The situation
A growing SaaS company bleeding budget on irrelevant clicks
The client — a US-based project management SaaS with a $2,500/month Google Ads budget — had been running their own campaigns for 14 months. They were getting leads, but their sales team reported that the quality was poor and the volume was insufficient to hit growth targets. The founder suspected the campaigns weren't optimised but didn't know where to start.
When we audited the account, the scale of the problem was immediately visible. Broad match keywords were triggering ads for searches like 'free project management spreadsheet', 'project management degree', and 'what is a Gantt chart' — none of which would ever convert to a paid SaaS subscription. Over 60% of budget was being consumed by irrelevant traffic.
Core challenges
Four distinct problems compounding each other
Broad match keyword chaos
The account ran almost entirely on broad match, meaning Google was matching ads to tangentially related searches. The search term report showed budget being spent on student, academic, and free-tool queries with zero commercial intent.
No negative keyword list
After 14 months of running, the account had 11 negative keywords. A well-managed account at this budget level would typically have 300–500 negatives built up through ongoing search term analysis.
Landing page mismatch
All ads pointed to the homepage regardless of what the user had searched for. Someone searching 'project management software for construction teams' landed on a generic homepage with no construction-specific messaging.
Unmeasured conversions
The account was tracking 'Thank you page visits' as conversions but the thank you page was accessible without form submission. Conversion data was inflated and untrustworthy — the real number was significantly lower than reported.
Our approach
A structured 6-phase SEO programme
We built a phased plan that addressed technical foundations first, then content, then authority — in that order. Skipping the technical audit would have wasted the content investment.
1
Conversion tracking audit and rebuild
Removed the broken thank you page conversion action. Implemented Google Tag Manager with proper form submission event tracking, including scroll depth and time-on-page signals for engagement. Set up offline conversion import for deals that closed in their CRM.
GTM implementationForm event trackingCRM offline importRemoved false conversions
2
Search term analysis and negative keyword build
Exported 14 months of search term data and categorised every query. Built an initial negative keyword list of 380 terms across 14 themes: free tools, academic, geographic exclusions, competitor brand, and unrelated software categories.
380 negative keywords14 exclusion themesSearch term exportQuery categorisation
3
Campaign restructure into tight ad groups
Dismantled the 4 bloated campaigns and rebuilt into 11 tightly themed ad groups with exact and phrase match keywords. Each ad group targets a specific use case: construction, marketing agencies, remote teams, enterprise, etc.
11 ad groupsExact + phrase matchUse-case targetingSKAG approach
4
Ad copy and landing page alignment
Wrote 3 ad variants per ad group with headline messaging aligned to the specific use case. Built 8 dedicated landing pages matching each major segment — construction, agencies, remote teams, and so on — with relevant social proof and a free trial CTA.
24 new ad variants8 landing pagesSegment messagingA/B testing
5
Bidding strategy and budget allocation
Moved from manual CPC to Target CPA bidding once conversion data was reliable (4-week learning period). Shifted budget allocation toward highest-performing use-case campaigns. Set up automated rules to pause keywords with >100 clicks and 0 conversions.
Target CPA biddingBudget reallocationAutomated pause rulesLearning period management
6
Ongoing optimisation and reporting
Weekly search term reviews, monthly landing page A/B test analysis, bid adjustment for device/time/location, and a fortnightly report with full funnel breakdown: impressions → clicks → leads → SQLs → closed deals.
Weekly search reviewsMonthly LP analysisDevice bid adjustmentsFull funnel reporting
Month by month
How progress unfolded
Days 1–14 — February
Audit and measurement fix
Full account audit completed. Conversion tracking rebuilt with clean data. 380 negative keywords added. Account paused briefly (48 hours) during structural rebuild.
Days 15–30 — February/March
Restructure and new creatives
11 ad groups live with new copy. 8 landing pages published. Campaigns moved to phrase and exact match. First two weeks of clean data collected.
Days 31–60 — March/April
Learning period and initial results
Target CPA bidding enabled. CTR reached 5.4% by end of month two. CPL dropped from $38 to $22. Conversions reached 94 in month 2 vs 46 in month 1.
Days 61–90 — April/May
Optimisation compounds
Smart bidding fully learned. Budget reallocated to top performers. CTR reached 8.7%. CPL at $11. 183 conversions in month 3. ROAS at 5.8×.
Results: before vs. after
The numbers speak clearly
Before (January 2024)
Click-through rate (CTR)2.1%
Cost per lead (CPL)$38
Monthly conversions46
Return on ad spend1.4×
Negative keywords11
Wasted spend %~60%
Landing page variants1 (homepage)
After (May 2024)
Click-through rate (CTR)8.7%
Cost per lead (CPL)$11
Monthly conversions183
Return on ad spend5.8×
Negative keywords380+
Wasted spend %<8%
Landing page variants8 dedicated pages
5.8×
Return on ad spend from the same $2,500 budget
$11
Cost per lead — down 71% from $38
183
Monthly conversions — up from 46
"
We'd been spending $2,500 a month and getting a trickle of mediocre leads. I assumed that was just how Google Ads worked for SaaS. Turns out 60% of our budget was going to people who would never subscribe to anything. Once that was fixed, it was like turning a tap on. The CPL number dropped every single week for two months straight.