The best time to run ads for B2B SaaS is when something in your buyers' businesses has been building toward a purchase for several weeks. Hiring rising month over month sends companies shopping for onboarding software. More sales hires send them shopping for CRM seats. Start ads at the beginning of that build-up, because companies take time to research and approve a purchase.
Most SaaS ad advice focuses on weekday hours and which platform to use. Both matter less than whether your buyers have a reason to shop this month.
When is the best time to advertise SaaS?
The best time to advertise SaaS is during a demand window, a period with a start and a stop when demand for a specific kind of software is rising. Business software demand rises when companies change in ways that create a new job to do, such as more staff to set up or more orders to ship.
Companies rarely buy software on impulse. They buy it when the old way stops working. A founder can onboard two hires with a checklist. Fifteen hires in a month breaks the checklist, and the company starts looking for software.
The events that break the old way build up over weeks and months. That gives you time to see them coming and to have ads running before buyers start comparing tools. Verdius watches for these build-ups for you and tells you when a window for your product opens.
What makes demand for business software rise?
Demand for business software rises when a change in companies builds for weeks and creates more work than their current setup can handle. Each row below names the build-up, the software it moves and why buyers act then.
| What is building | Software companies shop for | Why they act then |
|---|---|---|
| Hiring rising month over month | Onboarding and payroll software | More new staff need accounts, paperwork and pay set up at once |
| Sales hiring rising for several months | CRM seats and sales training tools | New reps need a pipeline and a playbook before their first calls |
| New business registrations climbing for several months | Invoicing and accounting software | Founders need to bill a first customer and keep books from day one |
| Support hiring rising as customer counts grow | Help desk software | A shared inbox stops working once several people answer tickets |
| Remote hiring growing month after month | Device management and video meeting tools | Staff who never visit an office still need laptops and meetings set up |
| New online store openings climbing | Shipping and inventory software | New sellers need to ship first orders and track stock |
Each build-up adds more companies with the same problem every week. When it levels off, fewer new companies hit the problem, and the window closes.
How do long buying cycles change when you should run SaaS ads?
Long buying cycles mean you should start SaaS ads near the opening of a window, before most buyers are ready to sign. A buying cycle is the time between a company noticing a problem and paying for a fix, and for business software it often includes research, a trial, a demo and an approval.
The person who first clicks your ad is often not the person who approves the purchase. An operations lead finds onboarding tools, shortlists a few and brings them to whoever controls the spend. Your ads need to reach the researcher early, while the shortlist is still open.
That changes what you run at each stage of a window:
- At the opening, run ads that name the problem the build-up creates, such as onboarding a wave of new hires, and offer something useful to read or try.
- As the window builds, retarget companies that visited, and push trials and demo requests.
- Near the close, keep spend on companies already evaluating you, and cut spend on people who have never visited.
Which approach to SaaS ad timing works best?
Timing ads to demand windows works best, with steady spend on brand searches and retargeting underneath. The other common approaches each look at your own pipeline, which moves after buyers do.
| Approach | What it answers | What it misses |
|---|---|---|
| Spending the same amount every month | How to keep ads running steadily | Months when many more companies are shopping |
| Spending more when your own pipeline looks thin | Whether you need more leads now | Whether buyers are in the market to supply them |
| Scaling on last month's cost per lead | Which campaigns worked recently | Windows that already peaked, and ones about to start |
| Timing ads to demand windows | When companies will shop for your kind of software, and who they are | Creative and landing page problems |
How should you use LinkedIn ads when a window opens?
Use LinkedIn ads when a window opens to reach the people at the companies the build-up affects, before they search. LinkedIn describes people by their work, which matches how B2B buyers are grouped.
Verdius gives you the audience for each window in the terms ad platforms already use, so you start from a description of the companies the build-up affects. Target by job function and seniority to reach the person who owns the problem, such as human resources managers for onboarding software. Add company size to match the companies you sell to. For build-ups tied to hiring, LinkedIn's company growth rate option targets companies by how fast they grow year over year, based on factors such as employee growth.
LinkedIn's matched audiences let you retarget people who visited your site or engaged with your ads, and upload lists of companies. Both help in the later part of a window, when researchers bring your name back to the people who approve. For more on scheduling and pacing LinkedIn campaigns, see the best time to run LinkedIn ads.
How should you use search ads for B2B software?
Use search ads for B2B software to catch companies that are already typing the problem into a search box. Search reaches buyers later than LinkedIn and with clearer intent.
During a window, raise bids on the category searches the build-up creates, such as searches for onboarding checklists or new hire paperwork when hiring rises. Keep brand search running at all times, because researchers look you up by name when they return.
Microsoft Advertising lets search ads use LinkedIn profile details: company, industry and job function. These work as bid adjustments, so you can bid more when someone in human resources searches for onboarding software without narrowing who can see the ad.
What should you do when a demand window opens?
When a demand window opens, put your spend behind the software the build-up moves and aim it at the companies going through the change. The order below works whether you spend a few hundred dollars or run campaigns across several platforms.
- Build the audiences before the first day: job function, seniority and company size on LinkedIn, and category keywords on search.
- Write ads about the change the buyer is living through, such as a wave of new hires starting next month.
- Raise spend on that product in steps as the window opens. The guide on when to increase ad spend covers how.
- Watch demo requests, trials and cost per lead as the window builds.
- Pull back on new audiences when the build-up levels off, and keep retargeting companies still evaluating you.
Verdius does the first and last steps for you. It finds the window and the audience before you build anything, and it alerts you when the window closes so you know when to pull back on new audiences.
Should a B2B SaaS startup with no set monthly ad budget wait for a demand window before running any ads at all?
A startup with no set monthly ad budget can keep a small amount on brand search and retargeting at all times, and save the rest for demand windows. Brand search and retargeting reach people who already know you. The rest of the money goes further when companies are shopping for your kind of software.
How do I time ads when the person who clicks is not the person who signs the contract?
Time ads for the researcher first and the approver second. Reach the researcher at the opening of the window with LinkedIn and search, then retarget their company with ads that answer an approver's questions, such as price, security and setup time, as the window builds.
Does timing to demand windows work for enterprise software with deals that take many months to close?
Timing to demand windows works for enterprise software, with the ads placed earlier. A window tells you when companies begin to feel a problem, and that is when research starts. The deal may close long after the window ends, but the shortlist is often set inside it.
How does Verdius help with B2B SaaS ad timing?
Verdius is software that predicts when demand for a product will rise and who to target then. For a SaaS product, that means knowing when companies will start shopping for your kind of tool, before your own pipeline shows it.
For each product, Verdius gives you:
- Optimal windows to run ads, each with a start and a stop, ranked against each other.
- The events behind each window, such as hiring rising month over month for onboarding software.
- The audience to reach, described in the terms ad platforms already use.
- Alerts when a window opens and when it closes.
It reads your LinkedIn, Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising accounts, plus Google Analytics and Search Console. It never launches, edits or pauses ads; you run them. See how Verdius finds windows, or compare plans on the pricing page. Higher plans see further ahead, which helps when enterprise deals take months.
So when should you run ads for B2B SaaS?
Run ads for B2B SaaS when a change in your buyers' businesses has been building for weeks, and start near the opening of that window. Use LinkedIn to reach the people who own the problem and search to catch companies already looking. Pull back on new audiences when the build-up levels off.