Bottom Funnel SEO Strategy: How We Ranked #1 On Google In 5 Days (Sam Dunning Method Review)

Mahesh VR
1 hour ago
10 min read

Sam Dunning's Bottom-Funnel SEO Framework helped us rank our client #1 on Google in less than 30 days. This is our complete review of his 90-Day SEO Playbook and how we used it to beat major competitors for our AI SaaS client, OpenCraft AI.

Right now, every marketing guy in every social media platform is saying ONE thing…

SEO is dead…You can’t rank against big competitors...AI Overviews will destroy us all…

And they get a lot of likes, a lot of comments yes,

But what they miss is, that’s only half the story,

Yes, SEO is changing, AI Overviews on Google is becoming a big thing, ranking against big competitors seems to be like climbing the everest,

But what if I told you, It’s 100%...

OR 1000% possible,

to STILL rank on the front page of Google, EVEN on the #1 position, EVEN for big competitor keywords?

And it’s something we achieved for our client in LESS than a month. OpenCraft AI (amazing AI chat tool, you must check it out, it’s a perplexity alternative but 100x better)

We did that using our expertise combined with what Sam Dunning (Breaking B2B) has come up with.

Here’s the source material

Keep reading and you’ll see our review of Sam Dunning’s bottom-funnel SEO strategy, and how we put it into action, and how we could help you get the same.

NOTE : This article is NOT sponsored. We are writing this as a genuine gesture of goodwill, appreciation and to help people figure out what’s the right thing to do.

Now, this article is focused towards AI products / B2B SaaS. We’re also applying this framework onto our D2C clients, and the success story would be posted very soon

So, what is Sam Dunning actually teaching?

It’s not the usual "write 50 blog posts and pray for traffic" advice you get from most agencies.

Sam calls it his 90-Day SEO Playbook, and frankly, it ignores about 90% of what standard SEO "gurus" obsess over.

He doesn't care about image alt tags or speeding up your site by 0.001 seconds.

He calls that "absolute BS" until you have thousands of pages.

Instead, his entire course focuses on Revenue-Focused SEO.

It’s built on the "95-5 Rule": at any given time, 95% of your market is just browsing, but 5% are in "buying mode," with their credit card in hand, looking for a solution RIGHT NOW

Sam’s strategy is exclusively about capturing that 5%. Here is the breakdown of the framework we used:

1. The "Money Keyword Matrix"

This is the foundation. Most people guess their keywords. Sam forces you to build a four-column matrix to find the terms that actually drive demos and signups, not just vanity traffic.

The Offer	The Industry	The Competitors	The Expensive Problem
Every way someone refers to your tool (e.g., "proposal software").	Specific niches that have cash and the problem you solve (e.g., "for HR teams").	The "Tier One" giants you are up against.	The manual "struggling moments" your clients face before they buy software.

2. The "Competitor Alternatives" (Your Quickest Win)

This is how we got Opencraft AI ranking so fast for “perplexity alternatives India” (I’ve even attached the screenshot as proof later down this blog)

Sam’s logic is ruthless here: ranking for "Best [Category] Software" (like Best CRM tool, or Best AI writing tool) is bloody difficult for a new site.

But ranking for "[Competitor Name] Alternative"? Is the opposite.

Sam notes that these keywords often have "zero difficulty" and can rank in as little as 30 days.

Why? Because no one searches for an alternative to a certain tool (like "ClickUp Alternative") for fun.

They do it because they are genuinely annoyed with their current vendor and want to switch.

3. Targeting "Expensive Problems" (Jobs to Be Done)

This was a huge shift for OpenCraft.

instead of writing generic "What is AI?" articles (which LLMs have completely killed anyway),

Sam teaches you to target the "Expensive Problem".

This means writing content that attacks the "enemy",

which is usually an internal manual process, like Google Sheets or Excel (or for AI tools, ChatGPT).

You write articles like "How to manage [process] in Google Sheets" and then pivot to your tool as the painkiller that saves them "10x the amount of time".

For example, our blog on “How To Avoid Generic ChatGPT Output” we wrote for OpenCraft AI

4. The "LLM Visibility"

As I mentioned earlier, everyone is panicking about ChatGPT and AI Overviews stealing traffic. Sam’s take is following Good SEO practices automatically checks the boxes for LLM optimization.

As I’m writing this, Sam’s claim is further strengthened by what Google’s Nick Fox opened up about.

There’s no AI SEO.

All that matters is ranking on the front page of Google (preferably top 3 or 5)

He shows that AI tools cite the top-ranking listicles and "Best of" guides.

By controlling the narrative on your own site, and getting featured in the "Top 10" listicles of others, you automatically feed the AI answers.

In most cases, you don't need a separate "AI strategy." You need to own the bottom of the funnel.

In short: Sam’s course isn’t about getting a million visitors who never buy. It’s about getting the RIGHT visitors who are annoyed, cashed-up, and ready to switch to you.

How We Implemented Sam Dunning's Bottom-Funnel SEO Strategy for OpenCraft AI

Now before I wrote this review blog, I wanted to see the result first. I’ve had my brain fried countless times on SEO this AIO this AEO that GEO this.

So I tried some before, didn’t work, even had a bunch of angry client moments.

And then OpenCraft AI came along.

The founder (Anip Satsangi) is clever enough to simply tell us “do whatever you want, just don’t nuke our site” and give us a free hand. Till date, I appreciate that.

So, we signed them during October 2025,

And for a month, things were rough, I couldn’t figure our what to do and was stuck writing mid-funnel articles (which still picked up traffic)

Late-November 2025, I discovered Sam’s video and made enormous notes and a productised offer.

Without further ado, I did an upsell with OpenCraft AI and we started implementing the plan.

Our Results: Rank #1 in 30 Days

Our biggest breakthrough was this article:

"7 Best Perplexity AI Alternatives for Indian Businesses and Content Creators in 2025"

Published: December 5, 2025
Checked rankings: December 10, 2025
Result: Literally THE FIRST thing that pops up for "Perplexity alternatives India"

Our client opencraft ai ranking on the first rank on Google

The screenshot above was also taken at the exact moment I am publishing this article, and you can see the date + time (India Standard Time). Just dropping this for transparency.

Soon after, similar articles started ranking:

OpenCraft AI as a ChatGPT alternative → Page 1
An article on how to avoid generic ChatGPT output → Page 1
Another article on how to write prompts to get the most out of AI → Page 1

This is giving us immense confidence and though it’s too early to comment on demos booked and revenue, the fact that we’re RIGHT ON #1 for such a keyword is a testament to how amazing this framework is.

If you’re a SEO marketer in a B2B SaaS company reading, I highly urge you to go over the video, I’m embedding the link below again. It’s guaranteed to change the way your marketing performs.

By the way,

If you are running a B2B AI / SaaS (or) a DTC brand and you want your business to come up to the front page of Google (even Rank 1 like what we got for OpenCraft AI),

Book A Free Call here and we’ll see how we can get you there.

Breaking Down Our Implementation: Step-by-Step

Step 1: Built the Money Keyword Matrix

We identified:

Offer keywords: AI chat tool, AI research assistant, Perplexity alternative
Industry modifiers: for Indian businesses, for content creators, for researchers
Competitors: Perplexity, ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Claude
Expensive problems: generic AI output, inaccurate research, prompt fatigue

Step 2: Prioritised Competitor Keywords

We targeted keywords like:

Perplexity alternatives India
ChatGPT alternatives for research
Best AI tools for Indian content creators

Step 3: Created High-Quality Comparison Content

Each article included:

Honest pros and cons of each tool
Real screenshots of me and my team HAVING DONE THE RESEARCH (Seems Google is smart at determining if you’ve done this or not)
Specific use cases for Indian businesses
Clear comparison tables
Direct CTAs to try OpenCraft AI

Step 4: Optimised for Search Intent

We analysed top-ranking pages for each keyword and matched:

Content format (listicles for "best" keywords)
Word count (2,000-2,500 words)
Structure (comparison tables, feature breakdowns)
Visual elements (screenshots, charts)

Step 5: Internal Linking Strategy

We linked to:

OpenCraft AI homepage (20% of links)
Other bottom-funnel articles (80% of links)
Product pages and demo sign-up

Why Bottom-Funnel SEO Works Better Than Traditional Content Marketing

Traditional content marketing tells you to "cover all stages of the funnel."

This advice assumes unlimited resources. But SEO resources are finite.

You have limited:

Writer hours
Budget for tools
Link-building capacity
Time to optimize pages

The question isn't "should I create content for all funnel stages?"

The question is: "Which keywords deliver the highest ROI with limited resources?"

The answer: Bottom-funnel keywords.

Data doesn't lie:[1]

Top-funnel content: 0.19% conversion rate
Bottom-funnel content: 4.78% conversion rate
25X difference

Even accounting for higher traffic on top-funnel content, bottom-funnel articles generate 3X more total conversions with half the content volume.[1]

The Three Types of Bottom-Funnel Keywords (Most Agencies Miss #2 and #3)

1. Category Keywords

These are obvious: "AI chat tool," "SEO software," "project management platform."

Most teams target these. But they stop here.

2. Comparison Keywords (High-converting, low competition)

Examples:

"Salesforce vs Pipedrive"
"Perplexity vs ChatGPT"
"Ahrefs vs SEMrush"

Many agencies label these "mid-funnel" because the searcher is "just researching."

Wrong.

People searching comparisons have immediate buying intent. They're evaluating options right now. They convert at rates comparable to category keywords.[3]

Every SaaS company should aggressively target comparison keywords for their top 10 competitors.

3. Jobs to Be Done Keywords (Largest opportunity, most overlooked)

Examples:

"How to organize design files"
"How to do keyword research in Google Sheets"
"How to get video testimonials from customers"

These searchers don't know your product exists yet. But they have a problem you solve.

Create content that ranks for these searches, then position your tool as the solution. Conversion rates are slightly lower than category/comparison keywords but dramatically higher than informational content.[3]

To find Jobs to Be Done keywords:

Interview customers about challenges before finding your product
Review customer support tickets
Talk to your sales team about common pain points

How to Optimize Content for Bottom-Funnel Keywords

Once you identify high-converting keywords, create dedicated pages optimized for conversion.

Essential elements:

Demonstrate unique value prop (why you're different from competitors)
Address specific pain points the searcher likely has
Include proof points: testimonials, case studies, customer logos
Prominent CTAs: free trial, demo booking, contact sales
Link from homepage and product pages

Page types that work:

Product category pages ("AI Research Assistant for Content Creators")
Competitor alternative pages ("Perplexity Alternative for Indian Businesses")
Industry-specific solution pages ("AI Tools for Indian Startups")
Comparison guides ("ChatGPT vs Perplexity vs OpenCraft AI")
Demo and free trial landing pages

Analyse search intent before creating:

Look at top 10 results for your target keyword
Match their format (listicle, guide, landing page)
Match or exceed their depth (word count, examples, visuals)
Differentiate with real screenshots, not stock images

Common Mistakes to Avoid with Bottom-Funnel SEO

1. Chasing High-Volume Informational Keywords

"What is AI" might get 50,000 searches per month. But it converts at 0.01%.

"Best AI research tool for content creators" might get 500 searches per month. But it converts at 5%.

Do the math:

50,000 searches × 0.01% = 5 conversions
500 searches × 5% = 25 conversions

The "smaller" keyword wins.

2. Spreading SEO Budget Across All Funnel Stages

Most teams allocate resources evenly: 33% top, 33% mid, 33% bottom.

This wastes 66% of your budget on low-converting content.

Better allocation:

70% bottom-funnel
20% mid-funnel
10% top-funnel (only for brand awareness)

3. Ignoring Competitor Comparison Keywords

Your competitors are ranking for "[Your Brand] vs [Their Brand]" searches.

Are you?

If not, you're letting them control the narrative when prospects compare you.

4. Not Tracking Conversions by Keyword

Most teams track:

Total traffic
Keyword rankings
Page views

What actually matters:

Conversions per landing page
Revenue attributed to specific keywords
Cost per acquisition by keyword

Set up goals in Google Analytics 4 to track which pages drive conversions.[1]

Is Sam Dunning's Bottom-Funnel SEO Strategy Right for You?

This framework works best for:

B2B SaaS companies (high LTV, long sales cycles)

AI/tech products (competitive markets, educated buyers)

DTC ecommerce brands (selling premium/complex products)

Service businesses (agencies, consultancies, high-ticket services)

Not ideal for:

Local businesses (need local SEO strategy)

Media/publishing sites (monetize via ads, need volume)

Early-stage startups with zero brand recognition (need some awareness content)

If you're a B2B SaaS or ecommerce brand tired of writing content that gets traffic but zero conversions, Sam Dunning's bottom-funnel SEO strategy is the best framework we've tested.

Ranking #1 for "Perplexity alternatives India" in under 30 days proved this strategy works. Multiple page 1 rankings for competitor and Jobs to Be Done keywords validated it further.

Want Us to Implement Bottom-Funnel SEO for Your Business?

We're using Sam Dunning's framework to help B2B SaaS and DTC brands rank for high-intent keywords that actually convert.

If you're running an AI product, SaaS platform, or ecommerce store and want to:

Rank on page 1 for competitor comparison keywords
Target high-intent buyers, not casual browsers
See results in weeks, not months
Focus on revenue, not vanity traffic

Book A Free Call

We'll analyse your market, identify bottom-funnel keyword opportunities, and show you exactly how we'd get you ranking.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to rank for bottom-funnel keywords?

We ranked #1 in 5 days for "Perplexity alternatives India." Competitor comparison keywords often rank faster than category keywords because competition is lower. Expect 30-90 days for most bottom-funnel keywords.

Do I need high domain authority to rank?

No. We ranked OpenCraft AI (a new site) on page 1 for multiple keywords within weeks. Bottom-funnel keywords often have lower competition than informational keywords.

How many bottom-funnel keywords should I target?

Start with 10-20 in your first 90 days. Focus on competitor comparisons and Jobs to Be Done keywords before moving to broader category terms.

Can this work for ecommerce?

Yes. Target product comparison keywords ("Nike vs Adidas running shoes"), alternative searches ("best [competitor] alternative"), and problem-focused searches ("how to choose running shoes for flat feet").

Final Thoughts: Stop Chasing Traffic, Start Chasing Revenue

Most SEO content focuses on getting more traffic. More visitors. More page views.

But traffic doesn't pay the bills. Conversions do.

Sam Dunning's bottom-funnel SEO strategy shifts the focus from vanity metrics to revenue metrics.

From casual browsers to ready buyers.

We've seen this work firsthand. Rank #1 in 30 days. Page 1 rankings for multiple high-intent keywords. Qualified leads from people actively comparing tools.

The era of "write 50 blog posts and hope for traffic" is over. AI tools have commoditized informational content.

The future of SEO is bottom-funnel. High-intent. Revenue-focused.

Are you ready to make the shift?