Why Your PPC Isn’t Working (And How to Fix It)

Pay-per-click advertising has the power to put your business in front of ready-to-buy customers within hours. When it works, it feels like magic: ads trigger at the perfect moment, leads fill your inbox, and sales follow. But when it doesn’t, the experience is frustrating. The clicks come, the budget drains, and the results are underwhelming.

This isn’t a rare story. According to WordStream’s UK benchmarks, the average Google Ads search campaign converts at 3.75%. Yet in audits, it’s common to find campaigns sitting at half that rate, often with cost-per-lead figures two or three times higher than they should be.

Why? The truth is, most failing PPC accounts share the same core issues. And they’re not subtle. They show up in the targeting, the pages people land on, the way campaigns are tested (or not tested), and even in how results are tracked. Let’s break down the main reasons your PPC might not be working and the adjustments that can change the numbers entirely.

Mistake 1: Wrong Targeting

One of the quickest ways to burn through a PPC budget is to show ads to people who have no genuine interest in your offer. This isn’t just about picking the wrong keywords, although that’s a common culprit; it’s also about using match types and location settings that cast the net too wide.

Take broad match keywords. They can be useful for discovering new search terms, but without regular pruning, they’ll happily trigger ads for irrelevant queries. A campaign bidding on “office cleaning London” might also show for “office cleaning jobs” meaning you end up paying for clicks from job seekers rather than potential clients.

Geography matters too. If you’re a service business with a 20-mile operating radius, showing ads nationwide will inevitably attract traffic you can’t serve. In competitive industries like legal or finance, those wasted clicks can cost £10–£50 each.

Google’s own benchmarks show that top search ads often achieve 5%+ click-through rates (CTR) in high-intent markets. If your CTR is closer to 2% and a large chunk of traffic comes from outside your target audience, it’s a sign that your targeting is off.

Some adjustments, refining match types, using negative keywords, and tightening location targeting, can filter out low-quality clicks before they cost you.

Mistake 2: Poor Landing Pages

Even a perfectly targeted click is wasted if the page it lands on fails to convince the visitor to take the next step. This is where many PPC campaigns collapse: the ad promises one thing, the landing page delivers another.

• Consistency between ad copy and landing page content is crucial. If someone searches for “office desk” and clicks an ad, they expect to land on a page that immediately shows that option. If instead they hit a generic homepage like this one, this will end up as a waste of ad spend. 

• Speed is another silent killer. Google reports that 53% of mobile users abandon a site that takes more than three seconds to load. In PPC, where you’re paying for every click, those lost seconds translate directly into wasted budget.

Then there’s the clarity of the offer. High bounce rates, short time-on-page, and poor form submissions often mean the call-to-action is buried or confusing. Visitors should know within a few seconds what you want them to do and why they should do it.

Improving landing pages often brings the fastest ROI in PPC. Even small changes,clearer headlines, reducing clutter, or moving the form above the fold, can double the conversion rate without spending an extra penny on ads.

Mistake 3: No A/B Testing

Many PPC accounts run the same ads and landing pages for months without variation. The assumption is that “if it’s working okay, leave it alone.” But without testing, you’ll never know if “okay” could be “excellent.”

A/B testing isn’t complicated. You create two versions of an ad or page, change one element, headline, image, call-to-action, and run them side by side. Over time, you see which version performs better. The winning version becomes your new control, and you test again.

The impact can be huge. HubSpot research shows that companies regularly running A/B tests on landing pages see up to 30% more leads over time. In PPC terms, that could mean turning a £50 cost-per-lead into £35 without increasing spend.

Even ad copy benefits from constant iteration. Testing different headline structures (“Need an Emergency Electrician?” vs. “Electrician in Bristol– Call Now”) can significantly shift CTR, and more clicks from the right audience means more conversions down the funnel.

PPC campaign management that evolves through testing is a way to stay profitable as competition and costs rise.

Mistake 4: Weak Tracking and Analytics

It’s surprising how many PPC campaigns run without proper conversion tracking in place. Sometimes the tracking code isn’t installed, sometimes it’s set to count clicks on a “Contact” button rather than actual form submissions, and sometimes it’s missing entirely.

Without accurate data, you’re essentially driving without a dashboard. You can see the spend and the clicks, but not which ones turn into sales or leads. That means the budget can quietly flow towards keywords, audiences, or placements that never convert.

Proper tracking isn’t just about measuring sales; it’s also about understanding the customer journey. Setting up micro-conversions (such as downloads, page views, or calls) provides a fuller picture of how people engage before buying.

Mistake 5: Ignoring the Search Terms Report

One of the most valuable tools in Google Ads is the Search Terms report, the list of actual queries people typed before clicking your ad. Yet it’s often ignored for months at a time.

This is where hidden budget drains live. It’s not uncommon to find 20–30% of spend going to irrelevant or low-quality search terms. In industries with high CPCs, that’s a serious hit to ROI.

Reviewing this report weekly allows you to add negative keywords that block wasteful clicks and discover new high-performing terms to target directly. It’s a simple discipline that directly improves campaign efficiency.

Mistake 6: Poor Budget Allocation

Even with solid targeting, great landing pages, and accurate tracking, PPC can still underperform if the budget is spread too thin or invested in the wrong areas.

Google’s algorithm needs a certain amount of daily activity to optimise effectively. Campaigns with low daily budgets across too many ad groups often fail to gather enough data for meaningful learning. Conversely, pumping the majority of the budget into brand terms (people searching your company name) might look great on paper, but those clicks are often from people who would have found you anyway.

Turning PPC from a Cost into a Growth Engine

PPC fails for predictable reasons. Wrong targeting sends the wrong people to your site. Poor landing pages lose them once they arrive. Lack of testing stops you from improving. Weak tracking hides the truth. Ignoring search terms wastes spend. And bad budget allocation means even the best parts of your campaign never get the fuel they need.

The fixes aren’t mysterious; they’re about tightening focus, matching the message from click to conversion, and making decisions based on data. Businesses that commit to these fundamentals often see dramatic improvements within weeks, without increasing their spend.

That said, identifying and correcting these issues takes time, analytical skill, and access to the right tools. This is where partnering with a professional PPC agency makes the difference. An experienced team can:

• Audit your account and uncover hidden waste 
• Redesign campaigns for maximum ROI 
• Implement structured testing and optimisation 
• Monitor performance daily to adapt to changes in competition and cost 

With the right agency, your PPC spend stops being a gamble and becomes a predictable, measurable growth channel. If your campaigns aren’t delivering, bringing in experts could turn a struggling ad account into one of your most profitable marketing assets.