Sometimes, as a SaaS company, you witness a sudden drop in paid media conversions on paid media campaigns.
The sudden drop can be scary for businesses, especially the ones that depend heavily on paid media.
In this guide, we will walk you through the diagnostic procedure for identifying the drop in paid media conversions. In addition, we will also share a step-by-step formula to solve the problem.
4 Reasons Why Paid Media Conversions Decline
1. Auction-related Reasons
Your ad performance will depend heavily on the platform-specific nuances and changes to the algorithm. For example, Google Ads has a different auction system that provides you with space based on your overall user experience (The Google Quality Score).
Since most paid media advertising platforms rely on an auction-based system, you need to be smart with your bidding and competitiveness.
Auction-related reasons are one of the biggest reasons for a drop in paid media conversions. Sometimes, a budget limitation can push back your ad resulting in a drop in paid media conversions. Or maybe, a competitor may outbid you.
2. Landing Page Performance
The second reason why paid media conversions drop is poor landing page performance. On paid media platforms, your landing page plays a crucial role in your conversion rates.
Improving your landing page can help you increase your Google Quality Score in Google Ads. It also improves your ad campaign performance on other platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn.
To improve your landing page, you need to work cohesively with your marketing and dev teams to ensure proper implementation.
3. Ad Fatigue
Ad fatigue is when your audience is “tired” of seeing your ad. They have seen it so many times that they are no longer interested in your offer.
It can also be one of the reasons for a drop in paid media conversions on your ads. It negatively affects your overall CTR (Click-Through Rate) and hence the performance of your ad campaign.
GetAds has a proper guide on Ad Fatigue – explaining what it is and how to overcome it in your ad campaigns. Check it out now!
Some brief tips on overcoming ad fatigue in your ads are to keep refreshing them on a bi-weekly or monthly basis – or keep testing new offers when you notice a drop due to this.
4. Broken Conversion Tracking
Last but not least! This might be the most common reason for a drop in paid media conversions.
Most of the time, the drop in your analytics is because your reporting tool can not track your conversions. Your ad campaign performance will be impacted due to inaccurate reporting caused by the broken conversion tracking.
Most paid media campaigns have a way to ensure that your tracking is functioning properly. In this guide, we will share with you a step-by-step process to confirm that in Google Ads with the help of Google Analytics.
Steps to Diagnose the Drop in Paid Media Conversions
Step 1 – Identify The Decline.
First and foremost, you need to confirm if there’s a decline in conversions or not in the first place. To do that, you need to look at the campaign’s performance and compare it with the previous period.
You can easily identify the drop in paid media conversions using Google Analytics. To identify the drop in paid media conversions, go to Acquisitions > All Traffic > Source Medium and select the campaign/conversion you want to optimize – through the drop-down menu.
After that, select the “compare to” option in the data field and compare the data with the one from the previous period. Here, you’ll be able to compare the current conversion data with a previous period – which will enable you to identify the drop.
If you identify a decline, move ahead with the second step.
Step 2 – Confirm If The Conversions Are Firing Correctly.
After you’ve identified the decline – it’s time to find out the root cause of it. You must be curious to know what is causing the drop in your paid media conversions.
Confirming if the conversions are firing up will help you ensure that all reporting including goal tracking is working correctly.
To check it, load your landing page with a “test” UTM parameter. In Google Ads, you can use Google’s Campaign URL Builder tool to easily create it.
After generating the URL, paste it into the browser and fill out your information on the lead capture landing page.
Now, go on to Realtime > Traffic Sources in Google Analytics and check if the event is being reported in real-time.
If yes, the reason for the drop in paid media conversions is Ad Fatigue, Poor Landing Page Performance, or Auction-Related issues.
To identify Ad Fatigue and overcome it, refer to our comprehensive guide. If the problem is not Ad Fatigue, try looking into your bid.
And if there’s no auction-related issue, you need to work on your landing page.
If the tracking is broken, you need to re-link your reporting tool with the campaign.
Step 3 – Check Your Change History
When tracking is working fine – there’s a cool way to find out the root cause. Check your change history and see what changes you’ve made to the campaign recently.
Typically, there are some changes that you may have made causing the drop in paid media conversions. You can try reversing those changes to solve the problem.
Lastly, if you have identified a sudden drop in paid media conversions – reaching out to an industry expert is a better option. If you need expert advice, feel free to book a free consultation with Fantom.
