If you want to launch an effective SEA campaign, everything begins with solid keyword analysis. This guide walks you through the right steps to identify search terms that drive results for SaaS businesses using search engine advertising (SEA).

Why understanding your ICP is so important

Your Ideal Customer Profile guides what people actually type. In SaaS, they rarely search your product name; they search a pain, process, or outcome.

Quick ICP mapping (do this before opening any tool):

This prevents guesswork and wasted budget.

Step 1: Understand how people search

Before diving into tools, explore how your potential customers find your product. There are two effective approaches:

1. Speak to your sales team. Ask how leads typically arrive, what language they use, and what recurring questions they ask. These conversations provide unmatched insights into real-world search behavior.

2. Use keyword research tools. If your sales team doesn't have enough data yet, turn to tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, Mangools (KWFinder), or Ahrefs. These tools reveal search volumes, competition, and keyword suggestions that align with your business.

Combining qualitative input from your team with data from research tools gives you a balanced view of how people search for your product category.

Step 2: Conduct basic keyword analysis

Here's how to begin with basic keyword research.

1. Enter a core term like "quality management software" into your keyword tool.

2. Review the related search terms and their volumes.

3. Search Google and analyze the top five results for that term.

4. Examine those landing pages and enter their URLs into a tool like SEMrush or KWFinder to uncover additional keywords they rank for.

This approach generates an initial list of keywords relevant to your offering and used by your competitors.

Step 3: Perform an advanced competitor gap analysis

If you want to build a comprehensive keyword list, go beyond the basics with a competitor gap analysis.

1. Identify your top competitors, ideally 3 to 5 SaaS companies operating in the same space.

2. Use tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs to find out which keywords they’re ranking for.

3. Focus on keywords that appear across multiple competitors’ sites. These are likely high-value and proven to perform. For a complete guide on how to turn these insights into campaign growth, read SEA Strategy: 10 Tips to Boost Your SaaS Growth

4. Add those terms to your keyword list, and tag them based on frequency and strategic fit.

This method helps you spot keywords you shouldn’t miss, avoid wasting time on low-potential terms, and enables you to evaluate thousands of search terms quickly.

Step 4: Compare SEO and SEA keyword opportunities

There are two types of keyword gap analysis you can use to refine your strategy:

1. SEO Keyword Gap Analysis: This shows you which organic search terms your competitors rank for but you do not. These gaps highlight content opportunities and long-term SEO gains.

2. SEA Keyword Gap Analysis: This reveals which terms your competitors are actively bidding on in Google Ads. If multiple players in your market are paying to appear for the same search terms, that's a strong indication of commercial value.

Always look for overlap between SEO and SEA insights to prioritize the most valuable keywords.

Step 5: Select and test your keywords

Now that you have a working keyword list, it’s time to refine and validate it in real campaigns.

1. Filter your list to prioritize keywords that match your ICP’s intent.

2. Create a shortlist for testing in your first Google Ads campaign.

3. Set a controlled budget and track performance metrics such as click-through rate (CTR), cost per click (CPC), and conversions.

4. Use this performance data to refine your keyword strategy and scale only the keywords that demonstrate high ROI.

Continually monitor and test keywords to maintain relevance and optimize for performance.

Conclusion: Why good keyword analysis is crucial for SEA

Effective keyword analysis ensures that your SEA campaigns:

• Capture the correct search intent

• Avoid wasting budget on irrelevant queries

• Rely on data instead of assumptions

• Identify overlooked opportunities in your market

In SaaS, where competition is high and customer journeys are complex, keyword strategy isn’t a nice-to-have, it’s essential. By understanding your audience, using the right tools, and applying competitor data, you build campaigns that attract the right users at the right time.

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