Hi there,
Thanks for reaching out! I had a look over your project and it sounds interesting. Launching a ready-made AI SaaS builder is quite a specific B2B offer, and getting the advertising right from the start is definately the way to go.
I’m happy to give you some initial thoughts and guidance based on my experience running campaigns for other B2B and SaaS clients. It's a tricky market, but there are some clear paths you can take. A lot of folks jump straight into making ads, but I've found that a bit of groundwork first makes all the difference and saves a lot of money down the line. Below are some of my thoughts on how I'd approach this.
We'll need to look at your core proposition and offer...
Before a single penny is spent on ads, we have to be brutally honest about the website and the offer itself. I've seen too many campaigns fail not because the ads were bad, but because the landing page just wasn't ready to convert visitors. Your current website might be great, but for advertising, it needs to be a sharp, persuasive tool.
You're in a tough space. You're not just selling a piece of software; you're selling a business opportunity. That's a huge decision for someone to make. They need to trust not only that your software works, but that it's a viable foundation for their own company. It's a bit like the time we worked on a campaign for a new accounting system. The main hurdle wasn't the features, it was the massive effort and trust required for a business to switch its core systems. Your product has a similar high-stakes feel to it.
So, my first questions would be:
-> Who exactly is your ideal customer? Are they developers looking for a PHP script to save time? Are they non-technical entrepreneurs who have an idea for an AI tool but can't code? Are they marketing agencies wanting to add a new AI service to their offerings? Each of these groups needs a completely different message. You can't talk to a developer the same way you talk to a business owner. Nailing this persona down dictates everything that follows – the ad copy, the targeting, the landing page content.
-> What's the offer? I see you mention it's a ready-made software. But how does a potential customer experience it? One of the biggest mistakes I see with B2B SaaS is not having a compelling, low-friction way for people to try before they buy. You're asking for a significant investment. Who is going to pay for a 'business in a box' without at least seeing the control panel or trying out the builder? Your competition, I can almost guarantee, will be offering free trials, extensive demos, or sandbox environments. A video demo is good, but an interactive demo or a free trial is much, much better. It removes a massive amount of risk for the buyer and shows you're confident in your product. We ran campaigns for a SaaS client that struggled for months, but the moment they introduced a completely free trial, their signups shot up. It gives you a foot in the door so you can then onboard, nurture, and sell to them.
-> How does the website build trust? For a high-ticket B2B sale, trust is everything. Your website needs to scream credibility. This means more than just a slick design. It needs social proof. Do you have testimonials from early users? Case studies of businesses already built with your software? Even if you're just starting, you could offer a massive discount to your first few customers in exchange for them being featured in a detailed case study. You also need the basics: a propperly registered company address, a phone number, links to social profiles. People need to see there are real, accountable humans behind the software.
Getting some professional sales copy written for the main landing page could also make a world of difference. It's not just about listing features; it's about selling the dream of "launching an AI SaaS business quickly" and painting a picture of what success looks like for your customer. The copy needs to address their fears, answer their questions before they even ask them, and guide them clearly to the one action you want them to take (e.g., "Start Free Trial" or "Request Live Demo").
I'd say you need to pick the right advertising platform for the job...
Once the offer and website are solid, then we can think about driving traffic. Your request mentions "various platforms," but with a starting budget of $1000, that would be a mistake. You'd spread yourself too thin and not get enough data from any single platform to make good decisions. You need to pick one, maybe two, and focus all your energy there first. The question is, which one?
This comes back to your ideal customer. Where do they hang out online?
A) Google Search Ads
This is probably where I'd start. Why? Because you're capturing people with active intent. These are people who are already problem-aware and are actively searching for a solution like yours. This is the lowest-hanging fruit. For most business services, unless a company has an urgent need, it's very difficult to sell to them. Google Search gets you in front of them at the exact moment they have that need.
You'd do some keyword research to find what they're typing in. My gut feeling suggests keywords like:
- "white label AI software"
- "how to start an AI SaaS business"
- "AI SaaS builder script"
- "customizable AI business software"
- "PHP AI SaaS platform"
B) LinkedIn Ads
If your target audience isn't actively searching, or if you want to be more proactive, LinkedIn is the go-to for B2B. Its targeting capabilities are second to none. You can get incredibly specific, targeting people by:
- Job Title (e.g., "Founder", "CEO", "Entrepreneur", "Marketing Director")
- Industry (e.g., "Marketing and Advertising", "Information Technology and Services")
- Company Size (e.g., targeting people at small agencies or startups)
- Member Skills or Interests (e.g., "SaaS", "Entrepreneurship", "Venture Capital")
C) Meta (Facebook/Instagram) Ads
This is trickier for a niche B2B offer like yours. The B2B targeting options are much more limited than on LinkedIn. You can target people with interests like "SaaS" or "Entrepreneurship," or behaviours like "Small business owners," but it's a much broader net. You'll reach a lot of irrelevant people. That said, it's not impossible. I remember one B2B software client for whom we generated over 4,600 registrations at just $2.38 each using Meta ads. The key was a very compelling offer (a free tool) and a really smart campaign structure. For your product, it might work if you target people who are admins of Facebook business pages and layer that with entrepreneurial interests. It would require a lot of testing and your cost per lead would likely be lower than LinkedIn, but the lead quality might also be lower. It's probably not where I'd start, but it's an option to scale to later.
You probably should structure your campaigns for scale...
Okay, so let's say we've picked a platform (e.g., Google Search). You don't just "turn on ads". You need a structure that lets you test effectively and understand what's working. I usually think about this in terms of a funnel: Top, Middle, and Bottom (ToFu, MoFu, BoFu).
This might sound like jargon, but it's a simple idea: you talk to people differently depending on how familiar they are with you.
-> Top of Funnel (ToFu): The Cold Audience
This is your first contact. These people have never heard of you.
- On Google, this is them making that initial search. Your ad needs to be super relevant to their search query and have a compelling headline.
- On LinkedIn/Meta, this is your ad showing up in their feed. The creative (image/video) needs to stop them scrolling, and the headline needs to grab their attention immediately. The goal here isn't always to sell, but to introduce the problem you solve and get them to click through to your site.
-> Middle of Funnel (MoFu): The Warm Audience
These are people who have shown some interest. They've visited your website, watched some of your video ad, or engaged with your social media page. They know who you are, but they haven't taken that final step. This is where retargeting is so powerful.
- You can set up campaigns that ONLY show ads to these people.
- The message here is different. You don't need to introduce yourself again. Instead, you can show them testimonials from happy customers. You could show them a detailed demo video of a specific feature. You could offer them a whitepaper that explains the market opportunity for AI SaaS tools.
- The goal is to build more trust and keep your solution top of mind as they consider their options. For a B2B product with a long sales cycle, a robust MoFu strategy is absolutely essential.
-> Bottom of Funnel (BoFu): The Hot Audience
These people are on the verge of converting. They've visited your pricing page, or they've added your product to a cart, or they've started to fill out the "Request a Demo" form but got distracted.
- You retarget this small, high-intent group with a very direct message.
- The ad could be something like: "Still thinking it over? Chat with our founder today" or "Complete your purchase and get a special launch discount."
- This is about giving them that final nudge they need to convert.
Setting up your account with separate campaigns for each stage of this funnel allows you to control your messaging and budget effectively. You can allocate more spend to what's working and ensure you're not showing an introductory "hello" ad to someone who is about to buy. Propperly split testing your ad creatives and your audience targeting within this structure is how you methodically improve performance and lower your costs over time.
You'll need to manage budget and expectations...
This is a really important bit, especially given your budget and payment offer.
Budget: As I mentioned, $1000/month is a good amount to start testing ONE platform seriously. Let's say we pick Google Ads. That budget gives us around $33 per day. If clicks cost, say, $2-$5 (a reasonable estimate for your niche), that's about 6-16 clicks per day. It's enough to gather data, but it will take time. You won't get a flood of leads on day one. Patience is needed.
Expectations & Costs: B2B is not like eCommerce where you might see a return on ad spend (ROAS) in a few days. The sales cycle is much longer. Someone might see your ad today, research for a week, talk to their business partner, and then finally sign up for a demo two weeks later. You won't see immediate ROI, and you need to be prepared for that.
So what sort of costs can you expect? It's impossible to say for sure, but we can look at some benchmarks from our experience.
- We've seen B2B software trials on Meta come in at around $7 per trial.
- We've seen qualified leads from decision-makers on LinkedIn at $22 per lead.
- We once took a medical SaaS client's cost per user acquisition from over £100 down to just £7 through careful optimisation.
| Metric | Pessimistic Scenario | Optimistic Scenario |
|---|---|---|
| Avg. Cost Per Click (CPC) on Google/LinkedIn | $5.00 | $2.50 |
| Landing Page Conversion Rate (to Demo/Trial) | 2% | 5% |
| Calculated Cost Per Lead (CPL) | $250 ($5.00 / 2%) | $50 ($2.50 / 5%) |
As you can see, the potential range is huge. Your initial CPL could be very high. The whole job of a good marketer is to move you from the pessimistic side of that table to the optimistic side by improving targeting (which lowers CPC) and improving the landing page (which increases conversion rate).
Payment Model: Now, to be brutally honest, the 30% commission on conversions model is a major red flag for any experienced marketer or agency. The reason is that our success depends heavily on factors we don't control, like your website's conversion rate, your sales process, and the product's price point. If the website doesn't convert, we could send thousands of perfect potential customers and generate zero revenue, and therefore get paid nothing for weeks of work. It creates a difficult relationship. The standard in the industry is a monthly management retainer or a percentage of ad spend (or a combination). This ensures the marketer is compensated for their time, expertise, and the work of setting up, managing, and optimising the campaigns, regardless of the sales cycle's length. You will find it very difficult to attract the top-tier talent you're looking for with a pure commission structure, especially for a new B2B product.
This has been a lot of information, I know. But getting this foundation right is the difference between a campaign that burns through cash and one that becomes a predictable engine for growth.
I've detailed my main recommendations for you below in a table to try and simplify it.
| Area of Focus | My Recommendation |
|---|---|
| Offer & Website | Sharpen your ideal customer profile. Introduce a risk-free way to engage, like a free trial or an interactive demo. Your website copy must be persuasive and laser-focused on converting visitors, backed by strong trust signals like testimonials. |
| Primary Ad Platform | Start with Google Search Ads. Focus your entire initial budget here to capture high-intent users who are actively searching for your solution. Don't spread the budget across multiple platforms. |
| Targeting Stratagy | On Google, build campaigns around specific, bottom-of-funnel keywords like "white label AI software" and "start AI SaaS business". Avoid broad terms initially. |
| Campaign Structure | Even on one platform, structure your campaigns to seperate cold traffic (ToFu) from your retargeting audiences (MoFu/BoFu). This allows for more relevant messaging and better budget control. |
| Creative & Tracking | Ensure conversion tracking is set up perfectly from day one. For ad creative, focus on clear, benefit-driven headlines that speak directly to your ideal customer's goals. |
| Budget & Expectations | Commit the full $1000/month to Google Ads for at least 3 months to gather enough data. Do not expect immediate sales; focus on the cost per lead/demo as your primary metric. I'd also strongly advise reconsidering the payment model to attract an experienced professional. |
Working with an expert helps you skip the costly trial-and-error phase. Instead of spending months and thousands of dollars figuring this all out, you can lean on experience from hundreds of other campaigns to get it right, faster. We've seen what works for B2B SaaS and what doesn't, and can apply those learnings to your campaigns from day one.
If you'd like to discuss this further and have us take a look at your website and strategy in more detail, we offer a free initial consultation. It's a no-obligation chat where we can give you some more specific advice. Feel free to get in touch if that sounds helpful.
Hope this helps!
Regards,
Team @ Lukas Holschuh
