The B2B SaaS Marketing Blog

3 Tactics for Overcoming Low Paid Search Volume as a B2B SaaS Company

by 

Brandon Coward

Last updated: February 7th, 2025

Paid search marketers eventually reach a point of diminishing returns where investing more into campaigns targeting low volume keywords no longer produces a justifiable ROI.

After maximizing the ROI from low volume keywords, where should you invest the rest of your ad budget?

Many marketers target broader keywords further up the funnel, but doing so may attract clicks from people who don’t fit your ICP (especially if you’re targeting enterprise clients), leading to wasted ad spend. 

Our enterprise B2B SaaS clients frequently encounter these challenges and have developed three strategies to profitably scale ad spend and ensure each campaign only attracts clicks from the right ICP.  

Tactic #1: Dedicate Paid Search Budget to Microsoft Bing Ads

SaaS companies often write off Microsoft Bing Ads as they assume very few people use the platform as their primary search engine.

Yet Microsoft products are a dominant player in enterprise business, and Bing is often the default search engine used by enterprise prospects.

For example, our client, Snap Projections, sells financial planning software to Canadian financial advisors. Most of their prospects work for large financial services firms in Canada, like ManuLife and iA Private Wealth.

However, a Canadian financial advisor who works under the umbrella of a large firm likely uses Windows devices and software, so Bing is probably their default search engine.

Even if Bing doesn’t have as much search traffic as Google, it generates new traffic you don’t have to bid higher to acquire. 

We also find that Bing traffic is typically cheaper than Google, and the quality is equivalent. 

Unfortunately, Bing ads have a steeper learning curve than Google ads, as Bing requires more manual campaign management. It’s also important to be very strict with negative keywords. 

Otherwise, you’ll find that the traffic quality is significantly lower. 

We typically dedicate about 10-20% of the ad budget to Bing ads for enterprise SaaS clients that have maxed out low volume keywords on Google ads.

How To Set Up Microsoft Ads For B2B SaaS

Microsoft Ads allows you to import campaigns straight from Google. Keywords, ads, and all other settings will pour over to Bing without friction.

The one caveat is you still have to set up tracking and attribution. Similar to Google Analytics, 

Microsoft has its own tracking pixel, and here’s how you can get started:

• Set up UTM parameters: You can set them up at the account level and then ensure you’re testing them because Bing’s auto-tagging is unreliable. 
• Add their pixel across your entire website
• Create new audiences
• Create new goals
• Configure your Bing campaigns: Do this according to those audiences and goals.

After completing the setup process, run and track your campaigns the same way you would with Google.

Tactic #2: Expand Your Reach With Geoexpansion (When Applicable)

After maxing out low volume search terms across both Bing and Google for your existing regions, expanding to other regions can effectively capture more bottom of funnel traffic without increasing acquisition costs. 

However, it’s important to expand to other geographies methodically. There are three common mistakes we see SaaS companies make that cause geoexpansion efforts to fail:

1. Selecting the wrong regions: If you select regions with dramatically different economies, prospects may not match your ICP criteria. It’s also important to have sales reps living in that region or familiar with its economy to ensure their pitch is tailored to current market conditions. Sales reps should also be native or fluent in the prospect’s language.
2. Selecting too broad a region: If you expand to the entire U.K., but most of your customers are located in London, you’ll potentially waste budget on people who don’t fit your ICP. Instead, only target specific cities within regions you know your target audience exists.  
3. Using the same creatives across different regions: Each country has nuanced differences in cultural norms and a message that resonates with one region may not resonate with another. Additionally, market conditions will vary and your messaging should be adjusted accordingly. For example, here at Powered By Search, we adjust our own content to fit current market conditions. If the economy is thriving and budgets are expanding, we tailor the content to discuss how to scale. If the economy is contracting and budgets are tightening, we adjust the content to discuss pain points related to improving efficiency. Finally, different regions often have different laws. For example, cybersecurity laws may differ in other countries, so a company selling cybersecurity software should adjust its messaging according to each country’s regulations.
4. Using the same bidding strategies: Many companies use the same bidding strategies across all regions, but search volume varies by region, so adjust your bidding strategy accordingly.

Here’s the step-by-step strategy we use for geoexpansion campaigns.

1. Identify The Best Regions For Expansion

To select the best region to expand to, look at the regions that currently drive the most organic sales. To do this, you can:

• Review Customer Data and Analytics data for key regions for expansion
• Ask your sales team which countries they see the most leads from
• Look at customer data to see which countries are most common among your user base
• Do keyword research to see which countries have the highest search volume for your target keywords.

Once you have a list of these regions, make sure you have sales reps that can support that region. 

You can also check to see if the region has similar market conditions and the capacity to meet your ICP criteria. However, if you already have customers from those regions, the answer is likely ‘yes.’

Choose countries for your tier two campaigns based on this data.

If you don’t have data, run a small test in a few regions you’re considering. That should give you insights into which ones to choose.

2. Run Your First Test

Take the messaging and keywords you’re already using in your primary region, and copy it into a new campaign. Whoever is responsible for that region can check the copy to ensure it’s generally applicable to the prospects in this region, but we’ll do more optimizations in the next step.

Use this duplicate campaign to run your first test.

To prevent overspending, reset your ad settings to their defaults. 

For example, if you know that keywords cost 20% less in the U.K. compared to the United States, don’t keep the same bids. Reduce them by 20% to account for that.

3. Optimize And Test Variations

Your ads go through their learning phases at this stage.

We let the initial keywords and ads run in a new region to gather data before creating new variations. During this phase, we’re looking at things like:

• Which headlines resonate?
• Which value propositions attract clicks?
• Which keywords are useful in this region and which are not?

You can adjust the copy and offer depending on the highest-performing campaigns.

Take note of differences in search volume for the same keywords across various regions.  

To determine these differences, look at search query reports. You can also create filters in Google Search Console to see keywords people search for based on country.

For example, here’s our Search Console data showing a small handful of the things that people in the U.S. search for before visiting our site:

Note which keywords receive searches and which don’t. Optimize your campaigns to focus on the searches that get clicks.

The other changes you make will vary. For example, you might need to account for time differences so that your ads display only during working hours of your target region.

4. Evaluate

Evaluate your campaigns based on the following key performance indicators:

• Click-through rate
• Cost per acquisition

Your goal is to increase the click-through rate while decreasing CPA. Not every test will accomplish this goal, so continue testing until you achieve this goal.

Tactic #3: Move Up The Funnel With MOFU Keywords (With A Caveat)

Targeting MOFU keywords sounds like a good idea in theory because:

1. Capturing prospects before they’re ready to buy and building a relationship with them early can give your company an edge over the competition when they’re ready to make a purchase.
2. Educating prospects on your products and services early in the buyer journey reduces friction when they are ready to make a purchase decision at the end of the buying cycle. As BOFU marketing efforts tend to be more expensive and competitive, earning a MOFU customer and nurturing them through email can significantly reduce customer acquisition costs.

Despite the theory that targeting MOFU keywords is a profitable strategy to scale Google Ads, many SaaS companies incorporating MOFU keywords into their bidding strategies still see a lower ROI.

Targeting MOFU keywords can work, but it’s important to consider a few factors. 

First, optimize the marketing funnel to ensure that prospects entering it move seamlessly through the buyer journey. You’ll lose prospects if there’s any friction throughout the journey, causing the traffic captured through MOFU keywords to have a low conversion rate (or if that traffic converts, it will require more remarketing, thus increasing customer acquisition costs). 

Secondly, the typical definition of “MOFU” encompasses a broad range of pain point related keywords. 

The problem is that not everyone searching for a pain point related to the problem your product solves is your ICP. Sure, a percentage of people searching those keywords might be your ICP, but there might also be a large percentage of people who don’t fit your ICP searching those keywords. 

For example, let’s say you have a fundraising software targeting non-profits that frequently collect six figure donations. In this case, about 20% of people searching a keyword like “how to attract more donors” might fit your ICP, but a large percentage of them are likely smaller non-profit organizations who will never become customers.

For organic SEO, targeting those MOFU keywords is still likely worthwhile because you’ll benefit from attracting the percentage of searchers who fit your ICP, and there’s no cost to attracting the traffic that doesn’t fit your ICP.    

Yet with paid search, there is a cost to attracting traffic that doesn’t fit your ICP.  

The solution is to amend your MOFU keyword selection and only target keywords where about 80% or more of the people searching those keywords fit your ICP rather than just focusing on the pain point. 

Returning to the example of fundraising software targeting non-profits that collect six figure donations, an example of a MOFU keyword that is searched primarily by their target audience might be “how to run a capital campaign.” (A capital campaign is designed to collect large donations for significant purchases like land and construction.) 

Therefore, even though it’s a MOFU keyword targeting people in the consideration stage, everyone searching that keyword fits within the hypothetical fundraising software’s ICP. As a result, that keyword will likely be significantly more profitable than the other MOFU keyword (“how to attract more donors.”)

Of course, the challenge is identifying these keywords. 

Here are some frameworks we use:

• Gartner {MDM} Report
• Forrester {insert industry} Reports
• Product line related keywords (e.g., “data compliance best practices” would be a product line keyword for a data governance software)

Some additional keywords that some consider BOFU whereas others consider MOFU, but should definitely be on your list include:

• (Competitor name) G2, Trustpilot, etc.
• Competitor Comparisons (Brand A vs Brand B)
• (Competitor name) Reviews

Once you’re targeting the right MOFU keywords, it’s critical to have a compelling offer and funnel.

If you’re targeting BOFU keywords, you only need a simple landing page explaining the pain points your product solves and its features and benefits to drive conversions. 

However, MOFU prospects are less familiar with your brand’s solution and may require more nurturing than a BOFU customer. If you immediately pitch your product before prospects know how it solves their problem, they won’t convert.

The MOFU offer should instead educate prospects on the pain point they’re researching and make them aware of your solution. The CTA should then lead them to the next step in the buyer journey rather than directly pitching them to sign up for a demo or free trial.

Here’s an example of how we created a MOFU ad and offer for our client, Reltio. 

We provided a MOFU guide on interpreting the results, which allows us to influence the conversation that a buyer or buying committee has when weighing product options.

Then, we guided MOFU prospects down their funnel through remarketing.

For example, after a MOFU prospect had clicked the ad we showed above, we sent them to this landing page where they’d be able to download a copy of the report:

Prospects who visited that page were then added to a remarketing list through ad network pixels. This means that after they left the page or downloaded the report, we were able to serve them relevant ads across ad channels. Like this one, for example:

This strategy allowed Reltio to attract the right customers and then nurture and eventually convert them through remarketing.  

How To Take Action Now

We frequently use these three strategies to help SaaS companies that have maxed out low volume keywords, though there are plenty of nuances to each strategy.

For example, dialing in the right offer and perfecting the messaging are all critical to driving conversions.

If you want more personalized help navigating the challenges of low paid search volume, reach out to our team today.

Our team of paid search experts can analyze your current strategy to define:

1. Which of these three tactics would be most applicable to your situation.
2. How to execute each strategy.

Reach out to our team today to get started.