Why Aren’t My PPC Ads Working?!

There are many companies out there that are only too eager to jump right into the search engine mega-market. They see their competitors generating quality leads, recruiting clients, and making sales online, and, of course, they want to generate the same or better results from their own websites. Unfortunately, many of these companies begin investing big money into unprofitable Pay Per Click Ad campaigns, or, worse yet, pay opportunistic internet marketing consulting firms to do exactly what they want. And then they lose a lot of money.

There are a whole variety of reasons why a well-funded and aggressive Pay Per Click Ad campaign can fail. Bad ad copy, bad geographic considerations, bad keyword selections, bad budgeting, bad platform selection … hopefully, you get the point.

But there are a few very important reasons why a good – even great – PPC Ad campaign can fail. These are five:

1. Poor Website Design
   If a company’s website is old, it probably looks old. If a web user visits a website that looks outdated, they are more often than not going to Bounce and visit the next page down the list. Updating the look and feel of a website does not always require a massive, expensive overhaul. Simple but significant improvements to the navigation bars, colors, images, alignments, fonts, etc. can go a long way toward modernizing your ancient site.
2. Poor Website Layout
   If a company’s website is old, it often also suffers from poor layout. This problem is also faced by many new websites, and it also relates to the site’s organic SEO, so layout is a big one.
   Basically, important information that is relevant to your keyword strategies should be highlighted in areas where they are most likely to be seen. “Above the fold” material is not a description particular to newspaper articles, but one that is relevant to the content of your website as well. The layout of a company’s web page will determine what content is the most visible, and this content should be the most valuable as well.
3. Relevant Content is Hard to Find
   Many websites that present web users with valuable, engaging information that encourages users to contact the company make the same, simple, fatal mistake. They hide their contact information in a Contact Us page that is difficult to find and rarely looked for. If a company’s web viewers are not able to immediately achieve what they set out to achieve on the website, the company is doing something wrong. The old sales motto here is: “make it easy for the customer.”
4. Poor Landing Page Selections
   If a web user is brought to a company’s website as a result from a PPC Ad, they are often looking for something very specific. This is the nature of search engine marketing, or recruitment marketing. A well designed and strategically displayed ad will only target users that are genuinely engaged with the subjects of their search, and for this reason, these ads are likely to bring the most qualified leads to company’s website.
   If the page that they arrive at does not immediately provide them with the information that they are looking for, they are more than apt to leave the site and continue in their search. By strategically coordinating PPC Ads to the content of their landing pages, a company can guarantee the highest possible return on investment.
5. Poor Web Site Optimization
   The ranking of an AdWords PPC ad will factor in the relevancy of an ad’s content and the relevancy of its landing page to the search keywords. It is extremely important, then, that a website is strategically optimized for the set of keywords that it pays to advertise. This will bring down the Cost Per Click, bring up the ad’s search result rank, and increase the site’s conversion rates.

At Benisch eMarketing, we recommend that companies looking to expand their business through paid search advertising and PPC Ad campaigns look for internet marketing consultants that will explain this to them. As consultants, we do not make the final decisions, but it is our obligation to explain to you why your PPC Campaign is not working.