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Many B2B SaaS companies will see a drop in conversions from PPC from time to time. Here's how to diagnose and fix those drops.
On SaaS Marketing Bites from Powered by Search, we bring you the best B2B SaaS insights shared by our team of growth experts. Each week, we publish a new episode on topics like landing page design, PPC marketing, SEO, CRO, marketing automation and growth strategy.
Many B2B SAS companies will see a dropping
conversions from PPC from time to time.
We've talked a lot about how to diagnose
a drop in liens, but no worries.
This scarier for a marketing team,
the one they're investing large
portions of their budget into a
channel that suddenly stops performing.
And because there's lots of moving
parts in paid media campaigns.
Each ad platform, having its own
quirks, specifications and best
practices, it can be especially
troubling for SAS marketing teams who
are experiencing a drop in conversions.
This episode outlines how to diagnose
a drop in paid media conversions
and how we fix the problems we find.
We'll dive into the following.
How to diagnose your drop-in
conversions from paid media.
The most common reasons
paid media conversions drop.
And how to fix each of the major causes
of paid media conversions dropping.
Marc: I'm Marc Thomas.
I'm the head of growth
at powered by search.
And today I'm going to talk you through
some of the best knowledge that we
have on building B2B SaaS businesses.
Now, if any of this is interesting
to you and you want to read more,
you should go to our website.
It's poweredbysearch.com
and check us out there.
Before we dive into how to diagnose
the source of paid media conversions,
dropping and have to fix each one.
Let's take a look at this story of
one of our clients who saw a 100%
drop in conversions from paid media.
During a 48 hour period.
Our client noticed a precipitous
drop in conversions from paid media.
The first order of business
was to identify the issue.
And this case, we found out that
the issue was not that the lead flow
decreased because they were still
seeing new leads in their funnel.
It was, the conversions were not being
reported within the ad platform itself.
That led us to check if
our tracking was broken.
It turns out that a website update
had broken that conversion tracking.
Unfortunately, this caused a 48 hour
blackout period where no conversions
were tracked within Google ads at all.
This was a major issue because we were
using a target CPA bidding strategy.
That requires frequent inputs.
That's conversions for the
algorithm to optimize effectively.
They went from a high volume of
conversions down to zero, which caused
the algorithm effectively to reset.
To solve this particular problem.
We immediately reached out to Google
ads to request the blackout period,
be removed from the account history,
preventing the algorithm from referencing
that period in future auctions.
We then offered our client two options.
Option one.
Maximize conversions.
The downside of this was that
it would significantly increase
the cost per acquisition.
They would quickly get back to the number
of conversions that they were used to, but
they'd have to pay between three to five
times the normal cost until the algorithm
could complete its learning phase.
Again.
This was not ideal.
Option to continue as normal.
This meant that we could continue with
the usual bidding strategy and keep a
stable CPA over a set recovery period.
Eventually leveling out the conversion
rate back to our initial numbers.
It took around six weeks to
recover for me two day gap.
With this solution, we dealt with
the repercussions of the 48 hour
downtime for a longer period, but
we kept the CPA low, which was a
critical consideration for the client.
Now that we've talked a little
bit about what could go wrong
when there's a drop in paid media.
Let's look at how you diagnose
your problems and remedy them.
Identifying why you may be experiencing
a sudden drop in conversions.
Doesn't have to be a guessing game.
Here are a few ways to determine
what the cause could be.
First.
Identify if conversions
are declining at all.
To do this review, Google analytics
to evaluate how your conversion
rates compare across all channels.
To check those rates, go to
acquisition, all traffic source, medium.
And select the conversion you're
optimizing for in the dropdown.
Now I've included in the accompany
and blog posts, screenshots showing
you where to go and what to do.
So if you want to check those out.
There's a link in the show notes.
To see where the conversions have dropped
relative to previous periods, select the
compare to option in the date range field.
From here, you'll be able to
see whether a drop in leads
has impacted specific channels.
Check the conversions
are firing correctly.
It's important that you can identify
when this is the cause of your problem.
And it's more common
than you might imagine.
Load your landing page with
test UTM parameters so that you
can identify yourself easily.
To make this easy at use
Google campaigns, URL, builder.
There's a link in the post.
Take the generated URL and
load it in the browser.
And to your information into the lead
capture form on your landing page.
Being sure to only do that when you're on
the landing page with test UTM parameters.
So you can identify yourself quickly.
Determine if it's tracking correctly.
You can do this by going to look at
the Google analytics real time report.
So you go to real-time
and then traffic sources.
In our screenshot, we can see that the
test is firing correctly as there's
an active user with the medium test
and the source test on the page.
If it's not that you'll know
that there's an issue, you may
need to wait a few seconds.
It's also important that you check your
conversion event is firing correctly.
To do that.
And you can check on the
real-time traffic sources tab
with your page and goal selected.
This is an important and simple way
to ensure that everything including
gold tracking is working correctly.
Oh, quick note.
If you use Google tag manager
on your site, you can quickly go
into debug mode and walk through
that landing page experience.
At the bottom of GTM, you can
find information that shows which
conversions fire on what pages.
And also if you've made the
switch to Google analytics for you
have access to similar debugging
features, right inside of analytics.
Check the change history.
If you see conversions have
indeed declined on all tracking
is working correctly as it should.
Move on to reviewing the change
history of your ad accounts.
There's typically something sparing this
change, and it could be a simple update
that you made recently to your campaigns.
So now let's look at the most common
causes of paid media conversion, declines.
Often, there's not one particular
reason that your conversions may drop.
Rather, there can be several
contributing factors.
So we're going to walk
through some of those.
Now.
Starting with conversion
tracking, being broken.
Conversion tracking.
Breaking is one of the most common
reasons that we see for drastic
fluctuations in performance reporting.
If conversions are not tracking correctly,
due to errors with tracking pixels goal
setup or the platform specific problems.
Your reporting will be inaccurate
and performance impacted.
Without accurate data.
It's exceedingly difficult to prove
the efficacy of your ad campaigns
and provide ROI data to your team.
You can keep an eye on performance
metrics via Google analytics.
So to do that, you would go to
conversions goals, overview.
Select the goal that you want to review.
Ensuring that your date
ranges are correct.
And then from here, crosscheck,
what actions are most recently
counted as conversions?
All using platform data.
So Facebook, LinkedIn, Google ads, bang.
They all have their own way of tracking
performance metrics, but largely
reflect the analytic setup of showing
conversions in a table for each campaign.
There were a few places
that tracking can fail.
Right now you can make sure
that your tracking is set up
correctly on the ads platform.
So Facebook, Google, LinkedIn.
Google analytics.
Or on the CRM.
So if you're using HubSpot
on my keto or whatever it is,
Each platform also comes with
its own nuances and changes
that affect the auction.
They can contribute to a
decline in conversions also.
For example, if your campaign is
limited by budget, your ads will
not appear in all of the auctions
that they are eligible for.
Google ads.
We'll let you know that your
campaigns are limited by budget
with a limited by budget label.
And it's important to increase your
budget, to maximize your impression.
Share.
Another thing you may see with
Google ads is that the quality score.
Which writes the overall user experience,
your ads and landing page provide when
use a search for your keywords is down.
This can make or break how
often your ad is actually shown.
Your quality score is calculated
based on the combined performance
of three main components, namely
expected CTR click through rate.
That's the likelihood that your
ad will be clicked when shown.
Ad relevance.
How closely your ad matches the
intent behind a user search.
If Google deems that your ad may
have loosely relevant offering
copy or creative, you'll see
a decreased ad performance.
And then landing page experience.
That's how relevant and valuable your
landing pages to people who click your ad.
Finally a new competitor entering the
auction space or an existing competitor
bidding more aggressively on the same
keywords can impact performance too.
It's important to monitor the auction
insights reports to understand changes
in the competitive landscape properly.
Uh, pool at landing page experiences next.
Creating the perfect landing
page experience is methodical.
We've written and talked extensively about
how to create landing pages that convert
and the systems that we use to ensure
that SAS landing pages are performing.
Even if a page is converting well,
technical issues can cause your
landing page experience to suffer.
You should review those experiences
from time to time, we recommend using
Google's page speed insights tool for a
checklist to improve on specific pages.
Remember to focus on the mobile
experience in particular, this is
increasingly important and an area of
improvement from most SAS companies.
Then work with the adapt team as
needed to make changes where necessary.
Improving your landing page experience
can impact your quality score on
Google, which we discussed earlier.
Then add or offer fatigue
is another problem.
Ad creative fatigue happens when
your audience is served your ads
at such high frequency that they
become desensitized effectively.
You can identify if you've reached out
fatigue by my, by monitoring frequency
and changes in CTR week on week.
We recommend refreshing creative every
three to four weeks on paid social and
every two to three months on paid search
to combat ad fatigue.
Your audience may also
experience offer fatigue.
If the frequency in which they've
seen your offer is too high.
if you suspect off of fatigue,
is the culprit test anyone?
If your offer is a case study, download,
try testing a guide or a calculator.
You can test different types of
offers at each stage of the funnel.
And then seasonality.
Depending on your product, location
or business type, you might be
subject to different buying cycles.
The seasonality is unavoidable.
All companies experienced
this in some form.
Although seasonality will likely impact
your company's paid media performance.
Don't assume that this is the reason
for your recent DEP and conversions.
Instead back it up by digging
deep into your analytics.
Prioritize a quick scan for any
technical problems that can be
solved first to rule them out.
If everything is working in
the backend, seasonality may be
harming your conversion rates.
As you learn, which seasons impact
your business the most and the least.
You can prepare for these fluctuations
and accelerate your marketing activities
in the time leading up to the drop.
This way.
You can maintain consistency and
conversions through an anticipated.
And unfortunately inevitable decline.
To identify what seasons caused
your conversions to wane.
Examined year over year analytics
to see if these depths have a kid
before and look for patterns to debug
this, check out our article on how to
diagnose a sudden dropping leads, which
goes much deeper into seasonality.
Let's pull this all together.
Drops in paid conversions from
time to time are entirely normal.
Unexpected.
Companies that have a process to diagnose,
identify and fix the major causes
of drops in paid media conversions.
We'll avoid potential significant revenue,
losses, and missing quarterly targets.
Fortunately, there are ways to solve
your conversion rate decreases.
Bringing it back to where it was or higher
may take time, but not if you act fast.
Uh, by debugging and following the
process that we've shared above.
You'll be well equipped to
take on any unexpected dips and
your paid media conversions.
I'll see you next time.
Marc: now, if you enjoyed that
today and you want to do something
about your B2B SaaS marketing,
you should get in touch with us.
You can do that by going to
poweredbysearch.com and checking
out our assessment page.
Or you can browse the case studies
and blogs that we have on the site.
Now if you're not ready to do
that, definitely say hi anyway,
you can ping me on Twitter.
I'm @iammarcthomas that's Marc with a C.
Or you can ping our founder and CEO,
@devbasu and connect with us there.
Looking forward to seeing you
again for another episode.