19 Best SaaS Instagram Ads Growth Strategies & Tactics (2025)

💬 Like any of the paid social channels, Instagram placements has it's own nuances, and you need to think in the context of how users interact on the platform, and the role this channel plays when it comes to acquisition and nurturing your ICP - that includes thinking about creatives, to messaging, to the different placements/formats IG has to offer (i.e, stories, Reels, feed), and the metrics you're realistically going to expect.

That's why in this checklist, I'm sharing some of the top creative tactics and key strategic areas to think about when it comes to doing ads on IG for SaaS startups.

Quick note: what I'm sharing is more relevant for early-stage startup companies, as well as marketers/founders who don't have deep experience with Meta ads - so if you're a performance marketer, you'll know this stuff. However, the examples from brands might help you with research and new creative ideas. :)

Highlighting various creative ideas for tests/experiments, strategy considerations, as well as tactics for doing SaaS Instagram Ads

💬 In many of the tactical checkpoints, especially around ad types and creative tests, I've included reference examples and mentions of top brands to check out. :)

One of my fave tools to do competitor research with (which also happens to be completely free to use) is the Facebook Ads Library. 

It’s awesome for doing research to see the various ads being served across the Meta ads network, including Facebook, audience network, and of course, Instagram. 

It’s super simple to use too - all you need to do is head to the Facebook Ads Library, and find the page/brand you’re wanting to check out. 

In this instance below, I’m checking out Hubspot.

You can then see details, such as:

• Amount of ads running (says approx. 290 based on this screenshot)
• Other “similar ads” relevant to the brand (not all brands have this, just Hubspot as they’ve got many ads running across multiple regions)
• Then as you scroll down, you can see the ads creative and copy
• And just above each of the actual ads (copy and creative), you can see details such as “started running on” date, number of ads using the text/creative, and the placement logos.

On the right hand side, there are also more filters available as well, if you’re looking for certain ads.

What about when you press “see summary details”?

You can see more details about the ad(s) itself, and you can even potentially see other variants of creatives used based on the ad.

For example this below for Hubspot’s GROW event.

Whenever I do a paid performance strategy, especially with the likes of doing Meta ads (Facebook/Instagram), you want to see what competitors are running in terms of creative and campaigns they’re pushing, but also just as importantly, see the various landing pages they’re running ads too. 

I’ll keep using the Hubspot example in this case. 

As illustrated in the above checklist point when using the Library and looking at a specific ad, you can actually click on it to then be directed to the landing page/site. 

There’s a lot to learn from TikTok videos and how brands have scaled their brand organically on the channel, which you use as inspo and bring into the fold for your Instagram/Meta ads strategy.

Recommended reading: I created a checklist on TikTok ads and organic which you can check out below.

These videos work because they’re ‘snackable’ and get to the points of vale faster. 

It’s the nature of the editing, the music, the transitions between screens. 

What’s a great “Tiktok” tutorial example look like? 

This style of video create for a mini-tutorial by the team at Clickup (on their ads library). 

In these versions, they use green screen overlays with individuals that go through the various features of a particular section of the product.

Customer/industry statistics are great as part of your ads creative strategy mix, especially for MOF/BOF nurturing audiences - and they become even more effective based on your targeting, segment and taking into account ICP attributes. 

For example by what I mean with ICP attributes, you would be tailoring stats and messaging from a real estate segment, for real estate audiences/prospects.

Plus, with the right branding, it can look amazing on the feed/stories (just like these examples from Asana).

So, what are the key benefits and reasons why you should test?

• Social proof - great for trust/credibility (as normally you have proof/source)
• Visually appealing and memorable (especially when designed well)
• They can serve as ‘anchor’ points - applicable for audiences as they go through ‘the decision-making process’ - there’s an increased chance they will remember key numbers (immediate takeaways)
• Emotional impact (whilst also providing clarity) - sense of FOMO, especially if the stat is tied to an action

What do some good “thought-provoking” examples looks like?

I really like these examples from Asana - great branding and they stand out on the feed/story placements.

Statistics for opt-in/lead generation can work effectively, especially when tied to some sort of report - again, audiences love stats.

Who are masters at it? You guessed it… Hubspot - they have numerous ads running (pretty much all the time) across their various statistics reports.

And if they’re doing this often, clearly this strategy is working for them.

I’m a big fan of this ad creative format for SaaS businesses - UGC style reviews work really well for eCommerce brands, and there’s certainly some good lessons and takeaways for startup founders and marketers to take note of. 

Short-form is also where it’s at - in my view, gone are the days of ‘over polished’ classic B2B case study/customer story videos (you know the ones I’m talking about) - at least they’re gone in my view within the context of Instagram (Meta) ads.

I like them a lot they’re cost-effective to create (and there’s a good software platform to help with this process), they feel more “human”, and it’s more authentic and ‘trustworthy’ as it involves real users/customers who are advocating and recommending the software.

Which brands do UGC well in B2B/SaaS?

Veed does an epic job!

• Veed, which is a tool to edit videos, does an epic job with their UGC-style videos using creators and their internal team
• They’ve got a lot of these ads running from what I can see on the ads library

The other brand is Zapier (who does awesome LinkedIn ads too).

• They do a great job with UGC style ads too - like this example with the green screen

As part of the creative mix, the ‘classic’ text-based testimonials are still effective, especially for MOF/BOF audiences. 

Key reasons why they work well to this day:

• Social proof - enhances trust/credibility
• Makes contextual sense to those “deeper” in the sales journey/consideration and decision-making phase - 
• Reinforces value (with affiliation and confirmation) - even those who are already signed up and using the product, serving ads like these can help reinforce that they’re receiving great value from the offering
• Helps with storytelling across the CX journey (again, contextual relevance makes sense for audiences at whatever stage they’re in)

Key recommendation: tailor testimonial/review ads like these that are tailored to ICP attributes (i.e. show review ads from product managers, if you’re targeting product managers - and go more granular again based on vertical/industry).

• Some great social proof, text-based testimonial examples from Zapier, Hotjar and Parabola

I’ve seen this creative tactic used quite a bit recently and I love it - it’s real and hard to ‘fake’.

Plus, it reinforces credibility in terms of authenticity as people know the UI of various platforms where screenshots have been taken. 

I've seen a few around but forgot to take screenshots - so I will share when I come across one again. :)

I’ve seen some pretty awesome ads for ultimate guide pages (where in many cases are pillar pages) that have various CTAs and links to nurture customers. 

• I talk memes in ads later on, but really like this example of a meme to promote a post related to the product - good work from the ad team at Later

This is another “classic” ad tactic used by many SaaS and B2B brands over the years - and can confirm from doing many campaigns like this, they can still work.

However, there’s natural fatigue from audiences downloading PDF reports - audiences are becoming smarter and they know they are “getting sold to”. 

There’s nothing wrong with this, it just means you can’t create mediocre content - the offer, and the quality of content you create for these reports matters more than ever (if you want to do well with this strategy when it comes to paid performance).

A CDP I typically use as part of projects, and a brand which does a great job with this strategy, is Segment. 

Obvious reasons why this is important - it just comes down to testing various feature hooks, messaging and image/video editing styles to grab targeted audience’s attention. 

Two top brands that do an incredible job with these sorts of ads are Canva and Hubspot (make sure to check out their libraries)- they are gold standard, in my opinion.

You see this content strategy quite a bit on the likes of LinkedIn (mainly organic but also LI paid ads). 

This initiative can also work well for Instagram and Facebook ads for nurturing audiences along the journey - it’s great for continually sharing value-lead content, and breaks up the mix from conversion-focused ads. 

And one key reason why this can be an effective content strategy as well is that you can produce lots of content variants, whilst keeping the process fairly straightforward, as well as keeping costs lean. 

For example - you can interview people on the likes of Zoom (or equivalent online recording tool), or do time-boxed filming session in a studio with the guest, and then get multiple clips from the one interview.

Quite a few SaaS brands adopting this strategy.

Recommended read: make sure to check out the LinkedIn Ads tactical/strategies checklist, which incl. ads creative examples like this.

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This is a good creative format to test to help provide a side by side comparison for users - great for grabbing attention in busy feeds and highlighting value props/USPs faster. 

Especially for intent-based target audiences and even general audiences in the MOF/BOF stages. 

Other reasons why they can work well are that: 

• Visually concise and helps people understand the difference between states - and they want to know what the ideal state is
• Helps visually accelerate understanding, and it stands out as people scroll
• Depending on what you include (see examples below), it can help with building trust/credibility, as well as social proof. 

Here are a couple of epic examples from Monday (who've always done awesome comparison creatives):

So, what are some different example types of comparison ads that you can experiment with testing?

• “Before vs after” - related to previous solutions/processes and what the tool can solve (just like these two examples below I’m sharing)
• Results-based - using the likes of states for comparing prev. results vs updated positive results
• Messy vs "aligned" (like the above Monday examples)
• Generic USP callouts with the industry (but don't call out specific competitors)
• Customer case study formats - ICP-focused before vs afters
• $$ costs/savings - money spent vs saved

Doing ‘partner’ ads can be a great way to help build trust through affiliation between known brands, particularly with MOF/BOF audiences that are in the decision-making process (and doing their research) on whether to commit long-term/invest in a platform. 

Especially if you have integrations between platforms, this can be a key decision factor for B2B audiences who want to further capabilities for certain solutions/processes.

Some great examples I’ve come across are:

• Good example using quote from customer and reminding audiences about integrations

Doing ‘free tool marketing’ is a larger topic in itself that I won’t get into detail about, but I wanted to bring this up as a consideration checklist point to think about. 

Promoting “free tools” related to your product offering is a great way to help increase opt-ins, especially for audiences in the nurture/decision-making phases of CX journey. 

And “free tools” can be a mix between some sort of software play, or perhaps a template, a calculator, a quiz, or even something else. 

If you’re running any sort of offline or online events, Instagram ads are great to help with boost RSVP/attendance numbers. 

Key tip: make sure to also setup “event” reminder ads for those who have RSVP’d, and even to those who haven’t but may have viewed the ad or viewed the event LP - this is to help maximise show rates.

We all know what the power of UGC creators and influencers can do for brands (which I’ve touched on above and across numerous other checklists I’ve written), but what I wanted to point out that doing branded content ads are worth testing - where both the brand and influencer are seen together in ‘partnership’ (i.e. “Paid partnership” ads).

They’re worth testing as it can help with brand affiliation and trust amongst key audiences - especially for followers and those who follow the certain influencer/creator.

• I’ve seen the likes of Wix running a lot of these types of collab ads 

• Quickbooks are also running numerous partner/collab ads also - lots of styles between green screens and story-based videos

Included well-know media outlets/publications on ads is a great social proof “signal” that can be utilised as part of creatives across any part of the funnel journey. 

Most B2B/SaaS audiences would recognise/know these publications and hold many of them in high regard, which helps increase credibility. 

You can test between dedicated publication feature ads, or simply adding elements of logos to other ads creatives.

I’ve seen numerous SaaS brands incorporating memes into their ad mix - and who doesn’t love a good meme, right?

When done well, they’re great to include for TOF/MOF for keeping top of mind, and building more ‘rapport’ with audiences.

• I came across Manychat’s ad account recently (great tool) and they’ve been doing some awesome ads - incl. the likes of memes