10 Reasons Why Nobody’s Clicking on Your Online Ads

Have you ever posted an ad on your site, Google or Facebook and failed to get the clicks and engagement you were hoping for? There are a ton of reasons why ads fail and they aren’t necessarily a big mystery. To help bring your ad game up to speed, we've compiled the 10 common reasons consumers do not click on online ads… so that you can avoid them.

1: Your Ads Aren’t Relevant

Are you spamming the general public with ads for niche products that they’re not interested in? Or is your targeting specific, but not specific enough? Like, perhaps you’re offering shuttlecocks to people who enjoy sports, but not necessarily badminton? In that case, it makes sense that most people won’t be interested in what you’re selling and will most likely avoid your ads like the plague.

The Fix:

Get to know your potential customers better by creating a lead magnet and asking them for more information about themselves. When you offer prospects an ebook, a white paper or a webinar that they find valuable, they’ll likely give you data about themselves that you can use to create relevant, targeted ads for each of your customer segments.

2: Your Ads Don't Meet Your Potential Customers Where They Are in Their Buying Journeys

Are your ads dynamic? And do they take into account your potential customers’ place in the marketing funnel? If not, the people who see your ads either won’t be ready to click on them or they’ll be too far along their journey to find them relevant.

The Fix:

Make the ads dynamic based on the previous activity of the people who visit your site. New visitors to your site? Create an ad for them. Have visitors who’ve already downloaded your free ebook or watched your webinar? Create another ad just for them. Have visitors who are already loyal customers? Create yet another ad for them. There are lots of tools and tracking sources that your Dev team can place on your site to learn more about your visitors, one of those tools is Kissmetrics, which helps you to better understand the behaviors of your site visitors so that you can serve them relevant ads.  

3: Your Ads Don't Provide People with Value

Do your banner ads let potential customers know how clicking on them will benefit them? If people don’t think they’re going to get anything of value from you, they’ll keep scrolling.

The Fix:

When you’re creating ads, remember to put your potential customers’ needs first. Instead of focusing on your product’s features, let your prospects know how your product can help solve their pain points.

4: Your Ads Don’t Look Like Ads

Do your banner ads blend into your content so well that people miss them? If so, it’s understandable that engagement levels will be low.

The Fix:

Well-designed banner ads usually contain your brand’s name, logo and a picture of the product or service you’re selling. The focus should be on your product, but don’t forget to put your logo and name in your ad so that you can simultaneously associate your product, brand and also build brand awareness.

5: The Branding in Your Ads is Inconsistent

Do each of your ads look like they were created by a different design firm? Or is your branding unrecognizable from one platform to the next? If the answer is yes, even loyal customers will pass your ad by and fail to realize that your brand is one that they already trust.

The Fix:

Make sure your branding is consistent from both ad to ad and platform to platform. Not only will this increase your brand awareness, it will also allow people to focus on the content of your ads since they won’t be wasting mental energy wondering about your brand.

6: Your Ads are Too Wordy

Do you pack as many words into your ads as you can, even knowing that the average person will only spend a second or two looking at your ads? If that’s the case, most people will give up before they understand what you’re offering them.

The Fix:

According to a report from BBDO, people only spend a second or two looking at the average banner ad and in that time, they only have time to read five words per second. That means you should keep your ad copy to a maximum of 10 words. More than that and you’ll start losing people.

7: Your Ads are Too Complicated

Do you try to squeeze more than one idea into your banner ads? Do the images in your ads take more than a second or so to grok? If so, people will be confused and go back to whatever they were looking at before.

The Fix:

Treat your ads like billboards. Just like a driver only spends a split second looking at billboards as they speed down the highway, people surfing the internet or scrolling through Facebook only spend a second or two looking at the average ad. When you keep your ideas simple and your images clear, you’ll increase the chances that the people who see your ads “get” them and click on them.

8: Your Ads are Distracting

Have your ads evolved since the first banner ads? If they still look like flashing neon signs, chances are people are going to wish they had a better ad blocker.

The Fix:

Just like you, your potential customers don’t like being sold to. Tone down the flashy ads and spend your energy making ads that are relatable and address your prospects’ needs instead of hitting them over the head with bold colors and aggressive copy.

9: The Links in Your Ads Aren’t Clear About Where They Lead

If someone clicks on one of your ads, is it obvious where you’re sending them? If your ad leads somewhere unexpected, most people will get annoyed and click away as quick as they can.

The Fix:

Give your audience a clear idea about where your ads lead and create a landing page or content with each ad in mind, remembering where your site visitors just came from and what they are expecting. That way, they’ll be much more likely to stick around once they arrive at your site.

10: Your Ads Aren’t Optimized for Mobile

Do people who see your ads on mobile need to pinch and zoom to be able read them? If so, the only way they’ll click on your ads is by accident.

The Fix:

Make sure your site is mobile-optimized and rely on onsite CTAs and in-line native text links to get people to engage with your marketing and advertising campaigns.

Tried these solutions and still having trouble getting the clicks you were hoping your ads would get? Schedule a strategy session with one of our marketing experts. We’d be happy to create engaging ads that help you meet your marketing goals.