Why Your PPC Ads Aren’t Getting Results

The most hotly debated topic in the history of marketing has always been PPC ads.

This is for good reason because hundreds of millions of dollars are spent in total by companies around the world in the pursuit of results.

If you're a brand that has been getting mediocre results with their PPC ads, rather than blaming the method, it might be time to take a look at what you're doing wrong.

Here are the most common reasons why your campaign isn't giving you the results that you're expecting.

Top Reasons Your PPC Campaign Isn’t Delivering ROI

1. Improper Keyword Selection

The most obvious place to start is the choice of keywords for your PPC ad campaign. When finding the right keywords, you need to ensure that too many broad-match keywords are just wasting your budget.

Weeding out low-intent and irrelevant keywords should be your primary goal during this process. A huge mistake that many brands make is not adding the right long-tail keywords to their campaign.

Long-tail keywords are the most effective way to push traffic to your website through ads, so you must get them right.

We think it is imperative that you also build a list of negative keywords. Instruct your marketing team to steer clear of these during PPC.

To simplify this process, you should use tools like Google's Keyword Planner and Ahrefs.

2. Inadequate Targeting Mechanics

Targeting the right audience can have a huge impact on your PPC campaign. It makes sense that if your targeting preferences are too broad, then a large part of that isn't going to click your ad.

And even if they do, they're not going to buy which means you just wasted money on a click.

Many brands overlook geographic and demographic filters - keep in mind that location and age are unique combinations.

A 25-year-old person is not going to have the same preferences in the USA and UK. It is of paramount importance that you take into account schedule adjustments when running a worldwide PPC campaign.

The best way to get results is to ensure that you have detailed audience segmentation in place. Also take care to adjust your bids according to the device, time, and location information.

3. Weak Landing Page Optimization

Most companies make the mistake of not spending enough effort on their landing pages. Landing pages are critical when it comes to conversions and just focusing on PPC won't get you the right results.

The first thing to look at is slow loading speeds. Slow-loading landing pages are not just bad for your SEO, they are terrible for your user experience metrics too.

Not having clear CTAs for your users to take action on is another issue on landing pages. Ensure that your landing pages are optimized for mobile and are simple.

Too many elements can cause distraction and ultimately not get you leads. Have a detailed A/B testing process to choose the best CTAs and headlines for your landing page.

4. Bad Bidding Strategy

An aspect of PPC that sometimes gets overlooked is how brands approach their bidding process. While it is good to bid manually, automation has become so much more effective.

But when using automation, it is vital to have specific rules in place so you don't end up choosing sub-optimal keywords.

Errors in bidding can include overbidding on low-conversion keywords and underbidding on high-intent keywords.

Another thing to look into is the seasonal changes for bids and making the necessary adjustments. Not analyzing competitor bidding strategy is a grave mistake.

The goal is to learn from their mistakes while ensuring you include what's working for them.

Testing automated bidding strategies so they can deliver the right PPC keywords is a step in the right direction. Periodically adjust these bids based on the conversion data for your ads.

5. Poor Ad Rotation and Fatigue

While it is important to give good ad campaigns time to perform, there are chances of leaving them out too long causing them to become stale.

Ad creatives need to be changed regularly so people don't associate your brand with just your old ads. Giving your demographic the same collateral for a long time can result in dropping CTR.

Creating and testing multiple ad variations should be done regularly. Similarly, don't overload your ad content with bogus claims and outlandish targets.

These types of ads do more harm than good for the brand. Consider dynamic keyword insertion to freshen up those ads and keep them performing well for longer.

The ideal period for swapping out ads is about 4 - 6 weeks. You must prioritize top-performing ads and base your upcoming material on them.

6. Ignoring Relevant PPC Features

Many marketers even today think PPC is all about choosing a few keywords, setting up a campaign, and they're good to go.

But the truth is that today's PPC platforms offer a lot of features that are mostly ignored by brands. Ad extensions like Sitelinks and Callouts remain unused despite their obvious advantages in a campaign.

When it comes to choosing the right demographics, ensure that you've taken into account the audience exclusion feature.

With AI-assisted technology, A/B testing has also improved to a massive level. Cross-channel retargeting is also another way to get more people aware of your brand.

To get the most out of your campaign, you should enable all suggested high-impact extensions.

Every platform has an audience insights tool that gives you detailed information about your demographics - use it!

7. Poor Ad Campaign Structuring

The first place you should start when creating a campaign is to organize it effectively. Creating multiple ad groups with unrelated keywords will just lead to more confusion and a lack of proper ad performance.

These unorganized groups are also not separated by match type or intent which means suboptimal performance and waste of marketing spending.

Many marketers also without knowing mix search and display campaigns leading to poor results for both.

Every PPC campaign should have a logical flow - it should either flow top-of-funnel (TOFU) or bottom-of-funnel (BOFU). Not having this in place can jeopardize your PPC campaign.

Regularly auditing your PPC groups and pruning the low performers from them can be helpful. You need to segment campaigns by their stages in their funnel giving you more control over their results.

8. Not Allocating Funds Correctly

Budgeting is a pivotal issue when it comes to PPC and there are more chances of getting it wrong.

Brands make the mistake of spending too much on low-ROI campaigns with a generic PPC profile that is unsuited to their brands.

Or, they spend too little on high-converting ad channels and keywords that are important for their success.

While there is no "perfect" budgeting, the key is to ensure that you adjust it according to various KPIs to ensure you get the best outcomes.

Companies are more prone to overspending on brand-specific terms thinking that they will get the right results.

Audit your budgeting regularly and shift the budget to better-performing campaigns from ones that are not delivering results.

9. Inadequate Tracking and Measuring

A good part of an ad campaign's success comes down to how effective your tracking and measuring processes are.

PPC campaigns that have broken conversion tracking will simply not show the right results. Ensure that you have features that include micro-conversions like clicks and other engagements from the ads.

The tracking process should also take into account assisted conversions from your other ad campaigns.

Limiting ad performance only to the last-click attribution can show poor results when in reality your campaign might be performing better.

Not using UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) tagging means you will not be able to differentiate between different marketing campaigns that lead to clicks.

Automating tracking measures to get you real-time information has a huge positive impact on your ad campaign.

10. Mismatch Between Search Intent and Messaging

For every PPC campaign, you need to sort the search intent of the ad versus the messaging inside it. Using a generic ad for a high-value product will not get you the leads you've forecasted.

Likewise relying on a low-quality ad when you're targeting high-intent queries is another mistake brands make about their PPC campaign.

Sometimes brands also overpromise in their ad copy and under-deliver which will lead to wasted clicks. Care should be taken that the ad copy is aligned to what the landing page is offering.

Differing numbers or conditions on the copy compared to the landing page will land you in trouble. Ensure that the campaign outlines benefits clearly without the use of any jargon.

11. Not Accounting for Seasonal Changes

Brands need to remember the effect that seasonal changes have on everything including PPC ad campaign results.

This is especially true if your service/product is more relevant during a specific time of the year or holidays.

Sticking to the same bids during demand spikes or drops will be less than optimal for your ad performance.

Not adjusting your seasonal ad campaign copy to reflect the changes will waste PPC potential. Scaling your budget to include peak periods is an important part of managing your campaign spending.

It is also important to keep in mind that post-holiday slowdowns are real and these can affect your business too. Plan ahead of holidays and seasonal changes to get the most out of your PPC campaigns.

12. Overlooking Remarketing and Retargeting

Many marketers make the mistake of only focusing on getting clients in the first round of ads. Not enough effort is spent on remarketing their services to potential users.

This is a mistake because through retargeting, there are chances that these users will be interested in other products or services the same brand offers.

A cardinal sin of marketing is not tracking and following up with people who abandon their carts.

A simple message to them will help brands figure out if there's something they can do to help them go through with their purchase.

In the same vein, create personalized emails that can re-engage users who have stopped midway through the purchase process. Setting up dynamic retargeting ads can help close the deal!

Summary

● Optimize your keyword choice and strategy to better suit your PPC campaign.

● Rebuild older landing pages to improve their loading speed and ensure they are relevant to the ads.

● Test various ad variations that can keep it fresh and updated which can prevent fatigue.

● Leverage the power of automation and AI to create smarter bidding routines and targeting demographics.

● Track and record conversions through your PPC campaigns with proper attribution models.

● Restructure low-performing campaigns sorting them by intent and funnel stages.

● Adjust budgets dynamically based on various factors like performance and seasonal changes.