SAAS SEO Case Study: Boosting SAAS Revenue by 500% in a Struggling Sector During Pandemic

As the COVID-19 pandemic continued to wreak havoc on traditional fundraising activities, schools and associations grappled with a severe financial support downturn. Traditional door-to-door and event-based fundraising strategies were no longer viable due to public health concerns, and many of these organizations were left with few alternatives to generate necessary funds.

Recognizing this challenge, our client developed an innovative online platform in Belgium that enables these entities to create webshops to sell various items online effortlessly. This digital solution effectively transformed the fundraising landscape, allowing for much-needed revenue generation while adhering to the safety protocols of the pandemic.

However, as a new product in the market, the platform faced its own set of challenges. The primary one being – the very organizations it aimed to help didn’t even know such a solution existed. This lack of awareness, coupled with the need to drive traffic and conversions to the website, was the challenge our client sought to overcome.

Challenges

With the advent of the pandemic and a shift towards digital, our client developed a platform that solved a problem many schools and associations were facing. But being newcomers, they had to deal with a lack of brand awareness. The challenge was to bring their solution into the light and make their target audience aware of its existence and benefits. The additional challenge was driving traffic and conversions, thereby growing during a worldwide economic slowdown.

Solutions

User Growth developed a comprehensive strategy designed to increase brand awareness and accelerate growth. We created an ad strategy, outlined funnel optimizations, and implemented tracking solutions using Google Tag Manager.

The ad campaign focused on five key areas:

1. Benefits and specific product features.
2. “Awards” or other forms of recognition our client has received, including reviews or testimonials from users and customers
3. Frequently asked questions about the product that we can answer in the ads
4. Figures and statistics on why our client is a good choice for your association to help bring in revenue
5. The value proposition of our client, what sets them apart from their competitors

The Customer Journey through the AAARRR Funnel

Our main focus here was on the awareness, acquisition, and activation part of the funnel.

Our client had three initial audiences that they wanted to focus on, as these seemed to be the ones driving the most sales:

1. Elementary school teachers are super easy to target and very engaged.
2. Sports associations, highest satisfaction rate in our customer surveys
3. Youth movements

For these audiences, we designed ads according to the five types of ads discussed earlier.

We did the copywriting and the design and created custom illustrations for the client. We then set up the ad campaign according to Google’s See, Think, Do framework.

Using Google Display, Facebook/Instagram, and LinkedIn ads for the See phase. Facebook/Instagram retargeting, Google Search, Google Display, and YouTube for the Think phase. And Google Search and Google Display remarketing for the Do phase.

We tested these focus items against each other but also within each focus item, with different wording and visuals. In this way, we can arrive at the best-performing ads.

Results and Impact

After engaging User Growth’s services, the client achieved phenomenal results. From the moment the businesses started, it took them 12 months to get their first 500K in revenue. Then it took them 8 months for the next 500k in revenue. Then they started working with User Growth and did 500K of revenue within the first month of working together  – an impressive 500% acceleration.