“Google Ads are a waste of money”
“We’ve tried LinkedIn Ads and we didn’t get a single lead”
I’ve heard this all too often from businesses who have ‘experimented’ with paid ads themselves, but the truth is, the platform isn’t always to blame …
When you don’t have the right strategy or you don’t understand the platform’s algorithm, it’s likely that you won’t get the results you’d hoped for.
I want to share the most common reasons why your ads might not be performing, and encourage you to give them a second chance now that you have this expert insight.
Reason #1: Not testing enough
One of the most common mistakes is running the same ad variations over and over without exploring new creative options, targeting strategies, or bidding methods.
Testing allows you to figure out what resonates with your audience. It helps you drive the best results at the lowest cost, and in some instances, it can even help you discover unexpected audience segments and messaging angles.
Here are a few things you should be testing in your ads:
Ad objectives
Both Google Ads and LinkedIn allow you set objectives for each campaign. These can include conversions, website traffic and engagement. Your ad objective should be aligned with your specific business goals, ensuring your ads are optimised for the desired outcomes, whether that’s driving traffic, raising awareness or generating leads.
Audience segmentation
Test different creative variations across different audience segments to identify whether certain visuals or messages resonate better with specific subsets of your target audience. This can help tailor your creatives for different customer segments.
Creative ads (more relevant to LinkedIn)
LinkedIn recommends you start with at least 5 creative, but I would always recommend more. They don’t have to be vastly different. For example you can test different colours or use different headlines to find out what’s resonating most with your audience.
Once your ads are live, you should be continuously iterating your them to eliminate those that are underperforming and improving the top-performing ones.
Reason #2: You’re not targeting the right audience
Audience targeting is the most crucial aspect of any successful lead generation campaign.
Google Ads uses keyword-based targeting, geo-targeting and audience data from user behaviour. Whereas LinkedIn offers advanced professional targeting options based on job titles, industries, company size, seniority level, skills, and more.
Test different options with the most relevant message for that audience, and don’t give up until you’ve done this!
Reason #3: Not tracking correctly
Too many business owners have no idea where their leads are coming from. If you don’t track your efforts, how are you going to know how much to invest in these platforms to grow your business?!
We recommend using Google Tag Manager to set up accurate conversion tracking so you can easily see where your leads are coming from in GA4.
Reason #4: Poor landing page
With Google Ads, the page that you take your prospects to after they have clicked on your ad directly influences user experience, engagement, and conversions, ensuring that visitors find what they’re looking for quickly and take action.
A good landing page can also improve your overall Quality Score in Google Ads which reduces the amount you pay per click.
With LinkedIn, you can use their in-built forms to generate leads so that the user doesn’t have to leave the platform to engage with you. Again, it’s all about testing what works best.
The best advice I can give you: The fortune is in the follow-up
Getting people to click on your ad and make an enquiry is only half the battle, it’s how you nurture these prospects that’s going to make the biggest difference.
The average B2B lead takes at least 102 days to close. During that time, the prospect will be looking at your competitors, comparing pricing and services so it’s crucial to have an email marketing funnel with at least 12 touchpoints to keep your prospects warm until they are ready to buy from you.
So now you see how much thought and optimisation you have to do to make paid ads a success – before you ditch the platform!
Remember that these platforms are merely tools to help you reach your audience, understanding how to get the most out of them requires skill, experimentation and patience.
If you’ve been disappointed with your paid ads in the past, and need an expert to help you, let’s have a conversation.