B2B SaaS Google Ads: The UK Founder's Playbook

I see this all the time. A B2B SaaS founder in the UK, sharp as a tack, brilliant product, but their Google Ads account is a bonfire of cash. They're getting clicks, sure, but no trials. Or they're getting leads that ghost them after the first email. They blame the high cost of clicks in the UK market, they blame Google, they blame their last agency. The truth is, the problem is almost always the strategy.

You're likely making one of three critical mistakes: you're targeting the wrong people, you're making the wrong offer, or you're measuring the wrong thing. Let's sort this out. This isn't about finding a magic "hack." It's about applying a ruthless, logical framework to your advertising so you can stop guessing and start scaling profitably. I've run quite a few campaigns for B2B SaaS and the difference between failure and success is almost never the ad platform itself.

Your Ideal Customer is a Nightmare, Not a Demographic

The first thing I often see in failing accounts is a complete misunderstanding of the target audience. The targeting is set to "Companies in the UK, 50-200 employees, tech sector". That's not a target audience. It's a phone book entry. It tells you nothing about their problems, their urgency, or their willingness to pay.

You need to stop thinking in terms of demographics and start thinking in terms of pain. Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) isn't a person; it's a problem state. It's a nightmare. For example:

• You don't sell "HR software." You sell a solution to the nightmare of a Head of People who is terrified of losing their best talent to burnout and bad management.
• You don't sell "cybersecurity software." You sell peace of mind to a CTO whose nightmare is explaining a data breach to the board and the ICO.
• You don't sell a "financial planning tool." You sell a way out of the nightmare for a CFO who can't get a clear picture of cash flow and is staring down the barrel of a payroll crisis.

When you define your customer by their specific, urgent, expensive problem, your entire ad strategy changes. Your ad copy stops talking about your features and starts talking about their fears. Your keyword strategy stops targeting broad, informational terms and starts targeting high-intent, problem-solving phrases. You have to get this right before you spend another pound, otherwise you're just shouting into the void. This is probably the most common mistake I see people make, they just haven't defined their audience properly.

What's the Maths? The Only Metric a SaaS Founder Should Care About

Right, let's talk numbers. So many founders are obsessed with getting the lowest possible Cost Per Lead (CPL). "We got a £50 CPL!" they say. So what? If that lead never converts or churns after a month, you've just wasted £50. The real question isn't "how low can my CPL go?" but "how high a CPL can I afford to acquire a great customer?"

The answer lies in its counterpart: Customer Lifetime Value (LTV). Once you know what a customer is truly worth to you, you can make intelligent, aggressive decisions about how much you're willing to pay to get one. It liberates you from the tyranny of cheap, low-quality leads.

Here's the basic formula:

LTV = (Average Revenue Per Account (ARPA) * Gross Margin %) / Monthly Churn Rate

Let's run through a quick example. Say your software costs £300/month (ARPA), your gross margin is 85%, and you lose 3% of your customers each month (churn).

LTV = (£300 * 0.85) / 0.03
LTV = £255 / 0.03 = £8,500

In this scenario, each customer is worth £8,500 in gross margin over their lifetime. A healthy LTV:CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) ratio is at least 3:1. This means you can afford to spend up to £2,833 to acquire a single customer. If your sales process converts 1 in 10 qualified leads, you can pay up to £283 for that lead. Suddenly that £150 lead from Google Ads doesn't seem so bad, does it? It looks like a bargain.

Play around with the calculator below. This isn't just an academic exercise; this is the fundamental maths that should underpin your entire marketing budget. Get this number wrong, and your whole growth model is built on sand.

What Keywords Should a UK B2B SaaS Actually Target?

Once you know your numbers and your customer's pain, you can find them on Google. The key is to focus relentlessly on high-intent keywords. These are the search terms people use when they are actively looking to buy a solution, not just learn about a topic. A lot of agencies get this wrong, they target broad terms to get cheap clicks and show you a fancy looking report, but the traffic doesn't convert.

The difference is stark:

• Low Intent (Informational): "what is GDPR compliance", "how to improve team collaboration", "data security best practices"
• High Intent (Commercial/Transactional): "gdpr compliance software uk", "trello alternative for agencies", "best pentesting service london"

Targeting low-intent keywords is a great strategy for a content marketing or SEO plan, but it's a terrible way to spend your paid ad budget. You're paying to educate people who might not be ready to buy for months, if ever. With Google Ads, you want to get in front of the person who has the credit card out, metaphorically speaking. You want the person who has already decided they have a problem and are now evaluating solutions. If you're struggling with this, our guide on how to stop wasting money on Google Ads provides a much deeper look into picking the right keywords.

Here's a quick look at how you'd apply this to a hypothetical UK SaaS product—a project management tool for creative agencies.

How to Structure Your Campaigns for Profit, Not Just Clicks

How you organise your campaigns is just as important as the keywords you choose. A messy, disorganised account is impossible to optimise and scale. You need a logical structure that allows you to control budgets, messaging, and bidding for different types of intent.

For most B2B SaaS companies in the UK, I'd recommend a structure that separates campaigns based on user intent and awareness. This isn't the only way to do it, but it's a solid, dependable starting point that works for most.

Here’s a simplified visual of a robust campaign structure:

Why structure it this way?
-> Brand Campaign: This is defensive. You bid on your own name to stop competitors from stealing your most qualified traffic. These clicks are cheap and convert at a very high rate. It's a must-have.
-> High-Intent Campaign: This is your workhorse for new customer acquisition. You break it down into tightly themed ad groups (e.g., one for 'workflow' keywords, one for 'reporting' keywords). This allows you to write hyper-relevant ad copy that speaks directly to that specific pain point.
-> Competitor Campaign: This is an aggressive growth lever. You target people actively looking to switch from your rivals. The copy here needs to be sharp, highlighting your key differentiators.

This structure gives you control. You can allocate most of your budget to the high-intent campaign, bid aggressively in the competitor campaign, and ensure you never miss a search for your own brand. Once you have this down, you can start thinking about scaling your ads effectively across the UK.

Your Landing Page is Leaking Money: Kill the "Request a Demo" Button

This might be my most controversial piece of advice, but it's one I stand by. The "Request a Demo" button is one of the most arrogant, high-friction calls to action in B2B marketing. It asks a busy, important person to commit their time to be sold to, before they've received any real value from you.

Think about it from their perspective. They've clicked an ad. They're curious, but skeptical. Your offer is to book a slot in their calendar for a sales pitch. It's a huge ask. It's no wonder conversion rates on these pages are often abysmal.

Your offer's only job is to deliver an "aha!" moment. A moment of undeniable value that makes the prospect sell themselves on your solution. You must solve a small, real problem for free to earn the right to solve the big one.

For a SaaS business, this is your unfair advantage. Your options are brilliant:

• A genuinely free trial (no credit card): This is the gold standard. Let them use the product. Let them experience the transformation. If your product is good, it will sell itself. You're creating Product Qualified Leads (PQLs), not just Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs).
• A freemium plan: Similar to a trial, but it's a permanent free tier. Excellent for products with network effects or a simple entry-point.
• A free, valuable tool: Can't offer a trial? Bottle your expertise. An accountancy SaaS could offer a "Free Cash Flow Forecaster." A marketing SaaS could offer a "Free Headline Grader." Give them something useful right now.

We use this ourselves. We offer a free 20-minute strategy session where we audit failing ad campaigns. We provide real value upfront, demonstrating our expertise. This builds trust and qualifies the prospect far better than any demo ever could. By switching your offer from a high-friction "ask" to a high-value "give", you'll see a dramatic improvement in your conversion rates and lead quality. Of course, once you make this change, it's vital to ensure you can track every single lead and trial signup to prove the ROI.

What Does Success Actually Look Like? (Data from the Trenches)

It's easy to talk theory. But what kind of results are actually possible when you get this right for a B2B SaaS in the UK? It's not about promising the moon. It's about setting realistic benchmarks based on real-world data. Tbh in paid advertising, you can't really promise anything as it's impossible to predict how exactly the ads will perform.

I've pulled some data from a few B2B SaaS campaigns we've worked on to give you an idea. These are not guarantees, but they show what a well-oiled machine can achieve. For example, for one medical job matching SaaS client, we reduced their Cost Per User Acquisition from £100 down to just £7. For another software client, we generated leads from B2B decision-makers on LinkedIn for just $22 a piece.

These results weren't achieved by finding some secret keyword or ad format. They were the result of applying the exact principles laid out in this article: understanding the LTV:CAC maths, defining the customer by their pain, targeting high-intent keywords, and presenting a high-value, low-friction offer. It's a repeatable system, not a lottery ticket.

How Do You Choose the Right Partner To Do This For You?

So, you're armed with the right strategic framework. You could definitely go and implement all of this yourself. But maybe you're a founder and your time is better spent on product, or sales, or hiring. How do you find an agency or consultant in the UK who actually gets this stuff and won't just burn your cash?

First, take a good look at their case studies. Are they specific to B2B SaaS? Are they recent? Do they talk about business results (like ROAS or LTV:CAC) or just vanity metrics (like clicks and impressions)? If they don't have proven, relevant experience, walk away. We have detailed case studies walking through the full strategies we've implemented, which gives any prospective client a good idea of what we can do.

Second, get on a call with them. Ask them about their process. Ask them how they would calculate your target CAC. Ask them what kind of offer they'd recommend. If they just give you vague promises about "getting you results" without a clear, logical strategy, they don't have one. Look for genuine expertise. A good partner should feel like a strategic advisor, not a sales rep.

Finally, avoid anyone who promises specific results. As I said before, it's impossible. A true expert knows there are too many variables. They should be confident in their process and their ability to optimise towards a goal, but they won't guarantee a specific CPA or ROAS. If you need more guidance on this, we've written up a full guide to hiring a paid ads expert which covers what to look for and what red flags to avoid. Deciding between an in-house team and an agency is also a major decision with its own set of trade-offs.

This is the main advice I have for you:

Getting Google Ads right for a B2B SaaS business in the UK is a challenge, but it is far from impossible. It requires discipline, a focus on the right metrics, and a deep empathy for your customer's most pressing problems. Stop thinking about it as just "running ads" and start thinking about it as building a scalable, predictable engine for growth.

If you're tired of the guesswork and want a clear, data-backed plan to scale your SaaS, you might want to consider expert help. We offer a free, no-obligation strategy session where we'll audit your current ad account (if you have one) and build a custom growth map for you. We'll show you exactly where the opportunities are, what keywords to target, and how to structure your campaigns for profit. No hard sell, just straightforward, actionable advice.