Solved: Low Signups for New SaaS with Freemium Model

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out. I saw your post and it sounds like a familiar story. It’s tough when you've built something you're proud of and the launch doesn't meet your expectations. You're definately not alone in feeling that way. I'm happy to give you some initial thoughts based on my experience running paid ad campaigns for a lot of SaaS businesses over the years. No fluff, just some straight-up advice on what might be going on and how to think about it differently.

Honestly, 69 signups in three days isn't a total disaster, especialy if it's mostly organic. But the "1000 MRR in a month" stuff you see online is usually survivorship bias or from people with an existing massive audience. For most founders, it's a grind. The magic trick isn't a trick at all, it's a system. And that system starts long before you even think about running an ad.

We'll need to look at who your customer really is...

Right, first thing's first. You said you've built a SaaS. My immediate question is: for who? And if your answer is "for businesses" or "for project managers", that's the first big problem we need to fix. Forget the sterile, demographic-based profile your last marketing hire might have made. "Companies in the tech sector with 10-50 employees" tells you absolutely nothing of value. It's a recipe for generic ads that speak to no one and get ignored by everyone.

To stop burning cash and actually get traction, you must define your customer by their pain. A deep, urgent, expensive, maybe even career-threatening nightmare. Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) isn't a demographic; it's a problem state. You need to become an obsessive expert in that problem.

Let's make this real. Your Head of Sales client isn't just a job title; he's a leader staring at a flat-lining sales chart, terrified of missing his quarterly target and having to explain it to the board. Your Head of Engineering client isn't just an 'engineer'; she's a manager petrified that her best developers are about to quit because they're so frustrated with a broken, inefficient workflow. For a legal tech SaaS, the nightmare isn't just 'needing better document management'; it's 'a senior partner missing a critical filing deadline, exposing the entire firm to a multi-million pound malpractice suit.' See the difference? One is a job description, the other is a raw nerve.

Once you've really isolated that specific nightmare, your whole world changes. Now you can find them. Where do these people live online? What niche podcasts do they listen to on their commute, like 'Acquired' or 'This Week in Startups'? What industry newsletters do they actually open every morning, like 'Stratechery'? What SaaS tools are they *already* paying for, like HubSpot, Salesforce, or Intercom? Are they members of the 'SaaS Growth Hacks' Facebook group? Do they follow people like Jason Lemkin or SaaStr on social media? This isn't just data; its the blueprint for your entire marketing and advertising strategy. You have to do this work first, or you have no business spending a single pound on ads.

I'd say you need to make them an offer they can't ignore...

Now that we know the nightmare, we need to build the cure. The number one reason I see ad campaigns fail, time and time again, is the offer. An offer that isn't compelling enough, or one that's presented to an audience who dont have a burning need for it. It's a fundamental lack of demand. I've seen countless founders chase what they think is a great idea, build loads of features, and spend years developing a 'polished' product, only to hit a wall because nobody's hair is on fire with the problem they're trying to solve.

Your ad copy and your landing page needs to speak directly to the problem state we just identified. You need a message they simply can't ignore because it feels like you're reading their mind. There's a few classic copywriting frameworks for this, and they work because they're based on human psychology.

One is Problem-Agitate-Solve (PAS). You don't just state the problem, you twist the knife a little. For example, if you were selling a financial reporting SaaS, you wouldn't say "We make financial reports". You'd say: "Are your cash flow projections just a wild guess in the dark? (Problem) Are you one bad month away from a payroll crisis while your competitors are confidently raising their next funding round? (Agitate) Get expert financial strategy automated in minutes. We build dashboards that turn that crippling uncertainty into predictable, scalable growth. (Solve)"

Another is Before-After-Bridge. You paint a picture of their current hell, show them the promised land, and position your SaaS as the vehicle to get them there. For a FinOps platform, you wouldn't say "We have cloud cost optimisation features". You'd say: "Your AWS bill just landed. It's 30% higher than last month, again, and your engineers have no idea why. Another fire to put out, another afternoon wasted. (Before) Now, imagine opening your cloud bill and actually smiling. You see exactly where every single dollar is going, and waste is automatically flagged and eliminated before it becomes a problem. (After) Our platform is the bridge that gets you from chaos to control. (Bridge)"

This is about shifting your mindset from selling features to selling outcomes. Nobody buys a drill because they want a drill; they buy a drill because they want a hole in the wall. Your customers don't buy "SaaS", they buy a solution to their nightmare. A "polished" and "useful" product is the bare minimum. A message that hits a nerve is what gets the click and the signup.

You probably should kill the "Request a Demo" button...

This brings me to the final piece of the puzzle before we even talk about ads: the Call to Action (CTA). This is the most common point of failure in all of B2B advertising. The "Request a Demo" button is, frankly, one of the most arrogant and self-serving CTAs ever conceived. It presumes your prospect, who is likely a busy decision-maker, has nothing better to do with their day than book a meeting to sit through a sales pitch. It's a high-friction, low-value ask that instantly positions you as just another commodity vendor clamoring for their time.

Your offer's only job is to deliver a moment of undeniable value—an "aha!" moment that makes the prospect sell *themselves* on your solution. It has to solve a small part of their problem for free to earn you the right to ask them to pay to solve the whole thing.

As a SaaS founder with a freemium model, you have an enormous, almost unfair, advantage here. The gold standard offer is a free trial (with no credit card details required) or a freemium plan (again, no card). This is exactly what you should be pushing. Let them use the actual product. Let them experience the transformation firsthand. When the product itself proves its own value, the sale becomes a simple formality. You're not trying to generate Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) for a sales team to chase down; you're creating Product Qualified Leads (PQLs) who are already convinced and are now asking you how they can pay to get more.

Your freemium plan is your best sales tool. Everything, every ad, every landing page, should be laser-focused on getting people to experience that "aha!" moment inside your product as quickly and with as little friction as possible. Don't hide it behind demos or lengthy sign-up forms. Make it the hero of your entire strategy.

You'll need a scalable plan to get infront of them...

Okay, so you've nailed your ICP's nightmare, crafted a message that hits the nerve, and you have a frictionless freemium offer. Now, how do we get people to see it? This is where we talk channels.

Organic & PR (The early grind):

You mentioned you just launched. In the early days, you should absolutely be doing the unscalable things.
-> I often see new apps getting their first hundred or so users by listing in directories like Betalist, Product Hunt, Indie Hackers, and Capterra. This is great for getting in front of early adopters, gathering crucial feedback, and building some initial social proof. A good Product Hunt launch can be a game-changer.
-> You could also try some light PR. Reaching out to publications and blogs in your specific niche who cover new software. Don't just spray and pray. Find journalists who have written about the *problem* you solve and give them a story.
-> Content and SEO is a long-term play. If people are actively searching for solutions to the problem your SaaS solves, creating content around those search terms can be powerful. But it takes a lot of time and effort to see results, it won't fix your immediate traction problem.

Paid Ads (The growth engine):

This is where things get interesting. Paid advertising costs money, obviously, but it's the only channel that is immediate, scalable, and predictable once you get it right. If you put £1 in and get £3 out, you have a machine you can fuel with more budget to grow. This is how companies go from 69 signups to thousands.

But here's the brutally honest truth: with your current website and offer (as you've described it), you'll likely see very low conversion rates, which means a high cost per signup. We need to fix the foundations first, as we've discussed. Once that's done, we can pick the right ad platform.

-> Are people actively searching for a solution like yours? If yes, then Google Search ads are likely your best bet. You're catching people with high intent at the exact moment they're looking for help. You'd do keyword research around terms your ideal customer would type in, like "software for [the problem you solve]" or "[your competitor] alternative".
-> If they aren't actively searching, then you need to interrupt them where they hang out online. For B2B, that usually means LinkedIn Ads or Meta (Facebook/Instagram) Ads. LinkedIn offers incredible B2B targeting (job title, company size, industry), but it's expensive. Meta is cheaper, and we've had huge success for B2B SaaS on there, but the targeting is broader. We got one B2B software client 4,622 registrations at just $2.38 each using Meta Ads, which is fantastic. The key is to get the targeting and the creative right.

The goal with paid ads is to drive traffic to a dedicated landing page that's 100% focused on selling the freemium signup. No distractions, just a clear, persuasive argument that funnels them towards that one action.

You'll need to understand the economics of your growth...

Before you spend a single penny on ads, you need to know your numbers. The real question isn't "How low can my Cost Per Signup go?" but "How high a Cost Per Signup can I afford to acquire a truly great customer?" The answer is found in its counterpart: Customer Lifetime Value (LTV).

Let's run through a quick, hypothetical calculation. You need three numbers:

1. Average Revenue Per Account (ARPA): What's the average amount a paying customer pays you per month? Let's say it's £100.
2. Gross Margin %: What's your profit margin on that revenue? For SaaS, this is usually high. Let's say it's 90%.
3. Monthly Churn Rate: What percentage of your paying customers do you lose each month? This is critical. Let's say it's 5%.

Now, the simple LTV calculation:

LTV = (ARPA * Gross Margin %) / Monthly Churn Rate
LTV = (£100 * 0.90) / 0.05
LTV = £90 / 0.05 = £1,800

In this example, each paying customer is worth £1,800 in gross margin to your business over their lifetime. Now you have the truth. A healthy business model often aims for a 3:1 LTV to Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) ratio. This means you can afford to spend up to £600 (£1,800 / 3) to acquire a single *paying customer*.

Let's take it a step further. If your sales process (or your freemium-to-paid funnel) converts 1 in 20 signups into a paying customer (a 5% conversion rate), you can now calculate your target Cost Per Signup:

Max Cost Per Signup = CAC / Number of Signups to get 1 Customer
Max Cost Per Signup = £600 / 20 = £30

Suddenly, paying £5, £7, or even £15 for a high-quality signup from a decision-maker on LinkedIn or Meta doesn't seem so expensive, does it? It looks like a bargain. This is the math that unlocks aggressive, intelligent growth. It frees you from the tyranny of chasing cheap, low-quality signups and allows you to focus on acquiring customers who will actually pay you money. We had one SaaS client in the medical recruitment space where we took their Cost Per User Acquisition from a crippling £100 down to just £7 by optimising their targeting and messaging. It's possible, but you need to know what you can afford to spend first.

Let's talk about how to actually run the ads...

Alright, you know your ICP's nightmare, your message is sharp, your freemium offer is front and centre, and you understand the economics. Now it's time to actually acquire users. I'm going to focus on Meta ads here, as it's often the most scalable platform for SaaS once you crack it.

The Awareness Campaign Trap:
First, an important warning. When you go to create a campaign on Meta, you'll see objectives like "Reach" or "Brand Awareness". Do not, under any circumstances, use them. You are giving the algorithm a very specific command: "Find me the largest number of people for the lowest possible price." The algorithm, being very good at its job, will find users inside your targeting who are least likely to click, engage, or ever pull out a credit card. Why? Because their attention is cheap. You are actively paying the world's most powerful advertising machine to find you the worst possible audience for your product. Awareness is a *byproduct* of getting customers, not a prerequisite. Always, always optimise your campaigns for a conversion objective, like Leads or, in your case, a custom conversion for a completed freemium signup.

Audience Targeting & Funnel Structure:
When I audit new client accounts, the most common mistake is messy, illogical audience testing. You need a structure. Think of it in terms of a funnel: Top (ToFu), Middle (MoFu), and Bottom (BoFu).

Here's how I'd prioritise audiences for a new SaaS account:

1. Top of Funnel (ToFu) - Finding New People:
This is where you start. Your goal is to get initial data and signups.
-> Detailed Targeting: Start here. You need to pick interests, behaviours, and demographics that your ICP would have. Be specific. If you're targeting e-commerce store owners, don't just target the interest "Amazon". That's way to broad. You'll hit millions of shoppers. Instead, target interests like "Shopify", "WooCommerce", "eCommerceFuel", or people who are admins of a Facebook retail page. Layering can help too (e.g., people who like "Shopify" AND are "small business owners"). Your goal is to find interests that contain a high concentration of your ICP.
-> Lookalike Audiences: Once you have at least 100 signups (but ideally 1,000+), you can create Lookalike audiences. This is where Meta's algorithm finds new people who are statistically similar to your existing best users. You'd create a Lookalike of your freemium signups list. This is often where the real scale comes from.

2. Middle/Bottom of Funnel (MoFu/BoFu) - Retargeting:
This is your lowest hanging fruit. These are people who have already shown interest but haven't signed up yet. You need to bring them back.
-> Website Visitors: Anyone who visited your landing page but didn't sign up.
-> Video Viewers: Anyone who watched a significant portion (e.g., 50%) of one of your video ads.
-> Social Engagers: Anyone who liked, commented, or shared one of your posts or ads.

You'd run separate campaigns for ToFu and Retargeting. The messaging is different. For ToFu, you're introducing the problem and solution. For Retargeting, you might show them a customer testimonial, highlight a specific feature, or remind them of the value of the freemium plan. This structure allows you to test systematically and see what's working. I remember one B2B SaaS campaign where we got 1,535 trials primarilly by getting this funnel structure and the subsequent lookalike audiences right.

The key is to test, test, and test again. Run different audiences against each other in different ad sets within your campaign. Run different ad creatives (images, videos, headlines) against each other. After a few days, you'll see which ones are performing. Turn off the losers, and give more budget to the winners. It's a process of continuous optimisation.

This is a lot to take in, I know. But chasing "magic tricks" is a path to frustration and wasted money. Building a proper, systematic growth engine is how you get to 1,000 MRR and beyond. It starts with deep customer understanding, not a polished product.

I've detailed my main recommendations for you in a table below to make it a bit clearer:

Getting this right is a specialised skill. It's not just about setting up an ad and hoping for the best; it's about deeply understanding the audience, the platform's algorithm, the messaging, the funnel, and the economics. It's a full-time job, and for a founder who also needs to build the product and run the company, it can be impossible to do it all well.

This is where professional help can make a huge difference. An experienced paid ads specialist can build this entire growth engine for you, taking over the implementation, testing, and optimisation process to ensure every pound you spend is working as hard as it possibly can to grow your user base and your revenue.

If you'd like to chat through your specific situation in more detail, we offer a free, no-obligation initial strategy session where we can have a proper look at your SaaS and give you some more tailored advice. It might be helpful to get another set of expert eyes on it.

Hope this helps give you a clearer path forward.

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh