Five Signs Your Website Isn’t Ready to Run Paid Ads
Before you start running ads for your business, you should have a plan. What happens after someone clicks on your ad? Where are you sending them? Is your website confusing or hard to navigate when they’re trying to reach the next step?
If you don't address these questions and ensure your website visitors have a clear path to follow, you can end up wasting precious time and money. Getting people to click on your ad is only half the battle. If you continue to throw money behind ads without a clear message or an easy way to take action, you won't generate the leads you were hoping for.
Before you keep putting money behind these ads, here are five signs your website may not be ready for paid advertising and generating leads.
Your landing page doesn’t match your ads
As a potential customer, it's frustrating when you click on an ad and it takes you to a landing page that doesn't contain the same information or promise. People are clicking on your ad for a specific reason.
For example, if you're an auto repair shop offering $200 off your next service, your landing page should promote the same offer, ideally using the same language. You shouldn't lead them to a generic homepage or About Us page where the offer is nowhere to be found. The message that encourages them to click should carry over to the page they land on.
When there's an obvious disconnect between what you're promising potential customers and what they see on your website, people may start questioning what they should do next or whether they're even being offered the same thing.
Your landing page and ad need to work together to create cohesive messaging and calls to action. That consistency and clarity can help turn more of those clicks into leads.
Your website is hard to navigate and lacks a clear call to action
When someone clicks on an ad, they're already considering your product, service, or promotion. That's one of many decisions they're going to make in a single day. If you don't have a clear call to action on your website that lets visitors know exactly how to obtain what you're promoting in your ad, they may not follow through.
Let's say you're offering $200 off their next service, but the landing page gives them the option to call the auto repair shop, send an email, schedule an appointment online, or fill out a form for someone to call them. What are they supposed to do? While you may think it's helpful to offer several different ways to contact your shop, you could actually be contributing to decision fatigue. You may lose their attention before you ever earn their business.
In this case, choosing one clear way to redeem the $200 offer gives visitors an obvious next step. When people are confused or it takes too much effort to follow through, potential customers may abandon your offer altogether.
You aren’t tracking conversions
If you're not tracking conversions, how do you know where your money is being spent? You may be wasting money on campaigns that aren't even leading to conversions, but if you're not tracking that data, how would you know?
Conversions are one thing you don't want to guess on. Whether you want someone making a puchase, filling out a form, making a phone call, or doing another desired action, having that data availablew will help you know what someone's doing after clicking on your ad. It can also help you identify which campaigns are actually generating leads and which campaigns may need adjustments.
Having the right conversion data can help you make smarter, more informed decisions about how to optimzie your campaign to keep generating leads.
Your website doesn’t build trust with visitors
Can we trust you? That's what most people think before they decide to do business with you.
When an advertisement pops up and someone clicks on it, they may do their due diligence to see if the advertiser is credible. Are you able to deliver on the promises you made in the ad? How many reviews do you have? Are you active on social media?
You have to earn their trust. If someone comes across an advertisement, clicks on it, then notices inconsistent messaging, an outdated website, or broken links, it may raise some concerns. Even small inconsistencies can make it more difficult for a visitor to trust you. To help combat this, think of your website as an extension of your ad. It should have the same messaging style, include accurate information, and accurately reflect who you are as a business.
When customers feel confident in the company they want to do business with, they're more likely to follow through and become a conversion.
Your traffic isn’t turning into leads
Once you publish your ad, you're likely on the edge of your seat waiting to see an increase in link clicks and website traffic. But where are the leads? You're spending a lot of money to grab people's attention and reach them, so why aren't they following through? It's easy to think that if you spend more, you'll make more, but that's not always the case. You need an effective marketing strategy backed by real data to identify where the biggest disconnect is. You can learn a lot by digging into the numbers.
Which campaigns are generating the most conversions? Are people leaving your website without taking action? Are people even interested in what you're offering? The problem could come down to your strategy, targeting, messaging, or another part of the customer journey.
If you're noticing an increase in clicks and website traffic but not conversions, it's time to determine whether the problem is the ad itself or something else that's preventing people from taking action.
Let Ad Vice Marketing help you adapt your current advertising strategies
Hiring a marketing agency like Ad Vice Marketing can help you develop paid advertising campaign strategies that will help you generate leads, not just clicks.
We'll look at the bigger picture to make sure your ads, messaging, and overall strategy are working together to turn your traffic and clicks into leads. Instead of stressing over where to focus your energy, you’ll have a dedicated team working to maximize your reach and results.
Contact us today to discover how we can develop and execute strategies that align with the evolving digital landscape.