How Semantic Labs drove $2.5M in revenue for Keap with PartnerStack

Semantic Labs is a performance-based growth partner to 300+ B2B SaaS companies, helping them scale customer acquisition through data-driven strategies. With more than 10 years of experience refining its customer acquisition platform, Semantic Labs identifies the signals that matter — search intent, patterns and insights — and turns them into measurable growth.

When Keap — an all-in-one platform that unifies CRM, automation and payments — wanted to scale their affiliate efforts efficiently without heavy upfront investment, they turned to Semantic Labs. Unlike traditional agencies, Semantic Labs shares the risk and reward: no retainers, no set-up fees and no ad spend required from the client.

“The Semantic Labs performance model — where we pay for everything using our own capital — makes us like a super affiliate. We assume all the risk. If our campaigns fail and don't generate customers, we lose that money and the client loses nothing. We have perfectly aligned incentives,” says Tali Chester, Senior Director, Account Management at Semantic Labs. “It’s forced us to be the best and to be the expert. We're 100 per cent motivated to find the highest quality leads that have the best chance of converting, and it completely derisks customer acquisition.”

Thus far, Semantic Labs has driven $2.5M in revenue for Keap, leveraging PartnerStack as their central operating system for tracking, automating and scaling their performance-based affiliate program.

Building a performance-first model for B2B SaaS growth

The most common affiliate partners are influencers, content creators and email marketers, but as a self-described super affiliate, Semantic Labs takes it to the next level. Instead of marketing to a single niche audience, Semantic Labs deploys Google Ads and Microsoft Ads to capture high-intent searchers across the web who are actively evaluating B2B SaaS products.

“We build out campaigns for our clients within their vertical. For Keap, it might be very specific. It might be ‘marketing automation software for small business’ and anyone who's Googling that is very high intent. They know what they're looking for,” Chester explains their work to support keeping Keap ahead of their competitors through smart digital conversion. 

For a partner like Keap, the value proposition is straightforward: zero upfront ad spend, reliable CAC, performance-backed ROI and a world-class SEM campaign that scales with their growth. “If they want to increase ad spend, they can increase their commission rate by a small amount. And doing all of that on PartnerStack makes it clean, trust-based and scalable.”

Why PartnerStack is the foundation of the Semantic Labs program

This kind of program, although mutually beneficial, only works when accountability and trust are built in. That’s where PartnerStack bridges the gap — making the entire model possible. With automated commissioning and payouts, full-funnel real-time tracking, and tax-compliant global payments — it offers everything affiliate programs need to run smoothly without manual effort — especially in partnerships like Semantic Labs and Keap that involve complex recurring commissions and tiered payouts.

“PartnerStack isn't just a tool we recommend — it's the central operating system for the programs we build,” explains Chester, adding that prior to implementing PartnerStack, Semantic Labs relied on a mixture of spreadsheets, custom built forms and manual accounting, which she describes as a “nightmare.”

“The payment automation removes any worry about whether our recurring commissions are being calculated correctly. We can see which leads are converting to paid sales, and we know we’ll receive commissions on those sales for the longevity of the client — and that's huge. B2B SaaS requires managing complex recurring commissions and tiered payouts, and PartnerStack is by far the clear leader.”

Conversely, PartnerStack’s centralized data and comprehensive view of partner performance give Keap clear visibility into the campaign, providing the insights needed to measure ROI and CAC and to assess campaign growth opportunities.

Partnering with Keap to deliver predictable, scalable revenue

Partnerships are the core driver of Keap’s growth. To date, 45% of their customers — and their revenue — come directly through partners. With PartnerStack, Keap is able to manage both the flow of new partners and maintain engagement of their 6.3K current partners.

When Semantic Labs joined forces with Keap in 2020, they brought a fresh take on partner-led acquisition. Their model — rooted in deep paid search expertise — demonstrates its ability to drive consistent, scalable revenue for B2B SaaS brands.

“We're easy to get started with,” explains Chester. “It’s super low-lift, zero-risk and we can start driving leads and revenue quickly.”

In fact, when Chester worked on the client-side, she would reach out to Semantic Labs as a no-cost “quick-win” that doesn’t interfere with existing paid search campaigns.

“We can operate in parallel with existing paid search campaigns run by our brands. For instance, if Keap is running existing internal paid search campaigns, we can work in unison without risking their existing campaigns.”

As their business grows, Chester and the Semantic Labs team have seen paid search become more critical than ever in recent years.

“We've become more of a key player than we could have imagined because what we've seen is content partners and SEO campaigns taking longer and longer to get off the ground — they just weren't performing in the same way because every time Google changes, it’s very hard to readjust and ensure you’re staying on the first page,” Chester shares. “Whereas with paid search it’s guaranteed you will be at the top of the first page on Google. We have become more of a necessity, as part of the partner ecosystem, than ever before because it's guaranteed. You start a paid search campaign with us and within one week to a month you'll see leads and you'll see revenue coming in — almost immediately.”

Creating a zero-risk model with predictable CAC

For risk-averse B2B SaaS brands, Semantic Labs’ zero-risk model eliminates the traditional hurdles of working with a paid search agency.

“The way we operate is kind of a CFO's dream because we're taking on all the risk. We're funding the Google Ads and if it doesn't work, it's on us.” Says Chester. “The onus is on us to really make sure that we drive high-intent, high-converting leads for brands.”

By only earning revenue when they deliver paying customers, Semantic Labs is incentivized to outperform — and it shows in their industry-leading results.

“We're 100% motivated to find the highest quality leads that have the best chance of converting. It completely derisks customer acquisition and customer acquisition cost is very predictable and fixed.”

Today, Semantic Labs is partnered on 139 programs on PartnerStack, delivering win-win paid search campaigns for a variety of B2B SaaS clients globally.

When asked whether working with affiliates on paid search is a concern in terms of conflict with existing paid search agencies or internal teams, Chester confirms "This is a common concern we hear from our clients, and they are right to be vigilant about the types of partners they work with. Over the 18 years we have been doing paid search we are yet to see a case of cannibalization on our clients existing efforts. Using our own predictive algorithms and staying away from Google automations, we are able to compliment rather than compete with our clients.”

As a longtime brand-side marketer herself, Chester notes the real-world impact of Semantic Labs’ approach.

“Having worked on the brand side for many years, and working with Semantic Labs as a partner to my clients, I've actually seen first hand the fact that Semantic Labs is able to support incremental growth, ensure there is no cannibalization to existing efforts and convert high intent leads that brands may otherwise be losing, whilst also securing brand reputation."

Building relationships that fuel the ecosystem

Their numbers tell a strong story, but their authentic, partnership-led mindset also distinguishes Semantic Labs.

“I think that the bigger your ecosystem can be and the more you can actually build true relationships with the people you work with, the more it does for you and the more it does for your clients and partnerships” says Chester, who prides herself on building authentic personal relationships with clients and partners. “If we look at the partnerships on PartnerStack that are long-lasting and driving revenue, it’s all about those relationships and getting to know the people.”

Semantic Labs shares that same camaraderie with the PartnerStack team, fostering strong collaboration and trust.

“I have a real fondness for the people at PartnerStack. I think that’s partly to do with Canadian culture. A culture of not seeing it as a traditional affiliate network, but talking about an ecosystem and partnerships in a different way than how any other affiliate network operates and taking a genuine care and concern for both the clients and for the publishers,” says Chester.

Looking ahead — scaling partnerships in an evolving landscape

In today’s rapidly changing landscape, where high-intent customers are turning to AI to guide their research, Chester speculates there may be shifts ahead in how partners target their audiences.

“What we are going to start to see, I think, is a kind of paid search shift. We saw OpenAI introduce their own Chrome competitor, Atlas. We're seeing ChatGPT starting to sell online with Etsy and soon with Shopify. So, I always want to keep my mind open and know that we can shift towards driving traffic through the LLMs at some point when that opens up.”

With LLMs bringing on paid search specialists, there is speculation that they’re preparing to explore this channel.

“We don't want to make any huge shifts but we have to be smart and we have to keep our finger on the pulse and realize that there are huge shifts happening in the world and maybe we can help our partners move into those areas.”

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