Key takeaways
- Differentiate yourself by creating unique ad copy that highlights your distinct value propositions.
- Prioritize understanding your audience’s pain points and needs over simply using keyword lists.
- Use diverse headline strategies like product capabilities, pain points, and prospects’ desires.
1- Your main goal: Be different
Let’s go straight to the point, standing out from our competitors is highly underrated in B2B SaaS Google Ads copy and This could be a huge advantage compared to other brands.
Why?
Simply because all your competitors are using the same boring and fluffy responsive ads headlines:
#1 [Your Product]
Easy to use and powerful
Save time and money
The best [Your Product]
And the list goes on…
After more than 10 years of running paid ad campaigns for various B2B SaaS businesses, I can tell you without hesitation that 99% of poor Google Ads performance is mainly because they all use the same messages and copies as their competitors. Most SaaS companies are now competing in a saturated market, unlike 10 years ago when you might have been the only SaaS advertising in your core category. Now, you have 10+ competitors bidding for the same product keywords.
Putting more money into an ad account or bidding higher with the same value proposition and ads is a race to the bottom. People may click, but they’re unlikely to convert because all the other brands in your category have the same offer.
What I’ve seen over the years is that many small players perform better than big-budget competitors because they position their messages differently from the others.
If you don’t have time to do extensive research and work on your ad copy, there is an easy option that can still be effective. Compare your ad copy against your top competitors’ ads and differentiate your headlines from theirs. If nobody is using the “#1” headline, you can go for it. But if you see that your top competitors are using it, you should come up with something different.
However, there is a much better way to improve your paid search headlines and ultimately your results. This is not rocket science but it requires understanding the basics and following a precise process. In this article, I will share with you the exact process we use at our SaaS PPC agency Getuplead, to craft perfect Google Ads headlines for your SaaS business.
2 – Process and research
I spend a lot of time checking and auditing different B2B SaaS Google Ads accounts, and I see many B2B marketers placing too much emphasis on the “keyword” part and ignoring the “research” part.
Starting your Google Ads copy creation from a keyword focus is not a bad move. In fact, it’s what you should always start with. Keywords need to match the ad copy, and the ad copy needs to match the landing page. This is what is expected by the user looking for a solution to their problem.
However, this doesn’t mean all your responsive ads should include only the keyword. Too often, I see responsive ads that include the keyword in every headline.
For example, a spend management software had all these headlines in their Google Ads responsive ads:
Spend management software
Expense management tool
Spend management tool
#1 Spend management tool
Etc.
This approach misses the opportunity to convey unique value propositions or address specific pain points that could differentiate your product from the competition. Including the keywords in some headlines is not enough; you’ll need more creative headlines to surpass your competitors with compelling ads.
But what drives compelling ads is not just a keyword list. It all starts with a research process.
I have a three-step process that we usually use for our clients:
Identify your ICP: This is the segment of your TAM that is a good fit for your product today. For example, marketing managers at Series A-C B2B SaaS companies with 50-200 employees in the U.S. that are spending $10k+/month on paid ads.
Map out exciting product/service features for your ICP: Identify and highlight the most exciting features of your product or service.
List all associated advantages and benefits for your ICP: Outline each benefit associated with each feature in front of your features. Focus on how these benefits solve the problems and pain points of your audience.
Features: What the product does.
Benefits: The problem the product solves.
You can use ChatGPT to create a table of features and benefits. While it may not be perfect, it is helpful. Here is what I got with Zapier.
Expert Tip: Do Competitor Ad Research. This should help with the differentiation part of your strategy. Search for your product and identify which competitors are showing up. Write them down. Now, analyze their ad copy. Finally, make a list of features and benefits that your competitors do not mention in their ad copy. Focus on those.
3 – My 5 Main Headline Strategies
Product Marketing Ads: Product Capabilities and Outcomes
Now that you know the difference between features and benefits, you should convert them into copy. These product marketing ads focus on the core problems you solve, the capabilities your product has and the outcomes it drives.
Product capabilities and benefits are the best ad copy approaches you can experiment with using your list of features and benefits.
Product Capability: Highlight the physical or tangible aspects of your product or service. Transform your features into product capabilities. The ads should focus on the core problems you solve, the capabilities your product has, and the outcomes it drives. For example, Zapier could say, “Connect CRM with Gmail.”
Benefits: What superpower does your product bring to your user? Showcasing the benefits of your copies is about calling out the positive outcomes the visitor will experience from the product or service. I really like this picture below from UserOnboard.
This strategy will help you create compelling headlines that stand out from your competitors and resonate with your target audience.
Always try to convert a feature into a benefit especially if your Software category is new. In this case your audience need to know what are the benefits of your solution. Using them as headlines are way more powerful than traditional features. If you are in an established market, product capability is interesting to test over the benefits because you are talking to an audience who know what you’re solution does and need to understand the specific advantages or superior functionalities your product offers.
Some Benefits and Product Capability headlines examples:
HubSpot
Feature: Lead scoring
Product capability: Prioritize sales efforts
Benefit: Accelerate pipeline
Slack
Feature: Huddles
Product capability: Quick voice/video calls
Benefit: Boost team collaboration
Monday.com
Feature: Multiple project views
Product capability: Visualize project formats
Benefit: Prevent scope creep
Expert Tip: Keep your ad headlines specific and clear rather than broad and generic. Even if you are a well-known brand, some people still don’t know what you do. Plus, even those who do know might not be aware of all the use cases your product can help them with.
Now you have some product capabilities and benefits, you can create your Google ads headlines. I like this ad from Monday combining a Feature + associated Benefit
Pain Points
Pain points: Focus on the actual issue at hand to relate to the problem the visitor is trying to solve. Understanding and addressing your potential customers’ challenges can make your headline more compelling.
First, pinpoint the most frequent pain points your product or service resolves. Then, craft your headline to demonstrate how you can improve their lives.
For example, if time spent is a common issue, headlines such as “40% faster than spreadsheets” or “Reduce time by 40%” can be very effective. These headlines are concise and clearly convey how you address a common problem.
Expert Tip: Using numbers or stats makes your solution more tangible, rather than giving a vague statement. Never forget that clear > clever.
Understanding Your Prospects’ Desires
What do your prospects feel they deserve? This element taps into psychological insights.
This goes Beyond the benefits. You need to uncover what your target audience believes they are entitled to. Once you identify this, you can craft your copy to appeal to these emotions effectively.
Highlight What Makes You Unique
When a particular keyword has high buyer intent or generates a significant amount of qualified traffic it inevitably attracts competition. Many SaaS brands will fight for a share of that traffic. For example in the “project management tool” search query mentioned earlier, four brands were competing for that traffic.
What would make a potential customer click on one of those four ads? This is where Google Ads Your copywringting skills should make the difference
Emphasizing what makes your product or service unique is one of the most effective ways to boost your Google Ads’ click-through rates (CTR). For example, in the screenshot above, ClickUp highlights that they are the “all-in-one” suite and mention several other key features.
This technique is widely used across various industries. In the legal niche, for example, personal injury law firms often use phrases like “No Win No Fee” to stand out.
Leverage your Competitors
One of the most effective SaaS Google Ad strategies is using comparison ads to leverage your competitors’ brand awareness against them.
XXX , a social media scheduling tool, frequently employs this tactic. They target their competitors’ branded keywords and may also target phrases like “[competitor name] alternative.” This approach is highly effective because it places your ad in front of users who are actively considering your competition but haven’t made a decision yet.
Below is an example ad that compares a competitor’s brand to their own, emphasizing the unique value of their tool.
There is different tactics you can test with your Competitors ads headline
Basic Level: Talk about your category
Intermediate Level: Use alternative related wording (e.g Looking for an alternative?, See Why [X] Is Better)
Advanced: Trigger a pain point with the competitor (e.g. Mailchimp -> Stop Paying For Every Contact) or indirectly use competitor brand name (e.g. Mailchimp -> Better Mails Than from Chimps)
The person searches for the brand with an intent to either log in, get a demo/trial of the product or get support.
3 – Type of Structure of the responsive ads copy
The Tri-Pin Strategy
The TrI-Pin strategy is an effective way to write text ads on Google Ads, balancing giving Google some control to test. It’s a pinning strategy that allows you to “pin” certain headlines in specific positions.
For example, if HubSpot is bidding on the keyword “CRM software,” instead of having Google rotate every possible headline combination, you tell Google to rotate these 5 headlines pinned in position 1:
HubSpot CRM Software
HubSpot: CRM Solutions
Advanced CRM Tools
CRM Software by HubSpot
Best CRM for Businesses
With these headlines pinned in position 2:
The Modern Way to Manage Customers
Improve Customer Relationships
AI-Driven CRM Features
Increase Sales Efficiency
Engage Customers Better
With these headlines pinned in position 3:
Sign-up Today
Starts at $0/month
Start a 14-day Trial
Start a Trial
This is The Way
An example headline would read: “HubSpot: CRM Solutions | Increase Sales Efficiency | Sign-up Today.”
Headline 3 seldom shows, but if headlines 1 and 2 are short and the user is on a desktop, it’s more likely they will appear.
The no Pinned Headlines Strategy
Well, there is another structure alternative that we love to test versus the tri pin strategy. When employing a no pinned headlines strategy in your Google Ads, you allow Google to take full advantage of its machine learning algorithms to optimize ad delivery.
By not pinning any headlines or descriptions you enable Google’s algorithm to test and determine the best-performing combinations of headlines and descriptions. Google will automatically rotate and test different headlines and descriptions to find the most effective mix for various search queries, user behaviors, and devices.
You should create a variety of headlines that highlight different features, benefits, and unique selling propositions of your product or service.
Include different lengths and styles to increase the likelihood that Google will display all three headlines and both descriptions, particularly on larger screens.
Integrate your primary keywords in some, but not all, headlines. This maintains relevance without redundancy.
If you’d like to learn more about how we help B2B SaaS and Tech companies grow their MRR through LinkedIn ads, contact us online or send us an email today at info@getuplead.com to speak with someone on our team.
