Directive

In only 3 years, we increased client goal attainment by 92% after making one simple change: We set a NSM (North Star Metric) for every account + integrated it’s visibility into the entire company. What does this mean for our SaaS company clients? It means that every single client’s results (startup to enterprise) are reviewed by the CEO to the specialist every single month. What does this mean for an agency? It means you have real visibility into your agencies ability to deliver on its brands promise. No ruinous empathy. No ignorance is bliss. No blind belief. Every Director, Associate Director, Account Director, Strategist, and Specialist, are on a public leaderboard (organized by overall and by business unit). Each performance review is based on client goal attainment. Top performers are rewarded and lower performers can quickly be supported and developed. You might be reading this and be thinking, “Damn, that sounds intense.” I would agree. The reality is that every time Directive is hired we are expected to get results that have never been accomplished at that organization and the last agency failed at attaining. It takes a competitive culture to accomplish the never been done before. It takes a competitive culture to consistently deliver in the performance marketing space. The most competitive consultants are the ones that are always consuming content, applying their findings, and refining their POV.

LinkedIn Ads: where targeting precision goes to die. 🎯💀 Scene: You spent $$$ only to reach your mom, your ex, and that one guy you ghosted in 2018. It happens to the best. (Did that guy convert, btw?) Look, it’s not your fault, it’s LinkedIn’s wild ride into who knows where. But don’t cry about it (or do. We're here to help, not judge). We got your back. While LinkedIn offers robust targeting options, much of its data is user-generated and often outdated. Users self-select “industry” when creating their profiles, write in job titles, or manually set up LinkedIn Business Pages. Users are then on their merry way, rarely returning to update their profiles as career paths, interests, and skill sets change. Just think about how you use LinkedIn – keeping your profile up-to-date is just one more task on a never-ending task list. Business pages get the same lack of love – an intern likely set that page up 15 years ago and it no longer reflects evolving service offerings, audiences, teams, and focus areas. Needless to say, if you’re using outdated and inaccurate user-generated data to define your LinkedIn ad targeting, you risk wasting money on uninterested, out-of-market people.  Here’s what to do instead. (link in comments)👇 #LinkedFail #TargetPractice #SaveYourWallet

At Directive, we’ve audited over $145M in Google Ads for SaaS companies. Here’s how we can find any Google Ad problem (in under 15 minutes): 1. Offline Conversion Tracking Is Not Setup (or worse, setup incorrectly) Without offline conversion you’re trusting Google’s dashboards to tell you what’s working (they'll always tell you to spend more). Actual bookings are priority, but we need enough volume for the algorithm to properly optimize. Here’s a traditional setup we would follow (Lead > MQL > Demo > Closed Won) and the math behind it. Start with the value per deal (expected or actual) and multiply it by your close rate. So, 75k ACV * 25% close rate = $18,750 cost per demo. Then, $18,750* 50% MQL > Demo = $9,375 MQL And finally, $9,375 MQL * 5% Lead > MQL = $468 cost per form conversion. 2. Majority of Budget on Informational Intent Search Terms We often find accounts spending > 75% on search terms that have no commercial intent and massive differences when it comes to cost per demo. Go into the search terms report and filter non brand keywords. Then, filter to look at "keyword text contains" and input informational modifiers: - Software - Services - Provider - Companies - Vendor - Solution - System - Best - Tool - Platform - Reviews Now, compare these informational keywords to "keyword text does not contain". More than 75% in the informational group? Time to start cutting. Lastly, segment your campaigns so commercial and non commercial keywords aren't in the same campaign (e.g. don't have "employee recognition" in the same campaign as "employee recognition software"). Commercial intent keywords will fight lower intent keywords with more search volume that take the majority of budget. 3. Maximizing Search Impression Share vs. Top Campaigns Almost every Google Ad account has top performing campaigns limited by budget. Boiling the ocean with impression share will make your blended cost pers skyrocket. Quickly clean up wasted spend and re-allocate + focus funds into top performing campaigns (and immediately lift conversion volume and reduce CPAs). 4. Device and Demographic Optimizations If you haven't optimized the mobile buying experience you’ll be burning budget on mobile/tablet clicks. Seems obvious, but gets missed frequently by teams + agencies. Look at the demographics report for a mismatch in your buyer profile. Are you trying to sell to Directors, VPs, and C-Suite, but the vast majority of your budget is going to 18-24 year olds and 25-34 year olds? Keep cutting. TAKEAWAY: Don't get distracted by platform reports and ask yourself: Have I connected my CRM to my ad account to optimize for down funnel conversions? Is my budget going to search terms that have commercial intent? Am I maxing out my spend on my top performing campaigns? Are my ads going to my true ICP and am I confident that the people who get my ads could buy my product? In 15 minutes, you can turn almost any ad account around by following this process.

I grew my agency to $20M+ ARR in 10 years, but I could have done it in 5 years. Here are the 5 mistakes that stalled our growth (that 99% of agency owners make): 1. I did not hire a recruiter until $6m in revenue Because I waited to hire a recruiter, I wasted SOO MUCH my time going through inbound applications. While inbound is an important part of our hiring strategy, outbound recruiting is critical to leveling up our talent (especially at exec level). If I would have invested earlier I would have accelerated growth much quicker. Once your agency breaks $3m in top line revenue, I’d hire a recruiter ASAP. 2. I delayed % of spend pricing By offering flat rate pricing via a base retainer, I did not focus on how we could grow spend under management. What this caused was a delay in moving up market, large spends come from large accounts. And you need practice learning how to unlock growth across multiple channels, ad units, campaigns, and strategies. By moving to % of spend pricing, we were able to better align with our customers and create a win/win environment. Once your agency's average spend per client is > $40k a month, i’d move to % of spend pricing. 3. I didn't understand NRR Because I was not focused on NRR, I launched 6 different service lines at Directive but did a poor job as CEO of building an internal sales motion that allowed me to grow revenue via cross-sells, not just referrals. Without focusing on NRR, I was not maximizing the growth rate of my service line investments. I could have grown exponentially faster if I had a a better understanding of how to structurally create an agency growth strategy — from the bottom up. Now, we have weekly meetings across all roles in the organization and are fully focused on recommending services that will help our customers exceed their goals with us. 4. I refused to offer a down market offering We always wanted to move up market and work with bigger brands, with bigger goals, and bigger budgets. I didn't realize it at the time, but this is a rare case where I could have my cake and eat it too. Given the current market conditions, our new low-cost Startups package is our fastest growing business unit, is driving NRR, and has a 4.6/5 CSAT from almost 12 months of surveys. Don't brand yourself as down market, but having a “more affordable” offering can be a strong driver of growth. 5. I delayed building visibility systems As we grew, I became increasingly reactive as CEO and could not clearly understand what clients were hitting goals and which were missing. I relied on second hand information and thus my ability to innovate our offering was limited. I spent much of the last 36 months in operations working closely with the COO and learned how important it is to have visibility around 3 core KPIs: client goal attainment, client satisfaction, and retention.

In the last 12 months, we've run $25M of LinkedIn ads for the biggest brands in SaaS. Here’s the exact LTV:CAC modeling we use to analyze, benchmark, and validate Linkedin as a channel for each client: This may surprise you, but... Most SaaS companies are underinvested in LinkedIn. They have budgeted FAR TOO little monthly spend on the channel. Why? Because they're unable to get out of the learning phase and truly scale. We have solved this problem and give SaaS marketers a methodology (Directive's Customer Generation™) that allows them to confidently take market share with their exact ICP. And it all starts with LTV:CAC modeling. Let's dive in... Step 1: Download our Spreadsheet (and video walk through) We developed this over the last 4 years and it has been a critical part of our client delivery process. Get it here: https://lnkd.in/e9q8zctp Step 2: Insert Business KPIs Your business needs to earn the ability to advertise. Here’s the biggest drivers I am looking at: 1. Are you charging enough to outperform the avg. cost per customer on LinkedIn (according to our benchmark data)? 2. Do you have a high enough gross margin for your LTV number to be substantial? 3. Do you retain your customers long enough to justify the required pay back period? Step 3: Model Out Expectations In the very first column of our worksheet, I have added a column labeled “Model”. The goal of this column is to understand how much can you pay to acquire a customer. Put in your current lifecycle stage performance, so what percent of MQLs > SQLs, etc. and then play with the spend data to to model different outcomes. Step 4: Review Cost Per Targets From here, you can now review the cost per lifecycle stage targets and evaluate if you believe your model/expectations are realistic. As a note, from our data, fully blended CPL is apx. $500 (these are people asking for a demo). By using this data point, you can audit your economic impactors as well as your funnel performance. The answer may be: - You need to raise price? - Or, you may need to improve close rate? - Increase retention? - Decrease cost of goods sold? The goal of the exercise is that you are properly aligning your business model to the reality of the baseline cost of an auction based advertising environment. TAKEAWAYS: The key here is not to attempt to drastically lower your CPL; but instead, focus on improving the actual economic drivers of the business. There’s an inverse correlation between lowering CPL’s in SaaS and increasing ACV, Close Rate, and NRR. This is not consumer advertising where growth comes from volume of widgets sold, don’t optimize for the wrong things. Do the math, do the work, grow the business.

We just analyzed $55M in Google and Linkedin Ad Spend from companies like AWS, Outreach, and Supermetrics. Here are the 5 most surprising takeaways: 1. Cost per Conversion on brand search via Google ads is +212% more expensive for sales-led companies than product-led companies. If you’re thinking that’s a lot, it is, but it makes sense... A free trial or subscription offer on an ad is so much more enticing than having to attend a demo or meet with Sales to experience the product before you can even decide if you want to buy it. Sales-Led model companies can learn from Product-Led and to make their offer as enticing and user-friendly as possible. 2. Low AOVs and High AOVs Struggle to Monetize Non-Branded Search If your AOV range is above $500K+ or less than $50K, you should choose your keyword sets carefully, since costs can double compared to $50K-$500K AOV. You’ll want to narrow down to high intent keywords with modifiers to help searchers self qualify. 3. Competitors Campaigns on Google Search Are The Worst Performing Tactic in Google Ads Competitor campaigns are the most expensive type of campaign on Google Ads. The truth is this: Not every company can, or should, run competitor campaigns. This is because some competitor keywords may not have clear intent. Despite a poorer performance, the results suggest you can still drive optimal engagement from your audience — if deployed correctly. To correctly deploy competitor ads, try the following: - Exclude login as a negative - Exclude their brand name as a negative   - Add exact match keywords for:     - “Competitor Name” + pricing     - “Competitor Name” + reviews     - “Competitor Name” + alternatives     - “Competitor Name” + integrations 4. LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms have ~3x the conversion rate of landing pages It seems obvious, but you should always look to leverage lead gen forms on Linkedin. By using the data that users have already given to LinkedIn when creating their account, you convert at a higher rate, and utilize less resources for landing pages + tracking. 5. LinkedIn Conversation Ads have almost a 50% open rate With a $400 cost per conversion and a 50% open rate, I always test the performance of SDR teams against conversation ads. This is one of the most underutilized tactics in SaaS marketing today. TAKEAWAYS: Any tactic can work, the trick is matching your channels + ad units to your business model. Have high ACVs? LinkedIn will crush. Have low ACVs? LinkedIn will still crush, but you might want to prioritize conversation ads and lead gen forms. Google ads is still a deeply effective channel, but you need to setup offline conversion tracking and use your Hubspot or Saleforce data to optimize for demos and bookings. Remember: Benchmarking your performance is critical. Get the full report from Directive here and see how you stack up: https://lnkd.in/edwrqBBU

Without a descent copyrighter, your going to make so so so so many mistakes in your marketing Efforts!!1 Not just typos. Their will probably be a chance you will accidentally tell your audience to unsubscribe instead of subscribe, throw in some run-on sentences that never end but also never really start, and maybe even use the wrong form of to and too and two, and maybe even more. (😬 - sorry about that) Words matter. Invest in a copywriter who knows their stuff (and pay them what they’re worth). Your revenue will thank you later.

🚨SaaS leaders, this might sting a bit…🚨 You may think you’re leading your team to greatness, but are you just managing the chaos? 🤔 Spoiler alert: That’s not leadership. That’s babysitting in a tech company. 🍼 If your growth has flatlined, your team’s culture feels like a bad episode of The Office, and innovation is a buzzword you throw around in meetings—this one’s for you. In our latest blog, we’re serving up the leadership wake-up call you didn’t know you needed. 🚨 Stop managing the mess and start leading like you own the room. 👊 Step up: https://lnkd.in/g9j7RZJF Because, let’s face it, mediocre leadership doesn’t grow SaaS empires. 👑 #SaaS #Leadership #SavageTruth #GrowthMindset #Directive

We heard the last SaaS brand that tried to play it small got so messed up, they forgot who they were. It was crazy. We saw them... it was just... whew. 😮 How are *you* doing? Playin it big? Want to play it big? Want to feed your lion? Food for thought/tips to dominate in the comments...

If you’re a SaaS company spending +$50,000/mo on Linkedin ads, there are only 4 metrics you need to track (hint: it's not CTR, CPC or Conversions): BACKGROUND Too many marketers are focused on “In-Platform Metrics”. Things like CTR, CPC, and Cost per Conversion. This is a huge mistake. There is little correlation between these KPIs and bookings. In SaaS, the customers with highest ACV and the lowest CAC are often the “leads” with the highest CPC and conversions. So, most brands do not need volume; but instead, qualified volume. That's why you should build strong reporting around 4 core metrics: 1. % OF INTRO CALLS THAT ARE QUALIFIED Most LinkedIn advertisers believe they are focused on quality and evaluate KPIs like cost per lead. Unfortunately, this level of analysis is one step removed from a quality filter. What we really want to know when advertising on LinkedIn is, “What % of my leads made it past the first quality filter?” For Directive and many of our customers, that means we need to not only evaluate who is moving forward with an intro call, but what their title is, the size of their organization, industry or vertical. And equally important, what titles, org sizes, and other traits are NOT moving forward in our sales process. By optimizing for this first stage of filtration we have a higher volume of significant learnings and can rapidly improve our taregeting. 2. COST PER DEMO Demo/trial should be the foundation of your forecast. I have found that demos are the backbone of forecasting because they have the needed volume + statistical significance around both ACV (per segment/package) and close rate. By focusing on the cost to acquire demos and thus adjusting bids + budget, we are fully focused on the economic drivers of the business. To do this, leverage CAPI integration. This will will allow you to integrate directly into Hubspot and have clean, concise reporting. With the data clean, evaluate the following in your own pivot table: - Cost per Demo by Title - Cost per Demo by Industry - Cost per Demo by Employee Size - Cost per Demo by Ad Unit By creating depth here, you will be able to properly optimize spend without accidentally hurting bookings. *Ran out of room! Metrics 3 and 4 in the comments 👇