B2B Paid Media Case Study for AI Tax SaaS
Accordance Case Study
About
Accordance
Accordance is an AI platform for tax research, built by a Stanford AI team for tax, audit, and CPA professionals. It works through a fact pattern, applies authoritative sources, and documents its assumptions, alternatives, and risk factors.
Accordance came to InterTeam in December 2025 struggling to generate leads. Nine months later, the results include:
- $238,855 in closed-won revenue traced directly to paid ads in Accordance's CRM
- $678,505 in paid-sourced pipeline across 96 deals, with $380,000+ still open
- 1,200+ leads across six ad platforms
In this B2B paid media case study, we break down how we launched Accordance on Google, Bing and LinkedIn, then scaled the strategy into a six-channel paid media program.
Why They Chose InterTeam
The tax research software market is incredibly competitive. For decades, three multi-billion-dollar platforms have dominated the category:
- Thomson Reuters Checkpoint
- Bloomberg Tax
- Wolters Kluwer CCH AnswerConnect
Despite their widespread use, these legacy tools are widely disliked by many of the tax professionals who use them. That created an opening for a more modern approach to tax research.
At the same time, Accordance faced well-funded AI tax research startups such as Blue J and TaxGPT. Tax professionals were also exploring whether general AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude were suitable for tax work. Those questions created another opportunity to reach people evaluating their research options.
Accordance knew they needed a partner with deep experience in B2B SaaS advertising, specifically for tax and accounting software. That led them to InterTeam.
The Audit
We started with a conversion rate and page speed audit of Accordance's website. It found:
- Slow load times from high-resolution images and a GIF-heavy design
- No clear primary call to action
- No keyword optimization in the H1 or on the page
- Competitors bidding aggressively on Accordance's brand name
- Brand search confusion with an unrelated company called Accordance in the Bible software space
Many of these issues were structural, so fixing them would have meant rebuilding the site. Instead, we built dedicated landing pages in Unbounce, outside those limits, where we could test and optimize freely.
From there, we built our initial strategy around branded campaigns, high-intent tax research keywords, competitor targeting and landing page optimization.
Phase 1: Google and Bing Search
We launched search on Google Ads and Bing Ads first to capture buyers who were already researching tax software. We used three strategies on both platforms.
Branded campaign
Competitors were bidding on Accordance's name, while another unrelated company operating under the name "Accordance" was taking the rest of its brand traffic.
A branded campaign won that traffic back.
Since launch, brand search has become one of the most efficient parts of the account. In total, the branded campaign has earned a 20% click-through rate and 263 conversions, while its conversion rate has climbed from under 1% to over 8% since the optimized landing pages went live.
High-intent AI tax research keywords
We also launched campaigns targeting exact-match keywords that indicated active evaluation, such as AI for tax research, AI for tax professionals and tax research software. Exact match kept lead quality high by filtering out the low-intent searches that broad and phrase match let in.
The AI Tax Research campaign reached a 12.9% conversion rate.
Competitor keywords
We launched competitor campaigns, but we didn't bid on every competitor search. Instead, we targeted searches that indicated people were actively comparing products:
- [competitor] pricing
- [competitor] review
- [competitor] alternative
- [competitor] software
- [competitor] tax research
- [competitor a] vs [competitor b]
Each competitor had a dedicated comparison landing page where visitors could evaluate the two products side by side.
Phase 2: LinkedIn Ads
Search was driving high-intent traffic, but the original website was not converting it. So we launched LinkedIn Ads, where its native Lead Gen Forms let us capture leads directly on the platform while we built the new landing pages. These LinkedIn ad formats kept lead generation moving while the landing pages were being built.
Spotlight Ads
Spotlight Ads show on LinkedIn’s right rail and personalize each ad with the viewer’s own profile details. They rarely get clicked, but they build familiarity over a long sales cycle.
For Accordance, they were remarkably efficient. In total, Spotlight Ads delivered 170 qualified leads at around $8.69 per lead. They also generated a steady stream of view-through conversions from tax professionals who later came back through search.
Conversation Ads
Conversation Ads arrive in the LinkedIn inbox as an interactive, choose-your-own-path message, with a native lead form at the end. They drove the highest lead volume on LinkedIn at launch, including a demo request from the sixth-largest accounting firm in the US. We had deliberately excluded the four largest firms, which were building AI tools in-house.
Video and image retargeting
Using video and image ads, we retargeted only high-intent visitors who also had tax job titles or tax interests. The creative showed the product and quoted tax accountants. Several prospects reached out to Accordance just to say they liked the ads.
Phase 3: Landing Page Optimization
While LinkedIn let us capture leads without relying on Accordance’s website, search was still driving high-intent visitors to pages that weren’t converting. To solve that, we built dedicated landing pages in Unbounce outside the limitations of the existing site.
We launched 15 landing pages and tested 212 variants, including changes to layout, CTA text, hero headlines and hero descriptions. As the data came in, we paused the underperformers and scaled the winners.
Our pages convert between 5% and 10% on average, depending on the offer and platform, and their conversion rates have steadily improved. For context, B2B SaaS search campaigns typically convert at around 2% to 3%.
Phase 4: Scaling From Three Channels to Six
With lead flow steady, we added three more channels over the following months. Each one had a specific role in the funnel.
Reddit Ads
Tax and accounting professionals are unusually active on Reddit, in communities like r/Accounting, r/tax and r/CPA. We ran FreeForm ads (Reddit's native long-form format) in those communities, plus carousel and image retargeting. We also kept brand safety tight by excluding off-topic communities.
Meta Ads
We launched both retargeting and top-of-funnel campaigns. For retargeting, we targeted high-intent audiences such as trial converters and demo page visitors, along with broader retargeting audiences.
For top-of-funnel campaigns, we avoided the broad interest audiences many agencies use on Facebook and Instagram. Instead, we used data from created deals, closed deals and qualified leads in Accordance's CRM to build lookalike audiences. We then layered high-income and tax-law interests onto those audiences. This gave the Meta campaigns a much tighter targeting model than broad interest targeting alone.
ChatGPT Ads
InterTeam was one of the first agencies invited into OpenAI's ChatGPT Ads beta in May 2026. For Accordance, we ran prompt-targeted comparison campaigns against TaxGPT, Blue J, Checkpoint and other tools. In June, it was one of the account's most efficient channels. We break down the full strategy in our ChatGPT Ads case study.
Phase 5: Targeting ChatGPT and Claude Tax Keywords
Tax professionals are increasingly searching to find out whether ChatGPT or Claude can be used for tax research. Some are assessing whether these tools can handle tax work. Others have already encountered hallucinations and are looking for a more reliable alternative.
We expanded our search strategy to reach both groups:
- Search campaigns on Google and Bing targeting people looking for “ChatGPT for tax” and “Claude for tax,” with headlines like “Claude Wasn’t Made for Tax” and “ChatGPT Hallucinates With Tax.”
- Dedicated comparison landing pages: a ChatGPT alternative for tax, a Claude alternative for tax and Accordance versus general AI.
- Comparison creative across Reddit, Meta, LinkedIn and ChatGPT Ads, focused on the difference between a general AI tool and a platform built specifically for tax research.
Together, these campaigns position Accordance as an alternative for tax professionals who need authoritative sources, source-cited reasoning and answers they can verify.
Phase 6: Optimizing for Deals, Not Leads
Leads are easy to count. Pipeline is what matters. From the start, we connected the ad platforms to Accordance’s CRM (Zoho) so we could optimize for real revenue outcomes:
- Offline conversions: We sent leads, qualified leads and deals from the CRM back into the ad platforms so their algorithms learned what a good lead looks like.
- Server-side tracking to keep measurement reliable as browser tracking gets weaker.
- Exclusion lists that keep existing customers, competitors, the Big 4 and non-buyers out of prospecting audiences.
- LinkedIn Document Ads with gated ebooks for top-of-funnel lead capture, which converted at a rate of 48.7%.
We used conversion data, campaign performance and downstream CRM outcomes to guide campaign priorities and future strategy around Accordance’s business goals.
This feedback loop helped the program generate 96 paid-sourced deals, including 25 closed-won deals worth $238,855.
The Results
Accordance began seeing results early. A $17,500 deal closed within about a month of launching search, while the branded search conversion rate increased from under 1% to over 8% once the optimized landing pages were live.
As the program expanded, the results continued to build. In total, the paid campaigns generated:
- $238,855 in closed-won revenue across 25 deals
- $678,505 in paid-sourced pipeline across 96 deals, with $380,650 still open
- 1,200+ leads across six ad platforms
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.
Do you need help with paid ads?
Book a free strategy call to learn how we can help you scale growth in a competitive AI software market.
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