B2B SaaS Platform

Building Demand Before Asking for the Demo

Client

B2B SaaS Platform

Industry

Nonprofit Technology / B2B SaaS

Services Provided

YouTube Ads, Meta Ads & Google Search Ads

Timeframe

9-month engagement

The Opportunity

Selling software to nonprofit organizations comes with a different kind of buying journey.

The audience is relatively small, highly considered, and often takes months to evaluate new platforms. Development directors, finance leads, executive directors, and other decision-makers may compare a solution against established systems long before they’re ready to request a demo.

The challenge was clear: build awareness first, create consideration next, and capture demand when the audience was ready to act.
A single campaign focused only on demo requests wouldn’t be enough.

1,252,803

257,990

258,085

10,680

One Funnel. Three Different Jobs.

Instead of asking one campaign to do everything, Digital Monk split the paid media strategy into three stages.

Awareness

YouTube

Introduce the platform to nonprofit and fundraising decision-makers and measure attention through views, view rate, and cost per view.

Consideration

Conversion

Google Search + Meta

Capture existing search intent and re-engage warm audiences with demo campaigns focused on cost per lead.

The idea was simple: each channel had one job, and each job had a number attached to it.

Awareness Came Before the Ask

The first step wasn’t asking someone to book a demo. It was getting the platform in front of the right people. Four YouTube campaigns ran across consecutive months, using nonprofit and fundraising-focused audiences and creative tailored to the sector.

video impressions

video views

view rate

0 %

cost per view

average CPM

The strongest month generated 130,096 views at just $0.019 per view, accounting for roughly half of all video views during the period.

Turning Awareness Into Consideration

Once the audience had been introduced to the platform, Meta was used to bring that familiarity back to the website.

Traffic campaigns and remarketing worked together to move warm audiences toward relevant fundraising content rather than immediately pushing for a sales conversation.

Across the Meta activity:

622,150 impressions
258,085 people reached
2.4 average frequency
10,680 landing page views
$1.07 blended cost per landing page view
The lowest-cost landing page visits came in at $0.41.

Then We Captured Existing Intent

Not everyone needs to be convinced from scratch.
Some prospects were already searching for nonprofit CRM, fundraising software, and related solutions. Google Search gave the campaign a way to capture that existing demand.
The search campaign generated:

impressions

clicks

CTR

0 %

average CPC

More importantly, the search data helped reveal the language and topics that were actually earning attention. That insight was then carried into the Meta demo campaigns.

The Message Got Better. The Cost Came Down.

The first month of the dedicated demo campaign produced leads at $479.49 each.

After refining the messaging using what the campaigns had learned, the second month dropped that figure to $181.17.

62% reduction in cost per demo request

Month two alone generated 11 of the 17 demo requests from the dedicated lead campaigns on $1,992.85 in spend.

The important part isn’t simply that CPL fell.

The campaigns had accumulated enough audience and search insight to make the conversion layer more efficient.

Month 1

$479.49

Month 2

$181.17

Month 3

$427.26

The Bigger Picture

Across nine months and three platforms, Digital Monk managed $24,214.94 in media spend.

The 26 conversions consisted of 23 Meta leads and 3 Google Search conversions.

But the more important outcome was the system behind those numbers.

– YouTube built recognition.
– Meta created consideration.
– Search captured existing intent.

The resulting audience and messaging insights then fed back into the conversion campaigns.

1,252,803

257,990

10,680

Performance at a Glance

Impressions across three channels

0 M

YouTube views

Landing page views

0 %

Reduction in cost per demo request

Google Search CTR

Tracked conversions

What We’ve Learnt

Don’t Ask for the Demo Before You’ve Earned the Attention.

For a considered B2B purchase, conversion doesn’t always start with a lead form.

It can start with a video view. Then a website visit. Then a search. Then a return visit.

By giving each stage of the funnel a different role, the campaign created a path from awareness to consideration to intent, rather than expecting one ad to do everything.

The strongest month showed what happened when those pieces worked together: cost per demo request fell from $479 to $181.

Build a Paid Media Funnel That Learns as It Scales

Your campaigns shouldn’t just generate clicks. They should tell you what your audience responds to, where demand exists, and what it costs to turn attention into action.