Where they started
Competitors bid on SignEasy's own brand, and a self-serve funnel flooded sales with low-intent signups.
B2B SaaS Case Study
How GrowthSpree Helped SignEasy Turn Ad Spend into 2.6× Pipeline
A Google-Ads-led, quality-first paid program that defended SignEasy's brand, won demand from DocuSign and PandaDoc searchers, and scaled sales-ready pipeline across 7+ markets.
SignEasy
eSignature and contract workflow platform
- Founded
- 2010
- Headquarters
- Dallas, Texas
- Company size
- 51–200 employees
- Sector
- eSignature SaaS
- Pipeline vs Ad Spend
- ~2.6×Pipeline vs Ad Spend
- Lead Quality
- +43%Lead Quality
- Brand Impression Share
- ~75%Brand Impression Share
Case study summary
- Summary
- GrowthSpree ran a Google-Ads-led paid media program for SignEasy, an eSignature and contract workflow platform, that generated qualified pipeline worth about 2.6× its ad investment, improved lead quality by 43% and scaled across 7+ markets.
- GrowthSpree's paid program generated qualified pipeline worth roughly 2.6 times SignEasy's total ad investment.
- Google Ads took about 87% of paid budget and drove about 99% of paid-attributed closed revenue.
- Work-email + OTP validation, tier-based targeting and SAL/SQL optimisation improved lead quality by 43%.
- Brand-defense campaigns held roughly 75% impression share on SignEasy's branded searches, and brand reach grew about 20%.
- The winning campaign structure was scaled geo by geo across 7+ markets, including the US, UK, UAE and India.
From start to now
What we changed
Brand defense, "alternative to" pages and work-email gates, with bidding pointed at SALs and SQLs.
Where they are now
Qualified pipeline worth ~2.6× ad spend, 43% better lead quality, scaled across 7+ markets.
Who is SignEasy?
SignEasy is a mobile-first e-signature and contract-workflow platform that businesses use to sign, send and manage documents. It runs a hybrid go-to-market, so paid media has to deliver sales-ready pipeline, not just trial signups.
| Category | E-signature and contract workflow software (B2B SaaS) |
|---|---|
| Main competitors | DocuSign, Adobe Acrobat Sign, Dropbox Sign (HelloSign), PandaDoc |
| Go-to-market motion | Hybrid: self-serve free trials plus sales-assisted enterprise deals |
| Markets | 7+ countries, including the US, UK, UAE and India |
| Channels managed | Google Ads (primary), Meta Ads, LinkedIn Ads |
| Definition of success | Sales-accepted leads (SALs), sales-qualified leads (SQLs) and qualified pipeline |
Why paid search is expensive in e-signature
In e-signature, the largest players bid aggressively on category keywords and even on SignEasy's own brand terms. The mandate was to protect the brand, convert competitor demand and keep lead quality high while scaling globally.
Three problems the paid program had to solve
- A contested brand battleground. Competitors bid on "SignEasy" searches, raising costs and siphoning off people who were already looking for the product.
- Signups did not equal pipeline. A self-serve funnel attracts volume, but personal-email trials, bots and junk leads diluted what sales could act on.
- Scale without losing efficiency. Growth meant many countries, currencies and intent types, without letting cost per qualified lead run away.
- Attribution beyond last click. Enterprise deals were influenced by several channels, so each channel had to be judged against its real role.
The four kinds of search SignEasy needed to own
Own every high-intent search in the e-signature category, then send each intent to a landing page built to convert it.
Brand defense
Always-on brand campaigns so competitors could not intercept SignEasy's own high-intent demand.
Competitor conquesting
Dedicated "alternative to DocuSign / PandaDoc / HelloSign" landing pages built to convert switching intent.
Non-brand intent
Category and problem-led searches, such as e-sign and contract workflow, matched to intent-specific pages.
Global expansion
The winning structure rolled out market by market across the US, UK, UAE, India and more.
How lead quality improved by 43%
Lead quality improved 43% because junk was filtered at the form, targeting favoured higher-value accounts, and bidding optimised toward sales-accepted and sales-qualified leads instead of raw form fills.
Work-email + OTP validation
Signup forms required a work email verified by one-time passcode. Personal-email and bot signups were stopped at the source, before they reached sales or polluted the conversion signal sent back to the ad platforms.
Tier-based targeting
Budget and audiences were weighted toward enterprise-tier accounts and higher-value segments rather than low-intent volume.
Optimise to SALs and SQLs
Bidding and budget decisions were tied to sales-accepted leads and pipeline from the CRM, not form fills, so the algorithms learned what a sales-ready SignEasy lead looks like.
Where the budget went, and where revenue came from
Google Ads took about 87% of SignEasy's paid budget and drove about 99% of paid-attributed closed revenue. Meta and LinkedIn were kept for the jobs they do best rather than judged on last-click revenue.
Where the Budget Went vs Where the Revenue Came From
- Share of paid spend
- Share of closed revenue
| Channel | Share of paid spend | Share of paid closed revenue |
|---|---|---|
| Google Ads | ~87% | ~99% |
| Meta Ads + LinkedIn Ads | ~13% | ~1% (last click) |
Google Ads
Captures demand and closes revenue
The highest-intent demand and the best efficiency. Most of the budget and nearly all closed revenue.
Meta Ads
Low-cost top of funnel
The cheapest source of new leads, and strongest once work-email validation was added to lift quality.
LinkedIn Ads
Enterprise awareness
Brand and account awareness that influenced enterprise deals well beyond last-click attribution.
What we tested, kept and dropped
Continuous testing, doubling down on what worked, cutting what didn't, and reallocating budget every week toward the highest-yielding campaigns and geographies.
| Lever | What we tested | What we kept |
|---|---|---|
| Competitor bidding | Conquesting campaigns against each major rival | The efficient competitor plays; dropped the ones that ran too expensive |
| Bidding strategies | Target CPA and other automated strategies | Reverted quickly whenever automation hurt lead volume or quality |
| Landing-page intent | Purpose-built pages for brand, competitor and category searches | Intent-matched pages for every major search theme |
| Budget allocation | Weekly shifts across geos and campaigns | Spend concentrated on the markets producing the best sales-ready pipeline |
How the paid program changed
The shift was from a volume-first setup, where rivals could intercept brand demand and signups were counted as success, to a quality-first system that owned high-intent search and optimised every channel toward qualified pipeline.
| Area | Before | After GrowthSpree |
|---|---|---|
| Branded search | Competitors bidding on SignEasy terms and intercepting branded intent | Always-on brand defense with ~75% impression share |
| Competitor demand | Switchers searching for DocuSign or PandaDoc alternatives left to rivals | Dedicated "alternative to" pages converting switching intent |
| Signup gate | Open forms letting personal-email and bot signups through | Work-email + OTP validation at the source |
| Optimisation target | Signups and form fills | Sales-accepted leads, SQLs and pipeline |
| Channel roles | Channels judged on the same last-click metric | Google captures, Meta reaches, LinkedIn influences enterprise |
| Budget decisions | Harder to scale without cost per qualified lead rising | Weekly reallocation toward the best geos and campaigns |
| Market coverage | Growth constrained by efficiency risk | Winning structure scaled across 7+ markets |
The results
SignEasy's results
- Qualified pipeline vs total ad investment
- ~2.6×Qualified pipeline vs total ad investment
- Google Ads share of budget → share of closed revenue
- 87% → 99%Google Ads share of budget → share of closed revenue
- Improvement in lead quality
- +43%Improvement in lead quality
- Impression share on branded search
- ~75%Impression share on branded search
- Growth in brand reach / impressions
- ~20%Growth in brand reach / impressions
- Markets scaled (US, UK, UAE, India +)
- 7+Markets scaled (US, UK, UAE, India +)
Pipeline and lead quality against the baseline
Every 100 units of ad investment produced roughly 260 units of qualified pipeline, and the share of sales-ready leads rose from an index of 100 to 143.
Every Outcome Measured Against a Baseline of 100
- Baseline (100)
- Outcome
| Metric | Baseline index | Outcome index |
|---|---|---|
| Qualified pipeline vs ad investment | 100 (investment) | ~260 (pipeline) |
| Share of sales-ready leads | 100 (before) | 143 (after) |
| Brand reach / impressions | 100 (before) | ~120 (after) |
What didn't work, and what we did about it
Not everything worked first time. These are the calls that shaped the result.
Some competitor campaigns ran too hot. Conquesting was tested against each major rival. Where cost per sales-ready lead climbed too high, the campaign was switched off and budget went back to the rivals that held up.
Automated bidding hurt lead quality. Target CPA and other automated strategies were trialled. When volume or quality dropped, we rolled them back quickly instead of waiting for them to settle.
Meta's cheap leads were mostly unusable at first. Meta was the lowest-cost source of new leads, but only became worth scaling once work-email validation filtered out personal and bot signups.
LinkedIn looked weak on last-click revenue. We kept it anyway, because enterprise deals were influenced by LinkedIn well before the click that got the credit.
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Why it worked
01
Own the category's intent
Brand defense plus competitor conquesting captured the highest-intent demand in e-signature before rivals could.
02
Engineer quality, don't hope for it
Validation and tiered targeting turned a noisy self-serve funnel into sales-ready pipeline the team could close.
03
Match each channel to its job
Google to capture and convert, Meta for low-cost reach, LinkedIn for enterprise influence. No channel forced out of role.
The outcome Qualified pipeline worth ~2.6× the total ad investment across 7+ markets.
How to run paid ads for a self-serve and sales-led SaaS
If your SaaS sells in a crowded category with both free trials and an enterprise sales team, this is the sequence we used for SignEasy.
Defend your brand search
Run always-on brand campaigns so competitors cannot intercept people already searching for your product.
Conquest competitor demand
Bid on 'alternative to' and rival-brand searches and send them to a dedicated comparison landing page for switchers.
Capture non-brand category intent
Target problem-led and category searches with landing pages matched to each intent.
Gate lead quality at the form
Require work email and OTP verification to filter personal-email and bot signups before they reach sales.
Optimise to SALs and SQLs
Point bidding and budget at sales-accepted and sales-qualified leads, not raw form fills.
Give each channel one job
Use Google Ads to capture and convert, Meta Ads for low-cost reach, and LinkedIn Ads for enterprise account influence.
Scale geo by geo and reallocate weekly
Roll the winning structure into new markets one at a time and move budget weekly toward the geos and campaigns producing the best pipeline.
Services behind this result
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
What results did SignEasy achieve with GrowthSpree?
GrowthSpree's Google-Ads-led paid program generated qualified pipeline worth roughly 2.6× SignEasy's total ad investment, improved lead quality by 43%, held about 75% impression share on branded search, grew brand reach by around 20%, and scaled the program across 7+ markets including the US, UK, UAE and India.
How can a B2B SaaS company grow sales pipeline from paid ads?
Optimise paid ads for sales-accepted and sales-qualified leads instead of signups, defend brand search, win competitor 'alternative to' demand with dedicated landing pages, and gate lead quality with work-email validation. GrowthSpree used this approach for SignEasy, a B2B eSignature SaaS, generating qualified pipeline worth about 2.6× its ad investment.
What is SignEasy?
SignEasy is a mobile-first e-signature and contract-workflow platform that lets businesses sign, send and manage documents. It competes with DocuSign, Adobe Acrobat Sign, Dropbox Sign and PandaDoc, and runs a hybrid go-to-market with self-serve trials and sales-assisted enterprise deals.
Why is paid advertising hard for e-signature software companies?
The e-signature category is dominated by well-funded players that bid aggressively on category keywords and even on rivals' brand terms. That raises costs, lets competitors intercept branded demand, and floods self-serve funnels with low-intent signups that never become sales pipeline.
How did GrowthSpree defend SignEasy's brand on Google Ads?
GrowthSpree ran dedicated brand-defense campaigns so SignEasy owned its own branded searches, reaching roughly 75% impression share on brand terms. This stopped competitors from cheaply intercepting people already searching for SignEasy.
What is competitor conquesting in Google Ads?
Competitor conquesting is bidding on a competitor's brand or 'alternative to' searches and sending that traffic to a page built for switchers. For SignEasy, GrowthSpree built dedicated 'alternative to DocuSign, PandaDoc and HelloSign' landing pages, kept the rival campaigns that ran efficiently and cut the ones that ran too expensive.
How did GrowthSpree improve lead quality by 43%?
Three changes: work-email plus OTP validation on signup forms to block personal-email and bot signups, tier-based targeting that prioritised enterprise and higher-value segments, and bidding and budget optimised toward sales-accepted leads (SALs) and sales-qualified leads (SQLs) instead of raw form fills.
Which ad channel performed best for SignEasy?
Google Ads was the capture and revenue engine. It received about 87% of the paid budget and drove about 99% of paid-attributed closed revenue. Meta Ads was the lowest-cost source of new leads once work-email validation was added, and LinkedIn Ads built enterprise account awareness that influenced deals beyond last-click attribution.
Which agency ran SignEasy's paid ads?
GrowthSpree, a B2B SaaS paid acquisition agency specialising in Google Ads, LinkedIn Ads and Meta Ads, ran SignEasy's paid media program. GrowthSpree optimises campaigns toward CRM-tracked qualified pipeline rather than raw lead volume.
Can this playbook work for other SaaS companies in competitive categories?
Yes. The approach suits SaaS companies that compete against larger, better-funded rivals, run both self-serve signups and a sales team, and sell in several countries. The core moves (brand defense, competitor conquesting, lead-quality gates, SAL/SQL optimisation and clear channel roles) do not depend on the e-signature category.
What is the difference between lead volume and lead quality in SaaS paid ads?
Lead volume counts every signup or form fill. Lead quality measures how many of those leads sales accepts and qualifies. Optimising only for volume trains ad platforms to find cheap, low-intent signups, while optimising for quality trains them to find buyers who become pipeline.
Reviewed by Ishan Manchanda, Co-Founder, GrowthSpree
Last reviewed September 2026
GrowthSpree is a revenue-focused paid acquisition agency for B2B SaaS and B2B tech, running Google Ads, LinkedIn Ads and Meta Ads toward CRM-tracked qualified pipeline. It has managed $60M+ in ad spend across 300+ B2B SaaS and tech companies.
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