Paid ads that actually make money (not just traffic)

Most paid ad campaigns haemorrhage money

Here's the uncomfortable truth about PPC: most businesses lose money on paid advertising. They generate clicks, sure. Maybe even traffic. But when you calculate actual revenue against ad spend plus management overhead, the numbers go red.

We've audited over 200 Google Ads and Meta Ads accounts in the last three years. The pattern is brutally consistent: businesses throw money at broad keywords, send traffic to generic landing pages, and wonder why their cost per acquisition keeps climbing.

Meanwhile, their competitors—often smaller, nimbler—are generating 3-5x ROAS on the same platforms in the same markets.

The difference isn't budget. It's discipline.

What profitable PPC actually requires

Forget everything you've heard about "brand awareness" or "top-of-funnel engagement." That's fine for companies with unlimited budgets. For the rest of us, paid ads need to make money.

The profitable PPC equation:

Revenue from ads > (Ad spend + Management cost + Fulfillment cost)

Sounds obvious. Yet most businesses can't tell you this number with confidence. They know click-through rates and impression shares, but not whether they're actually making money.

What changes when you focus on profit:

You stop optimising for clicks and start optimising for revenue. You kill campaigns that don't convert. You double down on what works, even if it feels boring. You accept smaller volume if margins are better.

This shift in thinking separates amateur PPC from professional PPC.

The Google Ads discipline

Google Ads is the 800-pound gorilla of PPC. Also the easiest place to waste serious money.

Start narrow, not broad

Every failing Google Ads account we audit has the same disease: broad targeting combined with generic messaging.

They bid on "business software" when they sell accounting tools. They show one ad to everyone searching "CRM" regardless of whether they're a solopreneur or enterprise buyer.

The narrow approach that works:

Start with the most specific, highest-intent keywords you can identify. "Accounting software for UK construction companies" instead of "accounting software." "HubSpot alternative for small teams" instead of "CRM."

Yes, volume is lower. But conversion rates are 5-10x higher, and you can afford competitive bids.

Once you've proven profitability on narrow terms, expand methodically. Never the reverse.

Match type discipline

Broad match is a beautiful way to give Google your money in exchange for irrelevant clicks.

Use this hierarchy:

Exact match for your core converting terms. Full control, no surprises.

Phrase match for variations you want to test. Some flexibility, manageable risk.

Broad match only for discovery campaigns with strict budgets and constant monitoring.

We've seen accounts cut wasted spend by 40% just by tightening match types. Same budget, dramatically better results.

The negative keyword obsession

If you're not adding negative keywords weekly, you're wasting money.

Check your search terms report every Monday. Find the garbage: "free accounting software," "accounting software jobs," "how to become an accountant." Add them as negatives immediately.

This isn't one-time setup. It's ongoing hygiene. Google constantly expands what queries trigger your ads. You constantly prune the nonsense.

Landing page-to-ad alignment

The fastest way to tank Quality Score and waste budget: sending all traffic to your homepage.

The profitable approach:

Each ad group should have a dedicated landing page that mirrors the ad's message. Someone clicking "construction accounting software" should land on a page about construction accounting, not generic accounting features.

Message match dramatically improves conversion rates. Google rewards you with better ad positions at lower costs. Everyone wins except competitors who ignore this.

The Meta Ads reality

Facebook and Instagram ads work differently than search. People aren't looking for solutions—they're scrolling. You interrupt, not respond.

This requires different tactics.

Creative is 80% of success

On Google, targeting matters most. On Meta, creative quality dominates.

We've seen identical targeting setups produce 10x different results based purely on creative. A compelling visual with tight copy crushes a generic stock photo with vague messaging.

What works in 2025:

User-generated content style: Polished ads look like ads. Stuff that looks native performs better. Phone videos, candid screenshots, real customer testimonials.

Pattern interrupts: Scrolling is habitual. Your creative needs to break the pattern. Surprising visuals, counterintuitive hooks, anything that makes people pause.

Fast value delivery: You have 2 seconds. Lead with the outcome, not your brand story. "Cut invoice processing time by 60%" beats "Introducing our innovative accounting platform."

Audience testing rhythm

Meta's algorithm is genuinely impressive at finding converters. But you need to feed it data.

The testing framework:

Week 1-2: Broad targeting with conversion objective. Let Meta's algorithm learn who converts.

Week 3-4: Analyse converting audience characteristics. Build lookalikes and interest targeting based on actual converters.

Week 5+: Scale winning audiences, continue testing variations.

Don't start with narrow interest targeting based on assumptions. Let data tell you who actually converts.

The retargeting stack

Most business websites convert 1-3% of first-time visitors. That means 97%+ leave without acting.

Retargeting brings them back for pennies compared to cold traffic costs.

The stack that works:

Tier 1: People who added to cart or started checkout. Highest intent, highest bid, immediate retargeting.

Tier 2: Specific page visitors (pricing, product demos, case studies). Warm, solid intent, strong retargeting value.

Tier 3: General site visitors. Colder, lower bid, softer messaging.

Different creative for each tier. Someone who bounced from the homepage needs different messaging than someone who spent 5 minutes on your pricing page.

The metrics that actually matter

Vanity metrics kill PPC profitability. Focus on these instead:

Return on ad spend (ROAS)

Revenue generated ÷ Ad spend = ROAS

A 3x ROAS means every £1 spent returns £3. Sounds good until you calculate whether that 3x covers all costs.

Target ROAS depends on margins:

High-margin SaaS can profit at 2x ROAS. Low-margin e-commerce might need 5x+. Know your number.

Cost per acquisition (CPA)

Total ad spend ÷ Number of customers = CPA

This only matters relative to customer lifetime value. A £200 CPA is brilliant if LTV is £2,000. Terrible if LTV is £300.

Customer lifetime value (LTV)

Average revenue per customer × Average retention period = LTV

The longer customers stay and the more they spend, the more you can afford to pay for acquisition.

SaaS companies with strong retention can outbid competitors because their LTV is higher. They're not smarter at PPC—they're better at retention.

Attribution window accuracy

Last-click attribution lies to you constantly.

Someone might see your ad on Monday, research on Tuesday, see a retargeting ad Wednesday, search your brand Thursday, and convert Friday.

Last-click attributes everything to that brand search. Meanwhile, the initial ad and retargeting did the heavy lifting.

Better approach:

Use data-driven attribution if available. If not, view-through conversions and assisted conversions. Understand the full journey, not just the last touch.

The common PPC killers

Sending paid traffic to poor pages

No amount of PPC brilliance can compensate for a terrible landing page.

What kills conversions:

• •Slow load times (under 2 seconds is mandatory)
• •Mobile experience that's garbage
• •Unclear value proposition
• •Too many choices or fields
• •No social proof
• •Weak call-to-action

Fix your landing pages before scaling ad spend. Otherwise you're buying expensive traffic that converts poorly.

Ignoring negative ROAS campaigns

Sunk cost fallacy destroys PPC budgets.

That campaign you launched three months ago? It's never hit target ROAS. But you keep funding it because "it might turn around."

Kill it. Immediately. Redirect budget to what's working.

We've seen businesses increase overall ROAS by 40%+ just by pausing the bottom 30% of campaigns and reallocating that budget to top performers.

Set-and-forget automation

Google and Meta automation is genuinely useful. Also dangerous without oversight.

The right approach:

Let algorithms optimise bids and placements. But review performance weekly. When campaigns drift off-target, intervene.

Automation with human oversight beats either pure manual or pure automated approaches.

The campaign structure that scales

Poor campaign structure caps your potential before you even start.

The framework:

Campaign level: Separate campaigns for different objectives (prospecting vs. retargeting) and channels (search vs. display).

Ad group level: Tight keyword or audience themes. Each ad group should be specific enough that one landing page serves all queries.

Ad level: 3-5 ads per group for testing. Rotate, measure, kill losers, scale winners.

This structure makes it crystal clear what's working and what isn't. Messy structures hide problems.

When to bring in PPC professionals

DIY PPC works until it doesn't. Signs you need expert help:

• •Spending £5k+/month without clear profitability
• •ROAS declining despite constant optimisation attempts
• •Competitive market where small edges matter enormously
• •Technical issues (tracking, attribution, conversion setup) beyond your knowledge
• •Time spent managing campaigns could generate more value elsewhere

Good PPC consultants should show you exactly where money's being wasted and what optimisation would deliver. Vague promises about "scaling" without specifics are red flags.

The testing calendar

Profitable PPC requires constant testing. Here's the rhythm:

Weekly: - Review search terms, add negatives - Check underperforming ads and keywords - Monitor budget pacing - Analyse conversion data

Monthly: - Creative refresh and testing - Landing page A/B tests - Audience expansion experiments - Competitive analysis

Quarterly: - Full account audit - Attribution model review - Conversion funnel optimisation - Budget reallocation based on performance

Testing never stops. Markets shift. Competitors adapt. Audiences change. Stay disciplined or get left behind.

The bottom line

Paid advertising isn't about impressions or clicks or traffic. It's about profit.

Every campaign should justify its existence with revenue data. Every pound spent should return more than a pound. Everything else is just expensive brand awareness.

The businesses winning at PPC aren't the ones with the biggest budgets. They're the ones with the tightest targeting, the best creative, the fastest pages, and the discipline to kill what doesn't work.

If your paid ads aren't making money, you have two options: fix them or stop running them.

There's no third option.

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LogicLeap builds and manages paid ad campaigns that actually generate returns. We focus on revenue, not vanity metrics.

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