Our Ads Stopped Generating Painting Leads, Now What?

Every successful Painting Business Owner knows that paid ads are a great way to attract new leads and generate new business, without the wait required by some traditional marketing strategies.

How can you go wrong with being in the right place, at the right time, with the right message?

Paid ads are a thing of beauty when they are working effectively… but what if the ads that were generating new repaint business simply stopped producing leads?

If you have advertised your painting business online for any length of time, this has likely happened to you, and if you depend on these lead channels it can make your palms sweat when the lead flow dries up.

So where do we start?

Whether you’re advertising on Google, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, or some other platform, the only real constant is that things rarely stay the same.

Algorithms, policies, and best practices are guaranteed to change, so what worked yesterday may not work today.

Digital advertising leaves you at the mercy of the platform to a certain extent, but there are factors you can control that may give you clues as to why your ads have stopped producing painting leads.

Let’s dive into some key questions you need to ask to help narrow down the reasons why your ads have stopped producing leads like they used to.

It’s common to want to change up the wording in your ads, even if they’ve been producing quality leads. After all, marketing is all about testing and tweaking to help improve your margins, and one of the easiest things to change is the wording in your ads.

Ad campaign changes generally require at least a month to acquire enough data to determine if that change was positive or negative.

Why does it take so long?

Because we’re relying on an algorithm to determine where your ads fit within their platform.

If you’ve made a change and it’s been less than a month, it’s best to wait a full 30 days to get a clearer picture of the effect your change has had on your ad’s performance.

Is it recommended that you make changes at all?

If you do decide to make changes to your ads, it’s best to run an A/B Test (also known as a “split test”) rather than changing what worked in the past.

Why?

Because there could be other underlying issues at play, and having a backup to test against provides you with the ability to revert if needed.

What changes should you test?

Your ads should be as engaging as possible and speak directly to your target audience. For best results, test your ad campaigns using the following components:

In most cases, those that see your ads are likely already looking for the painting services you provide, so don’t over-complicate this. Your ads should be about them, and not about your business.

But what if you haven’t changed your ads but noticed a drop in painting leads?

Keep reading…

Running ads online is simply a numbers game. If you show your message to a large targeted audience, it should produce results.

When the bottom of your marketing funnel (painting leads) slows down, we should start by evaluating the top of your funnel (impressions).

Let’s break this down further…

In order to get a new painting lead from online ads you need a lot of impressions/eyes to see those ads.

If your ad impressions have noticeably dropped, it is likely impacting your lead flow.

So why would impressions drop?

We have ordered these potential issues from most likely to least likely:

If others in your local market are not experiencing issues acquiring leads online, but your impressions have dropped, you may be the victim of an algorithm change on your advertising channel.

Every platform offers several different ad types. Take Meta as an example: They offer Messenger Ads, Lead Form Ads, and Conversion Ads, just to name a few.

To complicate things further, these advertising platforms constantly test and add new ad types all the time.

If this is the case, you may need to adjust your advertising strategy to fit a new ad type that the platform may be pushing without your knowledge.

But what if your impressions look consistent month-over-month?

It’s time to dive further down your marketing funnel…

When it comes to running ads online, clicks are the name of the game.

In comparison, impressions are just a vanity number as without clicks, you will have no conversions (leads).

How do we measure this?

We use a measurable KPI called click-through rate, otherwise known as CTR.

So if your impressions are consistent, what could impact your CTR?

These potential issues have been ordered from most likely to least likely:

Ok but what if your impressions and CTR appear to be consistent?

It’s time to investigate your cost-per-click…

Let’s propose this scenario: Your impressions and CTR appear to be consistent, it’s early Spring, and no one else in your market is having issues acquiring new business… so now what?

We have one final KPI to evaluate —Your cost-per-click, otherwise known as CPC.

Your CPC is impacted by supply (target audience size) and demand (competition).

If you notice the amount you’re paying for clicks has suddenly gone up, new competition has likely entered your local market, or an algorithm change could be to blame.

If new painting companies enter the marketplace with a higher bid strategy, your CPC for the same target audience will rise.

If this happens to you, you may want to consider raising your advertising budget, or simply pivot your strategy to target a blue ocean.

What is the Blue Ocean Strategy?

In terms of marketing, the Blue Ocean Strategy is the simultaneous pursuit of differentiation and low cost to open up a new market space and create new demand.

It is about creating and capturing an uncontested market space, thereby making your competition irrelevant.

Source: https://www.blueoceanstrategy.com/what-is-blue-ocean-strategy/

How would you implement a Blue Ocean Strategy?

Instead of targeting general “full-house exterior painting” which every other painting company is after, you may consider targeting a smaller niche, such as “cabinet painting” or changing your Ideal Customer Profile (otherwise known as ICP) altogether.

In other words, identify a less competitive market, and put your advertising budget there.

Seasonal changes can also impact your CPC as your target audience size does shrink during winter.

We have ordered the most likely scenarios to impact CPC below:

If you are still unsure after evaluating all of these possibilities, it may be time to call the experts…

If you notice a drop in painting leads from your ad campaigns it’s important not to panic.

If solving these issues alone did not produce results, we recommend scheduling a free strategy call with our ad campaign experts.