Usually, there isn't one single reason why your PPC isn't helping you increase your bottom line. People tend to regard PPC as the holy grail of marketing, and once digital ads are running they think they can sit and wait for the leads to roll in. If it were that simple, we'd all simply throw money at our PPC ads and voila. As the saying goes, if it were easy, everybody would do it.

Unfortunately, after running your PPC campaign you might discover that while you’re spending money on clicks, you aren't achieving the results you'd hoped for. With that said, your search ads might not be working if...

1. THERE IS NO MARKETING STRATEGY IN PLACE

If you are simply running ads without a plan of action, you’re just spinning your wheels, and you won't get far. If you don't know where you are going, how will you get there? This is the primary question that must be answered. What are your goals and how will PPC support them? If your answer is to sell more homes, then the net that you're casting is too large. You need to refocus your efforts: first by defining your target audience, then by tailoring the messaging they are receiving, and finally by analyzing how it interacts with your other marketing.

2. YOU ARE RELYING TOO HEAVILY ON PPC

Is your marketing comprised of just PPC? This can often be the case, but it isn't enough.. The most powerful marketing is one that works seamlessly across various media to gain the desired result. While search ads are a great tool, they can only achieve so much. What works best is to have display ads to go along with search ads, active social media, a SEO strategy, and a lead generation funnel in place.

3. YOU HAVE THE WRONG TARGET AUDIENCE

You can have the best product for teens, but if your messaging, search queries and settings are targeted towards Millennials, your impressions won’t turn clicks, and your quality score will drop. Marketing that fails to convert leads is often the result of a misunderstanding of how to communicate with or identify the correct target audience.

4. YOU DON'T HAVE A LANDING PAGE

Your ad might be reaching your exact target audience, and have spot-on messaging, but what happens when someone clicks your ad? If a person clicked on an ad for legal representation during a divorce, but ended up on a home page that discusses criminal law, that person is going to click the back button faster than you can say, Jack Robinson. Let's face it, there are a lot of people vying for the attention of your target audience, so if you can’t engage them, they'll go to the next result.

We've all been there. You click an ad for the Boca Raton location of the business you searched only to land on their Boynton Beach page. Next!

5. HAVE NOT OPTIMIZED FOR MOBILE

Speaking of pet peeves. Nothing is more irritating than completing a search on your phone and finding that the site you've been taken to is not optimized for use on mobile. Indicating which ads are for mobile and which are for desktop helps users find the information they need in the best way possible. In fact, if you have a local business you'll want to take advantage of geo-targeting on mobile. Use your tools to your advantage.

6. YOU BELIEVE ONE SIZE FITS ALL

Setting up one ad with 1000 keywords isn't going to yield the results you are looking for. Instead, you should create subsets of keywords that are similar and have an ad that directly relates to that search query subset. Supposing you search for "Best Divorce Attorney,” but the resulting ad says "Call our Boca Raton attorneys now”— you're going to most likely skip down to the one that has your keyword included.

Dynamic ads allow you to do this without any difficulty, nevertheless you should still segment your ads into smaller keyword groups.

7. YOU SET IT AND FORGOT IT

Perhaps the most common ailment in the world of PPC is creating a great campaign and letting it sit there unmonitored for months on end. What worked three months ago, might not work today or even be relevant. It is important to continually monitor all your PPC efforts in order to determine if they are still effective and to avoid  hurting your brand. Information that is no longer accurate could be detrimental to your business. If you had a special that expired or a service that you no longer offer, you don't want your ads to reflect inaccurate or misleading information.

Need help auditing your existing PPC campaign, or don't know where to start? We'd love to help. Our in-house digital media experts are ready to help you achieve your goals.

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