This page is for UK software companies selling a subscription product: SaaS platforms, desktop or mobile software sold on a licence, and the tools small businesses and finance teams buy to run payroll, bookings, rotas, compliance or accounts. It explains how I set up and run Google Ads when the goal is a trial, a demo request or a paid plan, and when the sale is only worth something if the customer is still paying in month six.
If you sell physical stock or services to trade buyers, Google Ads for B2B suppliers is the closer fit. Payments, lending and money apps carry FCA financial promotion rules that this page does not cover.
How software buyers search in the UK
People looking for software tend to search in one of four ways. Some describe the category: “rota software for care homes”, “CRM for estate agents”. Some describe the problem they want gone: “stop staff double booking holidays”. Some compare: “Xero alternatives”, “best HR software for 50 employees”, “[competitor] pricing”. And some search for what the tool must connect to, such as “timesheet app that works with Sage”. Each group sits at a different distance from buying, and each needs its own ad and page.
UK buyers bring UK questions. They want prices in pounds and whether they include VAT, whether the product handles Making Tax Digital or UK payroll rules if it touches finance, where customer data is hosted, and whether there is a UK phone line or support in UK hours. A product that answers those points in the ad and on the page has an advantage over a US competitor bidding on the same words with a dollar price list.
The person searching is often not the person paying. A team lead finds the tool, starts a trial and then has to persuade a finance director. Your campaigns can only reach the first person, so the trial or demo has to make the second conversation easy.
What changes in Google Ads for a software product
Choosing keywords by intent, not by volume
Category and comparison terms usually convert better than informational searches such as “what is a CRM”, which pull in students and researchers. I start with tightly grouped terms on phrase and exact match, add broad match only once conversion tracking reports on real sign-ups, and review the search terms report every week in the early months. Words such as “free”, “open source”, “download”, “jobs” and “login” usually need adding as negatives, though “free” stays in if you genuinely offer a free plan.
Competitor and alternative searches
Bidding on a rival’s name is allowed in the UK, but using their trademark in your ad text can be restricted if they have complained to Google, and your ads must not mislead about them. A competitor campaign needs its own budget, because these clicks are often expensive and convert at a lower rate than your brand terms. It also needs a landing page that compares honestly; a page that only claims to be better rarely persuades someone who already uses the other product.
Location settings
Software can be sold anywhere, which makes it easy to leave location targeting loose. If you only sell to UK businesses, or only price in pounds, the campaign should target the UK and use the “Presence” option, so ads reach people located in the UK rather than anyone who shows an interest in it. Check this setting before anything else, because the default is wider.
Landing pages and the offer
Whether you lead with a free trial, a freemium plan or a demo shapes the whole account. Lower-priced self-serve products usually suit a trial with no card required; products that need setup, data migration or a contract usually suit a demo. The page should match the search: a comparison search lands on a comparison page, an integration search lands on the integration page, and the sign-up form asks only for what you need to start. When those pages do not exist, I build landing pages for ad campaigns to fill the gap.
Measuring from sign-up to revenue
This is where software accounts most often go wrong. A trial sign-up is cheap to get and says little about revenue, so an account told to maximise sign-ups will find people who never log in twice. I set up tracking for each step that matters to you, typically trial start, activation (the action that predicts a customer will stay) and first payment, and feed the later steps back into Google Ads as offline conversions from your product database, billing system or CRM. Once paid plans are coming through in useful numbers, value-based bidding can tell Google that an annual plan is worth more than a monthly one.
Sign-up flows often move from your marketing site to an app on a separate subdomain or payment page, which breaks tracking unless it is set up for that journey. Consent matters too: under UK GDPR and PECR, analytics and advertising tags should wait for the visitor’s agreement, and consent mode lets Google model some of the conversions you cannot observe.
How I usually structure a SaaS account
- Brand. Your own name, so competitors and review sites do not take people already looking for you, usually at a low cost per click.
- Category and solution. One campaign per use case or audience, with its own page, such as “for accountants” or “for multi-site retailers”.
- Competitor and alternatives. Separate budget and separate judgement, because the economics differ.
- Integrations. Small but often efficient, where people search for a tool that works with software they already use.
- Trial users who stalled. Remarketing lists for search ads let you bid differently for people who started a trial and did not pay, and existing customers can be excluded from acquisition campaigns where your privacy notice allows it.
I hold back on Performance Max until the account is reporting paid customers, not just sign-ups. Before then it tends to find the cheapest form fills it can, often from display and video placements.
Common mistakes in software accounts
- Counting trial sign-ups, newsletter sign-ups and content downloads as equal conversions.
- Judging cost per trial without knowing how many trials turn into paying customers or how long they stay.
- Sending every click to the homepage, including comparison and integration searches.
- Location set to “presence or interest”, so budget goes on countries you do not sell in.
- Prices shown only in dollars, or no indication of whether VAT is included.
- Bidding on informational terms that bring in researchers and students rather than buyers.
- Turning on automated bidding before there are enough real conversions for it to learn from.
How the work runs
- A call. You talk me through your pricing, your sales motion (self-serve, sales-led or both), your churn and what a customer is worth to you.
- A review. I look at the current account and tracking, or plan a new one from your product and competitors.
- Tracking first. Trial, activation and payment events are measured, with consent handled properly, before budgets rise.
- Build and launch. Campaigns, ads and landing pages go live with copy you have approved.
- Ongoing management. If you want me to keep running it, monthly PPC management covers search terms, bids, budgets and a report written in trials, paying customers and cost per customer.
Paid search brings in buyers for the terms you need now; SEO for SaaS companies builds the comparison, integration and use-case pages that keep earning visits without a cost per click, and the two work best from one keyword plan. If you would like me to look at your account, book a call and send me the details.