40 to 90 leads a month. CPL from $180 to $86. How a B2B SaaS targeting Southeast Asian SMEs cut cost-per-lead in half while doubling volume.
Client name withheld under NDA.
Our client is a B2B SaaS company selling to small and mid-sized businesses across Southeast Asia. Their Google Ads generated a steady 40 leads a month, but at S$180 per lead the economics were tight, and there was no organic pipeline to lean on. For an early-growth B2B SaaS company, paid acquisition is often the only lead source, and that makes the unit economics fragile. At S$180 a lead, every rise in cost per lead fed straight into a higher customer acquisition cost, squeezing the payback period and limiting how aggressively the business could grow. With no organic pipeline, the company was entirely dependent on Google Ads: if the auction grew more competitive or budgets tightened, leads simply stopped. Selling into SMEs across Southeast Asia also meant high volume at modest deal sizes, so the maths only works if cost per lead stays low. The company did not just need cheaper leads in the short term; it needed a second, compounding channel that would lower its blended acquisition cost and reduce its single-channel risk as it scaled across the region.
Three issues kept cost-per-lead high and growth capped.
Broad match and loose structure spent budget on low-intent clicks that rarely converted.
Generic pages with weak messaging and unclear CTAs let hard-won clicks bounce.
With no SEO, every lead carried full ad cost; there was no compounding organic channel.
We tightened the paid account, fixed conversion, and built an SEO program to bring blended cost-per-lead down over time. We treated paid and organic as one system rather than two separate line items, because the fastest way to lower blended cost per lead is to let each channel do what it does best. On the paid side we tightened the Google Ads account and fixed the conversion path: sharper targeting and better landing pages, so more of the existing spend turned into qualified leads rather than wasted clicks, which alone began pulling cost per lead down. In parallel we launched a content-led SEO program built around the real questions SME buyers search as they evaluate software (comparison, how-to and problem-led queries), so the company could start earning leads it did not have to pay for click by click. As the organic pipeline grew, it diluted the blended cost of every lead the business acquired. The results came quickly and compounded: monthly leads rose from 40 to 90, cost per lead fell from S$180 to S$86 (a 52% cut) and, for the first time, a share of pipeline arrived from organic search, lowering dependence on the ad auction and giving the company a more durable, defensible acquisition model.
Rebuilt campaigns around high-intent keywords and tight match types, with negative lists to cut wasted spend.
Rebuilt landing pages per use-case with sharper messaging, trust signals and clear CTAs.
Launched a content-led SEO program targeting the questions SME buyers actually search, building an organic lead source. For a related example, see our lead generation case study.
Within months the SaaS was generating more than double the leads at half the cost, with a growing organic pipeline on top. Crucially, the organic share kept growing after the engagement, so the blended cost per lead was set to keep falling rather than reset the moment paid budgets changed, exactly the compounding advantage a scaling SaaS needs.
Campaigns rebuilt around high-intent keywords with tight match types and negative lists to cut wasted spend.
Use-case landing pages rebuilt and the content-led SEO programme launched around real SME buyer questions.
Organic leads started arriving, monthly leads reached 90 and blended cost per lead fell to S$86.
We're now getting more than double the leads at half the cost, and our SEO pipeline keeps growing. It completely changed our unit economics.
Paid cost per lead tells half the story. Every organic lead lowers the blended cost of acquiring a customer, which is what decides how fast a SaaS business can grow.
SME buyers search comparison, how-to and problem questions while they decide. Content that answers those questions earns leads that paid search would charge for.
Better landing pages turned more of the existing spend into leads. That alone pulled cost per lead down before any extra budget went in.
Google Ads managed for qualified leads, not clicks.
Results across SEO, paid media, content, web and more.
Another paid plus organic programme that quadrupled enquiries.
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