By John Eberhard
According to surveys, these are the biggest concerns that small business owners have about pay per click advertising on sites like Google Ads, Facebook, and Bing Ads.
- Wasting money with little or no return. Small business owners consistently report fear that Google Ads or Meta Ads will “burn budget” without generating qualified leads. And this is absolutely true that you can burn through a lot of money if you’re not careful.
Solutions: The solutions to this this are a) making sure you are targeting the correct geographical area, b) using “negative keywords” like “free,” “DIY” to weed out people who aren’t going to buy what you’re selling, c) concentrating on keywords that indicate an intent to purchase, not just general keywords, and d) using well designed and written landing pages that will convert people to leads.
- Confusion about ROI and attribution. Many small business owners struggle to connect ad spend to actual revenue. They’ll see clicks and impressions, but not understand which campaigns are truly driving phone calls, form fills, or sales. This makes PPC feel opaque and hard to justify.
Solution: Your campaigns, landing pages, and trackable phone numbers can be set up in such a way that you can clearly see which campaigns your leads are coming from, and what your cost per lead is. When it comes to where your revenue is coming from, that requires a database where you can track leads and sales.
- High and rising cost per click (CPC). Surveys frequently highlight frustration that competitive industries (legal, dental, home services, etc.) have become too expensive, making it hard for small budgets to compete with larger advertisers. This is definitely true and affects industries where there is a lot of competition on Google Ads and Facebook.
Solutions: a) making sure you are eliminating unqualified clicks, b) piloting Google Display Ads and YouTube ads, as the cost per click is a lot less than with Google Search, c) the cost per click tends to be less on Bing Ads and although they have less traffic than Google, some advertisers are getting great results there, and d) using customized landing pages and trying multiple approaches to find what will get you the most conversions.
- Lack of expertise and time. PPC platforms are seen as complex and constantly changing. Many small business owners feel they either need to hire an agency or risk underperforming campaigns, but they’re unsure whether agencies will actually deliver value.
Solution: Hire a qualified and affordable agency, especially one that can point to case studies with good results.
- Poor lead quality is another recurring issue. Even when campaigns generate conversions, owners often complain that leads are spammy, unqualified, or not ready to buy.
Solutions: a) concentrate on keywords indicating an interest in purchase, b) carefully track which leads come from which campaigns and note any prevalence of bad leads from certain campaigns, c) click fraud is a thing and it may be necessary to utilize services that reduce this problem.
- Automation and AI-driven ad systems (like Google’s Performance Max). While these tools simplify setup, many small businesses feel they reduce control and make it harder to diagnose what’s working.
Solution: Don’t use campaign types like this alone. Test them alongside campaigns where you can better control the parameters.
If you would like a free consultation on pay per click advertising using Google Ads, Facebook or Bing Ads, contact Real Web Marketing at 661-441-2429, or fill out a form here.
