Google and LinkedIn Ads Case Study for AI Software

Accordance is an AI assistant for tax research. Its target audience includes tax experts and tax teams at accounting firms.

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It operated in a market historically dominated by three enterprise tax research platforms, while a wave of well-funded AI startups had recently entered the space. As a result, Accordance was competing in an extremely competitive category and needed a partner to help it stand out through paid media.

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That search led them to InterTeam. The results were immediate, including:

• $15,000 in revenue in month one
• $60,000 in pipeline within six weeks
• 119 qualified leads generated in two months

In this Google and LinkedIn Ads case study for AI software, we break down the strategies we used to push Accordance ROI positive in month one using a coordinated Google Ads, LinkedIn Ads, and Bing Ads strategy.

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Why They Chose Interteam

The tax research SaaS space is incredibly competitive.

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Three tools have served as the industry standard for tax research for decades, and they’re multi-billion-dollar companies:

• Thomson Reuters Checkpoint
• Bloomberg Tax
• Wolters Kluwer CCH AnswerConnect

Despite their widespread use, they are widely disliked by the tax teams that use them. This created an opening for a more intuitive, modern solution.

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Even with that opportunity, Accordance still struggled to generate leads. They were competing against massive companies with million-dollar marketing budgets, while also facing well-funded AI competitors like Blue J and TaxGPT.

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They knew they needed an advertising partner who understood how to compete in a competitive SaaS market and had extensive experience with B2B advertising for tax and accounting software and services. That led them to InterTeam.

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The Audit

We started with a conversion rate optimization and page load speed audit of their website and identified several key issues that could limit performance, including:

• Slow website speed due to high-resolution images and a GIF-heavy design
• No clear primary call to action
• No keyword optimization in the H1 or throughout the page
• Competitors bidding aggressively on branded terms
• Branded search confusion due to another company with the same name in a different niche

Website conversion rate and SEO issues were going to be a problem. Many of the website issues were structural and couldn’t be fixed without overhauling the entire website. To address these issues, we proposed building dedicated landing pages in Unbounce that lived outside of their structural limitations, allowing us to optimize the user experience for conversions.

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Accordance also lacked a branded Google Ads strategy. Competitors were bidding aggressively on their branded keywords, while they were also competing with another company with the same name in a different industry.

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After identifying these issues, we pitched a strategy built around branded campaigns, high-intent keywords related to tax research, competitor targeting, and landing page optimization to capture high-intent, in-market audiences.

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They loved the approach, and we moved forward with the rollout.

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Building a Google and LinkedIn Ads Strategy for AI SaaS

For Accordance, our priority was launching branded campaigns on Google and Bing for brand protection, along with search campaigns targeting high-intent keywords related to tax research software, AI tax tools, and competitor terms.

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At the same time, we needed to improve the user experience so that once traffic landed, it converted. While optimizing landing pages, we used LinkedIn Ads with native Lead Gen Forms to capture in-market professionals directly on the platform.

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To balance immediate lead flow with long-term conversion optimization, we built a coordinated strategy across Google, Bing, and LinkedIn and rolled it out in three phases.

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Phase 1: Google & Bing Search Campaigns Ads

We started by launching search campaigns on Google and Bing. Google allowed us to target large volumes of high-intent, in-market audiences as they conducted product research, while Bing let us expand this reach at a fraction of the cost using the same techniques.

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Below are the three strategies we used.

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Branded Campaign

Establishing a Google Ads brand campaign for Accordance was one of our highest priorities.

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During our audit, we had uncovered two major issues hurting their visibility for their own branded searches.

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The first was that they had a lot of competitors in the industry, and all were bidding on each other’s keywords. At the same time, there was another company called Accordance operating in the Bible SaaS space. Between their in-market competitors and brand confusion, they were losing a significant amount of traffic for their own branded searches.

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In order to reclaim this traffic, we rolled out branded campaigns that targeted their company keywords, prioritizing high-intent search terms that indicated clear purchase intent.

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These campaigns produced large volumes of qualified traffic. On their own, they initially struggled to convert leads. 

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But as the campaign continued and we began rolling out optimized landing pages, Accordance’s branded campaigns began converting at nearly 10%, with total inbound leads scaling over the following month.

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High Intent AI Tax Research And AI Tax Professional Keywords

The second category of keywords we targeted was high-intent AI tax research and AI tax professional keywords. These were industry-specific search terms that indicated active evaluation.

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By focusing on keywords centered around tax tools, tax software, and tax professional terms, we ensured our ads targeted qualified audiences showing clear purchase intent.

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At the same time, we maintained control over lead quality by using exact match targeting. This allowed us to reach in-market audiences while avoiding low-intent queries that often result from broad or phrase match targeting on Google and Bing.

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Competitor Keyword Targeting

The final set of keywords we targeted on Google and Bing were competitor keywords. These were some of our highest intent opportunities. While there are three industry-standard tools that tax professionals have used for decades, most don't like using them.

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This means there are plenty of qualified prospects actively looking for alternatives.

Knowing this, we launched competitor campaigns targeting these legacy tools, as well as other new AI-driven tools competing in the same space.

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The trick was not to target all of their branded searches, but to focus only on those showing clear purchase intent. These were terms people used when actively conducting product research.

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They included:

• [competitor] pricing
• [competitor] review
• [competitor] tax research
• [competitor] software
• [competitor] alternative
• [competitor a] vs [competitor b]

As with our other campaigns on Google Ads and Bing Ads, we used exact match keyword targeting for our competitor campaigns. This ensured we reached competitor audiences while they were actively conducting product research and avoided low-intent searches from broad and phrase match targeting.

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To make our targeting even tighter, we layered in a variety of negative keywords to avoid. These included general and navigational keywords, such as "login," "careers," and "jobs."

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Phase 2: LinkedIn Ads Campaigns

The second phase of our AI SaaS advertising strategy was launching LinkedIn Ads. This was because, despite our search campaigns generating high-intent traffic, Accordance’s unoptimized website was struggling to convert.

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By launching on LinkedIn, we leveraged the platform’s native Lead Gen Forms to capture leads without a dedicated landing page. This let us start driving conversions while still building optimized landing pages for our search campaigns.

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Below are the four types of ads we launched on LinkedIn.

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Spotlight Ads

We started by setting up Spotlight Ads. This simple ad format pulls data directly from each viewer’s LinkedIn profile to create tailored messaging. They appear on the right rail of the LinkedIn interface, which only appears on larger screens, making them a strong way to reach high-intent desktop audiences.

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The best part is that they operate on a pay-per-click (PPC) basis, but rarely generate clicks. As a result, they typically do not convert through clicks alone, and we usually rely on them to maintain brand exposure over longer sales cycles.

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However, while Spotlight Ads do not generate many click-through conversions, they can generate significant view-through conversions. With Accordance, we found them to be a uniquely powerful source of lead generation.

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To put this into context, ToFu Spotlight Ads were one of our strongest performing LinkedIn ad types. During the six weeks of the campaign, they generated 18 qualified leads from 174,435 impressions and $238 in ad spend. That put cost per acquisition at $13.22 per lead, making them an extremely cost-efficient source of pipeline.

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Conversation Ads

At the same time as the Spotlight Ads, we launched conversation ads for retargeting and top-of-funnel campaigns, and they quickly became our top-performing ToFu strategy on LinkedIn.

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While Spotlight Ads delivered highly cost-efficient leads, Conversation Ads generated a higher overall lead volume, producing 20 total leads within the first 6 weeks of the campaign, including the 6th largest firm in the USA. This result is particularly impressive given that we excluded the top four firms, which were developing in-house solutions.

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At InterTeam Marketing, we always prioritize down-funnel conversions and optimize our campaigns for qualified leads. This way, we concentrate more budget on the strategies that generate pipeline rather than on top-of-funnel engagement actions.

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The reason Conversation Ads were so effective comes down to how the ad format works. These dynamic ad formats are sent directly to a user's inbox and present an interactive multiple-choice conversation flow. The user selects their response, and the ad responds dynamically based on their selection.

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We also combined Conversation Ads with LinkedIn’s native Lead Gen Forms. At the end of each conversation, users were able to submit their contact information directly on the platform with details automatically inserted from their LinkedIn profile.

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This removed the friction that comes with an external landing page and made submitting contact forms extremely easy, resulting in a consistent flow of qualified leads.

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LinkedIn Video & Image Ad Retargeting

The final ad types we launched were video and image ads. We used these specifically for retargeting, but did not try to reach everyone who had visited the site. Instead, we focused only on high intent leads while layering in targeting around audiences with tax job titles or interests.

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By building retargeting audiences based on these signals, we focused only on users who showed clear purchase intent.

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The next step was developing creatives that nurtured our retargeting audiences and guided them to the next step of the sales cycle. To do this, we used image and video ads.

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These ad formats rely on visual storytelling, which we leveraged to showcase Accordance's product. We used image ads to show off the software and testimonial quotes from other tax accountants.

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We attached native lead gen forms to both ad types, allowing users to submit their contact information directly in LinkedIn using data automatically inserted from their LinkedIn profile. This allowed us to avoid sending people to the landing pages which had conversion rate issues.

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The response from these ads was really positive. We even had people reaching out to Accordance telling them how much they loved their ads.

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Phase 3: Landing Page Optimization

LinkedIn Ads were a game-changer because they allowed us to generate leads without sending traffic to Accordance’s website. However, we still wanted to capitalize on the high-intent traffic coming from our search campaigns.

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The issue was that many of the website’s conversion problems were structural. Fixing them would have required a full redesign, which wasn’t realistic in the short term.

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Instead, we built dedicated landing pages in Unbounce. This allowed us to create a conversion path outside their existing infrastructure where we could test, pause, and optimize without being limited by their site design.

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In total, we created 13 landing page variants.

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We A/B tested:

• Landing page layout
• CTA button text
• Hero Headline messaging
• Hero description messaging

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Each variant included slight differences. As data came in, we paused underperforming versions and scaled those converting at a higher rate.

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Once the optimized versions were live, conversion rates from our search campaigns increased from nearly 0% to nearly 10%. For context, the industry average conversion rate for search campaigns in B2B SaaS sits around 2%.

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That means this campaign was converting at roughly 5x the industry benchmark.

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The Results

The results from our campaigns were pretty unbelievable. We not only generated steady lead flow in the first month. We were generating significant pipeline and they even closed a deal, making us ROI positive in the first month, which is hard to do with B2B products given the sales cycle is much longer.

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Not only were we getting them opportunities, we were also getting them big leads. Within the first 2 weeks we had already gotten them one of the largest accounting firms in the USA.

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We don’t usually write case studies for clients so fast, but the numbers after 2 months were so impressive that we felt it was worth writing about.

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Here are the key results after 2 months:

• ROI positive in month one
• Over $15,000 in closed revenue within the first 30 days
• $60,000 in pipeline generated within six weeks
• 119 qualified leads generated in six weeks 

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Need help with paid ads?

We helped Accordance generate pipeline incredibly fast in a competitive market dominated by multi-billion dollar companies and well-funded AI competitors. Our ability to get results comes from years of experience representing B2B SaaS solutions in a number of industries.

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Do you need help with paid ads?

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Book a free strategy call to learn how we can help you scale growth in a competitive AI software market.

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