gets their attention.
- Pace: Speak slightly fast. Sounds like a ‘gets shit done’ person.
- Tone: Do not sound too eager, as if you have met a friend suddenly after a long time. Keep the tone calm but confident.
- Tactics To Win: Strong words, focus on results, respectful confidence
Based on the JBT Interview Matrix, here are some Spotify ad examples:
The main takeaway is that you can make your ad campaigns even stronger when you really know what “job” your customers are “hiring” your product or service to take care of.
Use the Jobs To Be Done matrix to dig deep into what matters most to them and adjust your messaging to connect on a personal level. 🙂
I hope you found this article helpful!
Connect with me on LinkedIn, and let’s keep the conversation going.
You can also visit my website here for more valuable content.
Jumpstart Your B2B Marketing Career
If you’re serious about mastering B2B advertising, then you definitely need to check out my free course that will teach you the foundational knowledge to becoming a high-performing B2B marketer who knows how to use advertising to drive legit business and revenue impact without the fluff or wasting your time and money learning the ropes the hard way.
- Module 1: you’ll get a crash course in the B2Bverse and master terminology, sales processes, and working across teams.
- Module 2: you’ll learn how to become your customer's psychologist and understand them deeply with buyer personas that allow you to craft effective messaging.
- Module 3: you’ll master the B2B funnel and learn how to think like a CEO to identify performance bottlenecks and convert more leads into revenue.
- Module 4: you’ll learn how to put it all together and build your go-to-market strategy that gets your ad in front of your dream buyers and converts attention.
This course was designed with absolute beginners in mind.
Accelerate your learning curve and start the course today for free.
People Also Ask
How can I effectively identify the ‘jobs’ my B2B customers are trying to accomplish with our product or service?
Conduct in-depth customer interviews and surveys to uncover the underlying tasks and objectives your clients aim to achieve. Focus on understanding their pain points and the desired outcomes they seek. 
What are the best practices for integrating the JTBD framework into our existing B2B advertising strategy?
Align your marketing messages with the specific jobs your customers need to be done. Develop content and campaigns that address these needs directly, demonstrating how your solution effectively fulfills their objectives. 
How can the JTBD framework assist in differentiating our B2B offerings from competitors in the market?
By focusing on the unique jobs your product addresses, you can highlight distinct value propositions that set you apart. This approach shifts the conversation from features to the specific benefits and outcomes your customers can expect. 
What role does customer feedback play in refining our understanding of their jobs to be done?
Regularly gathering and analyzing customer feedback helps in accurately identifying and prioritizing the jobs that need to be done. This ongoing process ensures your offerings remain relevant and effectively meet customer expectations. 
How can we measure the impact of applying the JTBD framework on our B2B advertising ROI?
Track key performance indicators such as conversion rates, customer acquisition costs, and customer satisfaction levels before and after implementing JTBD-informed strategies. Analyzing these metrics will provide insights into the framework’s effectiveness in enhancing your advertising efforts.
How to Create Tracking Templates in Google Ads
Hey there, Digital Marketer. Do you cringe a little when you hear the words “setting up tracking in an ad channel”? 😅
Tracking may be the unsexy side of marketing, but I promise that Google Ads Tracking Templates are simpler than they sound.
In this article, I’ll show you how to set up tracking right, capture accurate data, and see what’s really driving your conversions and revenue.
Let’s dive in! 👇
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
- What is a Google Ads Tracking Template?
- How to install Tracking Templates in Google Ads
- Benefits of adding Tracking Templates to your campaigns
- From clicks to conversions: Master Google Ads for B2B
What is a Google Ads Tracking Template?
Tracking templates allow you to streamline your link tagging process and pass static and dynamic values.
I created this little cheat sheet for you here to give you an understanding of a tracking template.
Here’s what each parameter means:
- {lpurl}: This is your landing page URL. So whatever the URL is in your ad, the template will automatically inherit it and then automatically append these different static and dynamic values based on these parameters.
- UTMs: These are your standard UTMs, like UTM source, UTM medium, campaign, term, and content.
Check out our Free UTM Tagger Tool to easily create them in bulk and for more info about each parameter. - Static Values: Static means it’s always the same, it’ll remain consistent. So a static value will always be a text.
So in the image example above, we always want the UTM Source to be google, the UTM Medium to be cpc, and the UTM Campaign to be trial. - Dynamic Values: Dynamic means it changes. The values here usually have squiggly brackets like {keyword} or {matchtype}, which tell Google Ads to populate that field dynamically.
For example, with {keyword}, the UTM Term will automatically insert the keyword that drove the click, giving you granular detail on the search behavior driving each visit. - Custom Parameters: These are parameters you can create that are not part of the UTM parameters, which are your standard ones.
You’ll probably want to use custom UTM parameters if you have some sort of advanced tracking setup.
Anything that is available in the URL, you can then set up with JavaScript the ability to pass the data from those parameters into hidden fields in your form, to then be able to route and track and do all sorts of things in your backend.
In the cheat sheet above, the ad_name parameter will give you details about which ad drove the visit.
So this is a tracking template, and it’s really important as this is going to allow you to get a lot better data and ultimately, better insights from your activities.
How to Install a Tracking Template in Google Ads
You can install a tracking template at the campaign, ad group, or ad level. You could even do it at the account level with the tracking script, but I recommend that you start off at the campaign level.
Here are the steps you need to follow in your Google Ads account 👇
- Open your account, then open the campaigns tab and choose one campaign. Now go into the settings by clicking on this little gear.
- Scroll down to additional settings.
- Go to the Campaign URL options and paste your tracking template in the “Tracking Template” field.
Here you’ll want to follow the format from the cheat sheet I shared at the beginning of this article because that is the syntax of the tracking template.
To be easier, you can copy this tracking template below and just add your static values in the highlighted fields:
{lpurl}?utm_source=entersource&utm_medium=entermedium&utm_campaign=entercampaign&utm_term={keyword}_{matchtype}&ad_name=enteradname
- UTM Source: People usually use Google or AdWords.
- UTM Medium: People usually put CPC or paid search. This 100% depends on you and your business, your company, and how you want to track things.
- UTM Campaign: You can put the name of your campaign. The downside is that you have to do this for each campaign.
- UTM Term: This will dynamically push the keyword that drove the click and the match type.
- Ad_Name (custom parameter): This is 100% optional, and most of the clients from our agency don’t really need custom parameters, but I just want you to be aware of it.
Once you’ve mastered basic tracking, custom parameters can add another layer of insights by capturing non-standard data. For instance, if you want to differentiate ad variations, you could set a custom parameter like ad_name=RSA1.
You can also find all the Value Track Parameters Google supports here:
I usually like to set my tracking templates at the campaign level, which suffices. So, in this case, each campaign must have a unique tracking template.
Another cool thing about the tracking template is once you create the tracking template at the campaign level, you no longer have to worry about tagging your ads with UTM parameters at the ad level.
It'll automatically inherit the campaign URL tracking template and tag your links appropriately.
If you're just putting all of the tagged URLs at the ad level, it can be really problematic sometimes and time-consuming to make changes and miss things. This helps streamline things and push those dynamic parameters.
Benefits of Adding Tracking Templates to Your Campaigns
Setting up tracking templates in Google Ads is a powerful way to automate link tagging and capture high-quality data.
The better data we pass through our tracking template, the more insights we can receive.
With standard UTMs, dynamic parameters, and custom fields, you’ll get a clear view of what’s driving performance and find better ways to allocate budget, optimize campaigns, and ultimately boost results. 🚀
Why deny yourself incredible insights such as “which keywords drive the most revenue?..” when you can capture that information at no additional cost?
That’s it about tracking templates! 🎉
Now go build your first one and let the data guide your ad strategies! 🤓
I hope you found this article useful!
From Clicks to Conversions: Master Google Ads for B2B 🔥
If you want to become a Google Ads pro, check out our free B2B Google Ads courses, where you'll learn how to launch, optimize, and scale your campaigns to drive pipeline and revenue.
Here's what you'll learn in each course:
⚙️ B2B Google Ads 101 - How to Launch Dangerously Effective Campaigns for Beginners
- The Googleverse: The Game You're Playing & How To Win
- Measurement: How to Make Sure You're Profitable
- Targeting: How to Show Up For the Right Searcher
- Planning: Putting It All Together
🎯 Google Ads 102 - How to Clicks Into Profit
- Visibility: How To Find the Hole Sucking Profits
- Workflows: How to Optimize On a Daily, Weekly, Monthly & Quarterly Basis
- Experimentation: How to Test & Automate Profitability
- Troubleshooting: How To Solve Inevitable Problems
🚀 Google Ads 103 - How to Scale Google Ads For Advanced Advertisers
- Methodology: How to Vertically Scale Google Ads From A-Z
- Campaigns: Scaling Horizontally Through Campaign Themes
- Channels: Scaling Outside of Paid Search
Click Here to Join 1,000+ B2B Marketers Today and start leveling up your advertising skill set.
Takes < 90 seconds to sign up (seriously we timed it 😂)
People Also Ask
What is a tracking template in Google Ads?
A tracking template is a URL parameter setup in Google Ads that appends tracking information to your landing page URLs. This allows you to monitor specific details about ad clicks, such as the campaign, ad group, keyword, and device involved. 
Why should I use tracking templates in my campaigns?
Implementing tracking templates automates link tagging, ensuring consistent and accurate data collection across your campaigns. This leads to better insights into performance metrics, enabling more informed optimization decisions. 
How do I set up a tracking template in Google Ads?
To set up a tracking template:
- Log in to your Google Ads account.
- Navigate to the desired account, campaign, ad group, or ad level.
- Click on “Settings” and then “Additional settings.”
- Under “Tracking,” enter your tracking template URL, incorporating the necessary ValueTrack parameters.
- Save your changes.
This setup enables dynamic tracking of various metrics. 
What are ValueTrack parameters, and how do they work in tracking templates?
ValueTrack parameters are dynamic URL components that capture specific information about each ad click, such as the device used ({device}), the keyword that triggered the ad ({keyword}), and the campaign ID ({campaignid}). When a user clicks your ad, these placeholders are replaced with actual data, allowing for detailed performance analysis. 
How can I test if my tracking template is working correctly?
After setting up your tracking template, use the “Test” button in the “Tracking” section of your Google Ads account settings. This function combines your final URL with the tracking parameters to ensure it directs to the correct landing page and that all parameters are functioning as intended.
B2B Google Ads: How To Know If Google Is The Right Channel For Your SaaS
Hey there B2B SaaS marketer! Are you getting FOMO around Google Ads?
Every day thousands of SaaS businesses are converting clicks into profitable pipeline on Google Ads, and conversely thousands are burning clicks into wasted ad budgets.
After $10M in Google Ads spend management for incredible SaaS companies like ActiveCampaign, Mixpanel, and others, I’ve developed a criteria for Google Ads success.
I call it the Google Ads Sweet Spot. If you want Google to be a significant driver in your pipeline generation you need to make sure your SaaS company checks these 3 criteria.
After reviewing, it’ll be clear if Google is right for you, let’s dive into it 👇
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Proven Concept
The first criteria in the Google Ads Sweet Spot is a Proven Concept.
You see, in order to succeed with Google Ads your product has to be built on a time-tested and proven concept.
Imagine running Google ads for a generative AI product before the invention of ChatGPT.
Because AI products still hadn’t gained popularity, you probably would have struggled to generate sufficient searches and clicks on your ads.
If you create an innovative product in a new category that no one understands, you likely won’t see a great return on effort from Google.
In this case, it’d make more sense to focus on educating the market about the problem you solve via demand gen channels such as paid and organic social.
Existing Demand
The second criteria of the Google Ads Sweet Spot is Existing Demand.
This is directly connected to the first criteria: you won’t generate pipeline or revenue if people aren’t actively looking for your solution.
If you only have, for example, 100 people searching for your product every month, it’s going to be impossible to generate significant results from Google.
For example, assuming the industry average conversion rate of 3%, and 5% clickthrough rate (CTR) you’re looking at 5 clicks from the 100 impressions, and you need a minimum of 33 clicks to generate a single lead. At 100 impressions/month it will take you six and a half months to generate ONE lead 🤯– extreme example but I hope you get the point.
You need enough search volume, so you have enough clicks, and ultimately conversions.
To verify that you have sufficient search volume, you can use the Google Ads keyword planner.
Let’s say you want to bid on the term Google Ads courses within the United States. You can see that there are approximately 2,900 searches every month for this specific term, which validates that there’s sufficient search volume to have a chance at success.
Keep in mind monthly searches in the keyword planner are just an average and always changing – use them to inform your estimates but take them with a grain of salt.
Sufficient Margin
The third criteria of the Google Ads Sweet Spot is Sufficient Margin.
You SHOULD NOT run Google Ads if you don’t have enough margin, or in other words, a high enough lifetime value (LTV) to offset acquisition costs. Without a high enough LTV, Google will never become a profitable channel for your company.
Here’s an example:
Let’s say you have an LTV of $100 per user, and your average cost per click is $10. In this case, the likelihood of running profitable campaigns is slim – you’d have to convert 10% of your total traffic just to break even 😅 (when the industry average conv rate is 3-5%).
If you’re selling a variety of products and you have a small budget (<$10K/month), I recommend running ads for the products with the highest lifetime value to maximize your chances of profitability.
If your campaigns aren’t profitable right away, that’s okay, as long as you know you’ll recoup your investment 3-6 months down the line.
If you want to see if the math adds up to run Google Ads profitably for your company, check out our free Google Ads Budget calculator.
I hope you found this article helpful!
Google Ads definitely is not for everyone but if your SaaS meets these three criteria your chances of success are far greater than not based on my experience.
If you have any questions, feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn.
From Clicks to Conversions: Master Google Ads for B2B 🔥
If you want to become a Google Ads pro, check out our free B2B Google Ads courses, where you'll learn how to launch, optimize, and scale your campaigns to drive pipeline and revenue.
Here's what you'll learn in each course:
⚙️ B2B Google Ads 101 - How to Launch Dangerously Effective Campaigns for Beginners
- The Googleverse: The Game You're Playing & How To Win
- Measurement: How to Make Sure You're Profitable
- Targeting: How to Show Up For the Right Searcher
- Planning: Putting It All Together
🎯 Google Ads 102 - How to Clicks Into Profit
- Visibility: How To Find the Hole Sucking Profits
- Workflows: How to Optimize On a Daily, Weekly, Monthly & Quarterly Basis
- Experimentation: How to Test & Automate Profitability
- Troubleshooting: How To Solve Inevitable Problems
🚀 Google Ads 103 - How to Scale Google Ads For Advanced Advertisers
- Methodology: How to Vertically Scale Google Ads From A-Z
- Campaigns: Scaling Horizontally Through Campaign Themes
- Channels: Scaling Outside of Paid Search
Click Here to Join 1,000+ B2B Marketers Today and start leveling up your advertising skill set.
Takes < 90 seconds to sign up (seriously we timed it 😂)
People Also Ask
What are some advanced targeting techniques for B2B SaaS Google Ads campaigns?
Utilize features like custom intent audiences to target users actively searching for solutions similar to your SaaS product. Combine these with demographic and location filters for precise audience targeting.
How can I effectively allocate my budget across different Google Ads campaign types for B2B SaaS?
Consider allocating your budget to a mix of search campaigns for high-intent keywords, display campaigns for brand awareness, and remarketing campaigns to re-engage potential leads.
How do I choose the right bidding strategy for my B2B SaaS Google Ads?
Select bidding strategies based on your campaign goals. Use target CPA (cost per acquisition) for lead generation or maximize clicks to drive traffic. Test different strategies to determine what works best for your objectives.
What are the common mistakes to avoid in B2B SaaS Google Ads campaigns?
Avoid broad targeting that wastes budget, neglecting negative keywords, and under-optimizing ad creatives. Regularly review and refine your campaigns based on performance metrics.
How can I use ad extensions effectively in B2B SaaS Google Ads?
Include ad extensions like callouts, sitelinks, and structured snippets to provide additional information, improve click-through rates, and enhance ad visibility. Highlight key features, testimonials, or unique offerings.