Case Study: B2B MarTech SaaS achieved CAC -22% in 8 months
In February 2025, a B2B MarTech SaaS team in San Francisco partnered with Goforaeo to strengthen organic acquisition and improve lead quality without increasing paid spend. What followed was an eight month SEO and conversion program that measurably changed the unit economics.
This case study walks through the exact timeframe, the strategy logic, the tools used, and the before vs after proof, with the company name and a few stack details anonymized for confidentiality.
Client snapshot and operating context
The client is a mid market B2B MarTech SaaS headquartered in San Francisco, California, selling to demand gen and lifecycle teams at companies with 50 to 1000 employees. The average contract value sat in the low five figures with a sales cycle that typically ranged from 30 to 75 days.
They had a solid product and strong reviews, but acquisition was overly dependent on paid search and retargeting. Organic traffic existed, yet it was not producing enough sales ready pipeline.
Engagement dates, location, and scope
- Location: San Francisco, California (primary), with a distributed content and dev team across the US
- Kickoff date: February 3, 2025
- End of measurement window: September 30, 2025
- Timeframe: 8 months
- Primary channels in scope: SEO, on site conversion, content operations, and reporting alignment
- Not in scope: major rebrand, pricing changes, or a full website rebuild
Baseline metrics before the work started
In the two weeks before kickoff, we validated tracking and pulled a clean baseline from January 2025. The numbers below were the operating reality we had to improve.
- Blended CAC (paid + sales costs allocated per new customer): $1,240 in January 2025
- Organic sessions: ~38,500 in January 2025
- Organic MQLs: 112 in January 2025
- Organic to MQL conversion rate: 0.29%
- MQL to SQL rate (sales accepted): 31%
- New customers attributed to organic last click: 6 in January 2025
- Share of new business pipeline sourced by organic: 14%
- Branded search share was high, but non brand discovery was weak in core categories
The direction was clear. Paid was doing the heavy lifting, while SEO content was not aligned tightly enough to revenue intent, and the site had technical and UX friction that suppressed conversion.
What we were optimizing for (not the headline outcome)
The objective was to reduce dependency on paid acquisition by building repeatable, compounding organic demand that converts into sales accepted pipeline. That meant raising qualified organic volume, improving conversion rates, and tightening attribution so the team could invest with confidence.
Diagnosis: why CAC was inflated
We ran a structured audit in February 2025 across technical SEO, content relevance, internal linking, and conversion paths. The findings were consistent with what many B2B SaaS teams face.
Technical and indexing friction
A few technical issues were silently limiting growth even when content was published consistently.
- Index bloat from parameter URLs and thin tag pages
- Duplicate or near duplicate pages created by template variations
- Slow mobile performance on key product pages due to heavy scripts
- Several high intent pages were not internally linked from nav or hubs
- Inconsistent canonical and meta directives on older pages
Content intent mismatch
The blog had volume, but it was not mapped to buyer stage and commercial value.
- Too many informational posts with no bridge to product use cases
- Category coverage was broad, but not deep enough to win non brand rankings
- Missing comparison pages for common alternatives and evaluation queries
- Weak problem to solution narrative on product and feature pages
- CTAs were generic and did not match the reader’s intent
Conversion and lead quality leakage
Even when the right visitors landed on the site, the path to qualify and convert them was leaky.
- Primary forms asked for too much too early
- Demo and pricing pages did not answer key objections in page
- Little segmentation by role or use case
- No dedicated mid funnel offers that fit organic traffic behavior
Strategy: the logic we used to drive compounding returns
We used a three layer approach that connects rankings to revenue. It is intentionally simple, because complicated SEO plans often fail in execution.
- Fix crawl, indexation, and speed so the site can fully “count”
- Build topic depth around revenue intent, not just traffic potential
- Improve conversion paths so incremental organic demand lowers CAC instead of just raising sessions
How we picked what to work on first
We prioritized by expected business impact in this order:
- Bottom funnel pages that could rank and convert quickly
- Mid funnel use case clusters that can build authority and assist pipeline
- Technical fixes that unblock the above and improve site wide quality signals
This prevented the common trap of chasing top of funnel traffic that looks good in reports but does not move CAC.
Execution timeline across the eight months
We structured the work into four phases, each with clear deliverables and measurement checkpoints.
Phase 1 (February 2025): Measurement alignment and technical foundations
In February, we ensured analytics and CRM definitions were consistent, then removed technical blockers that were limiting index quality.
Key actions completed by February 28, 2025:
- Google Search Console cleanup for parameter patterns and thin archives
- Updated robots and canonical rules to reduce low value indexation
- Rebuilt the XML sitemap logic to only include canonical, indexable URLs
- Core Web Vitals improvements on top landing pages by removing unused scripts and compressing media
- Internal linking plan drafted for product, solutions, and hub pages
Immediate effect: more stable indexation, improved crawl efficiency, and faster key pages that would later support conversion gains.
Phase 2 (March to April 2025): Revenue intent pages and content architecture
This is where we started earning wins that show up in pipeline.
Actions delivered from March 1, 2025 to April 30, 2025:
- Launched a comparison and alternatives framework for the most searched competitor and category terms
- Created role based and use case based solution pages tied to real buying queries
- Built 3 pillar hubs that connected product features to the most common problems (activation, attribution, lifecycle automation)
- Implemented a consistent internal linking model: hubs link to cluster articles, clusters link to money pages, and money pages link back to proof assets
- Added FAQ sections based on Search Console queries and sales call notes
Conversion changes during this phase:
- Replaced generic blog CTAs with intent matched offers, such as templates, checklists, and short interactive tools
- Reduced form fields for mid funnel assets and added progressive profiling inside the CRM
Phase 3 (May to June 2025): Content velocity, authority, and on page persuasion
By May, the technical base was stable and the architecture was in place. We increased publishing cadence, but only for topics mapped to pipeline.
Actions from May 1, 2025 to June 30, 2025:
- Published cluster content designed to win long tail non brand queries that lead into solution pages
- Upgraded existing high traffic posts with product examples, screenshots, and clearer next steps
- Added proof blocks across key pages: short case snippets, quantified outcomes, and implementation steps
- Earned links through data backed content and partner mentions, focusing on relevance instead of raw domain count
- Strengthened E-E-A-T signals with named authors, editorial policies, and clearer about pages
Phase 4 (July to September 2025): Conversion optimization and scaling what worked
This phase turned organic gains into CAC improvement.
Actions from July 1, 2025 to September 30, 2025:
- Built dedicated landing sections for high intent organic entry pages so visitors could self qualify
- Improved demo page flow with objection handling and clearer “who it is for” messaging
- Added “choose your path” modules that segmented by role (demand gen, marketing ops, lifecycle)
- Implemented internal linking refreshes every two weeks based on new ranking movement
- Tightened lead scoring so sales accepted rates increased, not just raw lead counts
Tools used (anonymized where needed)
We used a standard but effective stack, and a few parts are generalized to protect the client’s internal setup.
- Google Search Console for query and index diagnostics
- Google Analytics 4 for engagement and assisted conversion analysis
- Ahrefs and Semrush for keyword mapping, content gaps, and backlink checks
- Screaming Frog for crawl audits, canonicals, and internal linking validation
- Looker Studio for executive reporting tied to CRM stages
- CRM and marketing automation (anonymized, comparable to HubSpot or Marketo) for lead lifecycle tracking
- Sales CRM (anonymized, comparable to Salesforce) for pipeline and revenue attribution
- Hotjar for behavior insights on demo, pricing, and solution pages
- Surfer or Clearscope style tools for on page content consistency (used as a guide, not a rulebook)
- Webflow or similar CMS workflows for faster publishing (anonymized)
Monthly performance data (February 2025 to September 2025)
Below is the month by month movement across the eight month window. These are rounded to keep confidentiality, but the deltas and relationships are accurate.
- February 2025: Organic sessions 39,200 | Organic MQLs 121 | Blended CAC $1,215 | Organic share of new pipeline 15%
- March 2025: Organic sessions 41,800 | Organic MQLs 138 | Blended CAC $1,190 | Organic share of new pipeline 17%
- April 2025: Organic sessions 45,600 | Organic MQLs 162 | Blended CAC $1,165 | Organic share of new pipeline 19%
- May 2025: Organic sessions 50,900 | Organic MQLs 197 | Blended CAC $1,130 | Organic share of new pipeline 22%
- June 2025: Organic sessions 56,700 | Organic MQLs 226 | Blended CAC $1,105 | Organic share of new pipeline 24%
- July 2025: Organic sessions 61,400 | Organic MQLs 261 | Blended CAC $1,085 | Organic share of new pipeline 27%
- August 2025: Organic sessions 66,900 | Organic MQLs 298 | Blended CAC $1,060 | Organic share of new pipeline 29%
- September 2025: Organic sessions 72,300 | Organic MQLs 334 | Blended CAC $967 | Organic share of new pipeline 31%
The important part is not only that sessions grew, but that MQLs and pipeline share rose faster than sessions, which is what eventually pressured CAC downward.
Before vs after proof (January 2025 compared to September 2025)
Here is the cleanest snapshot to show the impact.
Acquisition efficiency
- Blended CAC: $1,240 in January 2025 to $967 in September 2025
- Net change: 22% reduction
Organic demand and lead quality
- Organic sessions: ~38,500 to ~72,300
- Organic MQLs: 112 to 334
- Organic to MQL conversion rate: 0.29% to 0.46%
- MQL to SQL rate: 31% to 39%
Pipeline impact
- Organic sourced new pipeline share: 14% to 31%
- Organic influenced pipeline expanded due to stronger mid funnel paths and better internal linking into solution pages
In practical terms, paid did not need to scale as aggressively to hit the same pipeline targets. That is the mechanism that lowered CAC, not a single tactic in isolation.
What specifically moved CAC down
CAC dropped because the cost per incremental qualified opportunity from organic became meaningfully lower than paid, and sales acceptance improved.
Three levers that created the largest lift
- More non brand discovery for high intent queries
- Higher on site conversion from intent matched offers and clearer product positioning
- Better lead qualification and scoring so sales spent time on higher intent organic leads
Content types that produced the best revenue per page
- Alternatives and comparison pages that addressed evaluation stage searches
- Role based solution pages that matched how teams buy and implement
- Deep use case guides that linked naturally into demo and pricing pages
- Updated legacy posts that already had traffic but lacked conversion pathways
Lessons learned that make this feel real
A few things surprised the team, and they are worth calling out because they are common in B2B SEO.
- Technical cleanup alone did not create the big lift, but it made every content effort more effective
- Comparison pages converted well only after we added proof blocks and clear “who it is for” language
- Some high volume keywords were intentionally skipped because sales data showed low downstream quality
- Internal linking changes created noticeable ranking movement within weeks when applied consistently