Why Your Sponsored Ads Aren’t Performing (and How to Fix Them)

You launched your ad campaign feeling confident, but the results are disappointing. 

Low click-through. No conversions. Maybe a few random clicks that go nowhere.

If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone.

Most underperforming campaigns fail because of avoidable mistakes. In this post, I will walk you through the most common reasons your sponsored ads aren’t performing, and most importantly, what you can do instead.

Key Takeaways

• If your ad isn’t converting, it’s probably a targeting problem. The “right” ad isn’t right if it’s being shown to the wrong audience. 
• You have to grab attention and keep it. An eye-catching ad will only go so far if the sale dies on the landing page. Optimize your ad and landing page to keep your audience captive.
• Data beats guesses every time. If you’re not tracking and testing your campaigns, you’re throwing money into the wind. Use data to drive your decisions for this ad and future ones.
• If you optimize your ad too soon, you risk losing valuable learning. Most campaigns need a few days to exit the learning phase. Let the data roll in first, then act.

What are Sponsored Ads?

Sponsored ads are paid ad placements on Google, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and other such platforms. You can use sponsored ads to promote your content, sell your products, or even feature a special offer. 

With sponsored ads, you pay for clicks, views, or impressions. You pay regardless of whether the users who interact with your ad convert. The bottom line: A poorly performing ad will cost you, resulting in poor ROI.

9 Reasons Your Sponsored Ads Aren’t Performing (and How to Fix Them)

Let’s break down the most common reasons your sponsored ads might be falling flat, as well as how to fix them.

Reason #1: You’re Targeting the Wrong Audience

The number one reason I see campaigns fail is that they target the wrong audience.

You could have the perfect ad. Killer creative. Strong offer. Great landing page. But if the wrong people are seeing it, it doesn’t matter.

• Go where your audience is. Find where your audience actually hangs out and where they’re in the right mindset to buy. 
• Leverage audience insights. Whichever platform you use for sponsored ads is sure to collect and report on interactions with your ad. Use this data to tweak your ad, as well as to drive decisions for future ones.
• Layer targeting for precision. Think beyond user demographics. Create audience segments by layering interests, behaviors, and lookalikes.

The truth is, you can’t force a sale on the wrong crowd. Dial in your targeting to get your ad in front of the right person at the right time.

Reason #2: You’re Using the Wrong Platform for Your Audience or Offer

Even if you nailed your targeting, it won’t matter if you’re showing up on the wrong platform.

An offer that crushes on Instagram might flop on LinkedIn. It doesn’t mean it’s a bad offer, but more likely a bad placement.

In addition to knowing where your target audience hangs out, consider the campaign intent that is most likely to succeed on different platforms. For example:

• Google Ads is the place for intent-based campaigns. If your target audience knows the exact product or offering they’re looking for, then advertising on Google is a safe bet.
• Meta is the place for interest-based campaigns. If your target audience is more interested in lifestyle products and impulse buys, then a visual platform like Instagram is the way to go. 
• LinkedIn is the place for B2B campaigns. If your target audience is in the market for software or business solutions, then a platform like LinkedIn that allows you to target job titles is ideal. 

This doesn’t mean you can’t target multiple platforms. However, your offer and creative content should be tailored for the primary market on each one. 

Reason #3 Your Content is Boring

If your ads aren’t a scroll-stopper, your campaign is already dead in the water.

Boring or uncreative content can easily become lost in a sea of vibrant visuals and eye-catching copy. You must compete for audience attention, but how?

Look at your current ads and ask yourself:

• Would I stop to read or watch this?
• Is the headline clear and benefit-driven?
• Is the offer obvious to the average user within the first 2 seconds?

If your answer to any of the above is “no,” then boring or uninspired content is a likely culprit for your ad’s poor performance. Here are some steps you can take to liven it up:

• Add motion or pattern interrupts to static ads. These catch the user’s attention just long enough to allow the rest of the ad’s content to reel them in.
• Use UGC-style video content. Consumers trust other consumers. That is why User-Generated Content (UGC) is such a successful marketing tool. Incorporate UGC into your campaigns, and even while it’s marked as an ad, consumers will naturally engage with the content and want to learn more.
• Test different approaches. My audience tends to favor the benefit-focused approach to ad content, but your audience may respond better to an emotional appeal or data-driven content. Create variations of your campaign with these approaches in mind and see how your audience responds.

Reason #4: Your Landing Page is Killing the Sale

The best ad in the world can’t fix a bad landing page. 

What are the most common mistakes I see marketers make on their landing pages, and how can you fix them? 

• Slow loading speeds. If your page takes longer than 3 seconds to load, users will bounce.
• Multiple competing goals. Give the user one clear, benefit-driven goal to complete and you’ll see your conversion rate increase.
• Unresponsive design. No matter your industry, I can guarantee one thing: a good chunk of your audience, if not the bulk, is on a mobile device. Your landing page design must be mobile-friendly.

If someone clicks on your ad but bounces from the landing page, you’re burning cash. So give it the time and attention it deserves.

Reason #5: You’re Not Giving It Enough Time

Is your ad performing poorly? Or have you just not given it the chance to gain traction?

Ads need data to optimize. You can only gain data by giving it time to mature. You risk destabilizing the entire campaign if you kill or optimize your ad too early.

So here’s what I suggest: Give your ad three to seven days to stabilize. 

What if you give your ad time and it’s still not performing as you’d hoped? Use the data to determine where the ad failed and make adjustments accordingly. For example:

• If your ad has a high click-through rate but low conversions, optimize the landing page.
• If your ad has a low click-through rate and high cost-per-click, optimize your content and/or improve your audience targeting.

The longer your ad is live, the more data you’ll have to make the optimizations outlined above. 

Reason #6: You Don’t Have a Testing Strategy

If you’re not actively testing your ads, you’re guessing. 

Most brands set their ads and forget them. But if you want greater confidence in your ads and their results, you need a testing strategy.

What that looks like will depend greatly on your industry and the type of ad you’re running. However, a few general guidelines apply: 

• Test one variable at a time. Any more than one, and once again, you’ll be guessing. When you test one variable, you know exactly what your audience is responding to. 
• Run multiple ad sets. While you should only test one variable per ad set, you can and should run multiple ad sets at a time. These could have unique angles (eg emotional, benefits-driven), unique audiences, or even unique bidding strategies.
• Use UTM tagging. To better track which ads drive conversion, use UTM tagging. You’d be amazed at just how easy UTM tagging makes it when done right. 

If you want to run successful campaigns, testing isn’t optional.

Reason #7: You’re Failing to Retarget

Have you heard of the rule of 7? It’s a marketing principle that customers need to see your brand at least 7 times before making a purchase decision.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that the average consumer will need to see your ad 7 times, but if a user didn’t convert the first time they may just need to see it again. 

Retargeting campaigns are those that target consumers who interacted with your ad or website but didn’t convert. Here are some tips for giving them the nudge they need:

• Retarget them quickly, but not too quickly. Retargeting ads delivered within hours can make a consumer less likely to convert. Instead, aim to retarget within 1 to 3 days.
• Segment by behavior. Your retargeting campaigns should differ based on user behavior. A retargeting campaign for cart abandoners may include urgency-based offers, while a campaign for a landing page visitor may include UGC testimonials. 

Reason #8: You’re Not Using Enough (or Any) Data

If you’re running ads without solid tracking in place, you’re flying blind.

You don’t know what’s working, what’s not, or how to fix it.

Fortunately, the majority of sponsored ad platforms enable campaign tracking with pixels and tags. In addition to adding UTM parameters to your links as mentioned above, you can add these pixels and tags to your landing page to track campaign visits in the background.

What kind of information can they track?

• Page views
• Add to carts
• Form submissions
• Purchases

You can also use third-party tools, like Hotjar or GA4, to collect more in-depth data like scroll depth, button clicks, and other user behavior metrics.

This data will help you (and the platforms you’re using) to make smarter decisions so you’re not wasting money on poor leads.

Reason #9: Your Budget Strategy is Sabotaging Your Campaign

You don’t need a massive budget to succeed. What you need is a smart budget. 

What do I mean by that? 

Your budget and, more importantly, your strategy should fit your specific goals. Your ad won’t generate enough impressions if your daily budget is too low, but you could also be blowing through your spend without meaningful insights if your daily budget is too high. 

Fortunately, there are steps you can take to budget with intent:

1. Spend enough to leave the learning phase. On platforms like Google and Facebook, an ad exits the learning phase after accumulating 50 conversion events. With this in mind, you should set your weekly budget to be 50 times your target cost per acquisition (CPA). 
2. Utilize campaign budget optimization. Meta Ads Manager, for example, allows you to set a campaign-level budget, and the algorithm will distribute spend across ad sets for the entirety of the campaign. 
3. Avoid scaling too soon. If your ad is successful in its early days, it can be tempting to increase spend. However, this can drive up costs while decreasing ROI. Give the algorithm a few days to learn before deciding to scale.

Even great ads will underperform if the budget strategy undermines them. So, carefully consider your approach when creating your campaigns.