Case Study: Sourcing 30+ Email Opt-Ins Per Month For Cybersecurity SaaS Startup Via Google Ads

In this case study we’ll share how we helped a Cybersecurity SaaS startup source roughly 30 email opt-ins per month via Google Ads to help fuel their email marketing efforts and power their growth.

Client Background

The client is a Cybersecurity SaaS startup providing a data storage solution that helps government contractors quickly comply with industry regulations. They launched their product to help contractors comply with regulations for a lower cost and to serve contractors that need to meet a specific tier of compliance requirements. The compliance requirements were an offshoot of the NIST 800-171 regulation which require specific ways in which sensitive information must be stored securely.

The Problem

The client had a lead magnet that served as a guide for contractors searching for a solution to their compliance needs to help streamline their understanding of compliance requirements and understanding of available solutions on the market. They had previously run some ads to try to source more opt ins to help fuel their email marketing efforts but were unsatisfied with the ad campaigns performance and wound up shutting it down.

In the summer of 2024, Tortoise and Hare started doing some pay per click advertising for a managed IT service provider and was able to generate some traction for the MSP. The CEO of the MSP was also the COO of the cybersecurity startup and referred us over to help them give advertising another go.

The Solutions

Tortoise and Hare helped the client revamp their Google ad campaigns. The previous vendor had generated some conversions so there were some previous clues as to what types of keywords converted, but the ad account was poorly configured and the ad copy was poor.

We rolled out a campaign with a broad match single keyword ad group, or SKAG as they’re known by in the PPC world. Then we completely refreshed copy, ad extensions, and configuration settings which had the net effect of helping to increase click through rates on the campaign relative the prior advertising attempt and generate lower CPAs (cost per acquisition).

We deployed call tracking to the clients website and revamped their conversion tracking to get better data that helped tune the ad accounts. We integrated CallRail with Zapier to be able to provide Sales Qualified Lead conversions back to Google Ads to help further tune and optimize bidding algorithms.

The client was satisfied with the results and quickly increased the budget to scale up further, allowing us to expand the breadth of keywords and ad groups within campaigns. As campaigns got more data we were able to change conversion bidding settings from an account wide conversions settings to a qualified leads bidding setting and segment campaigns out into a new keyword prospecting campaign and a “known converters” campaign.

The Results

Over the past 6 months working with the client we have been able to generate roughly 30 email opt ins sourced from Google Ads per month for the cybersecurity SaaS startup to help fuel their email marketing efforts and complement their other channels.

We have also helped lain the foundations for further raising the budget from here and fed them keyword data to help guide their SEO efforts. We have also helped arm them with the visibility into their marketing performance they need to have investor conversations and demonstrate additional opportunity past their current revenue.

It looks like they are well on their way to securing another funding round which will allow them to scale up faster and further and deepen their market penetration in their fast growing market segment.