34 posts
Last-click attribution — Google Ads default — gives 100% of conversion credit to the final ad click before a conversion. For B2B SaaS with 30–90 day sales cycles, this systematically undercredits top-of-funnel campaigns and causes founders to turn off campaigns that were actually working.
Bidding on competitor brand names in Google Ads is legal and common in B2B SaaS. Done correctly, it captures prospects actively evaluating alternatives. Done wrong, it's expensive clicks from users who already chose the competitor and aren't switching. Here's the framework for when competitor bidding makes sense.
Bidding on your own brand name in Google Ads is controversial — why pay for clicks you'd get organically? For B2B SaaS, brand campaigns serve three purposes: protecting against competitors bidding on your brand, capturing high-intent branded traffic in a controlled ad, and using branded data to inform broader campaign strategy.
Setting up a Google Ads campaign for B2B software in 2026 requires more configuration than it did five years ago. The defaults Google encourages are often wrong for B2B SaaS. Here's the complete setup — campaign structure, keyword selection, audience setup, bidding, and the five settings to change from default.
High CTR with zero conversions is one of the most frustrating Google Ads problems. The ad is working — people are clicking. The conversion isn't — they're not taking action after they land. Here's the diagnostic framework: landing page issues, offer mismatch, form friction, and tracking problems.
Meta Ads (Facebook and Instagram) are commonly dismissed for B2B SaaS — 'that's a B2C channel.' The reality is more nuanced: Meta works for B2B when the targeting is right, the creative matches the platform, and the funnel is built for warm traffic rather than cold. Here's what actually converts and what wastes budget.
Google's in-market audiences segment users who are actively researching a purchase in a specific category. For B2B software ads, layering in-market audiences as bid adjustments — rather than primary targeting — improves conversion rate without reducing reach. Here are the most useful in-market segments for B2B SaaS.
Meta's audience targeting for B2B software requires a different approach than B2C. Job title targeting is available but noisy. Interest targeting reaches hobbyists as often as buyers. Here's the targeting stack that actually reaches B2B software buyers on Meta — and the combinations to avoid.
Quality Score is Google's 1–10 rating of how relevant your keyword, ad, and landing page are to a user's search. A high Quality Score reduces your cost per click and improves your ad position. A low Quality Score means you pay more for worse placement. Here's what drives it and how to improve it.
Google Ads offers multiple bidding strategies: Manual CPC, Maximize Clicks, Maximize Conversions, Target CPA, Target ROAS, and Enhanced CPC. For B2B SaaS founders, the right strategy depends on how much conversion data you have — Smart Bidding requires data to work, and using it before you have data burns budget.
Performance Max campaigns run across all Google channels simultaneously — Search, Display, YouTube, Gmail, Maps. For B2B SaaS, this often means most of your budget goes to Display and YouTube where B2B buyers aren't converting. Standard Search campaigns give you more control and typically outperform PMax for B2B SaaS with sub-$50K ACV.
Google Ads has three keyword match types: broad match, phrase match, and exact match. Each controls how closely a user's search must match your keyword for your ad to appear. For B2B SaaS founders, the wrong match type is the single fastest way to waste budget on irrelevant traffic.