Google Ads and PPC for B2B and SaaS.
B2B paid search is a different discipline from e-commerce or local. The journey is long and has many hands on it, the buyer researches under a job title rather than a product name, and the number that matters is qualified pipeline rather than leads. We run Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising for B2B SaaS and technology businesses against that number: the account structured by buying intent, conversions defined by what sales will actually accept, and the budget moved to where pipeline comes from.
It is also where accounts leak most quietly. Broad match drifting into consumer intent, Performance Max buying the brand searches that would have converted anyway, search partners taking clicks nobody asked for, form-fills counted as wins. Each one looks like performance on the dashboard until someone ties the spend to closed revenue.
- B2B SaaS with a pipeline target Sales-led or product-led, with a CRM that can tell us which leads were real.
- Technology and cybersecurity vendors Where the buyer is a technical role, the terms are specialist and the competitor set is small and named.
- Enterprise and regulated B2B Long procurement, compliance review on claims, and a board that wants payback, not click-through rate.
- Heads of growth inheriting an account Who need to know, quickly and independently, where the last year's budget went.
Six things the default account gets wrong.
Google's defaults are tuned for volume. A B2B account tuned for volume finds cheap leads that sales will not take. These are the six places where the B2B version of the account diverges from the default, and why.
- The journey is long and has many hands on it A B2B buyer researches for months, across a buying group, before anyone fills in a form. Last-click attribution flatters whatever touched them last. We model attribution rather than claim it, and we say plainly what is measured, what is modelled and what is directional.
- The buyer is a job title, not a product name Intent clusters by problem and role: the terms a head of security types are not the terms a founder types. Problem terms, category terms, competitor and 'alternative' terms each behave differently in the auction and convert at different rates, so they get their own campaigns, budgets and landing pages.
- A lead is not a win The account learns from whatever it is told is a conversion. If that is a form-fill, it will find you cheap form-fills. We agree the qualified-lead definition with whoever has to accept the lead, import qualified outcomes back from the CRM, and let the bidding learn from those.
- B2B budgets leak in specific places Search partners taking clicks nobody asked for, Performance Max buying brand searches that would have converted anyway, broad match drifting into consumer intent, display expansion switched on by default. Each one looks like performance on the dashboard until spend is tied to pipeline.
- Search captures; other channels convince Paid search is the capture layer for demand that already exists. The convincing happens on LinkedIn and in retargeting, in content and in sales conversations. We run search to capture well and hand off cleanly, rather than asking it to do the whole journey.
- Product-led motions change the conversion For self-serve SaaS the conversion is a sign-up, and the question is quality: trial-to-paid, activation, seat expansion. Bidding to sign-ups alone buys volume that never activates. The account is tuned to the sign-ups that become customers.
Definitions first, then the account is built to them.
- Audit and definitions Where the spend went, what the conversions counted, what the search-terms report says the money bought. Then the definitions that everything else depends on: what a qualified lead is, what it is worth, and what the business will pay for one.
- Architecture by intent Brand, problem, category, competitor and product-led campaigns separated, each with its own budget and landing pages. Performance Max fenced from brand. Geography and schedule set to where the buyers are. Microsoft Advertising built alongside.
- Conversion design One count per user. Enhanced conversions. Offline conversion import from the CRM so qualified pipeline, not form-fills, trains the bidding. Self-reported attribution captured on the form to check the models against.
- Cadence and experiments Weekly search terms, bids, budgets and creative. Bidding-strategy and landing-page changes validated with experiments rather than switched and hoped for. Budget moved monthly to where pipeline is coming from, with a written note on what changed and why.
The account learns from whatever it is told is a conversion.
If that is a form-fill, it will find you cheap form-fills. If it is a qualified opportunity imported back from the CRM, it will find you more of those, at a cost the business can actually see. Nothing else in the account matters as much as this decision, and it is made before a single keyword is added.
One count per user. Enhanced conversions. Offline import from the CRM. Self-reported attribution on the form, to check the platform's model against a second view.
The thinking behind the account.
- Pipeline over leads: building B2B paid media that is accountable Why the number on the report has to be pipeline, and how to get there.
- B2B SaaS demand generation accountable to pipeline Where paid search sits in a SaaS demand programme, and what surrounds it.
- Marketing attribution in 2026: measuring what you cannot see The honest version of attribution over a long, multi-touch journey.
Find out where the last year's budget went before deciding where the next year's goes.
Request an account reviewB2B and SaaS PPC, answered.
What a qualified lead should cost, what to do about Performance Max, and how pipeline gets measured.
What does a B2B PPC agency do differently from a general Google Ads agency?
It optimises to pipeline rather than to leads. In practice that means agreeing a qualified-lead definition with sales before the account is built, importing qualified outcomes back from the CRM so the bidding learns from them, separating problem, category and competitor intent into their own campaigns, and treating attribution as something to model honestly over a long, multi-touch journey rather than something the platform reports. A general agency optimises to what the dashboard counts, which in B2B is usually the wrong thing.
What should a qualified B2B lead cost in Google Ads?
It depends on the category, the deal size and the close rate, so any agency quoting a benchmark before seeing the account is guessing. The honest way to find out is arithmetic: what a customer is worth, what share of qualified leads close, and therefore what a qualified lead can cost before the channel stops paying back. We work that out with you in the audit, then check it against the bid landscape on your terms before a budget is set.
Should a SaaS company use Performance Max?
Sometimes, and only contained. Performance Max will happily spend the budget on brand searches that would have converted anyway and report them as its own wins. Run with brand excluded, with search campaigns protected, and measured on incremental conversions rather than on its own reporting, it can add reach. Run as the default, it usually makes the account look better and perform worse.
Do you run LinkedIn Ads alongside Google Ads?
Yes, as the layer that convinces rather than captures: retargeting the visitors search brought in, and account-based campaigns to the named companies sales cares about. Search does the capture, LinkedIn and retargeting do the follow-up, and the reporting treats them as one programme rather than competing channels.
How do you measure pipeline from Google Ads?
By connecting the account to the CRM. Offline conversion import brings qualified and closed outcomes back into Google Ads against the click that started them, enhanced conversions improve the match rate, and self-reported attribution on the form gives a second view to check the platform's model against. The report shows spend against qualified pipeline and closed revenue, with the modelling assumptions stated.
Can you take over an existing Google Ads account without rebuilding it?
Usually, yes. The audit tells us what is leaking and what is working, and we rebuild only what needs it. Wholesale rebuilds throw away the learning an account has accumulated; the better move is normally to fix the structure around the parts that already perform.
Do you work with B2B and SaaS companies outside the UK and the US?
Yes. The account can target any market Google Ads serves, and most of our B2B accounts run in more than one. Language, currency, time zone and the local bid landscape change the plan; the method does not.