Growth & Strategy
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Medium-term (3-6 months)
Last year, I was brought in by a B2B SaaS client who was burning through their marketing budget faster than a crypto trader in a bull market. They were doing everything "right" according to the playbook - paid ads, SEO content, referral programs, the works. Yet somehow, their customer acquisition costs were climbing while conversion rates were tanking.
Sound familiar? You're probably asking yourself the same question they asked me: "What's the best way to get SaaS users?" And if you're expecting me to rattle off some generic list about content marketing and Facebook ads, you're in for a shock.
After working with dozens of SaaS startups and analyzing what actually moves the needle (not what looks good in case studies), I've discovered something most founders get completely wrong about user acquisition. The problem isn't your marketing channels - it's that you're treating your SaaS like an e-commerce product when it's actually a trust-based service.
Here's what you'll learn from my real-world experiments:
Why the best SaaS user acquisition strategies often contradict conventional marketing wisdom
The hidden growth engine that most analytics tools completely miss (and how it was driving 60% of quality leads for my client)
Why making signup harder actually improved user quality and reduced churn
The fundamental shift from "traffic acquisition" to "trust acquisition" that changes everything
A framework you can apply regardless of your SaaS niche or budget
This isn't another "10 proven strategies" listicle. This is what actually happened when we threw out the marketing handbook and focused on what really drives sustainable SaaS growth. Check out more insights on SaaS growth strategies and proven growth frameworks.
Industry Reality
What every SaaS founder keeps hearing
Walk into any SaaS conference or browse through Y Combinator's startup library, and you'll hear the same advice repeated like a mantra. The "proven" path to SaaS user acquisition supposedly follows this sacred playbook:
Content marketing is king. Create valuable blog content, optimize for SEO, and watch organic traffic convert into trial users. Spend months building your domain authority while your runway burns.
Paid ads are the growth accelerator. Facebook ads for B2C, LinkedIn ads for B2B. A/B test your way to profitable CAC. Scale what works, kill what doesn't. Simple, right?
Product-led growth is the future. Build viral loops into your product. Make sharing inevitable. Let your users become your sales team through seamless referrals and collaboration features.
Email marketing nurtures leads. Set up drip campaigns, segment your audience, and guide prospects through a carefully crafted funnel from awareness to conversion.
Social media builds community. Be where your customers are. Share insights, engage authentically, and build a following that converts into users.
This conventional wisdom exists because it has worked for some companies. The problem? It treats SaaS acquisition like e-commerce conversion. Download this, sign up for that, buy now, convert immediately. But here's the uncomfortable truth: SaaS isn't about convincing someone to make a purchase - it's about convincing them to trust you enough to integrate your solution into their daily workflow.
That distinction changes everything about how you should approach user acquisition. Yet most founders are still optimizing for clicks and signups instead of trust and retention.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
When I started working with this B2B SaaS client, their metrics looked decent on paper. Multiple acquisition channels were generating traffic, trial signups were coming in steadily, and their funnel appeared to be functioning. But something was fundamentally broken.
The first red flag? Their analytics showed tons of "direct" conversions with no clear attribution. Most consultants would have started throwing money at paid ads or doubling down on SEO optimization. Instead, I dove deeper into the data and discovered something that completely changed our approach.
After analyzing user behavior and conducting customer interviews, my hypothesis became clear: a significant portion of their highest-quality leads were actually coming from the founder's personal branding on LinkedIn. Those "direct" conversions weren't really direct at all - they were people who had been following the founder's content for months, building trust over time, then typing the URL directly when they were finally ready to try the product.
But here's where it gets interesting. While we were discovering this hidden growth engine, we were also testing all the "proven" acquisition channels everyone talks about. The results were eye-opening:
The paid ads reality: Too expensive to be profitable. Users who came through ads would sign up for trials but rarely converted to paid plans. The economics simply didn't work for this particular SaaS.
The SEO struggle: We invested heavily in SEO content, but conversion rates were disappointingly low. Traffic increased, but these cold visitors weren't converting into paying customers.
The pattern became clear when I started analyzing user behavior data. Cold users from ads and SEO typically used the service only on their first day, then abandoned it. Meanwhile, warm leads from the founder's LinkedIn content showed much stronger engagement patterns and higher lifetime values.
This was my "aha" moment: We were treating SaaS like e-commerce when it's actually a trust-based service. You're not selling a one-time purchase; you're asking someone to integrate your solution into their workflow and trust you enough to stick around long enough to experience the value.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
Based on these insights, we completely restructured their acquisition approach. Instead of following the conventional multichannel playbook, we focused on what actually worked:
Step 1: Prioritized founder-led content where trust was already being built. Rather than generic company content, we doubled down on the founder's personal brand and expertise sharing on LinkedIn.
Step 2: Created educational content that demonstrated expertise rather than pushing features. Instead of "Look what our product can do," we shifted to "Here's how to solve this problem" with the product as a natural solution.
Step 3: Focused on warming up leads before they ever hit the product. We built a content strategy that took prospects through a journey of problem recognition, solution education, and trust building before asking for a trial signup.
Step 4: Shifted resources away from expensive paid channels that brought in cold, low-intent users. We reallocated budget from Facebook ads to content creation and relationship building.
But here's the counterintuitive part that most SaaS founders struggle with: we made signup harder, not easier. Following insights from other projects, we added qualifying questions and even credit card requirements upfront. Yes, signups dropped initially, but we finally had engaged users who actually used the product and converted at higher rates.
The key realization was this: Cold traffic needs significantly more nurturing before they're ready to commit to a SaaS product. Instead of optimizing for maximum signups, we optimized for maximum qualified intent.
We also implemented a systematic approach to identifying and amplifying what was already working. Rather than starting from scratch with new channels, we audited their real acquisition sources, identified where trust was being built organically, and scaled those specific activities.
This approach required a fundamental shift in metrics focus - from vanity metrics like traffic and signups to engagement metrics like time to first value, feature adoption, and ultimately, retention rates.
Trust Building
Focus on relationship-building content that demonstrates expertise rather than product features. Personal branding often outperforms company marketing.
Channel Audit
Identify your hidden growth engines by looking beyond surface-level attribution. Your best sources might be invisible in standard analytics.
Qualification Gates
Make signup intentionally harder to filter for serious users. Quality over quantity in early-stage user acquisition always wins.
Content Strategy
Create educational content that solves problems first and positions your product second. Trust comes before conversion.
The transformation didn't happen overnight, but the results were significant. Within three months of implementing this trust-first approach:
User quality improved dramatically. Instead of users who tried the product once and disappeared, we were getting engaged users who integrated the solution into their workflows.
Customer acquisition costs became sustainable. By focusing on channels where trust could be built organically, we reduced dependence on expensive paid advertising.
Conversion rates from trial to paid increased substantially. When users came through the trust-building funnel, they were already pre-qualified and understood the value proposition.
Customer lifetime value improved. Users acquired through trust-based channels showed better retention and expansion revenue patterns.
Most importantly, we created a repeatable, scalable system that wasn't dependent on constantly feeding the paid advertising machine. The founder's expertise became the primary growth driver, supported by systematic content creation and relationship building.
This approach also had an unexpected side effect: it positioned the company as a thought leader in their niche, which opened doors to partnership opportunities, speaking engagements, and media coverage that traditional acquisition channels never could have provided.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
After implementing this trust-first approach across multiple SaaS clients, here are the key lessons that consistently emerge:
1. Your analytics are lying to you about acquisition sources. What shows up as "direct" traffic often represents the culmination of weeks or months of trust-building touchpoints across multiple channels.
2. SaaS acquisition is fundamentally different from e-commerce. You're not selling a product; you're selling ongoing trust and integration into someone's workflow. This requires a completely different approach.
3. Quality beats quantity every single time. 100 unqualified signups are worse than 10 qualified prospects who actually understand and need your solution.
4. Founder-led content often outperforms company marketing. People connect with people, not brands. Your founder's expertise and personality can be your biggest competitive advantage.
5. Distribution beats product features. The best product that no one discovers will always lose to the good product that everyone knows about through trusted channels.
6. Cold traffic needs warm-up time. Trying to convert cold visitors immediately is like asking someone to marry you on the first date. Build the relationship first.
7. The best acquisition strategy varies by SaaS type. B2B enterprise SaaS requires different trust-building than B2C productivity tools. One size definitely doesn't fit all.
The biggest mistake I see SaaS founders make is trying to optimize their way out of fundamental strategic problems. You can't A/B test your way to product-market fit, and you can't ads your way to sustainable growth without solving the underlying trust equation.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS startups specifically:
Audit your "direct" traffic sources to find hidden growth engines
Focus founder's personal brand on LinkedIn and industry-specific platforms
Create educational content that solves problems before selling solutions
Add qualification gates to filter for serious prospects
Measure engagement depth, not just signup volume
For your Ecommerce store
For ecommerce stores looking to apply these principles:
Focus on building trust through reviews and social proof automation
Create educational content around product usage and benefits
Implement email nurture sequences for high-intent visitors
Use retargeting to warm up cold traffic before conversion asks