SaaS Marketing That Follows Users Past the Sign-Up
A sign-up is the start of a SaaS sale, not the end. We plan campaigns around trials, demos and activation, using product usage signals to decide who to retarget, who to hand to sales and where acquisition spend pays back.
SaaS Marketing: what it covers
Software buyers try before they commit. Whether your model is a free trial, a freemium plan or a sales-led demo, the real conversion happens days or weeks after the first click, inside the product. Campaigns that optimise for sign-ups alone tend to attract people who never log in twice, so we connect ad platforms to the events that predict a paying customer, such as completing setup, inviting a teammate or connecting an integration.
Search behaviour in software is unusually comparative. Prospects type 'alternative to' and 'versus' queries, read review sites and shortlist several tools before trying any. We build campaigns for those moments, with landing pages that make honest comparisons, and pair them with category and problem searches for buyers who do not yet know which tools exist.
We also keep acquisition cost tied to subscription value. The useful question is how long a new customer takes to repay what it cost to win them, which depends on plan price, churn and expansion. We report campaigns against that payback logic so growth spending stays sustainable.
- Trial, demo and freemium funnel mapping
- Competitor and alternative keyword campaigns
- Comparison landing pages
- Product activation events sent to ad platforms
- Retargeting by trial stage
- LinkedIn targeting for buyer roles
- Product-qualified lead handoff to sales
- CAC payback reporting by channel
- Onboarding and trial email sequences
- Category and review-site search coverage
- GA4 and product analytics alignment
The challenges we solve
Sign-ups that never activate
Ad platforms reward whatever event they are told to count. If that event is a sign-up, they find people who sign up easily, including those with no real need. Trial volume rises, activation and paid conversion stay flat, and the cost per paying customer climbs while dashboards report success.
Competitors own the comparison searches
Many software buyers start with a competitor's name and the word 'alternative'. If you are absent from those searches, or present with a generic homepage, rivals shape the comparison. Bidding on these terms also needs care, because trademark rules on ad text vary by platform and country.
Spending faster than customers pay back
Subscription revenue arrives slowly, month by month, while ad spend leaves the bank immediately. Scaling campaigns without understanding payback time, churn and expansion can starve the business of cash even when each new customer is profitable over their lifetime.
Our SaaS services
Competitor and alternative search
We build campaigns for 'alternative to', 'versus' and competitor brand searches where policies allow, with landing pages that compare features, pricing models and switching effort honestly.
Activation-based optimisation
We send product events such as setup completed, teammate invited or first project created to Google Ads and Meta, so bidding favours users likely to become paying customers.
Retargeting by trial stage
We split retargeting audiences into visitors, new trials, stalled trials and expired trials, giving each a different message, from setup help to a demo offer or a trial extension.
Product-qualified lead routing
When trial users match agreed usage and company signals, we route them to your sales team through your CRM so high-potential accounts get a personal conversation quickly.
LinkedIn for buying roles
For tools sold to teams, we use LinkedIn to reach the job functions and seniority levels that approve software purchases, pairing it with search for people already evaluating.
Payback-focused reporting
We report acquisition cost alongside plan mix, trial-to-paid conversion and early churn by channel, so you can see which campaigns bring customers that repay their cost fastest.
Trial nurture emails
We write onboarding and trial-stage emails triggered by product behaviour, nudging users towards the actions that predict conversion and inviting stalled users to book a walkthrough.
How we work
Business & Market Discovery
We learn how your business makes money: your products, margins, customers, competitors, target markets and revenue goals, so every later decision is anchored to commercial reality rather than platform metrics.
Marketing Audit & Research
We review existing campaigns, tracking setup, audience data, ad account history, creative performance and how well your website converts, to find wasted spend, missing data and quick opportunities.
Strategy & Campaign Planning
We choose the right channels, allocate budget between them, and plan campaign structure, target audiences, creative direction and the conversion goals each campaign will be measured against.
Campaign Setup & Launch
We configure campaigns, conversion tracking, landing pages, creatives, audiences and conversion events, then check everything fires correctly before launch so data is reliable from the first day.
Testing & Optimisation
We run structured tests on audiences, keywords, creatives, bidding strategies, landing pages and budget splits, keeping what works and retiring what does not, one clear change at a time.
Reporting & Scaling
We analyse results, highlight new opportunities and report in plain language. When the data is reliable and returns hold up, we scale budgets and expand into new channels, products or markets.
Frequently asked questions
Should we optimise ads for sign-ups or paid conversions?
Optimise for an activation event close to payment wherever you have enough volume. Paid conversions are often too few and too delayed for ad platforms to learn from, while sign-ups are too shallow. An event such as completing setup usually balances volume with quality, and we send paid conversions as well for reporting.
Can we bid on competitor brand names?
In many cases you can bid on competitor names as keywords, but rules on using their trademarks in ad text differ by platform and country. We write ads that describe your product without misusing a rival's mark, and send the traffic to fair comparison pages that make your case clearly.
How do you retarget trial users without annoying them?
We retarget by stage and stop as soon as someone converts. New trials see setup help, stalled trials see use cases or a demo offer, and expired trials see a reason to return. Paying customers are excluded, and frequency is capped so the ads stay helpful.
What is CAC payback and why does it matter for ads?
CAC payback is the time it takes a new customer's gross margin to cover what you spent acquiring them. It matters because subscription revenue arrives month by month, so channels with slow payback tie up cash. We use it to decide which campaigns to scale and which to hold.
Do you work with product-led and sales-led SaaS?
Yes, we work with both, and many companies are a mix. Product-led growth needs tight tracking of in-product events and stage-based nurture, while sales-led growth needs demo quality, CRM handoff and pipeline reporting. We set up whichever combination fits how your customers actually buy.