As a business owner, or a marketer, there is nothing more frustrating than throwing your money into ad campaigns which no one buys from.

You’ve got an amazing product range which love and sweat has gone into developing, and you’ve spent months working with a developer to build a beautiful website, yet when you put the budget behind ads, no one seems to care.

There are plenty of reasons why campaigns fail to deliver, but if this is all sounding painfully familiar we’d recommend going right back to basics.

• Who are you talking to?

• Why should they care about your brand?

• What is your message to them?

Who are you talking to?

We would always recommend starting with a handful of personas. Review your existing customer data to get an accurate picture of who your regular customers are. Want to build some new markets? Also build personas around these. Name your personas, bring them to life and when you’re planning creative and copy for campaigns, take one or two personas and tailor them to these ‘people’.

Why should they care about your brand?

It is busy out there on the platforms. We are all navigating more brands shouting louder than ever every time we go online. For an ad to grab my attention it has to not only be visually strong and appealing to me, but it has to contain something in its message that I care enough about to stop the scroll.

What are the main pain points for your persona? Remember, you’re not talking to anyone who might be interested in your product, but the personas you’ve picked for this campaign.

To test the mettle of the ads Facebook have put in my feed this afternoon, here’s a snapshot of reactions from a quick scroll, (green - I clicked, yellow - I didn’t click, but took some other action, red - I scrolled on by):

Supplement brand focusing on ‘all in one supplement’ 

As my kitchen shelves make me look like I have a terrible supplement addiction, this appeals. Interesting, added to Saved Products.

Eco loo roll 

Ad is focused on customer feedback re. how long the loo roll lasts, meaning it’s actually pretty cheap. Hhmm, cost is one of the main factors when choosing loo roll (I have few opinions on loo roll) so this was interesting if I could B-Corp my toilet habits and not break the bank, that works. Click.

Another supplement brand 

Product v coffee; pros, cons, cost etc. I’m unmoved by this as I hope to take supplements which make me feel good AND drink coffee! Ditching coffee isn’t a pain point for me as I’m not trying to give it up.. but could well be for others.

Catalogue ad for a gift company 

A retarget as this caught my attention recently for a gift for my daughter. Her birthday’s later in the year and I’ll forget by then so I’ve added to my Saved Products.

Skincare oil with discount 

I’ve clicked on this before and am considering giving it a try (although I can’t remember what was so good about it now, and the retarget ad isn’t reminding me) - screen shotted the code for now.

Another supplement brand (I know…)

I’ve seen this ad hundreds of times already (over several months), and the pain point they’re presenting doesn’t resonate with me… scroll on by (again) (shake up your campaigns guys!).

Tickets for a gig 

Despite having never heard of this musician, including a venue which is really convenient for me, and dates to the ad made me click. There’s a conversation happening in the house about dates for this, and I think we’re going to book. Bingo!

Lead generation ad for social media strategy 

Boring, boring, boring, absolutely no messaging or creative in here to hook me in.

Email marketing platform 

Promising what every single email marketing platform delivers. Scroll on by.

More supplements 

Messaging about unleashing my potential. What potential? What am I going to be able to do after taking the mushrooms (!) and how/why? Scrolled by, I need a clearer outcome.

Catalogue ad for well known wildlife charity 

Leading with their wildlife population decline challenge and how they plan to address it. Click. Who doesn’t want to buy a tea towel that’s going to help the puffins.

Adventure travel company 

Beautiful photography, but looks very expensive and little information to draw me in. Scrolled by (quite slowly while I breathed in the scenery). 

Fashion catalogue ad 

No messaging that spoke to me, and very uninspiring imagery of clothes on hangers. I have no idea how I’m going to look or feel in these clothes, so I scrolled on by.

Another adventure travel company 

This one was telling the story of someone who had been on the trip… he looks so damn happy on that train. Click.

50% off summer sale 

From a brand I’d never heard of. That kind of offer definitely stopped me in my tracks, but I wasn’t familiar with the brand and couldn’t identify what it was selling, so I scrolled on.

Dog rehoming charity survey 

I’m already a sucker here, but messaging that spoke straight to me made it a quick click.

Gifting company 

Image which needed to be radically resized to have impact, and no copy which spoke to me, so I kept scrolling.

Well known fashion retailer, which I love

50% off sale. Click.

Some clicks are always going to be easier to win than others, but the snapshot of my scroll above highlights two key points:

1. THE AD NEEDS TO SPEAK TO ME! Something in the creative or the copy needs to hook me in, emotionally or practically.

2. The journey through the funnel matters - most shoppers need to move through the stages of awareness and evaluation before buying, meaning they may hit a range of your ads before purchasing, and that’s fine.

Running ads shouldn’t feel like a hopeless scream into the abyss. Pick who you are going to talk to, and what your message to them is. Test this, try different images and video, mess about with your copy, your offers and your landing pages… but when you’ve found what works, double down, and with some consistency the platforms will find you more and more of those people.

We run ads for businesses who are looking to scale. If you have a product which you know has a market, a website which converts and you want to get Meta/Googloe/TikTok/LinkedIn ads off your plate, we’d love to have a chat.