SaaS startups - are you using Google Ads and is it working for you?
We've been using Google Ads for a while now but we're struggling to hit our target CPA to ensure we get a return on the money we spend on this channel.
We can't afford to target the high intent keywords relevant to our business but we are running competitor keyword campaigns and brand campaigns. The service we're offering is an email marketing platform so we're up against some stiff competition!
If you're using Google Ads and making a profit on the ad spend, what tips do you have?
This is not exactly an answer to your question but I would consider using Facebook/Instagram and YouTube(if you can make a nice video ad) to drive some traffic to your site and then retarget them.
If you are getting enough conversions to make a lookalike audience that would be the first thing to try. You could try targeting your competitors audiences aswell.
The retarget the people that visited.
For the long run though content/SEO is the way to go. There are plenty of articles rounding up and comparing email services. You want to be included on those lists so that you are being considered.
What is different about your email service? Maybe you should write content that address what you do differently/better, if it's something that's searched for.
I think in general you should have no chance of competing for general email keywords, as I imagine your email service is much worse than the established players. If you focus on keywords relevant to what you do different/better, how has that worked?
The main difference is price and the fact that our platform is easier to use. Phrases like 'cheap email marketing tools' are still expensive to target in Google Ads though while 'easy to use email marketing tools' are too low volume. :-(
The sample size is small though, but when we target the ads that are against competitors we have 100% ad conversion but 90% bounce rate, but then we switched to relevant long tail keywords results were better. Still experimenting...
I was considering targeting TOFU long tail keywords to see if we could lower lead acquisition costs via Google Ads but haven't yet implemented a lead magnet. How are you getting on with your long tail keyword ads?
I take the list of long tail keywords the ones that are relevant to the services that we provide then check which ones have KD(keyword difficulty) score of less than 65%, that are searched more than 80 times a month and if the trend of the searches is going upwards, then group the similar long tail keywords and build a landing page, then I create an ad that is targeted to a specific geography and I run those ads for that landing page.
Even I am new to this, still experimenting, but compared to a month ago we have 20x more impressions out of which maybe 40% comes from the organic ones, as the KD score is low and page is coming in a better spot in the results.
Start targeting a niche then expand on that.
Sounds like a practical way of approaching it - will give it a go, thanks!