Solved: Google Ads Campaign Underperforming on a Tight Budget

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out and happy to give you some initial thoughts and guidance on your Google Ads campaign based on the details you sent over.

Spending just €32 over 6 days and getting one €14 sale... honestly, that's such a tiny amount of data that you really can't draw any firm conclusions from it at all. It's like flipping a coin maybe 5 or 10 times and trying to decide if it's weighted. Statistically speaking, you need a much larger sample size to understand what's truly happening and whether your campaign has the potential to be profitable or not. Think of it this way: if you were getting clicks costing €5 each, that €32 would only give you 6 clicks. It's extremely unlikely you'd see a sale from just 6 clicks for a software product. Even with your low €0.20 CPC, 162 clicks over 6 days isn't a huge volume in the grand scheme of things for learning and optimisation, especially in Google Ads.

The performance you're seeing – €32 spend for €14 revenue – isn't ideal, obviously. But for such a short period and tiny budget, it doesn't necessarily mean the campaign *can't* work. It just means you haven't given it enough chance to gather data, for Google's algorithms to learn (if you're using automated bidding like conversions), or for you to see if there's any potential. It's definitely a typical starting point in the sense that results are often unpredictable and low with minimal data, but it doesn't mean that's how it will *always* be.

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

That €0.20 CPC for Google Search ads for a web app sounds quite low, tbh. While low CPCs are great for getting clicks cheaply, it does raise a question about the quality of that traffic. What keywords are you targeting? Are they very specific to your app's solution, or are they broader terms that might attract people who aren't really in the market to buy? For instance, targeting "web app" might bring in people looking for definitions or how to build one, not necessarily to buy one. If the keywords are too broad or not aligned with purchase intent, you could get lots of cheap clicks, but very few of them will ever convert into a sale. We saw this with one campaign where the client was targeting very generic terms, they got tonnes of clicks, but the conversion rate was abysmal until we narrowed down the keywords to much more specific, high-intent phrases.

Having conversion tracking set up is spot on – you absolutely need that to measure success. But once someone clicks your ad and lands on your website, the ads have done their job. What happens next is down to your website and your offer. This is often the single biggest bottleneck when ads aren't performing, especially on smaller budgets. If your website isn't persuasive, confusing, slow to load, or doesn't clearly communicate the value of your app, people will just leave, no matter how relevant the ad was or how cheap the click. Even a €0.20 click is wasted if it lands on a page that converts at 0%.

Getting the offer right is crucial for software...

For software, particularly B2B which I assume a 'web app' leans towards, the offer is absolutely critical. Is your app paid upfront, or do you offer a free trial, a freemium tier, or just a demo? Selling software often requires building trust and letting users experience the value first-hand before committing to a purchase. If you're asking people to pay €14 (or whatever the price is) straight away without trying it, you're asking for a significant leap of faith, especially from a cold ad click.

Think about the competition in the software space. Many offer generous free trials (often 14-30 days, sometimes longer) or completely free plans with limited features. This significantly lowers the barrier to entry and increases the conversion rate from website visitor to user (even if that user is initially free). We worked with a B2B SaaS client where switching from just offering a demo to a proper free trial dramatically increased their trial signups from their ads. Once someone is using the app, you have a much better chance to onboard them, demonstrate value, and convert them into a paying customer down the line.

If your current offer is straight to paid, your website conversion rate from visitor to sale is likely very, very low. This naturally drives your cost per acquisition (CPA) through the roof because you need hundreds or thousands of clicks to get just one sale. Even with cheap clicks, if your site converts at, say, 0.1% (1 sale per 1000 clicks), that one sale costs you €0.20 * 1000 = €200 in ad spend. Getting a sale for €14 from a cold ad click for a B2B software product is highly unusual and likely unsustainable if that's the typical price of the app.

Looking at B2B acquisition costs from our experience, getting a qualified lead on LinkedIn can cost around $22. Getting a trial signup for B2B SaaS on Meta might cost $7. These are for leads/trials, not actual paying customers, which are typically much more expensive to acquire initially, often hundreds or thousands of pounds/dollars depending on the product's price and complexity. Your €14 revenue per sale from cold traffic is probably not sufficient to cover sustainable acquisition costs unless you have a very high customer lifetime value that allows you to acquire customers at a loss upfront.

I'd say you need to give it more time, but focus on the fundamentals first...

Given your low budget and the limited data, I wouldn't get too hung up on optimising the ad campaign structure or bidding strategies just yet. The most impactful things at this stage will likely be outside the ad account itself. You need to ensure that when you *do* get clicks, you're maximising the chance of converting them.

Here's a summary of where I'd focus next:

Optimisation will definitely happen over time, but you need those foundational elements sorted first: sufficient data, relevant traffic, and a website/offer that is compelling enough to convert that traffic. Trying to optimise a campaign with just €32 spend and 162 clicks is like trying to steer a ship based on looking at the compass for one second.

For a software product, especially B2B, scaling customer acquisition through paid advertising requires a deep understanding of the market, the sales cycle, and constant testing and optimisation across keywords, ad copy, landing pages, and the offer itself. It can get complex quite quickly as you try to lower CPAs and increase volume.

If you decide you want to properly explore scaling this channel once you have the website and offer where you want them, working with experts who have experience launching and scaling software campaigns can make a huge difference in avoiding costly mistakes and accelerating results. We've helped many SaaS clients navigate these exact challenges.

Happy to hop on a quick, free consultation call sometime if you'd like to discuss your specific situation and goals in more detail and explore how we might be able to help. My calendar link is available in my bio.

Regards,
Team @ Lukas Holschuh