Hi there,
Thanks for getting in touch. Running Meta ads for a B2B SaaS, especially when you're targeting a savvy audience like developers and product managers, is a common hurdle. It's a different ball game to B2C. I'm happy to give you some initial thoughts and guidance based on what I've seen work for other software companies we've helped.
There's a fair bit to unpack here, but if you get the foundations right, Meta can be a really powerful channel for you.
I'd say you need to be sure about your funnel first...
Before we even get to the ads themselves, the biggest mistake I see B2B companies make is getting their offer wrong. You're selling a complex product, and the sales cycle is naturally longer. No one is going to see a Facebook ad and immediately pull out a company card to buy a new software subscription. It's just not how it works. Changing tools is a huge effort for any business, especially for developers and PMs who are probably already embedded in existing workflows.
This means your ad campaign shouldn't be aimed at an immediate sale. The goal is to get them in the door. I've run quite a few campaigns for B2B SaaS and a completely free, no-commitment trial almost always outperforms everything else. You need to remove every bit of friction. I remember one client selling an accounting system only offered a demo. Their competition? They were offering 30, 60, even 90-day free trials. Who do you think is going to get the user to try them out?
So, the entire focus of your ads and landing page should be pushing one thing: "Start Your Free Trial". This gives them a chance to actually use the product and see its value for themselves. Your job is to make the ads compelling enough to get that first click, and the trial compelling enough that they sign up. The selling part comes later, through your onboarding emails and in-app experience. I remember one campaign where we got over 5,000 software trials at about $7 each on Meta. It works, but the offer has to be right.
We'll need to look at your targeting strategy...
Okay, so you've got your free trial offer sorted. Now, who do you show it to? This is where people get stuck with Meta for B2B. Targeting developers and product managers can be tricky because their job titles aren't always a reliable interest category on Facebook or Instagram.
You need to think like them. What tools do they use every day? What publications do they read? What communities are they part of? Your targeting should be based on these behaviours and interests, not just a broad "software development" interest which will be full of students and hobbyists. You have to layer interests to narrow it down. For instance, someone who is interested in 'Jira' AND 'Product Hunt' is much more likely to be a PM than someone who just likes 'Technology'.
Here’s a rough idea of how you could structure your audience testing. I'd group them into themes to see what works.
| Audience Type | Example Interests to Test (Layered) | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Developers | Interests: GitHub, Stack Overflow, Docker, Kubernetes, specific programming languages (e.g. Python, JavaScript) AND are page admins. | Focuses on the actual tools and platforms they use for work. Adding the 'page admin' behaviour helps filter for people in a professional capacity. |
| Product Managers | Interests: Jira, Asana, Trello, Product School, Mixpanel AND work at tech companies. | Targets the project management and analytics tools central to a PM's role, and narrows by company type. Its a much better approach than broad interests. |
| Competitor-based | Interests: People who like pages of your direct competitors. | A direct way to find people already using a similar solution. Your ad can highlight your unique selling point against them. |
Once you start getting some traffic and trial signups from this initial 'cold' targeting, you need to build out your retargeting and lookalike audiences. This is where the real performance comes from. A common mistake is not being specific enough. Don't just make a lookalike of "all website visitors". You want a lookalike of people who actually signed up for a trial, or even better, a lookalike of your best paying customers. The quality of the source audience is everything.
I usually prioritise audiences like this for SaaS campaigns:
-> Top Priority (Warmest Audience): Retargeting people who visited the pricing page or started the signup process but didn't finish. These are your hottest leads.
-> Mid Priority: Retargeting all other website visitors or people who watched a good chunk of your ad video.
-> Lookalikes: Start with a 1% Lookalike of your trial signups. As you get more data, you can test 1% Lookalikes of paying customers. These almost always outperform interest-based targeting once you have enough data.
You need to be patient and let the ads run to gather data. Don't turn an audience off after a day because it hasn't converted. You'll need to spend at least 2-3 times your target cost-per-trial on an audience before you can make a proper decision on wether it's a dud.
You probably should focus on creative that speaks their language...
Your target audience is analytical and skeptical. They can smell marketing fluff a mile away. Your ad copy and visuals need to be direct, credible, and focus on solving a real problem they have.
Forget generic benefits like "boost productivity". Be specific. What does that actually mean for them? Does your SaaS reduce deployment time by 30%? Does it automate a tedious reporting task that PMs hate? Does it integrate seamlessly with GitHub so developers don't have to switch context? Lead with the tangible outcome.
We've ran a lot of campaigns for B2B software and find that user-generated style content, like a simple screen recording or a testimonial video, can work really well. It feels more authentic than a slick, over-produced corporate video. For developers and PMs, seeing the actual UI and how it works is far more persuasive than seeing stock footage of people smiling in an office.
Here’s a quick comparison of what I mean:
| Weak Ad Copy | Stronger Ad Copy |
|---|---|
| Headline: The Future of Project Management Body: Supercharge your team's workflow with our innovative SaaS platform. Sign up today! |
Headline: Stop Wasting Hours on Manual Reports. Body: PMs, get your weekend back. Our tool integrates with Jira and automates your weekly progress reports in 90 seconds. See it in action. Start your free trial. |
See the difference? The second one identifies a specific audience (PMs), names a specific pain point (manual reports), mentions a tool they use (Jira), and gives a concrete benefit (automates in 90 seconds). That’s what gets the click.
You'll need a landing page that converts...
Finally, all this effort on your ads is wasted if your landing page drops the ball. A visitor from your ad should land on a page that is 100% focused on one single action: signing up for the free trial. Dont distract them with links to your blog, your 'about us' page, or anything else. The navigation bar should be gone.
The page needs to instantly reinforce the message from the ad. Use the same headline, repeat the key benefits, and have a big, obvious button for the call-to-action. Some professional copy on this page can make a massive difference to your conversion rate. A good copywriter who has experience with SaaS will know how to structure the page to build trust and persuade visitors to take that next step. You also need social proof. Logos of companies that use your tool (if you have any), testimonials from other developers or PMs, and any positive reviews are incredibly importent for building credibility with this audience.
I hope these initial thoughts are useful. It's a lot to take in, but getting these core elements right from the start will save you a lot of wasted ad spend down the line.
This is the main advice I have for you:
| Area of Focus | My Recommendation | Why It's Important |
|---|---|---|
| The Offer | Focus all advertising on a compelling, no-strings-attached free trial. | B2B SaaS is a considered purchase. A trial is the only way to get users to experience the product's value with low risk. |
| Audience Targeting | Use layered interest targeting based on tools, publications, and communities. Then build Lookalikes from your best users (trial signups/customers). | Avoids broad, wasteful audiences and hones in on people who are highly likely to be your ideal customer. |
| Ad Creative & Copy | Write direct copy that solves a specific, tangible pain point for a developer or PM. Test authentic video formats like screen recordings. | This audience is skeptical of marketing fluff. Credibility and clear value are what drives clicks and conversions. |
| Landing Page | Create a dedicated landing page with no distractions, a single call-to-action (the trial), and strong social proof (testimonials, logos). | A high conversion rate on your landing page is critical to achieving a low cost-per-trial and making your ad spend profitable. |
Getting this right isn't just about setting up a campaign and hoping for the best. It's a process of constant testing, learning, and optimising based on the data. I remember one case where we reduced the cost per user for a medical job matching SaaS from £100 to just £7 by systematically working through these areas.
If you'd like an expert pair of eyes to help you build a proper strategy for this, we're happy to offer a free initial consultation. We can take a look at your SaaS and map out a clear plan to get you started on the right foot.
Regards,
Team @ Lukas Holschuh
