Why isn’t my PPC working? Falling at the first hurdle

Critical calculations for your Google Ads

It’s critical you invest time to calculate the ROI for any PPC campaign – whether it’s Google Ads, Facebook PPC advertising or any social media marketing. Inexperienced digital marketeers often overlook the maths. Calculating the projections for the return on investment for each campaign is critical before you commit. Take a look at these two highly fictitious scenarios:

·        Scenario 1

You sell bi-fold doors. Your landing page is all singing and dancing, you have a video production detailing the benefits and features of the doors and software to enable visitors to sign into your site and upload a picture of their room to create an image of how it will look with your doors. You capture their email address to book an appointment.

Your average contract is $30,000. The cost per click (CPC) for the keyword is $20. You spend $3,000 per month for a quarter, the total is $12,000.

$12,000/ $20 CPC = 600 clicks

From 600 leads, 5% book an appointment = 30 appointments

From 30 appointments, you close 20% = 6 sales

6 sales of $30k = $180,000

$180,000/ $12,000 = 15 times the return of investment. Happy days and a bottle of the finest wine to celebrate.

·        Scenario 2

Again, you sell bi-fold doors and as in scenario 1, you generate leads by harvesting email addresses. This time your bi-fold doors are cheaper.

Your average contract is $10,000. The cost per click (CPC) for the keyword is $20. You spend $3,000 per month for a quarter, the total is $12,000.

$12,000/ $20 CPC = 600 clicks

From 600 leads, 2% book an appointment = 12 appointments

From 12 appointments, you close 17% = 2 sales

2 sales of $10k = $20,000

$20,000/ $12,000 = 1.6 times the return of investment. Sob quietly and call Digital Presence to review where you are going wrong.

It’s crucial you understand how affordable Google Ads is in relation to the profit it will generate.

The first hurdle you must overcome is setting the Google Ads account up to benefit your business from the start. This is typically where most issues arise for underperforming Google Ads campaigns. How the ad platform is configured directly affects the audience you reach and the type of traffic you’re paying for. Tweak the settings to optimise them for your business’ unique circumstances.

Failing to track any/relevant metrics

Digital marketing and SEO are science with a creative twist, and data and metrics are the fuel of a successful digital marketing campaign. If you are not tracking conversions, you are throwing money into the wind; this is how you gauge the success of your PPC campaign – the only reason not to is if you are running display Google Ads for brand awareness.

Unhelpful account structure

Tracking metrics is only part of the story. How you structure your Google Ads account helps or hinders your ability to analyse the data based on goals, locations etc. The temptation is to get your Google Ads active ASAP; however, each campaign needs to be structured for accurate interpretation of the data to avoid allocating too much money on underperforming campaigns.

Organisation is the key to success. Within each campaign the ad groups contain keywords (between 10-20) for the text ads (2-3 per ad group), which direct to the landing page – there’s no need to go overboard with the numbers at this stage. Keep it manageable, testable and measurable.

Sloppy audience targeting

Are you bidding on the right keywords for your target audience? Review the Search Terms Report to see the words people use to trigger your Google Ad and do a Google search on the keywords to see what other ads are shown. Are they your competitors? Are they relevant to your industry? You may be surprised to learn you are not targeting who you thought you were!

Loose location definition

Double check the campaign location targeting is set to ‘Presence: people in or regularly in your targeted location. You do not want the option ‘people in, regularly in, or who have shown interest in’ if you only serve people in Christchurch NZ. People Google Christchurch and New Zealand for all kinds of reasons, and your product or services will never be relevant to them, so paying to get your brand in front of them is unnecessary.

Negative to negatives

When is a negative a positive? When it’s a negative keyword that stops you from eating your digital marketing budget. When you’ve figured out how to choose the best keywords for Google Ads campaign, the next step is to identify which keywords will drive traffic to your website that will likely never become a lead or generate income.



The Search Terms Report is your first port of call, combined with your knowledge about your business, you’ll be able to spot the negative keywords. For example, a bike shop with a campaign for bike riders could have a ‘horse rider’ as a negative keyword. Remember too, your negative keywords list should be updated as you identify new irrelevant search queries.

Poor Ad Copy

People are actively searching for the products and services you offer, but if your click-through-rate (CTR) is less than 2% it is time to look at your Google Ad copy. The CTR is the number of clicks your ad receives divided by the number of times your ad is shown. It’s a great indication of how successful your ad is.

A good PPC campaign typically floats around the 4%-5% mark. If you aren’t hitting these figures, revisit your copy. Are you showing the benefits? Are you giving strong calls to action? Do your keywords need more attention? Tweak. Test. Tweak. Test. Rinse and repeat until you hit target.

There are numerous PPC channels you can pursue to generate leads and make sales, Google Ads, Facebook, Instagram advertising to name but a few. For an online marketing campaign to be a success, research and strategy are vital. If your campaign is not hitting the mark and delivering the success you were expecting, or you are new to PPC to and want to boost your business, get in touch today for a free no obligation chat.

Digital Presence helps Christchurch and New Zealand businesses thrive online. We get how it feels overwhelming/ frustrating/ disappointing, so we provide jargon-free digital marketing solutions to make your business a success.