What was the DevTools SaaS marketing problem?

The client was stuck at $1.2M ARR for nine months with three failed growth experiments. The product had real users but the marketing program was running four channels at once with no integration. CAC was rising, activation rate was 4.2% and the previous two agencies had not asked the questions that mattered.

What was the TG3 SaaS marketing intervention?

Five interventions in 90 days. First, ICP rebuild from the contract data not the persona deck. Second, channel cut from 4 to 2 (kept LinkedIn and organic, cut Meta and Twitter). Third, programmatic SEO for developer-intent queries. Fourth, six-step onboarding replaced the 12-step tour. Fifth, lifecycle expansion sequences shipping monthly. Most of the work was killing the wrong work.

How long did the DevTools SaaS marketing engagement take?

26 weeks from kickoff to the $3.6M ARR milestone. First lever movement at week 4 (activation rate). First organic compound at week 16. Full result at week 26. The audit and 90-day plan took the first 3 weeks. Active execution was weeks 4 to 26.

What does a DevTools SaaS marketing engagement cost?

This engagement ran the full SaaS marketing retainer at $7,500/month plus warehouse infrastructure and tooling. Total client spend across 6 months was approximately $58,000 in agency fees plus $19,000 in tools and ad spend. Pipeline generated in the same period was $2.4M, so payback was inside the first quarter.

Which TG3 services were used in this DevTools SaaS marketing case?

Five of the seven services. SaaS SEO (programmatic for developer queries). SaaS lifecycle marketing (onboarding rebuild + expansion sequences). SaaS CRO (trial flow). SaaS analytics (warehouse rebuild + attribution). SaaS paid acquisition (LinkedIn only after cuts). ABM and content marketing were not in scope this engagement.

Can you replicate these DevTools SaaS marketing results?

Honestly, sometimes. The result depended on a working product, a defined ICP and a founder willing to cut channels that weren't working. Without those three preconditions the playbook doesn't apply. The audit call is built to tell you whether your situation matches this case study before any commitment.

What would TG3 do differently in this DevTools SaaS marketing engagement?

Three calls we'd make sooner. First, cut Meta in week 2 not week 6. Second, ship the warehouse attribution in week 4 not week 12. Third, start programmatic SEO in week 6 not week 10. The corrections shaved 6 to 8 weeks off the timeline. We use those learnings on every engagement now.

HR SaaS case study: an illustrative committee win

TG3 47 SaaS brands scaled and $84M+ in client pipeline generated. See the proof → Free: 20 SaaS calculators, no signup. CAC, LTV, churn, Rule of 40. Open the tools → We rebuild attribution at the warehouse so every channel gets honest credit. See how →

Home

SaaS SEOProgrammatic + AI citations→ Paid acquisitionDemand capture that pays back→ ContentEditorial depth that ranks→ LifecycleActivation + expansion→ ABMNamed-account motions→ CROTrial + demo conversion→ Analytics + RevOpsWarehouse attribution→

Lead lever

SaaS SEO

Programmatic depth plus AI citation share. The compounding channel that owns your category over time.

2% → 31%AI citation share
in 6 months

Programmatic pages at scaleStructured for AI extraction

Explore SaaS SEO →

Demand capture

Paid acquisition

LinkedIn and Google tuned for the B2B buying committee, not cheap clicks. Demand capture that actually pays back.

< 12 motarget CAC
payback

Committee-aware targetingNo markup on ad spend

Explore paid →

Trust engine

Content

Editorial depth the incumbent cannot match, structured for AI extraction and the long SaaS buyer journey.

Rank 1category query
in 12 months

Original research that gets citedTrade-press link velocity

Explore content →

Retention

Lifecycle

Activation and expansion that protect net revenue retention, the metric your board actually lives by.

104 → 121%NRR lift
example

Activation-event triggersExpansion playbooks

Explore lifecycle →

Closing motion

ABM

Orchestrated motions on the named accounts that fit your ICP. The closing motion for higher-ACV SaaS.

+180%pipeline on
target accounts

ICP-matched target listsMulti-touch orchestration

Explore ABM →

Cheapest lift

CRO

Trial and demo flow optimisation. The cheapest lift on the traffic the other channels already generate.

-38%CAC via
conversion

Trial-to-paid optimisationDemo flow redesign

Explore CRO →

Foundation

Analytics + RevOps

Warehouse attribution so the multi-touch SaaS journey gets measured honestly and the CFO trusts the numbers.

2-4xundercounted
demand found

Warehouse-native attributionBoard-grade reporting

Explore analytics →

Not sure which lever moves first?

The 30-minute audit tells you, with your numbers.

Book the audit →

By stage

Series A$1M-3M ARR · find the channel Series B / C$3M-10M · diversify channels Growth stage$10M-50M · break the plateau PE-backedThesis-aligned efficient growth Public SaaSGovernance-grade reporting

By industry

B2B SaaSThe core motion DevToolsProgrammatic + AI citations AI SaaSCategory positioning FintechTrust + compliance All 12 industriesVertical, HR, MarTech + more

By role

FoundersBuy back your week CMOsExecution, not headcount VP GrowthVelocity, not hiring Demand genPipeline, not MQLs PE operating partners PortfolioOne system across companies

Not sure where you fit?

The playbook changes by stage, industry and role.

Talk to us →

Free SaaS calculators 20 tools · no signup

CACCAC calculator LTVLTV calculator 3:1LTV:CAC ratio moCAC payback 40Rule of 40 %Churn rate NRRNet retention $Valuation

All 32 calculators →

Proof & thinking

Case studiesReal ARR outcomes, not a testimonial wall InsightsWhy SaaS marketing stalls and how to fix it SaaS metrics glossaryEvery SaaS metric defined in plain English Best SaaS agenciesBuyer guides by specialty, named neutrally Our processHow a 30-minute audit becomes a roadmap

Want everything in one workspace?

Run the calculators, then book the audit that reads your numbers.

Book the audit →

Fixed fee The audit is one fixed price. No surprises, no scoping games, audit deck is yours to keep.

Start here

Audit & roadmap

Best first step for any SaaS

$18,000 fixed

Full channel + attribution audit
Lever-priority roadmap
Board-ready deck

Book the audit →

Ongoing

Retainer

For execution across channels

$7,500+ /mo

Seven-channel execution bench
Six-month minimum
Audit required first

See retainer →

Aligned

Performance

Outcome-linked partnership

Custom

Tied to growth outcomes
For PE and multi-brand
By selection

Talk to us →

We turn down 1 in 3.

Audit required before any retainer kickoff. We say no when the fit is wrong.

See full pricing →

US EN ▾ Book a call

HR SaaS case study: an illustrative multi-team committee win.

Illustrative scenario. A worked example of how we'd run this kind of engagement, not a specific client result. The numbers are targets that show what good looks like.

Type

Illustrative scenario

Industry

B2B HR SaaS

Starting point

~$3M ARR, flat

Engagement window

Modelled over 6 months

Services modelled

Paid · Lifecycle

Phase	Focus	Illustrative target
Weeks 1 to 4	Audit and diagnosis	Pinpoint where the funnel leaks
Early months	Build: Paid · Lifecycle	Ship the plays that fit this buyer
Later months	Compound and measure	Move toward the illustrative targets above

Phase

Focus

Illustrative target

Weeks 1 to 4

Audit and diagnosis

Pinpoint where the funnel leaks

Early months

Build: Paid · Lifecycle

Ship the plays that fit this buyer

Later months

Compound and measure

Move toward the illustrative targets above

The HR SaaS plateau. Signups climbing, revenue flat.

Here is a common HR SaaS case study setup: a free trial machine that converts users but not committees. Signups look great, revenue does not move, because the person who signs up is not the person who buys.

HR signs up to test it. Then IT, finance and legal all have to say yes and nobody marketed to them. The deal stalls in a committee the funnel never acknowledged.

Why an HR SaaS funnel ignores the buying committee.

The whole funnel is built for one persona, the HR end user and the buy needs four.

No content for the IT security questions, nothing for finance's ROI case, nothing for legal's data concerns. And activation, the thing that actually predicts whether HR will champion it internally, gets no attention at all. A signup who never activates never sells the deal upward.

The HR SaaS plays we'd run. Paid for reach, lifecycle for adoption.

Two moves for an HR SaaS in this spot.

Paid acquisition tuned to reach the whole committee, not just HR, with messaging and assets for IT, finance and legal, see paid. And lifecycle built to drive activation so the HR champion actually feels the value and carries it into the committee, see lifecycle and the HR SaaS playbook. Adoption is the marketing job here, not just acquisition.

What good looks like for an HR SaaS engagement at six months.

The target is committees that say yes, not trials that expire.

Pipeline roughly doubling on deals with multiple buyers engaged, activation up a third so champions have something to champion and payback inside a sensible window. Illustrative targets, not a real client number. The signal that it is working is deals with four buyers reached instead of one.

If we ran this for real. Three things we'd watch.

Three risks would decide a live HR SaaS engagement. Naming them up front.

Don't confuse activation with onboarding. Sending more welcome emails is not activation. Find the one action that predicts retention and drive that, everything else is noise.

Committee content can't be generic. IT, finance and legal each need real answers, not a one-pager with their logo swapped in. Thin committee content fools nobody.

Watch paid payback per persona. Reaching four buyers costs more than reaching one. The payback math has to hold at the committee level, not just the user level.

SaaS SEO

Paid acquisition

Content

Lifecycle

ABM

CRO

Analytics + RevOps

Audit & roadmap

Retainer

Performance

HR SaaS case study: an illustrative multi-team committee win.

The HR SaaS plateau. Signups climbing, revenue flat.

Why an HR SaaS funnel ignores the buying committee.

The HR SaaS plays we'd run. Paid for reach, lifecycle for adoption.

What good looks like for an HR SaaS engagement at six months.

If we ran this for real. Three things we'd watch.

MarTech SaaS · selling marketing software to marketers

AI SaaS launch · flat launch to $1.8M ARR in nine months

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