B2B SaaS might want to reconsider SEO
SEO is often touted as a cost-effective, long-term strategy for driving organic traffic. However, for B2B SaaS companies, the reality can be quite different.
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If you have read any of my past newsletters or my book, you know I am hyperfocused on using SEO only when it is part of a user journey and, most importantly, when it drives business value. When it comes to B2B, I find that it is often not the most effective channel.
Returns are uncertain
SEO is often touted as a cost-effective, long-term strategy for driving organic traffic. However, for B2B SaaS companies, the reality can be quite different. Achieving meaningful results through SEO requires a significant investment of time, resources, and expertise. It can take months, if not years, to see substantial returns on this investment, and there's no guarantee of success.
In the fast-paced world of SaaS, where market conditions and customer needs can shift rapidly, even before AI upended everything, the slow-burn approach of SEO may not align with the need for quick, measurable results.
(Disclaimer: If you have data that shows that your B2B SaaS SEO is working and driving revenue, this post is not for you. I am not making an argument based on data interpretation. This post is purely for forward-looking planning when there is no data to support investment, and that decision is based on assumptions only.)
Search Market Fit
B2B SaaS companies must adapt quickly to market changes, launch new features, or pivot their offerings. Even when they have product market fit, they may unexpectedly discover a different or better product market fit, which requires a pivot.
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The long-term nature of SEO can be a hindrance in this dynamic environment because it uses resources that should be used elsewhere.
Additionally, even if SEO is effective, there are so many touches of engagement with the product that it's hard to prove the exact attribution from SEO that justified the investment.
Many B2B SaaS products cater to specific industries or solve niche problems. While this specialization can be a strength in product-market fit, it often translates to low search volumes for relevant keywords. Potential customers may not even be aware that a solution to their problem exists, let alone know the specific terms to search for.
The keyword landscape
This also likely means that even in the realm of keywords, very few are being searched, and of those with any demand with intent (not search volume), the competition could be fierce. For startups or new entrants, the resources required to compete effectively on these keywords may outweigh the potential benefits, especially considering the opportunity cost of not investing in other marketing channels.
To illustrate this problem, imagine developing a new CRM and then hoping to rank on the word CRM when the current top spots are dominated by the most prominent players who have been around for many years.
In these cases, relying on SEO to drive traffic and leads can be ineffective. The effort required to optimize for a handful of high-volume, high-competition, or very low-volume niche keywords may not yield sufficient returns to justify the investment.
SEO is never free.
Even if you don’t have to pay an agency or an employee to do SEO for you, the time you spend on SEO could be better spent on something with better returns.
For B2B SaaS paid channels are far more effective
Unlike SEO, paid marketing channels like search, social media, and display advertising offer immediate visibility. B2B SaaS companies can launch campaigns and drive targeted website traffic within hours. This immediacy is crucial for businesses looking to gather leads to feed hungry salespeople and prove the viability of their product.
The instant feedback and data are invaluable. Companies can quickly assess the performance of their ads, landing pages, and overall marketing funnel. This rapid feedback loop allows for agile decision-making and continuous optimization of marketing efforts.
Paid channels also have more control
One of the most significant advantages of paid marketing for B2B SaaS companies is the ability to precisely target their ideal customers. Google, Meta, LinkedIn, and TikTok offer sophisticated targeting options based on factors such as job titles, company size, industry, and specific interests or behaviors.
This targeting precision ensures that marketing budgets are spent on reaching the most relevant audience. This level of targeting is impossible for SEO, which relies on assuming that the right personas will search, click, and then respond to the SEO-targeted content.
Scaling and growth
Paid marketing campaigns offer unparalleled scalability and flexibility. B2B SaaS companies can easily adjust their ad spend, targeting parameters, and messaging in real-time based on performance data and business needs. Leadership sometimes doesn’t understand that SEO cannot respond and scale at the same speed. I was once in a scenario where a company had a large budget to invest in a failing SEO effort, and they poured money into it, hoping for a turnaround. For SEO, money is not the answer.
With paid advertising, B2B SaaS companies have complete control over their messaging and how their products are positioned in the market. Unlike SEO, where companies are at the mercy of search algorithms and must optimize for specific keywords, paid ads directly communicate value propositions and unique selling points.
SEO teams can alter page titles, which in most cases are the titles seen in the search results, but they can’t change the titles for micro audiences like they can with paid ads.
Bottom of funnel keywords and audiences
If a company is fortunate enough to dominate many purchase intent or bottom-of-funnel queries, it will see a significant upside from its SEO efforts. (Amazon is an excellent example of this.) However, most companies aren’t this lucky and will struggle to compete for this bottom-of-funnel visibility.
Paid search advertising allows B2B SaaS companies to appear at the top of search results for these terms. By bidding on relevant, high-intent keywords, companies can capture potential customers when they're actively searching for solutions.
A few tips to maximize paid channels for SaaS
Don’t only focus on search. Depending on the product or vertical, advertising budgets can be used in many ways. Be creative and chase your audience.
Not investing in SEO shouldn’t mean ignoring it. If you will have readers of your blog or newsletter, create the content for them; just don’t chalk it up as an investment in conversions if it’s unlikely to do that.
Work with the right agencies. Paid work isn’t that complex, so find the right agency partners with skills and backgrounds in your category. (Message me if I can make recommendations.)
Invest in comprehensive analytics and attribution modeling to accurately measure the impact of your paid marketing efforts across the entire customer journey.
Retargeting is your friend and will help you close the visitors who end up on your site but aren’t yet ready to buy.
There’s a time and place for all channels
Obviously, I am a huge fan of SEO as a channel, but I am also a realist that it is not always a fit. B2B is one of those places where that fit is not always clear-cut.
By skipping SEO, for now, and doubling down on paid marketing, B2B SaaS companies can accelerate their growth, quickly adapt to market changes, and effectively reach their target audiences. In an industry where innovation and speed to market are crucial, a paid-first (or paid-only) approach to marketing can be the key to standing out in a crowded marketplace and driving sustainable business growth.
This decision can and should be revisited at a later date when there are more resource, but don’t automatically invest in SEO just because…
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This was a great post. I love that you are making a counter-argument to using SEO for B2B SaaS companies, and promoting the use of paid advertising.
I was just thinking about this same thing. Hyper-niche targeting is critical to success for early-stage B2B SaaS, all the way through to sub-$10M ARR. Broad keyword targeting just wouldn't make sense, and narrow targeting has just too low search volumes for it to be worth the investment required for optimization.