Top SaaS Growth Case Studies.

Canva’s Growth Strategy: How they acquired 15,000,000 users

by Web Profits

This growth study dives into how Canva acquired large volumes of traffic + turned traffic into users.

Explores various channels such as Website breakdown, Paid & Social Ads, SEO, Content & more.

The illustrations are amazing!

Read the Case Study

Marketing Ideas from Intercom's Multi-Million Dollar SaaS Growth Strategy

by Noah Kagan

An incredible breakdown of Intercom's marketing strategies and ideas you can implement into your SaaS business.

Goes deep into showing what traffic sources have contributed to grow + other viral/growth mechanics.

Was written in 2017 but still completely relevant!

Read the Case Study

HubSpot’s $271 Million Inbound Lead Generation Machine

by Sumo.com

This has to be the best case study I have ever seen done on Hubspot! So much to learn from.

The quality of imagery + examples really makes this an easy, digestible and action-oriented case study.

Personalistion strategies for growth biggest takeaway.

Read the Case Study

Topaz Labs Generated over 44,000 emails from a single social media contest

by Vyper.ai

Incredible case study by the team at Vyper who helped Topaz Labs explode their email list + followings

Really good explanations of how to run competitions with detailed and graphics = epic!

One of the best competitions breakdowns I've seen.

Read the Case Study

How to collect 100k+ Leads from Lead Magnets

by Unbounce

Later went hard on generating as many gated assets as possible - over 26+ landing pages!

Shows examples of the offerings, assets and the way they structured their landing pages.

Epic case study by the team at Unbounce (great software)

Read the Case Study

BuzzSumo Achieved $2.5m Annual Revenue in its First Year: Case Study in SaaS Growth

by BuzzSumo

This isn't a long-formed case study but it's a great insight into the growth strategies that BuzzSumo used for early growth.

One of the primary ways they achieved over 160,000 users in a short amount of time was due to influencers.

A digestible read!

Read the Case Study

Growth Case Study: How Autopilot Went From 0 to 2,000 Customers in 18 Months

by Growth Marketing Conference

A great case study which highlights how Autopilot achieved early growth.

The illustrations are awesome + provide real value/insight into the various strategies used.

Achieve step-function growth with integrations = amazing!

Read the Case Study

How Spotify Turned Free Music into a $10+ Billion Valuation

by Growth Hackers

This is an old case study by the amazing growthhackers.com but the learnings from this are still very relevant.

Dives into their existing growth levers and future growth levers + how they expanded internationally with pace.

Sources to back up the stats really make it credible.

Read the Case Study

Airbnb’s Growth Strategy: How they attract and retain 150 million users

by Web Profits

Over 30,000 word growth case study on Airbnb's growth. One of the best you will ever read.

Goes into incredible detail across Paid & Social Ads, Organic/SEO, Referrals, Community + much more!

Disclaimer: I wrote the community + referrals section.

Read the Case Study

How Pinterest Became an $11 Billion Company by Organizing the World’s Hobbies

by Product Habits

One of my favourite case studies as it breaks down the journey of growth be yearly periods for Pinterest.

It's full of stats and great illustrations. The attention to detail and sources makes it a brilliant read.

Early traction/growth section = seriously impressive!

Read the Case Study

19 SaaS Marketing Strategies That Bootstrapped Ahrefs To $40m ARR

by SaaS Hacker

I love Ahrefs and can say you won't find a better case study on Ahrefs growth.

The breakdown and illustrations with specific examples. Some awesome strategies to take away.

Machines at SEO + Content!

Read the Case Study

Helping Five Million Millennials Become Investors | Acorns

by Growth Hackers

This isn't the biggest case study but some great lessons to learn from.

Goes into Continuous release cycles, Referral loop systems and key product features lessons.

1st investment within 3 mins = amazing UX.

Read the Case Study

How Slack Generates 100,000,000 Website Visitors Per Month

by Sumo

Sumo do some of the best case study breakdowns and this study is no different.

Achieved traffic from medium articles sharing company updates, tutorials, and workplace tips + Sponsored podcasts

Relentless product focus + adopting feedback fast

Read the Case Study

Quora Case Study – The Wonderful World of Quora

by Fatbit

Quora has been one of the hardest case studies to find that breaks down some of their growth strategies.

UCG via gamification, earn credits, share replies, organically boosted views + also seeded own questions

Simple case study but great lessons to action

Read the Case Study

The 7 Growth Hacks That Led Groupon to a $12.7 Billion IPO

by Neil Patel

This case study is done by Neil Patel and it's not his biggest article he has ever written... however, the quality is epic!

Build a product that makes sharing fun and simple + Email game strong

Reactivate users everyday through deals and emails

Read the Case Study

How ClickFunnels Built a $100m Revenue Empire, $1 Billion+ Exit Feb 1st?

by ClickFunnels

I've always tried to find a good case study on ClickFunnels and just came across this. Only went live April 14, 2020.

The quality of the case study is second to none and of quality like Sumo and Web Profits.

A big focus on social proof and leveraging everywhere

Read the Case Study

9 Ways to Boost saaS Revenues With a Better Upgrade UX

by Growth.Design

Growth.Design you need to subscribe too and without a doubt the best case study on UX and growth I've seen.

Be clear, not exhaustive when asking customers to convert from freemium to paid

Reading this case study is a lot of fun

Read the Case Study

How to Grow a Startup from $0 to $5 million – Buffers’ Digital Marketing Strategy Exposed

by Cognitive SEO

An in-depth SEO case study + content marketing used by Buffer which is very impressive.

Very detailed illustrations of the strategies used by Buffer that you can learn and action for your SEO/Content growth.

Quality SEO breakdown which is great!

Read the Case Study

AutoCreate personalised outreach messages that get 80% open rates using AI

Xero’s Growth Strategy – How they acquired 350k users in the last 12 months

by Web Profits

A fascinating 20,000+ word case study with incredible examples for growth that you can implement.

Covers everything from Paid & Social Ads, SEo/Organic, Community, Event Marketing, Email Marketing + more!

Disclaimer: I did contribute to parts of this :)

Read the Case Study

How the Founder of SmarterQueue Took His SaaS Company From $0 to $40K MRR

by Whale Pages

This is an interview based case study and whilst it's a smaller SaaS company, some great insights and lessons.

In a very competitive space with social media scheduling, the strategies they use to stand out are valuable.

Pricing & SEO being big factors for growth.

Read the Case Study

How Drift’s Blog Helped Them Build a Multi-Million Dollar Brand

by SpyFu

A short case study but some valuable takeaways for Drift's growth.

Content marketing being biggest factor for growth and this article highlights 5 rules that make Drift’s content successful

A great example of content marketing done well.

Read the Case Study

4 Secrets Behind Squarespace’s Extraordinary Growth

by Drift

Squarespace now boasts over 2 Million Users and this case study breaks down 4 key areas for their success.

A big focus on design was a key differentiator in an already very crowded market when they entered.

They prioritised long term growth through SEO + Content.

Read the Case Study

SaaS Growth Hacks Vs Flywheels: How Moz Grew To $70m

by SaaS Hacker

This case study shares the story of Moz's growth over time and triggers that helped them succeed with growth.

Like other SaaS Hacker studies, great graphics to show the details of their growth really makes it valuable content.

Email list building being one of main drivers for growth.

Read the Case Study

$100 Million ARR, 6 millions free users and 60,000 paying customers

by SaaS Marketer

A long journey to success which started in 2007 and took 4 years to reach $1Mill ARR

Monster affiliate program and outsourcing content to influencers biggest factors for success.

Up there one of the best case studies I have read.

Read the Case Study

The Legendary PayPal Growth Strategy That Catapulted Them To Success

by Referral Candy

Did you know Dropbox's referral program was inspired originally from PayPal's?

Referrals helped PayPal get 7 to 10% daily growth, catapulting their user base to over 100 million members

If you're doing referrals you need to read this

Read the Case Study

Dropbox grew 3900% with a simple referral program. Here’s how!

by Viral Loops

We all know how Dropbox got their initial growth through their referral program.

This study by Viral Loops highlights the exact mechanics and tactics that lead to this strategy performing well.

Get a viral loop right and you're onto something good!

Read the Case Study

How This SaaS Startup Built a Conversion Funnel & Grew To 50,000 Customers

by Wild Audience

An epic case study by Wild Audience which reverse engineers ActiveCampaign's growth.

Covers messaging & positioning, their funnel + other key strategies for their growth success.

Favourite parts include suggestions for them to improve.

Read the Case Study

16 Steps Outreach.io Took To Build a $1.1 Billion SaaS Company

by Get Latka

Another sensational case study by Nathan Latka about Outreach's impressive growth.

The breakdown and graphics are amazing - so many great learnings to action for your SaaS business.

They bought Sales Hacker which really helped them.

Read the Case Study

Bootstrapping To $25k MRR – The VEED Story - SEO + Virality

by SaaS Marketer

Ever heard of Veed? A SaaS video editing company on the rise and did some very clever growth hacks

Utilising unconventional growth methods & sharing beneficial internal team stories helped a lot

Ads on youtube downloader websites a big success

Read the Case Study

MeetEdgar: From Agency To Inc5000 | Amazing Transition Story

by SaaS Marketer

A wonderful case study for growth that was initially sparked from pivoting

Leverage off your previous experiences and build a database you can access for free (emails).

Be consistent in building content for long-term growth

Read the Case Study

ConvertKit: Nathan Barry’s Bumpy Road To $1.7m MRR

by SaaS Marketer

The story of ConvertKit is an impressive one with a focus on building something in an existing crowded market

The amount of imagery + graphics to show exact points of growth and strategies is awesome

Never be afraid of cold sales as a founder

Read the Case Study

How We’ve Built a $5M/Year Business in 3 Years With Content Marketing

by GrooveHQ

Big fan of startups that share their growth journey and lessons along the way to success.

Out educate your customers through course content - simultaneously making you look like domain experts

Sell stories not processes when building content

Read the Case Study

Marketing to Millennials – Lemonade’s Growth Strategy

by Web Profits

Ever heard of Lemonade? These guys have done very well with their growth

One of the biggest factors that lead to their growth success was their chatbot strategy (great breakdown)

Conversion based copy writing a big under pin for success

Read the Case Study

These Are the 4 Secrets to Replicating Stripe’s Billion Dollar Growth

by Drift

Another thorough and quality case study by Drift on Stripe's growth.

Covers 4 key areas of growth with their success and whilst all are obvious, how they approached it is valuable to learn from

Word-of-mouth big factor for their success early

Read the Case Study

How to 10x Organic Growth with 1 Person SEO Team & No Budget

by PageCloud

Love the transparency of organic growth of PageCloud from their blog.

Systematic content production on upcoming trends to outrank competition a big growth strategy

Obsess over website and content structure

Read the Case Study

How Atlassian Built a $10 Billion Growth Engine | Great story

by Use FYI

One of the best growth case studies I've seen that shows the journey of Atlassian's growth

Doubled down on freemium distributions and horizontal use cases in recent acquisitions to widen their top funnel (#trello)

Great takeaways to learn from

Read the Case Study

The Carrd Story: 7 Steps To $30k MRR With Zero Marketing

by SaaS Hacker

Carrd is a small SaaS company but is starting to gain some real traction

Great insights on early traction growth by SaaS Hacker with illustrated examples

Watch out for Carrd - these guys are going places!

Read the Case Study

How Salesforce Built a $13 Billion Empire from a CRM

by Use FYI

Whilst we know the Salesforce of today, their journey to growth in this growth study is amazing

Make bold statements, SF notoriously hijacked competitor conferences with guerilla marketing

Growth journey by year stages I love

Read the Case Study

Kabbage.com – the Growth Strategy of a Billion Dollar Fintech Startup

by Web Profits

I personally never heard of Kabbage until I read this case study, but either way, an awesome growth case study

Used data science to provide answers in 10 minutes vs hours/days

Strong education focused blog content

Read the Case Study

SEO Case Study - 0 To 200,000 Monthly Organic Traffic In 2 Years

by Apollo Digital

If you're looking to up your SEO game then you should definitely read this case study.

Spread SEO strategy across easy wins and rewarding challenges using competitor analysis via SEMrush

Think about growth loops through content

Read the Case Study

LinkedIn Growth Engine: The Never Ending Viral Loop

by Growth Hackers

We all know about LinkedIn's success through gaining traction by focusing in on the tech scene

A big focus on acquiring customers through freemium nd focus on "Active Users" and how to increase it = stickiness

Mobile product helped a lot for scaling growth

Read the Case Study

Uber — What's Fueling Uber's Growth Engine? | Early growth case study

by Growth Hackers

The Growth Studies buy Growthhackers.com is some of the best you will see and this Uber case study is fantastic

Whilst this case study was done some tiem back, the principles around earl adopter growth we can all learn from

One of the best expansion strategies I've seen

Read the Case Study

Zendesk — How Zendesk Become The Industry Leader & Hit $1.03 Billion in 2020

by 21 Writers

Explore exactly how Zendesk grew from $0 to $1 Billion ARR in 13 years

Find out which two out-of-the-box marketing campaigns made Zendesk stay on top of their competition

Dive deep into Zendesk's SEO, PPC, pricing strategy, and more

Read the Case Study