B2B SaaS Google Ads long tail-keyword Strategy Sparring

Here's an overview so you can judge whether this is a fit.

THE PROJECT (Phase 1 = a paid test sprint)

I'm launching a bootstrapped new B2B SaaS product and want to validate it through Google Ads, using a long-tail, low-competition keyword strategy: many specific, low-volume search terms (niche professional intent), each pointing to its own hyper-specific dedicated landing page. The bet is low CPC + high intent rather than broad, expensive head terms.


How the funnel works (so the goal makes sense):

- Ad → a dedicated landing page for that niche
- On the page, the visitor can try an interactive tool; if it resonates, they create a free account = a "signup"

That signup is the conversion event you'd optimize toward. (What happens after signup — paid conversion — lives in our internal system, isn't visible at ad level, and isn't reliably measurable in a short test anyway.)


TWO PARALLEL LANGUAGE LEGS, EQUAL BUDGET (so we can compare them cleanly):

- German-speaking markets (Germany, Austria, German-speaking Switzerland) — ~€1,000
- English-speaking markets — ~€1,000 — preferably UK + Ireland (closest fit for our expansion path, and cleaner auction economics than the US on these terms)

THE ONE KPI YOU'D OPTIMIZE: Cost-per-Signup

Deliberately the single target, because it bundles everything: cheap junk clicks won't produce signups, so they won't help your number — it forces low CPC and high intent at once.

Primary goal: lowest possible cost-per-signup.
Read floor (not a goal): ~25–30 signups per leg over the sprint, so the data is meaningful. Beyond that floor, lower cost-per-signup always beats more signups — this is a learning test, not a volume push.
Explicitly NOT targets: CPC alone, impressions, clicks, or raw volume above the floor.

A SECOND, EQUALLY IMPORTANT READ: is this scalable?

The €1k isn't just "how cheap is a signup" — it also has to tell me whether there's enough long-tail demand to build this into a scalable mid-term channel, or whether we hit a ceiling fast. So alongside cost-per-signup I'll want your read on:

Impression share & lost-IS (budget) per cluster — how much of available demand are we capturing at €1k?
Total available search volume vs. what we're buying — how big is the pool?
Whether cost-per-signup stays stable as spend increases (headroom) or climbs (saturation).

I'D LIKE TO SPLIT THE WORK INTO A CLEAR SEQUENCE

WS-0 — Keyword Strategy & Pull (first, standalone):

Strategy sparring (open): given the KPI above — low cost-per-signup, high active intent, NOT raw volume — what types of keyword clusters would you go after here? I have a working hypothesis (~7 clusters across a few audiences), but I'm genuinely looking for your expertise to find high-intent, low-cost-per-signup clusters I've missed — keyword themes outside my framing are exactly what I want to surface. The only filter: sharp active intent over raw volume. This is a discussion, not just a list.
Pull & structure: Keyword Planner research across both languages (DE + EN), real search volumes + bid ranges, organized into the agreed clusters — including your read on the volume/scalability question above.

WS-1+ — Build & Ops (only if WS-0 validates volume): account setup, conversion tracking, campaign/ad-group structure, RSAs, negative keywords, pacing, daily reporting against agreed thresholds. ~4–5 week run.

The reason for the split: the keyword data decides whether the campaign is viable at all, so I'd like to start there before committing to the full build.
WHAT I OWN (not delegated): landing pages, niche strategy, and the go/no-go decisions. What I'm looking for from you: the full Google Ads execution.
One note: I've kept the product itself deliberately light here. I'm happy to share full product and user-journey insights after a mutual NDA — that gives you everything you need to plan the campaign properly, while protecting the underlying product. (Totally standard; happy to sort the NDA before we go deeper.)


TWO THINGS I'D APPRECIATE FROM YOU AT THIS STAGE:

1) A quick gut-check: is this a project you'd take on, and are you comfortable with the sub-project split and this sequence (WS-0 first, then Build & Ops)?
2) A first quote for WS-0, plus a rough ballpark indicator for the rest of the Phase-1 build & ops, so I can plan.

Scoped to the Phase-1 test for now — but if it works, clear potential to continue well beyond it (scaling, more geographies).