DH_blog ban_0.jpg
Share this article
Юля 2_0000.jpg
Yulia Nekrasova
Fri Aug 30 2024

Why Your Ads Aren't Converting: The Most Common Reasons

It is common knowledge that in today’s world of the internet and accessible digital promotion, businesses seek to enhance the effectiveness of advertisements and maximize the conversion rate. Unfortunately, even firms that spend a considerable amount of money and effort on ads meet low conversion rates, and they are left wondering whether their campaigns are on the right track. Mobile ads or general digital advertising, can be several factors that make an ad campaign a success or a failure.


Let’s take a look at the factors that may lead to the absence of ad conversions and how to employ the necessary fixes to boost your ROI.

1. Poor Targeting

Cover image

Another important factor that determines the effectiveness of ads is the correctly chosen target audience. If your ads are not targeting the right audiences, they are not going to sell, no matter how good the ad content is. It occurs when decision-makers employ broad targeting factors or where little effort is placed into defining the market.

It also notes that very general ad placements can attract a lot of attention, yet, these views may not be from users who are engaged with your business. For instance, using generic categories like age or gender to target the audience when there is no further differentiation in the interests, behaviors, and niches of the potential audience can result in advertising dollars going to waste.

How to Improve Targeting:

  • Utilize Audience Insights: To better understand your target markets, use analytical tools and platforms like GA, or Facebook Audience Tracker. Know their behaviors, preferences, and habits on social media to ensure that the ads placed will reach the target consumers well enough.
  • Implement Retargeting: Retargeting campaigns help to target those users who are already familiar with your site or application. These are the users who know of your brand and are therefore more likely to make a purchase.
  • Lookalike Audiences: Build audiences that resemble your high-value customers so you can attract other individuals who are similar to them.

2. Weak Ad Creatives

Cover image

The adverts, which do not capture the attention of the customers, and the message regarding the suitability of the product does not have the pull power to cause a change. This is usually obvious when the ad is presented with or without a message or when the imploded message is unclear or does not grab the consumer’s attention among other advertisements.

How to Improve Ad Creatives:

  • Focus on Visual Appeal: Astounding graphics are crucial to stand out in such a world, or more precisely in computer displays, or especially in mobile ones. When using images or videos ensure that they are clear, they should be appropriate, and should also be relevant to the brand.
  • Craft a Clear CTA: They are aware that a good call-to-action plays a critical role in conversion rate. This is the main reason. The address and call should be clear, precise, and unambiguous if you want the users to subscribe, download, or purchase something. Do not use undifferentiated call-to-action tags such as “Click Here” . Instead, use those that refer to the action you want the audience to take as well as the gains they stand to make and they include ‘Grab Your Free Trial’ or ‘Shop Today.’
  • A/B Testing: Incorporate the process of split testing of the various ad creatives you wish to deploy to determine which set yields the best results. The A/B testing can be applied again to fine-tune visuals, messages that can be sent to users, and CTAs to increase the conversion rates.

3. Lack of Personalization

Cover image

The formula for creating effective advertisements in the modern world is closely connected with the methods of personalization. This is the reason why campaigns that are rolled out in general and for all users are not effective. Most of the time when the ads developed are not targeted to fit the needs or behaviors of your audience, you will end up with little conversion.

How to Enhance Personalization:

  • Segment Your Audience:Get to know more about your audience and divide them depending on their previous purchase, age, gender, and many other characteristics. It is crucial for the ads to solve the problem of representing specific audience segments or appeal to an unmet need.
  • Dynamic Ad Content: Facebook and Google Ads include the option to use dynamic ad components that update portions of your advertisement depending on the user’s interests or previous actions.
  • Use Data-Driven Strategies: Historical data about past campaigns can hold a clue as to which of the personalization strategies are effective. Carrying out data-driven campaigns helps you to be relevant to your audience in their everyday lives.

4.  Insufficient Budget or Ad Frequency

Cover image

Two other familiar causes include low funding or adverse ad coursing. You may guess that advertising with only a few dollars may not allow you to get enough people for your ads to convert adequately. On the other hand, if users are exposed too much to your ad the effect could be the opposite of what you desire and they would have what we call ad fatigue.

How to Optimize Budget and Ad Frequency:

  • Monitor Ad Frequency:Measure how frequently the same users view the ads placed by you. If your frequency is too high, you should probably update your creatives or, maybe, cut your spending for that specific ad set.
  • Set a Realistic Budget: Make sure that your budget is enough to allow your ads to be seen by enough individuals in order to occasion conversions. If forced to choose between targeting the most expensive audiences or having no audience at all, you should go for the former.
  • Adjust Bidding Strategies: Try out various bidding techniques like CPC or CPM and which approach fits your campaigns best in terms of return on investment.

5. Poor Ad Placement

Cover image

As you have already rated your ads depending on where they appear, it goes without saying that this affects the outcome. If your ads are being displayed on such sites, it is improbable in the extreme that they will get the attention of a target market that needs your worthwhile product or service. This issue is closely related to the display and mobile ad formats, as is the placement that can be quite diverse.

How to Improve Ad Placement:

  • Use Placement Exclusions: There is another option as placement exclusion that allows excluding sites or apps that are not interesting to the audience in Google Ads.
  • Leverage Premium Inventory: Concentrate more on the classified sites that your target ‘clientele’ is most likely to frequent. Choose the best ad networks and platforms that are related to your brand and its vision.
  • Analyze Performance by Placement: Always analyze the effectiveness of the ads based on the placement of the ads. This will help you to allocate your advertising fund to those locations that have the highest returns and remove those with low ROI.

6. Incorrect Mobile Optimization

Cover image

With the current surge in mobile advertising, having advertisements that are not optimized for mobile users is a big no-no. Users who interact with the website through a mobile device are different from those using a PC or a laptop and if one is designing an ad they are likely to frustrate the conversion rates.

How to Optimize for Mobile:

  • Mobile-First Design: Make certain your advertisements are mobile-friendly which is, easy to navigate, simple, load with, and loads fast.
  • Test on Multiple Devices: It is advisable to every advert you make across the various mobile devices and operating systems to see if they appear and perform properly.
  • Mobile-Specific Campaigns: It will be wise to develop new types of ad campaigns that would be purely related to mobile business services and target the needs of mobile customers. For instance, it can be seen that whereas full motion picture advertisements could seem to have higher reach rates on mobile devices than full animation commercial clips, shorter television advertisements could be more effective than longer ones in reaching customers in mobile devices.

Sum-ups:

Solving the biggest causes of ad ineffectiveness is a multi-faceted process that involves careful planning, analytical thinking, and constant improvement. Starting from adjusting the targeting and creative aspects, which are part and parcel of any advertising campaign, up to the convenience of the user, all these parameters contribute to improving conversion rates.


At Mobihunter, we focus on providing services that can improve mobile ads marketing strategies effectiveness. Through data analysis, superior targeting approaches, and custom ad approaches, we guarantee your ads achieve the appropriate audience and perform well. Don’t let lackluster campaigns languish while your competitors enjoy stellar performance; we can turn these failures into winning strategies to take your business to the next level.