For B2B SaaS vendors, user reviews can be crucial for new customer acquisition. With its research and advisory features, Software Advice is ideal for B2B companies with buyers who check reviews and seek 1-on-1 consultation to decide which vendors to consider and evaluate.
Yet this site offers much more than reviews alone. In this Software Advice overview, we’ll cover how B2B vendors can use the site’s lead generation services to create pipeline.
What is Software Advice?
Software Advice is a review site and advisory service that aims to make the B2B software purchasing process easier. It’s a comparative research platform that also offers free 1-on-1 consulting.
Originally called River Guide, the company was founded in 2005 by Don Fornes and Austin Merritt. Software Advice was acquired by Gartner in 2014. It’s now part of the Gartner Digital Markets network.
The company is based in the United States. It’s headquartered in Austin, Texas.
Who is this B2B software review site for?
Software Advice has valuable use cases for decision makers and vendors alike.
Services for vendors
For vendors, Software Advice offers lead generation services and product profiles with user reviews. The site’s top lead gen offering is its pay-per-lead (PPL) program. Software Advice is particularly well-suited to deliver because of their 1-on-1 consultations with in-market buyers.
t’s ideal for vendors looking to connect with in-market buyers who are looking for third-party advice on their software options. In other words, Software Advice is best for vendors with buyers who tend to need more hand-holding in the software buying process.
How do you claim your product profile?
Complete the Software Advice vendor form to set up a product profile. Basic profiles are available at no cost.
How do you optimize your product profile?
Compared to most other review sites, Software Advice offers relatively limited options for building out profiles. Basic profiles support product descriptions, screenshots, and pricing.
To add a demo video to your profile, you’ll need to pay for the platform’s Highly Qualified Leads service. This service delivers leads that fit your ideal customer profile (ICP).
What's an example of a vendor profile?
The BambooHR profile features a concise description of the human resources platform and shows several screenshots of the user interface.
BambooHR’s FrontRunner 2023 label appears directly below the description. This label designates the platform as a top option in the software category.
The profile also displays 2500+ user reviews, most of which are synced from Capterra. In addition, Software Advice has automatically added top comparisons and alternatives to BambooHR.
To get pricing or watch a demo, interested buyers can click either of the call-to-action buttons at the top of the profile. Both require buyers to answer preset qualifying questions.
Services for buyers
To find the right software, buyers can leverage user reviews, category comparisons, and 1:1 consulting services. It’s ideal for buyers seeking personalized advice.
How do you research with Software Advice?
For each software category, the site helps buyers measure options against each other with a handful of comparative tools. The Popular Comparisons tool shows how top options look side by side.
The FrontRunners tool identifies top options in the category and plots them on a grid. Buyers can use this tool to gauge usability and customer satisfaction.
The buyer’s guide walks decision makers through the category, offering advice on features, benefits, and pricing. Buyers can select any product to see details, read reviews, and get a demo.
How do you get free software consulting?
To access personalized advice, buyers can click a prompt on the software category or profile page and then answer a few qualifying questions.
In exchange, buyers get pricing data and a free 10- to 15-minute consultation with a software advisor. After the call, buyers can opt to have the advisor connect them directly to a software sales rep.
How does Software Advice work?
From proprietary scoring to lead generation to reviews as a service (RaaS), here’s a closer look at how software companies can use this site to generate demand and leads.
What are FrontRunners?
Software Advice uses a proprietary FrontRunners methodology to score products based on two elements: usability and customer satisfaction. To determine FrontRunners, the company uses a mix of user reviews, vendor data, and other public sources.
To score usability, Software Advice considers functionality and ease of use. The company considers value for money, likelihood to recommend, and customer support when scoring customer satisfaction.
Products are eligible to become FrontRunners if they have at least 20 reviews in the past 24 months. They also have to serve North American users across industries (i.e. no niche products).
What are Highly Qualified Leads?
Vendors have the option to pay for Highly Qualified Leads from Software Advice. Here’s how the PPL program works:
- A buyer browses the site and submits a form requesting a 1:1 consultation.
- An advisor collects the buyer’s budget, authority, need, and timeline (BANT).
- The advisor matches the buyer with relevant vendors based on 500+ criteria and gets a commitment to talk with a sales rep.
- The advisor delivers lead data or syncs it with the vendor’s CRM.
How can vendors get more software reviews?
One of the biggest differences between this and other software review sites is that Software Advice doesn’t collect user reviews directly. Instead, product profiles display customer reviews sourced from Gartner Digital Markets partners.
Gartner’s review collection offering can help you get more social proof on Software Advice as well as on partner sites Capterra and GetApp. This service is available at no cost and includes both review outreach and campaign tracking.
Although Gartner handles most of this complementary process, vendors have the option to collect reviews too. Gartner provides a review collection page, a review recruitment kit, and access to a dedicated reviews consultant.
How does Software Advice make money?
The company generates revenue by charging vendors a fee for Highly Qualified Leads. Other services—including review collection for vendors and 1:1 consultations for buyers—are free.
Is this software research and advisory service trustworthy?
Since its initial launch in 2005, Software Advice has helped nearly 1 million businesses make software buying decisions. As part of the Gartner Digital Markets network, it has 2 million+ verified reviews in 300+ categories.
Gartner verifies the identity of each reviewer, vets the quality of the review, and checks for conflicts of interest. Any incentives related to Gartner’s review collection service are clearly disclosed on each individual review.
Is this software research and advisory service trustworthy?
Want to know how your SaaS company can use sites like Software Advice to create social proof and generate demand and leads? Learn how to make B2B software reviews work for your business.
