Insights on strategy, websites, UX, and digital growth

If you’re a business owner or marketing manager who has tried Google Ads or PPC in the past and been left unsure whether it really worked, this may sound familiar. You might have run campaigns yourself or worked with an Google Ads agency, but the results never quite inspired confidence. Leads were inconsistent, costs felt high, or the return simply didn’t stack up. If paid ads left you with more questions than answers, this series of 3 articles is designed to help you understand where things commonly break down and why.

In this article, we take a closer look at why paid ads attract clicks but fail to turn that interest into enquiries.

Want to know where you campaigns could be improved? Answer 10 questions to highlight what’s working, what isn’t, and where to focus next.

I've got 99 clicks but none of them convert

For many businesses, this is where frustration really sets in.

Traffic arrives. Click-through rates look healthy. Reports suggest the ads are doing their job. And yet enquiries remain inconsistent, low quality, or non-existent. Sales either tank, or remain uninspiring.

At this point, attention often turns to budgets, bids, or platforms. In reality, the problem usually sits in the journey between the click and the decision to act.

What should happen after someone clicks an ad?

From the user’s perspective, clicking an ad is a small act of trust.

They’ve seen a promise, recognised relevance, and chosen to engage. What they expect next is continuity. Not persuasion. Not explanation. Just confirmation that they’re in the right place.

When that continuity breaks, even subtly, hesitation creeps in. And hesitation kills conversions, because the effort to click back and go to the next result is minimal.

And just like that, your paid-for enquiry is gone.

Are people clicking because the ad is relevant or just broad?

Broad ads often perform well on the surface.

They attract attention, generate clicks, and keep cost-per-click relatively stable. But they also bring in people with very different motivations and levels of intent.

When ads aren’t tightly aligned to a specific problem or situation, they invite curiosity rather than readiness. The result is traffic that looks promising but rarely converts.

Clicks increase. Confidence doesn’t.

Does the landing page clearly continue the ad’s message?

This is one of the most common and most overlooked issues in paid campaigns.

Ads are written with one focus. Landing pages are written with another. The transition feels logical to the business, but disjointed to the user.

Even small mismatches matter:

• different language
• different emphasis
• different promises

When users have to re-orient themselves, many simply leave.

Are generic service pages hurting paid traffic performance?

Generic service pages (including your homepage) are rarely designed to convert paid traffic (that in itself is a problem, but not part of this series of articles).

They try to speak to everyone, cover every service, and answer every question. That breadth can be useful for search engines and perhaps organic visitors. It’s often damaging for paid ones.

Paid traffic performs best when the page answers one clear question and offers one clear next step. When that focus is missing, even strong ads struggle to produce results.

Is the value proposition obvious within seconds?

Most landing pages fail quietly.

Not because they’re ugly or broken, but because they don’t make the value proposition immediately clear. Users shouldn’t have to scroll, infer, or decode what’s on offer.

If the benefit, relevance, or differentiation isn’t obvious early, attention fades. And once attention goes, conversions follow.

Does mobile performance change the equation?

A significant portion of paid traffic arrives on mobile.

If pages load slowly, feel cramped, or require unnecessary effort to navigate, intent evaporates quickly. This isn’t about polish. It’s about friction.

Good ads often expose poor mobile experiences faster than any audit ever could.

Can good ads make a weak website look like the problem?

Yes, and this is where blame often shifts unfairly.

When ads perform well but pages don’t convert, it’s tempting to assume the issue is traffic quality. In many cases (but not always), the ads are doing exactly what they’re meant to do.

They’re bringing attention to an experience that isn’t ready to receive it.

How do you know where the breakdown really is?

Looking at conversion rates alone rarely tells the full story.

You need to understand:

• why users clicked
• what they expected to see
• where hesitation crept in
• and what stopped them from acting

Without that context, optimisation becomes trial and error, and budgets are adjusted without real confidence.

That’s why several parts of our PPC Performance Assessment focus on the transition from ad to landing page. It helps determine whether clicks were being wasted due to misalignment, rather than lack of interest.

What’s the right order to fix this?

The temptation is to rewrite ads first.

In practice, it’s often better to:

• clarify intent
• tighten the message
• simplify the landing experience
• and only then refine ads

When the journey is coherent, performance usually improves without increasing spend.