$177K Budget, 430% ROAS:
Scaling a SaaS Black Friday Campaign on
Google Ads
The Challenge
B2C SaaS company selling subscriptions worldwide, with Tier 1 markets as primary revenue drivers. We’d been managing their Google Ads account for over a year, so we had deep data — but Black Friday 2024 had specific constraints.
The previous year’s Black Friday delivered 250% ROAS on a smaller budget. The client wanted to scale to $177K while improving ROAS. Scaling budget and improving efficiency are typically opposing forces — more spend usually means higher CPAs as you exhaust high-intent audiences.
The competitive landscape amplified the pressure. Every SaaS competitor runs aggressive BF promotions. CPCs spike 40-60% during the promotional window. Search inventory gets crowded and expensive. Performance Max competes against itself as audience signals saturate across Google’s network.
With $177K across Google Search and Performance Max, daily budget allocation between campaign types needed to be fluid. A campaign type outperforming on Day 2 might underperform by Day 5 as audience saturation shifts.
WHAT WE DID
12 months of preparation, not 2 weeks.
Analyzed previous year's BF data at campaign, ad group, and keyword level. Identified the top 20% of elements driving 80% of results. Built 2024 structure around amplifying those winners.
15+ creative variants pre-built and staged
Refreshed search copy and ad extensions for Google Search. Image and video assets for Performance Max asset groups — tested across multiple audience signals before November 1. No last-minute production scrambles.
Two campaign types, each with a defined role
Search = revenue backbone (capturing high-intent queries, full keyword control). Performance Max = audience expansion and retargeting across Google's inventory, powered by value-based audience signals.
Dynamic daily budget reallocation between Search and PMax
No campaign had a fixed budget. When Search CPCs spiked on BF weekend, we shifted budget to PMax (lower CPAs from audience signals). When PMax saturated on warm audiences mid-campaign, we pulled back and let Search handle direct-intent traffic. Moved ~15-20% of total budget between campaigns over the 3-week active period.
Value-based bidding across all campaigns
Every conversion carried actual subscription value — monthly vs. annual, starter vs. pro tier. Server-Side GTM + Offline Conversion Import fed accurate revenue data into Google's bidding algorithms, shifting optimization from sign-ups to actual paid revenue.
The RESULTS
ROAS improved 72% while simultaneously scaling budget — rare, and driven by 12 months of foundation work. Search drove the majority of revenue from high-intent queries. Performance Max expanded reach across Google's inventory using value-based audience signals, capturing subscribers who wouldn't have converted through Search alone.
The audiences acquired during BF continued converting at elevated rates through December and January, extending revenue impact well beyond the promotional window.
Evidence
The results of the Google Ads launch in November 2024
Achieved a 30% increase in sales and ROAS compared to Black Friday of the previous year.
This was our best Black Friday ever — 30% more sales than last year, and the ROAS nearly doubled. The preparation they put in months before made the difference.
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