How Ben increased Debt2Collect's platform sign-ups by 185% in 90 days
An automated debt recovery platform that helps businesses chase unpaid invoices - transformed from generic debt-related ads into a precision-targeted B2B lead generation machine.
Increase in platform sign-ups
Reduction in cost per sign-up
Return on ad spend
Conversion rate improvement
Industries targeted
The client
Business
Debt2Collect
Automated debt recovery platform
Industry
SaaS / FinTech
Pre-legal debt recovery automation
Model
Fixed monthly subscription
Xero integration, automated letter sequences
Debt2Collect provides structured, automated debt recovery that reduces overdue invoices and strengthens business cashflow. Unlike traditional debt collection agencies that take a percentage of recovered funds, Debt2Collect operates on a fixed monthly fee - meaning businesses keep 100% of the invoice payments that come in. The platform integrates with Xero, allowing users to automate their pre-legal debt recovery process in minutes, sending professional letters from a credible third party while retaining full control over communication with their customers.
The challenge
Debt2Collect's Google Ads had a fundamental targeting problem: the word "debt" attracts consumer searches. People searching for "debt help", "debt advice", and "debt management" are individuals struggling with personal debt - not businesses looking to recover money owed to them. The existing campaigns were spending heavily on these consumer queries, generating clicks that would never convert into B2B platform sign-ups.
What Ben found in the audit
- ✕2 generic campaigns targeting broad 'debt collection' and 'debt recovery' terms
- ✕£1,900/month wasted on consumer debt queries (debt advice, debt charity, free debt help, IVA)
- ✕No distinction between B2B debt recovery and B2C debt advice in keyword targeting
- ✕Cost per platform sign-up sitting at £58 - over 4x the sustainable acquisition cost
- ✕Conversion rate of just 0.9% across all campaigns
- ✕No industry-specific campaigns despite vastly different pain points across sectors
- ✕Zero remarketing campaigns despite a complex SaaS buying decision
- ✕No competitor campaigns despite clear search volume for debt collection agency alternatives
- ✕Landing pages focused on features rather than the core USP: keeping 100% of recovered funds
- ✕No audience targeting - ads showing to consumers as much as business decision-makers
The fundamental challenge was separating B2B intent from B2C noise. "Debt recovery" can mean a business trying to collect unpaid invoices or a consumer looking for help with personal debt. Without proper negative keywords, audience targeting, and campaign segmentation, Debt2Collect was paying for thousands of clicks from people who would never become customers.
The strategy
Ben's approach centred on surgical precision: only show ads to business owners and finance professionals actively looking to recover money owed to them. Every element of the campaign was designed to repel consumer traffic and attract B2B decision-makers.
Industry-specific campaign architecture
Different industries have different debt recovery pain points. A construction company chasing retention payments has a completely different problem to a recruitment agency chasing contractor invoices. Ben built campaigns for each:
- Construction: "chase unpaid invoices construction", "retention payment recovery", "builder debt collection"
- Recruitment: "recruitment agency debt recovery", "chase unpaid placement fees", "staffing invoice recovery"
- Professional Services: "collect unpaid fees", "client won't pay invoice", "B2B debt recovery"
- Trade/SME: "small business debt collection", "automated invoice chasing", "reduce debtor days"
- Comparison: "debt collection agency alternative", "cheaper than solicitors for debt", "DIY debt recovery"
Aggressive negative keyword strategy
The single most impactful change was the negative keyword list. Ben built a comprehensive exclusion list of 450+ consumer debt terms:
- Consumer debt terms: debt advice, debt management plan, IVA, bankruptcy, debt charity, Citizens Advice
- Personal finance: credit card debt, mortgage arrears, rent arrears, council tax debt, bailiff
- Government/charity: StepChange, National Debtline, debt relief order, breathing space
- Employment: debt collector jobs, debt recovery officer salary, careers in debt collection
- Irrelevant modifiers: free, help, support, counselling, mental health, stress
Audience layering for B2B precision
Ben layered audience signals to ensure ads were prioritised for business decision-makers:
- In-market audiences: Business services, accounting software, business financial services
- Custom audiences: Built from competitor URLs (debt collection agencies, solicitor firms) and B2B terms
- Remarketing: Visitors who viewed pricing page, features page, or Xero integration page
- Job function targeting: Business owners, finance directors, credit controllers, operations managers
- Company size targeting: Focused on SMEs with 5-200 employees - the core customer profile
Ad copy that positions against agencies
The ad copy was rewritten to immediately differentiate Debt2Collect from traditional debt collection agencies:
USP-Led Ad
"Keep 100% of Recovered Debt"
Unlike agencies, you receive payment directly. Fixed monthly fee. No commission. Automate debt recovery in minutes.
Pain Point Ad
"Tired of Chasing Unpaid Invoices?"
Automate your debt recovery. Xero integration. Professional letters from a credible third party. Start recovering today.
Results by the numbers
Platform sign-ups
Before
18/month
After
51/month
Cost per sign-up
Before
£58
After
£28
Conversion rate
Before
0.9%
After
2.9%
Return on ad spend
Before
1.8x
After
6.4x
Wasted spend
Before
£1,900/mo
After
£190/mo
Lead quality score
Before
32%
After
78%
The most dramatic improvement was lead quality. Before Ben's restructure, 68% of sign-ups came from people who misunderstood the product - thinking it was a consumer debt advice service or a traditional collection agency. After the negative keyword strategy and audience targeting were implemented, qualified leads jumped from 32% to 78%, meaning the sales team was spending time with genuine prospects rather than explaining what the product was not.
The 90-day execution roadmap
The audit and rebuild
- Full account audit across all existing campaigns
- Identified £1,900/month in wasted spend on irrelevant terms like 'debt advice', 'debt charities', and 'free debt help'
- Restructured from 2 generic campaigns to 8 industry-specific campaigns
- Implemented comprehensive negative keyword lists to filter out consumer debt queries
- Set up proper conversion tracking for platform sign-ups, letter sends, and Xero integrations
- Created industry-specific ad copy targeting businesses with overdue invoice problems
Launch and calibrate
- Launched industry-targeted campaigns: Construction, Recruitment, Professional Services, Trade, and more
- Deployed landing page recommendations emphasising 'you keep 100% of recovered debt' USP
- Implemented audience targeting for business owners, finance directors, and credit controllers
- Set up competitor campaigns targeting searches for traditional debt collection agencies
- Daily search term reviews to eliminate consumer debt queries appearing in B2B campaigns
- Established baseline cost per sign-up of £28 (down from £58)
Optimise and scale
- Scaled budget on top-performing industries (construction, recruitment, professional services)
- Paused underperforming ad groups and reallocated budget to proven converters
- Launched remarketing campaigns targeting website visitors who viewed pricing or features pages
- A/B tested ad copy variants focusing on automation, Xero integration, and fixed monthly pricing
- Introduced comparison campaigns: 'debt collection agency alternative', 'cheaper than solicitors'
- Cost per sign-up dropped to £22 - a 62% improvement from the original £58
Scale and compound
- Full budget deployment across all profitable industry campaigns
- Launched YouTube pre-roll campaigns targeting business owners with overdue invoice pain points
- Introduced Performance Max campaigns for broader B2B discovery
- Expanded keyword coverage into pain-point terms ('reduce debtor days', 'chase unpaid invoices', 'late payment solutions')
- Achieved consistent 185%+ increase in platform sign-ups month-over-month
- Final cost per sign-up stabilised at £28 - a 52% reduction from starting position
Key takeaways
Negative keywords are as important as positive ones in ambiguous markets
In the debt space, the word 'debt' attracts consumer searches 10x more than B2B searches. Without aggressive negative keyword lists, most budget is wasted on people who will never become customers.
Industry-specific campaigns dramatically improve conversion rates
A construction company owner searching 'chase unpaid builder invoices' converts at 4x the rate of someone searching generic 'debt recovery'. Specificity drives quality.
Position against the incumbent, not the category
Debt2Collect's real competition is traditional debt collection agencies, not other software. Ad copy that highlighted 'keep 100% of recovered debt' directly attacked the agency model's biggest weakness.
Audience layering filters intent that keywords cannot
Even with perfect keywords, consumer debt searches leak through. Audience targeting for business owners and finance professionals added a second filter that keywords alone could not provide.
SaaS remarketing needs a longer window
B2B SaaS decisions take weeks. A 7-day remarketing window misses most prospects. Extending to 30 days with tiered messaging captured sign-ups that would have been lost entirely.
We were haemorrhaging money on people looking for debt advice. Ben cut through the noise and found us the exact audience we needed - business owners with unpaid invoices. The difference has been night and day.
David K.
Debt2Collect