It’s 1 a.m., and you can’t sleep because something’s not quite right about your ads. You love the copy. The keyword and audience targeting are right where you feel like they should be. You’re validated in your ads because the click-through rate is strong; people are engaging! But no one is buying what you’re selling. The purchases, the forms, the calls, they’re not happening. Nothing makes sense, and now you’re wide awake when you should be sleeping.
You’re in good company. Talk to anyone in advertising, and we’ve all been there. Everything seems like it should be working, but it just isn’t. There are quite a few reasons why ads get good engagement, but the end goal isn’t being achieved, and we’ll get into some of the most common reasons below.
But first, a mindset that everyone in this situation needs to have: nothing is sacred. As you test and troubleshoot, you might need to say goodbye to some of your favorite ideas. If it’s not working, don’t waste money on it just because you think it should.
With that out of the way, let’s look at common failpoints.
1. Your website.
If click-through rates on the ads are strong, the first place to look is at the post-click experience: the website. The modern consumer needs direction. It’s our job as marketers to make it as easy as possible for people to do the thing we want them to do. Don’t make people scroll to find a call to action. Get that above the fold. Phone numbers, if that’s important to you, should be clickable and in the header. Calls to action should stand out with an accent color. Forms should be on your landing page, not hiding behind a contact button. Is the checkout process clear, simple, and without any surprises? The fewer clicks we make a user do, the better. The end goal here is to remove as many roadblocks to conversion as possible.
2. Expectation and intent mismatch.
Are you promising something in your ads that the landing page or website isn’t delivering? This could be as simple as someone clicking on an ad for a specific service, air conditioner maintenance, for example, but you’re sending their click to your home page, where it talks about all your services; that’s not what they wanted. Are you promoting a free trial, but the free trial info is buried beneath paid pricing? Make sure everything you mention in your ad is reflected on the landing page.
For search-based campaigns, you really want to make sure your keywords match the intent you need. Study the search queries triggering your ads. Are you finding people more in research, information-seeking mode, rather than searches with a clear purchase intent? This is a sign you need to tighten up your keywords so you’re finding people ready for the solution you offer. Depending on your business, it might make sense to still target researchers – but only do that if you have the budget to build your funnel and can retarget tire-kickers with attractive follow-up offers. Keep these intent signals separate so your campaign-based algorithms can learn around the right intent.
3. Lack of trust.
Let’s be honest – most of our businesses are a single option in a sea of many. Whether you’re local only or national in your scope, chances are you’re not the only one doing what you do. Your ads can be awesome, your website can be fully conversion optimized, but consumers still need a reason to choose you over the competition. Make sure you’re clearly setting your differentiators high up on your landing pages. Call out pain points that you know your competition struggles with. And then provide proof you can deliver. Keep reviews coming in and highlight them on the site. Let customers leave reviews on your product listings, and use a plug-in to bring your Google reviews onto your website. Showing customers reviews that were clearly user-submitted will go further to build trust than anonymized pull quotes that you typed onto the page yourself.
4. Your product or offer.
This is where it gets tough, especially for new businesses. If the cost of your product is higher than your competition’s, has fewer features/benefits, or both, any marketing campaign is going to have a hard time. Other differentiators need to be front and center to justify your position in the market. You may need to consider your product stack and find a way to make it more attractive. If you’re confident in the value you bring and believe that once you hook someone, they’ll be a customer for life, find an attractive introductory offer that you can afford that pays out over the lifetime of the customer.
Clearly, there’s a lot to consider when it comes to your advertising conversion rates, but you should have a strong foundation to troubleshoot from here. Sometimes it helps to have a third party take a look and validate what you think you’re seeing or to guide the first steps. That’s what we do here at Upward Engine. We won’t sugarcoat anything, and we’ll give you the recommendations we’d give ourselves if it were our business. Reach out today if you think we can help.
