When you’re counting on your paid advertising campaigns to produce results (aka “qualified leads”) and all you are getting is a bunch of tire kickers; it’s easy to blame the ad campaigns. But there are a variety of reasons, some unrelated to the campaigns, that may be responsible for the lack of results.

Below are 4 key reasons why your paid advertising campaigns may not be generating the qualified leads you expect.

1. Your Marketing and Sales teams are not on the same page.

Too often there is a lack of real communication between marketing and sales. This can result in confusion of how long it takes sales to reach out to a lead, uncertainty of when a lead needs to be handed off from marketing to sales, lack of identifying any common trends in unqualified leads, or even ambiguity around how long the sales cycle really is.

2. Your sales cycle is longer than expected.

If you’re not using data to determine your sales cycle then you are assuming you know how long it takes to convert a qualified lead. This can result in your paid advertising campaigns being blamed for poor performance when in fact, if an accurate sales cycle is factored in, you may be generating more qualified leads than you realize.

3. Your choice of high volume keywords is generating fruitless leads.

When you target keywords that are too broad most likely the resulting leads will be unqualified.  It’s a common mistake to start with broad keywords with the goal of generating more leads for your ad spend. When the truth is, the more honed in you are on your target audience, the intent of their searches and the keywords they use to find you, your paid advertising campaigns will naturally generate more qualified leads. Think quality, not quantity!

4. Some leads are simply not a good fit.

It would be unrealistic to expect your paid advertising campaigns to generate nothing but qualified leads. Monitoring your paid efforts on a regular basis to evaluate their effectiveness will allow you to adjust for factors such as a change in the way people are searching for your products or services, industry wide shifts which could affect keyword relevancy, and other bidding opportunities.

So before pulling the plug on your paid advertising campaigns because the leads aren’t converting, take a look at all the possible contributing factors. The answer may surprise you!

If you would like an honest, no obligation assessment of your paid advertising campaigns, drop us an email at info@bos.digital.