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What To Do When Your Ads Aren't Working
12 root causes of bad campaign performance
Brian Bourque
March 18, 2023
Happy Saturday to the 9,181 builders, marketers and unicorns reading this newsletter.
Imagine this:
You're running growth for a startup and the founder keeps asking you:"Why aren't we scaling on Facebook?
"Why are our TikTok campaigns unprofitable?"
I've been there.
Growing a company through paid acquisition can involve a lot of tests and money. It took us at SmartAsset over a year to figure out how to run some channels profitably, but now they're among our biggest.
But there's a better way.
Today I'm going to share all the reasons why your ads aren't working, and what you can do about it.
This will help you diagnose your problem and find profitability faster instead of fumbling around and throwing shit at the wall.
Time to read: 4 minutes
Growth stage: Any
Difficulty level: varies (sorry)
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"Hey, Marketing team? Why aren't we crushing it on [insert marketing channel of the day] yet?
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12 Reasons Your Marketing Campaigns Fail
To win online you need a deliberate approach. A system for running campaigns and diagnostics for when things aren't going well.
Here's an extensive list of issues that can affect marketing campaigns and keep you from scaling profitably.
Keep this handy as a checklist the next time you're running paid campaigns:
Creative issues
Ad targeting issues
Bidding and budget issues
Platform-specific issues
Landing page issues
Monetization issues
Tracking and analytics issues
Technical issues
Insufficient testing and optimization
Product or service and platform mismatch
Seasonality or timing
External / macro factors
Now let's dive into some causes and solutions for each of them.
Creative Issues:
Your ads aren't generating sales or conversions.
Causes:
Your ads are not getting people's attention
People find your ads low quality or unappealing
Your messaging isn't resonating
Your value prop isn't compelling
Solutions:
Test different designs, formats and ad styles
Use visually disruptive elements
Test different messaging and positioning
Try new, original ad angles
Rotate or refresh creatives regularly
Ad Targeting Issues:
Your ads are not being shown to the right people.
Causes:
You don't know who your target customers are
You aren't reaching the people you want to
You made a mistake and actually targeted the wrong geo or demographic
Solutions:
Review and refine target audience
Conduct audience research and segmentation
Evaluate geographic performance data
Refocus marketing efforts on better-performing regions
Bidding and Budget Issues:
Optimizing for clicks on FB? Good luck getting conversions. Using the wrong bid strategy is a great way to burn cash.
Causes:
Using the wrong bid strategy
Insufficient budget
Solutions:
A/B test different bidding strategies
Optimize bids based on performance
Allocate more budget to channel
Platform-Specific Issues:
Digital platforms are complex. It's easy to get lost when setting up a campaign or not understand how to use the algo properly.
Causes:
You don't understand the platform features well
The platform is inundated with similar competitors
Solutions:
Training on how to use the platform effectively
Research documentation and best practices
Analyze your competition
Develop a unique value prop to stand out
Landing Page Issues:
Small details can have a big impact. How persuasive is your page?
Causes:
Poorly designed or non-optimized landing pages
Inconsistent messaging between ads and landing pages
Solutions:
Align ad copy and landing page content
A/B test different landing page designs
Improve user experience and optimize for conversions
Test different combinations of ads and landing pages
Monetization Issues:
Your funnel metrics are okay but you're just not making enough revenue per visit.
Causes:
Insufficient monetization or LTV
Low purchase value
Low retention
Solutions:
Analyze customer lifetime value and revenue streams
Develop strategies to increase LTV and improve monetization
Identify and address bottlenecks in the conversion funnel
Implement conversion rate optimization techniques
Cross-sell and upsell
Tracking and Analytics Issues:
You're not getting good data into how users are responding to your ads.
Causes:
Inadequate tracking and analytics setup
Incomplete data collection
Solutions:
Use conversion events and pixels
Audit data sources and data collection methods
Review and update tracking configurations
Use a proper attribution model (utms, etc.)
Ensure data accuracy through regular quality checks
Insufficient Testing and Optimization:
It's easy to get cold feet when you're losing a lot of money. You'll end up pausing tests too quickly to learn anything of statistical significance.
Causes:
Limited testing of campaign elements
Inadequate optimization efforts
Solutions:
Implement a structured testing plan
Test key variables methodically (ad creatives, targeting, and bidding)
Regularly review campaign performance data
Optimize campaigns based on data-driven insights
Check for statistical significance
Technical Issues:
The platform or your website just isn't working properly. These issues often go unnoticed.
Causes:
Broken website or landing page
Ad platform technical issues
Solutions:
Audit website for technical issues
Set up automated website load time / uptime alerts
Fix technical issues and improve site performance
Report issues to ad platform support
Monitor platform updates and known issues
Product or Service and Platform Mismatch:
Ever run ads on Reddit? This one's for you.
Causes:
Platform not suitable for promoting the product or service
Ineffective ad formats for the product or service
Solutions:
Research and identify more suitable platforms
Adjust marketing strategies to better fit the platform
Tailor ad creatives to better suit the platform's ad formats
Experiment with different ad formats
Seasonality or Timing Issues:
Ad prices can skyrocket in Q4. Be mindful of demand and prices by time of year.
Causes:
Holidays or time of year impacting consumer demand or ad prices
Solutions:
Analyze historical trends
Adjust campaign based on seasonal insights
Test different timeframes to launch
External / Macro Factors:
If you were running ads during the 2020 presidential election or early COVID, you know what we're talking about:
Causes:
Economic factors
Political factors
Social factors
Solutions:
Monitor economic trends and adjust marketing strategies
Diversify marketing channels to mitigate risk
Stay informed about political developments
Adapt marketing strategies to comply with regulations
Monitor social trends and adjust messaging accordingly
In summary: holy shit that's a lot that can go wrong!
In reality, the biggest culprits will usually be your ad, landing page or offer. And for an algo-driven platform like Facebook, your bidding strategy.
But it's important to check everything because you may have an issue you don't even know about.
✨ That's it for today.
As you can see, a lot can go wrong with an ad campaign.
When you're burning money and not seeing profits, it's easy to get scared and give up.
Take a methodical approach to figure out what's really going on.
I hope these insights help you in your growth journey.
-Brian 🦄
PS - I want you to win. Don't forget to pre-order lifetime access to our upcoming SEO tools.
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