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B2B SaaS PPC · Google Ads + LinkedIn + Meta

B2B SaaS ads measured against pipeline, not signups

A free trial is not revenue, and the deal that closes six months later rarely gets credited to the ad that started it. I run SaaS accounts against the stage that actually predicts revenue for your funnel — qualified opportunity, not form fill — and structure spend around payback rather than cost per lead.

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See how I work with SaaS teams ↓

Available as an account and measurement audit, a rebuild around pipeline stages, or ongoing management.

What a SaaS account has to account for

  • Conversion targets set at the stage that predicts revenue in your funnel
  • Offline conversions imported from the CRM so bidding optimises toward pipeline
  • Category, competitor and problem-aware demand bought separately
  • CAC payback and cost per qualified opportunity as the reported numbers

Why SaaS accounts optimise toward the wrong thing

The platform can only optimise toward what it is told about. In B2B, the thing worth optimising toward happens weeks after the click and outside the ad platform.

The signal arrives too late

Bidding sees a trial signup on day one and a closed deal never. So it buys more trial signups, including the ones from students and competitors. Importing CRM stages back into the platform is what changes the behaviour.

Not all demand is the same purchase

Someone searching your category is comparing. Someone searching a competitor is switching. Someone searching the problem has not decided a tool is the answer. One campaign and one landing page cannot serve all three, and each has a different acceptable cost.

What B2B SaaS PPC work covers

Six areas, in the order they usually need attention.

Demand and intent mapping

Category, competitor, problem-aware and jobs-to-be-done searches are separated, each with its own message, page and acceptable cost.

Funnel-stage conversion targets

The stage that predicts revenue in your funnel is identified, and campaigns optimise toward that instead of toward whatever fires first.

CRM and offline conversion import

Qualified opportunities and closed-won deals are imported back into Google Ads and Meta, so bidding learns from pipeline rather than from form fills.

Channel roles across search and social

Search captures existing demand, LinkedIn and Meta reach the buying committee before they search. Each channel gets a defined job and its own measure.

Landing pages and trial flow

The page, the form length, the demo request and the first-run experience are reviewed, because a strong click into a weak trial produces churn, not revenue.

Payback and pipeline reporting

Reporting shows cost per qualified opportunity, pipeline created, and CAC payback period by channel and campaign.

How SaaS accounts are run here

  • Bidding is fed CRM stages, so it optimises toward pipeline instead of signups.
  • Long sales cycles are planned for, rather than being treated as an attribution excuse.
  • Competitor, category and problem-aware demand are bought and measured separately.
  • Trial-to-paid rates are watched, because cheap signups that never convert cost more than they save.
  • Acceptable acquisition cost is derived from contract value and payback, not from a benchmark.

Is this the right fit?

We discuss the goal, budget and access needed to do the work.

  • You sell B2B software and want qualified pipeline, not more trial signups.
  • The CRM can tell me which enquiries became opportunities and which closed.
  • You know roughly what a customer is worth and how long payback should take.
When a different approach may be needed
  • Success is defined as cost per MQL with no view of what happens afterwards.
  • There is no CRM data available to feed back into the account.
  • The product has no repeatable buyer yet, so there is nothing consistent to target.

Common questions from SaaS teams

We get plenty of trial signups but few customers. What changes?

What the campaigns optimise toward. If Google only ever sees a signup, it will buy more signups from wherever they are cheapest. Import the qualified-opportunity stage from the CRM, target that instead, and the mix of traffic changes within a few weeks.

Our sales cycle is six months. How is that measured?

By choosing a stage early enough to have volume and late enough to predict revenue — usually qualified opportunity — and measuring cohorts by the month the click happened rather than the month the deal closed.

Should we bid on competitor names?

Often yes, in a campaign of its own with its own budget and its own comparison page. Those searches convert differently to category terms and the cost per opportunity is usually different too. Mixed into a category campaign, the numbers become unreadable.

Is LinkedIn worth the cost per click?

It depends on contract value. LinkedIn targets the buying committee before anyone searches, which search cannot do — but the click costs are high, so it needs a deal size that supports them. It is judged on pipeline created, not on cost per click.

Can you work with our existing marketing team?

Yes. I take the paid acquisition and measurement side and work to the definitions your team already uses for MQL, SQL and opportunity, rather than introducing a parallel set of numbers.

Send me the account and the funnel

Share the ad accounts, what a customer is worth and how the CRM stages are defined. I will tell you what the campaigns are currently optimising toward and what I would change.

Get a project review ↗

We discuss fit and scope before work starts.