Campaigns are exceeding their lead goals, and remaining in the Cost Per Lead benchmark! And then, out of the blue the fun ceases in a meeting. The client says “We’re spending an enormous amount of money PPC. Leads are coming in, however we’re not getting the sales. Why?”
When a marketing channel such as PPC is accountable for driving high-quality leads, however fails to deliver it’s easy to get frustrated or blame the source. As an PPC manager, there is nothing better than having your account that is running smoothly.
For the user it’s not difficult for them to put the blame on the PPC channel when there’s a change in performance. However, in our role as PPC managers (whether working for an agency or working in-house) we may not know what happens when the user is deemed the lead. Here are a few of the most common reasons as to why PPC leads might not be turning into sales.
(Spoiler alert – they’re much more popular than one would imagine!)
- Marketing & Sales Teams Disconnect
A frequent observation within many businesses is that sales and marketing do not communicate with each other.
Then there’s a problem, and everyone’s making accusations.
The typical sale cycle will look something like this:
What’s not shown or explained is what happens the course of this process! (More on this in section 2.).
The buying process is like peeling off a large onion, the kind that cause your eyes to well up.
It can be a difficult idea to contemplate.
Here are some questions that each team could consider to begin the discussion and cut back the onion. How long is the actual sales cycle relative to. my goals for a perfect sales cycle?
What happens when the responsibilities of leads shift from sales to marketing?
Are there any major trends emerging in leads that aren’t qualified?
What is the time frame for sales to get in touch with the first lead?
Are there any points of pain being discussed between sales and an initial lead?
The latter is more of a strategic dialogue which really has nothing to be concerned with PPC and the company overall.
2. Ideal Vs. Actual Sales Cycle Timelines Are Misaligned
Do you know your customer’s or your company’s typical sales cycle timeframe?
In addition, Have you ever questioned the sales staff what they came to that conclusion?
I’ve observed this gap too often, working as an agency marketing professional as well as an in-house practitioner
The timelines for sales cycles are dependent on assumptions as opposed to actual information!
As PPC managers are able to see, data is the king when making decisions.
Sales cycle timelines which aren’t based on real data seem crazy, don’t they?
The issue with not knowing the average sales cycle may be a problem for every PPC plan, though it is not caused by the PPC program in itself.
In this instance the PPC program is achieving its goal of generating 50 leads each month. The sales cycle timeframe provided is 30 days.
30 days after that, the sales department blames marketing for the leads that don’t convert to paying clients.
In your role as the PPC manager you get immediately to identify the root of the problem:
Do the words not match?
Does the audience you are targeting be qualified?
Does the copy for the ad match the promotion?
After a lot of digging and discussions with the sales team it was discovered that the typical sales cycle takes between 60 and 90 days. It’s not 30 days.
So, what’s the end result of this research?
The lead’s not converting after 30 days isn’t necessarily the result of a PPC issue. The lead is probably half-way or one-third towards their purchase journey!
Now that we have actual information that supports the timeline of sales cycles Where do you go from now?
The most important thing is to set expectations in PPC. PPC program. For instance:
If you run a PPC program is able to generate 50 leads within a month, the true outcome of leads that are quality will not be available until 60 to 90 days later.
If a customer is asked to boost their amount by 50 percent in a matter of hours The volume of leads is likely to rise. This doesn’t mean that the sales cycle timeframe speeds up either.
This section is directly in line with the first point.
There always will be a shift from sales to marketing.
In this instance marketing’s job is to attract qualified leads. Sales’s role is to convert these leads into customers in a matter of 90 days.
Another key point is to establish realistic expectations for members of the sales department. Also, it is important to communicate results, and frequently.
3. Sometimes, Budget Is The Main Issue
What was the last time that an audit was carried out on lead that was not certified?
I recently completed this process with a customer. We specifically focused on PPC leads as our team members were told that they were not qualified.
Are you spotting a theme there?
The results revealed were staggering:
85percent of them were not qualified because of “budget.”
10% of the respondents were not qualified due to lack of contact or follow-up by the team of sales. (What?)
5percent of them were not qualified due to the fact that the company was not an ideal fit.
After a few volatile times in the market, a lot of it is due to external causes such as the pandemic, consumer behavior continues to shift.
Although many businesses may want to purchase a certain product or service might not have the money currently.
Do budgetary concerns constitute an excuse to deny these leads?
One option is to classify these leads under the “budget issue” category.
Although it can take a few months for businesses to recover the normal routine the companies that were previously thought of to be “unqualified” may become your most valuable clients.
It is crucial to make sure that you follow up if budget is really the only problem.
A different option for strategic change is to review your pricing strategy.
If the majority of leads aren’t qualified because of budget, it could be an indication of market perception – not to mean that PPC isn’t working.
4. High-Volume Keywords Are Driving Ineffective Leads
Leads in quantity doesn’t necessarily mean that they are high-quality leads.
It’s usually easy sailing when campaigns are running and meeting lead volume targets.
If you’re the leads don’t convert even after reversing sections 1-3, it’s time to look more closely at your campaigns.
If you are looking into PPC campaign results, you’ll find it simpler to spot an outlier if certain keywords are driving most in your traffic. Then, you can start.
If the campaign is bidding for popular, generic keywords it could be the issue is the term itself.
Consider these questions:
Does the word “keyword” seem too broad?
What’s the goal of the investigation?
Who is my ideal public?
Are negative lists of keywords in order?
Sometimes, making small adjustments to target audiences in Search campaigns can produce effective results.
For instance, suppose your campaign bids on the phrase “industrial double-sided tape” with no demographics or audience.
Even if you are aware that your audience is likely to be a B2B company, a question like this is likely to generate a lot of impressions from the consumer and clicks.
Why?
Because Google will display the advertisement to anyone who enters the search, regardless of intent.
As it continues to loosen matches, Google can now match queries based on the intended intent of the user.
A person could type in “heavy duty double-sided tape” and be shown an advertisement in the search results for “industrial double-sided tape” keyword.
It’s up to you target parameters to determine who is exposed to the advertisement for this query.
While the quantity of leads could be reduced, the quality of leads is likely to increase.
Find other ways to increase the effectiveness of demographic targeting.
5. Sometimes, A Company Just Isn’t A Good Fit
There are always leads that don’t seem to be an ideal fit for the customer.
There is no way that a PPC program is expected to provide 100 percent qualified leads. It’s not possible thanks to the modern technology used of PPC campaigns. Have you had you heard about Performance Max?
Concerning point 4 It’s always a good idea to review the keywords a campaign auctioning to improve the efficiency of a campaign.
Re-visit the basics and go over the original keywords vs. keywords used in search.
Has the market changed over the past few years or months and has the relevance of keywords changed?
There are other means in which customers are searching for your item and/or service?
Moving to less-volume searches with high-intent can result in higher-quality leads.
But, there needs to be a balance between lead quality and quantity.
If narrowing your keywords are delivering better quality but isn’t delivering in terms of quantity, it’s time to consider other ways to increase this PPC program.
Putting It All Together
If a platform like PPC is responsible for generating high-quality leads, but isn’t able to achieve this it’s easy to become panicked or assign blame.
The most difficult thing is making the decision and examine all options, including inviting other teams to participate and asking difficult questions.
Better questions yield better answers, and also untapped opportunities.
It’s an opportunity to get to know the business more.
In the end, these kinds of questions will make you a valuable asset to the company.