India’s rise as a global Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) hub is accelerating, creating opportunities for SaaS businesses to expand worldwide.
Indian SaaS companies, which derive more than 70% of their sales from international markets, are expected to double revenues to $50 billion between 2025 and 2030. This growth will be driven by higher spending from companies worldwide on software that boosts productivity and cybersecurity.
To help your SaaS brand ride this wave of growth, we distilled research about B2B buyers’ purchase behaviours to come up with a three-part strategy: create relevant ad content, scale leads with AI, and supercharge results with first-party data.
Brands like JustCall and Uniqode have used elements of the strategy to boost overseas sales and returns. You can do this — and more — with this three-part strategy based on buyer-behaviour insights.
1. Create digital content relevant to audiences overseas
A key way to grow your SaaS brand abroad is by creating digital marketing content that is highly relevant to B2B buyers’ needs.
That’s because most buyers, including 69% of tech buyers,1 conduct research on digital channels before purchasing. And they often do this before meeting a sales representative, with 70% of enterprise buyers strongly agreeing that they prefer to conduct independent research before interacting with sales reps.2
These buyers turn to online research because 90% of them agree this information is generally of high quality. To win their attention, you’ll need to engage them with quality content that’s not just informative, but closely matches what they need. And for that, you’ll need to know which keywords help them in their online research.
Tools like Keyword Planner let you discover keywords related to your SaaS product and category. It shows the keywords trending in different markets, including the ones where your brand is not yet present. This helps you create content and campaigns using keywords that will drive the most interest among B2B buyers.
How to use Keyword Planner
To further boost the relevance of your digital content, make sure it addresses buyers’ common questions, requests, and pain points.
2. Scale lead generation with AI-powered, multichannel campaigns
Another buyer behaviour you need to be aware of to unlock global growth is: Most B2B buyers have a list of vendors in mind from day one of their purchase journey, and 92% of them will ultimately choose a vendor from their “day one list.”3
Not only is it critical for your brand to get on this “day one list,” it’ll also need to stand out because the stakes are high — the average enterprise buyer has 4.3 vendors in mind.4
To that end, keep increasing consideration of your brand among as many prospective buyers as possible. That’s because most of them are continually assessing vendors for their “day one list,” even if they do not appear to be actively searching for a new vendor. In fact, 42% of buyers are in a constant state of evaluating providers, while another 39% evaluate during several periods throughout the year.5
Here are two ways to help you leave no lead unturned:
Engage buyers across digital channels
Multichannel ad campaigns can help you cast a wide net, since 42% of business decision-makers say that ads on search engines, online video, and apps led them to consider the featured provider.6
Start with Search — the top channel buyers turn to. Not only do 84% of buyers use online search throughout their purchase journey,7 55% of them use it every week or even more frequently.8
And add online videos to your campaign, since 70% of mid-sized B2B buyers say they watch product videos on their mobile devices when researching new software solutions for their company.9
Scale lead generation using AI-powered solutions
To generate leads on a massive, global scale efficiently, use AI-powered ads solutions that meet your business needs.
Search ads, powered by Google’s best AI, let you connect you with customers in the moments they’re searching for products and services like yours.
With Performance Max, you can reach buyers at scale across all of Google’s channels, including Search, Display, and YouTube, with a single, easy-to-use campaign. Additionally, it uses the full power of Google AI from end to end, to improve your bidding, audiences, and creative to maximise performance.
To create and convert demand on YouTube and Google’s most visual surfaces, even when consumers aren’t searching for you, use Demand Gen campaigns. The tool delivers visually-rich ads to new audiences as they discover SaaS vendors on Google properties, helping you drive incremental conversions.
One example of a SaaS enterprise that drove qualified leads and revenues with Google AI is Uniqode. The India-based brand, which makes QR code lifecycle management and analytics software, used Performance Max to optimise its campaigns towards maximising sales-qualified leads in the U.S. Using an automated bid strategy, it was able to reach high-intent audiences and boost conversion values by 22%
The glowing results prompted Uniqode to expand its Performance Max campaign strategy to other international markets.
3. Supercharge results by using first-party data to optimise campaigns
To maximise both sales and profits overseas, use your first-party data to optimise your AI-powered ad campaigns.
Analyse your consented first-party data and assign values to conversions that best meet your KPIs, such as closing a deal or driving profits. For example, you can assign a higher conversion value to leads that are sales-qualified or have a high customer lifetime value.
Next, use AI-powered Smart Bidding strategies to optimise your campaign for valuable conversions. For example, you can use a target return on ad spend (ROAS) strategy to drive as much conversion value as possible for a specific ROI goal.
To further boost the performance of Smart Bidding, use enhanced conversions for leads. It lets you measure offline sales and transactions using first-party user-provided data from your website. This data integration allows for more accurate conversion measurement and performance insights to optimise your AI-powered campaigns. In fact, companies that link their offline and online first-party data can achieve a 2X revenue uplift.
When JustCall wanted to boost revenues, it partnered with Google to shift from driving lead volumes to winning valuable customers. A model, based on first-party user-provided data, was built to predict leads with a higher customer lifetime value, and coupled with a target ROAS bidding strategy.
With that, JustCall could optimise for valuable conversions across Search ads while efficiently scaling up its Performance Max campaign and improving lead quality. As a result, it saw a 240% increase in ROAS and 60% improvement in conversion rates, while halving the payback period.
As India gains traction as a global SaaS hub, there’s no better time for Indian businesses to expand overseas. And with a strategy that helps you create relevant content across markets, scale campaigns with AI, and supercharge results with first-party data, you’ll be well-positioned for global opportunities ahead.
Contributors:
Anurag Ranjan, Executive International Growth Consultant; Jiao Chen, Head of International Growth Team (APAC MMS); Daniela Putz, Head of APAC IGT Global Business Solutions; Priyank Yadav, Sales Consultant; Arham Shah, Strategic Agency Manager; Anmol Shankhwar, Account Executive (GCS); Gaurav Jain, Manager (SBS Scaled); Kartikaye Gilra, Manager (MMS); Deepika Mittal, Digital Marketing Strategist (CSA); Mayan Bansal, Manager (CSA)
