Solved: Trouble with Ads for Manufacturing Skills Platform

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out after seeing the comments. Happy to give you some initial thoughts and guidance based on what you described about the platform and the challenges you're facing with paid ads.

It sounds like you've hit on one of the most common hurdles when promoting a platform like yours: you're trying to serve two distinct customer groups with potentially very different needs, motivations, and online behaviours. Reaching individuals wanting to learn a skill versus companies needing to train their workforce requires quite different approaches in paid advertising.

Understanding Your Audiences and Where They Are

When we look at paid advertising, the absolute first step is figuring out who your ideal customer is and where they hang out online. This is where teh two audiences you mentioned really diverge.

For individuals looking to learn a skill like welding or CNC machining, they might be searching on Google for specific courses ("welding course near me", "online CNC training"). Google Search ads would likely be a key channel here, capturing intent from people actively looking for a solution like yours. On social media, they might follow pages related to trades, manufacturing, DIY, career development, or specific industry influencers. Platforms like Facebook and Instagram could work for reaching them through interest-based targeting. For this kind of individual (B2C-ish) offering, you'd typically want to drive traffic to a landing page that convinces them to sign up, perhaps for a free trial or a sample module. The cost per acquisition here can vary a lot; we've seen software signups anywhere from under £2 to around $7, depending on the market and offer.

On the flip side, reaching companies – HR managers, training directors, operations leads – is a completely different ballgame. This is B2B marketing, which is inherently more complex and generally more expensive than B2C. The sales cycle is longer, decisions often involve multiple stakeholders, and the 'conversion' isn't usually a simple signup, but rather a demo request, a contact form submission, or a direct enquiry. For B2B, especially if you're trying to target specific roles within companies, LinkedIn Ads is often the go-to platform. It allows for precise targeting by job title, industry, company size, seniority, and even specific company lists if you have them. Google Search can still work if businesses are searching for training solutions, but you'd need different keywords than for individuals ("corporate welding training", "employee CNC certification program"). Meta can have some limited B2B targeting options like 'small business owners', but it's generally less effective for reaching specific roles in larger organisations compared to LinkedIn. Costs for B2B leads are significantly higher; we've seen costs around $20-$30 or even more for a qualified B2B lead, like a decision maker expressing interest on LinkedIn, or $22 CPL in some of our B2B software campaigns.

Trying to run one campaign or even one type of ad creative/messaging for both these groups on the same platform is likely to be ineffective, which might be why you felt like you were throwing money away. You really need separate strategies, messaging, targeting, and potentially even different platforms for each audience.

We'll need to look at traffic quality and your website...

Beyond just the targeting and platforms, the next most critical piece is what happens *after* someone clicks your ad. If you're getting clicks but "nada" else, the problem is very often not with the ad itself, but with the destination – your website and the offer presented there. Sending traffic to a website that isn't built to convert that specific type of visitor is like pouring water into a leaky bucket.

Based on experience with various clients, especially in SaaS and B2B, the website and offer are absolutely crucial. For example, I remember one B2B SaaS client who wasn't getting any traction with ads despite having decent targeting. We looked at their website and found several key issues: they weren't offering a free trial (which is pretty standard and expected for software), their value proposition wasn't clear, and the landing page copy wasn't persuasive. They had a demo, which is okay, but it's a bigger commitment than a free trial for someone just exploring options. Their competitors were offering free trials, sometimes for several months. This immediately put them at a disadvantage.

For your platform, you need to consider:

-> Is your website clear? Does a visitor landing on it immediately understand what your platform does and who it's for (individuals? companies? both?)?

-> Is the offer compelling for each audience? For individuals, is there a strong incentive to sign up? A free trial, a special introductory price, a guarantee? For companies, why should they choose your training over building their own program or using another provider? What are the tangible benefits?

-> Is your website trustworthy? Does it look professional? Are there testimonials or social proof? Is it easy to contact you? Lack of trust signals can seriously hurt conversion rates.

-> Is it easy for someone to take the next step you want them to? Whether that's signing up for an individual account, requesting a demo for a company, or filling out a contact form, the path should be clear and the call to action prominent.

Weakness in any of these areas can mean even perfect traffic won't convert. Improving your website's conversion rate is often the quickest way to make your advertising spend more effective, sometimes dramatically so. We use copywriters with experience in specific niches like SaaS to help craft persuasive landing page copy because it makes such a big difference.

It's not magic, it's structured testing and optimisation...

You mentioned wondering if there's a "secret button" or "tricks" agencies know. Honestly, there isn't. Paid advertising, done well, is a process of continuous testing and optimisation. You start with a hypothesis about who your audience is, what message will resonate, what offer will convert, and which platform they use. You set up campaigns based on this hypothesis.

Then, you analyse the data. Where are people clicking? Where are they dropping off? Are the right people seeing the ads? Are they interacting with the website as you'd expect? If click-through rates (CTR) are low, maybe the ad creative or copy isn't compelling or the targeting is wrong. If people visit the landing page but don't sign up or enquire, the issue is likely the offer, the copy on the page, or the overall website trustworthiness/usability.

Based on the data, you make changes: test different targeting options, write new ad copy, try different creatives (images, videos), adjust the landing page, refine the offer. This iterative process is key to finding what works and improving performance over time. It's not about having secret tools, but having the experience to know what to test, how to interpret the data, and the time to dedicate to doing it properly. For many businesses, especially small teams wearing many hats, dedicating the consistent time needed for this can be a real challenge.

You've tried plugging away, which is a good start for learning, but it sounds like it's reached a point where the time investment isn't yielding results, and it's taking away from improving the core platform.

So, is hiring an agency worth it?

This is the core question, isn't it? It's not necessarily a waste of money, but it is an investment, and like any investment, you need to evaluate the potential return. An agency or an experienced paid advertising expert brings focused expertise and, importantly, dedicated time to manage, test, and optimise your campaigns rigorously. They have experience across different platforms and niches (we've run campaigns for B2B software, B2C services like cleaning and childcare, eCommerce, etc., seeing results like $7 trials for software or £5 leads for home cleaning services, or B2B CPLs around $22). This experience means they often have a head start in knowing what approaches are likely to work or what common pitfalls to avoid.

They can dedicate the hours needed each week to monitor campaign performance, run split tests (testing different ad copy, images, audiences simultaneously), refine targeting, and work on improving conversion rates on your landing pages – essentially doing all the things required to move from "nada" to getting results. It's this dedicated effort and expertise that can potentially accelerate your path to finding profitable advertising channels and strategies, saving you time and potentially money in the long run compared to a slow process of trial and error.

It's not about them having exclusive access to tools or data; it's about their experience in using the available tools and data effectively to achieve specific goals (like leads or signups) and then scale performance where possible (though scaling B2B campaigns can plateau, as we've seen, if you're only selling one core product and have maxed out the relevant audience on a platform). They can also help ensure you're tracking the right metrics and accurately measuring your return on ad spend, especially for B2B where the conversion cycle is longer.

Given you're stretched thin and ad performance is currently non-existent, bringing in someone whose sole focus is paid advertising could allow your team to concentrate on building and improving your core product, which is arguably where your time is best spent. It’s an investment to weigh against the cost of your team’s time and the opportunity cost of not acquiring users/companies effectively.

Here's a quick overview of some key areas you'd need to address:

Getting this right involves careful planning, setup, and ongoing management. It requires dedicated time to analyse performance data and make necessary adjustments. If your team's capacity for this deep, ongoing focus is limited, bringing in external expertise that lives and breathes this stuff could very well be the most efficient path forward to achieving your growth goals and getting companies and individuals using your platform. It moves you from guessing and hoping to a more strategic, data-driven approach to customer acquisition.

I hope this gives you a clearer picture of some of the key areas to focus on and helps you weigh up the decision about bringing in external help. It's a significant step, but for many businesses, it's been the catalyst needed to unlock growth through paid channels.

If you'd like to discuss any of this in more detail and explore how this might apply specifically to your platform and goals, happy to book in a free consultation to chat through it.

Regards,
Team @ Lukas Holschuh