You’re paying for clicks. The dashboard says people are visiting. But the enquiries aren’t coming in, and you’re starting to wonder if ads just don’t work for a business like yours. Before you give up, check these.
1. Is the tracking actually working?
This is the big one. Recently I reviewed five client ad accounts in one go, and broken or missing conversion tracking was the most urgent problem in several of them. Not bad ads. Not the wrong keywords. Tracking.
Without it, Google and Meta can’t tell which clicks turned into enquiries, so they can’t find you more of the right people. And you can’t tell what’s working either. Every decision is a guess.
Ask whoever set up your ads one simple question: “How many enquiries did the ads bring in last month, and how do we know?” If there isn’t a clear answer, start there.
2. Does the page match the ad?
If your ad says “emergency boiler repair” and the click lands on your homepage talking about bathroom fitting, people leave. The page someone lands on should carry on the exact conversation the ad started. Same service, same offer, same words.
This is why I write the ads and the website for my clients. When the same person writes both, what people click on matches what they land on.
3. Is it easy to get in touch on a phone?
Most ad clicks happen on phones. Is your number tappable? Is the form short? Does the page load quickly on mobile data? A slow page or a fiddly form throws away clicks you’ve already paid for.
4. Are you paying for the wrong searches?
On Google, look at the search terms report, the list of what people actually typed before clicking. It’s often eye-opening. Jobs, DIY tips, places you don’t cover, services you don’t offer. Every one of those is money spent on someone who was never going to book. Adding them as negative keywords is one of the quickest wins there is.
5. Are you judging it too soon, or changing it too often?
Ads need time to learn. A week isn’t enough to judge anything. And on Meta in particular, changing the budget, audience or creative every few days restarts that learning each time. Set it up properly, then give it a fair run.
Be kind to yourself
None of this is obvious, and most of it isn’t your job to know. The platforms make it look easy to start and hard to do well. If your ads haven’t worked, it’s very rarely because your business can’t be advertised. It’s usually something in the setup.
If you want someone to set it up properly and run it for three months, here’s how I do it. And if the website is the weak link, start with this.
