Many Australian SMEs find themselves running marketing campaigns that simply aren’t delivering. It’s a frustrating situation – money spent, effort invested, but little to no return. The good news is, unprofitable campaigns aren’t necessarily failures. They’re opportunities to learn and, crucially, to turn things around. We see this time and time again with our clients.

The first step is honest assessment. Too often, businesses look at vanity metrics – likes, shares, website visits – instead of focusing on what truly matters: return on ad spend (ROAS) and customer acquisition cost (CAC). We recommend a deep dive into your campaign data, looking beyond the surface. What’s the actual cost per lead? What’s the conversion rate from lead to customer? And, most importantly, what’s the lifetime value of that customer?

Here are a few key areas we focus on when rescuing underperforming campaigns:

• Audience Refinement: Are you targeting the right people? Broad targeting wastes budget. We utilise detailed demographic and interest-based targeting, and increasingly, lookalike audiences based on your best existing customers.
• Creative Optimisation: Your ad creative – the images and copy – needs to resonate with your target audience. A/B testing different variations is essential. Small changes to headlines, calls to action, or visuals can have a significant impact.
• Landing Page Experience: Sending traffic to a poorly designed or irrelevant landing page is a recipe for disaster. Ensure your landing page directly addresses the promise of your ad and makes it easy for visitors to convert.
• Channel Alignment: Not all channels are created equal. A campaign that flops on Facebook might thrive on LinkedIn, or via Google Search. We analyse channel performance to allocate budget where it delivers the highest ROAS.

Don’t underestimate the power of attribution modelling. Understanding which touchpoints in the customer journey are most influential allows you to optimise your spending. For example, a customer might see a Facebook ad, then click on a Google Search result, before finally converting. Knowing this helps you value each channel appropriately.

Turning around an unprofitable campaign requires a data-driven approach and a willingness to adapt. It’s about moving beyond guesswork and focusing on what demonstrably works. If you’re struggling to get your campaigns delivering, the next step is a comprehensive campaign audit. We can help you identify the areas for improvement and develop a strategy to maximise your return.