Why your business keeps losing money on online advertising
Online advertising is touted as one of the most cost-effective ways to promote your business. Many experts will tell you that it makes more sense to invest in online ads compared to traditional platforms – like print, television ads, etc. On the whole, this is a fairly accurate statement. Lots of businesses have improved their standing thanks to online advertising. One of the best things about it is that you only pay when people click on your ads. Therefore, there’s an increased chance of creating leads from every click, making money go further.
However, some businesses find they’re struggling to see a positive ROI from PPC advertising. Why is this the case? If it’s supposed to be such a cost-effective idea, why are you losing money throughout your campaign? Effectively, it comes down to a small selection of reasons:
Overspending
Naturally, the first reason is that you spend too much money. With PPC, ads are bought through bids. You bid on keywords for search engine ads, and you bid on ad space for display ads. If you’re bidding on too many things, you can easily go over budget. Not only that, but you can overpay for ads that don’t target your specific audience. Most PPC management services can step in and right these wrongs for you. After all, that’s mainly why you experience this issue – poor management. Be wary of your budget, and be sure to bid on ads that will reach your specific audience. This ensures you have a higher chance of generating leads or making sales, leading to a positive ROI.
Not targeting the right demographic
Following on from the previous point, you must target the right demographic. If you pay for online ads that reach a broad and generic market, you’re going to end up losing money. For one, hardly anyone will be interested in your ads. Secondly, if they click on them out of curiosity, there’s a low chance they’ll actually buy anything or complete an action. You must target the right demographic to be sure your ads get through to the correct audience.
Terrible landing pages
When someone clicks on your advert, they are taken to a page on your website. This is known as a landing page. It’s imperative that you set up excellent landing pages on your site. The aim is to promote whatever you advertised and lead people into completing an action. Don’t advertise a new product and have them land on your homepage – it will annoy them, and they’ll probably leave. Likewise, be sure your entire website looks great and is user-friendly. If it doesn’t tick these boxes, your leads will leave straight away. As a result, you pay for their clicks but see nothing in return. Watch the video above for five tips on creating great landing pages.
In conclusion, it comes down to three things: 1) reckless spending of your advertising budget; 2) a failure to target the right audience with your adverts; and 3) not having good landing pages that convert.
You can improve your ROI by correcting these common errors. Thankfully, they’re not hard to rectify, so you should be able to turn things around quite quickly!
