5 reasons why your PPC leads may not be converting

Running PPC campaigns is an effective way to drive instant traffic and potential leads. When it all clicks, PPC campaigns can be extremely profitable and beneficial for most businesses.
However, there are many potential issues you can come across when running a PPC campaign. One of the big ones is when your PPC leads do not convert.
In this article, we highlight a few reasons why your PPC leads may not be converting and what you can do to resolve that problem.

1. Irrelevant traffic and low-quality leads

One of the most common reasons for a low conversion rate is low-quality and irrelevant traffic from paid search ads. The problem usually arises when you are specifically on high-volume keywords and keyword phrases.
The good news is that you can easily identify this problem with a little investigation.
Analyze your PPC campaigns and shortlist the keywords that drive the most PPC traffic to your landing pages. Once shortlisted, ask yourself if these keywords are too broad, irrelevant to your target audience, products, and services, and whether they represent the right search intent or not.
Many times, tightening your keyword lists can weed out irrelevant traffic and improve the quality of leads.

2. Confused messaging

There should be complete synchronization and synergy in your PPC campaign: from the ad to the landing page copy to the messaging your sales team uses to qualify leads.
Otherwise, you are bound to get fewer leads and many low-quality leads that won’t convert.
If you are constantly getting less-than-average conversion rates, it would be a good idea to revisit your funnel and messaging from start to finish.

3. Budget issues

How competitively priced are your product and services?
Budget issues are one of the most common reasons why many leads often fail to qualify for the next stage. People may want your product and service, but they may not always have the budget to afford it.
It is especially true in times like these when people aren’t willing to spend a lot of money on things, other than absolute necessities. The overall economic conditions matter, in addition to how your competitors price their products and services.
You can investigate this by asking your sales team to note down the disqualification reason.
Moreover, these leads may be approached later when the financial situation improves or if you announce a heavy discount on your products.

4. A long sales cycle

What is your average sales cycle timeline?
It is important that you are fully aware of your sales cycle timeline before you proceed. Moreover, it must not be based on assumptions, but on actual data.
Sometimes — depending on the product, audience, and industry — a sales cycle can last up to several weeks. For some companies, it may take even a couple of months.
In that case, it is possible that your company won’t see any results until the end of that sales cycle period.
If a client or your boss wants to see results in only a couple of weeks, that wouldn’t be a possibility. If you have actual data on the average sales cycle, you will be able to make your case more effectively.
The key is to set realistic expectations — based on actual data, not assumptions — and then modify your strategy, if needed.

Investigate and improve

Generating traffic from PPC ads isn’t always the trickiest part. You select a bunch of keywords and throw some money on it, and boom. You start getting traffic to your website.
However, converting those traffic visitors into qualified leads and, later, paying customers, can be way more tricky and complex.
If you see unreasonably low conversion rates, try the tips and tricks we highlighted in this article. If this doesn’t work, consider a deep-dive investigation with the help of your sales team.
Identify the exact disqualification reasons, put them in a pie chart, and identify the top three biggest reasons. Then tweak your strategy accordingly to make sure you address those problems.