Hi there,
Thanks for reaching out! Happy to give you some of my initial thoughts on the Milan situation. Tbh, getting clicks but no sales is one of the most common and frustrating problems in paid ads, but it's almost always solvable. It usually points to a disconnect between what your ad is promising and what your landing page is delivering, especially when you're moving into a new market like Italy.
The issue is rarely just the ads themselves. More often than not, it's a deeper problem with the offer, the messaging, or a fundamental misunderstanding of the local audience. We'll need to dig into that.
TLDR;
- Clicks without conversions mean your problem isn't visibility, it's a breakdown somewhere between the click and the purchase. This is a funnel problem.
- The root cause is likely a mismatch between your offer and the specific expectations of the Milanese market. What works elsewhere won't nesessarily work here.
- You must move beyond simple translation to true localisation. This includes copy, imagery, pricing, and trust signals that resonate culturally in Italy.
- The most important piece of advice is to stop thinking about your audience as "people in Milan" and start defining them by their specific, local "nightmare" or pain point. This changes everything.
- This letter includes a diagnostic flowchart to find your funnel leaks and interactive calculators to understand your true customer value and potential return on ad spend.
Your ICP is a Nightmare, Not a Demographic
Alright, let's get one thing straight. "People in Milan" is not a target audience. It's a geographic location. And it's probably the single biggest reason your campaigns are failing. You're targeting a pin on a map instead of a person with a problem.
Forget the sterile, demographic-based profile your last marketing hire made. "Companies in Milan with 50-200 employees" or "Fashion-conscious women aged 25-40 in Milan" tells you almost nothing of value. It leads to generic ads that speak to everyone and therefore, no one. To stop burning cash, you have to define your customer by their pain. Their specific, urgent, expensive, career-threatening (for B2B) or life-frustrating (for B2C) nightmare.
Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) isn't a person; it's a problem state. A Milanese Head of Engineering isn't just a job title; she's a leader terrified that her best developers will leave for a competitor in the growing Milan tech hub because their workflow is broken. A young professional in Milan isn't just looking for "handcrafted jewellery"; she's feeling pressure to stand out with a unique style at aperitivo, but is tired of seeing the same mass-market brands on Via Montenapoleone. These are specific, emotionally charged problems.
Once you've isolated that Milan-specific nightmare, you can find them. Where do they hang out online? It's probably not the same places as your London customers. Do they read Il Sole 24 Ore for business news? Do they follow specific Italian influencers or fashion bloggers on Instagram? Are they in local Facebook groups for their industry or hobbies? This intelligence isn't just data; it's the blueprint for your entire targeting strategy. You have to do this work first, or you have no business spending another euro on ads in Milan.
The mistake is assuming the "nightmare" is universal. It isn't. The cultural context in Milan will change the flavour of the problem. Data privacy might be a much bigger concern for Italian businesses due to local interpretations of GDPR. A sense of 'fare una bella figura' (making a good impression) might be a far stronger motivator for a B2C purchase than simple utility. If you dont understand these nuances, your message will just be noise.
We'll need to look at your Funnel to see where it's breaking
Since you're getting clicks, we know the very top of your funnel is working to some extent. People see your ad and are curious enough to click. The problem happens after that. You need to become a detective and find out exactly where they're dropping off. This isn't guesswork; your analytics will tell you the story.
Here’s how I’d break it down:
- High Impressions, Low CTR (Click-Through Rate)? -> This isn't your primary problem, you said you get clicks, but it's worth checking. If your CTR is below 1%, it suggests your ad creative or copy isn't grabbing attention. The image might be bland, or the headline doesn't connect with the Milanese audience's pain point we just talked about.
- Good CTR, but High Bounce Rate on Landing Page? -> This is a very likely culprit. This signals a massive disconnect between your ad and your landing page. Your ad made a promise that the page didn't instantly confirm. Did you advertise a specific product, but the link goes to your generic homepage? Is the ad in Italian, but the landing page is in English, or poorly translated Italian? Is the design jarring or untrustworthy? The visitor felt misled, got confused, and left immediately.
- Lots of Landing Page Views, but No 'Add to Carts' or 'Enquiries'? -> This is the most common and frustrating scenario. People are clicking, landing on the right page, and looking around... but then leaving. This points directly to a problem with your offer itself, or how it's presented.
- -> The Offer: Is the price right for the Milan market? Is the value proposition clear and compelling *to them*? Are you offering something they actually want or need?
- -> Trust Issues: Your website might not look trustworthy to an Italian consumer. Are prices in Euros? Do you offer local payment methods (like Bancomat Pay or Satispay, not just Visa/Mastercard)? Are there reviews from Italian customers? Is there a local address or phone number? Without these signals, you look like a foreign, risky entity.
- -> Product/Service Presentation: Are the product photos high quality? Is the description compelling and written in fluent, natural Italian (not a clunky Google Translate job)? Does it clearly explain the benefits and solve their specific 'nightmare'?
To make this clearer, think of it like this flow. At each step, you're losing people. Your job is to plug the biggest leak first.
I'd say you have an Offer Problem, not an Ad Problem
Let's be brutally honest. Based on what you've said, this isn't an "ad" problem. This is an "offer" problem. The number one reason campaigns fail is because the offer isn't valuable enough or it's being made to an audience that doesn't care. In your case, it's likely the offer hasn't been properly adapted for the Milanese market. What you're selling, and how you're selling it, isn't resonating.
One of the biggest mistakes businesses make when expanding internationally is simply translating their existing website and ads. This is a recipe for disaster. You need to localise, not just translate. The difference is huge.
- Translation is changing "Buy Now" to "Compra Ora". It's a literal, word-for-word switch.
- Localisation is understanding that maybe "Scopri di più" (Discover more) is a less aggressive and more culturally appropriate call to action. It's about changing the imagery to feature Milanese street styles or architecture, not London's. It's about ensuring your prices are in Euros and make sense in the local economy. It's about using testimonials from Italian customers.
We've seen this time and again. A campaign struggling with a 0.5% conversion rate can jump to 2-3% just by getting the localisation right. That's a 4-6x improvement in results without changing the product or the ad platform. It's that powerful.
Your ad message needs to be built around this localised understanding. For a B2B SaaS product targeting Milan, you dont sell a "FinOps platform"; you sell the feeling of control. Your ad might say, "La tua fattura AWS è appena arrivata. È più alta del 30% rispetto al mese scorso e nessuno sa perché. Immagina di aprire la tua fattura cloud e sorridere. La nostra piattaforma è il ponte per arrivarci." (Your AWS bill just arrived. It's 30% higher than last month and nobody knows why. Imagine opening your cloud bill and smiling. Our platform is the bridge to get there.) This uses the Before-After-Bridge framework but speaks to a universal business pain in a natural Italian way.
For a service business, you might use Problem-Agitate-Solve. You don't sell "fractional CFO services"; you sell a good night's sleep. "Le tue previsioni di cassa sono un tiro alla cieca? Sei a un solo mese sbagliato da una crisi di liquidità? Ottieni una strategia finanziaria esperta per una frazione del costo." (Are your cash flow projections a shot in the dark? Are you one bad month away from a liquidity crisis? Get expert financial strategy for a fraction of the cost.)
This level of nuance is what separates campaigns that burn cash from those that generate revenue.
You'll need to understand your Numbers to know what's possible
Before you can fix your conversion problem, you need to know what a "good" conversion is even worth to you. Too many businesses focus on getting the lowest possible Cost Per Lead (CPL) or Cost Per Acquisition (CPA), without understanding how much they can actually *afford* to spend to get a customer. The answer is in your Customer Lifetime Value (LTV).
The real question isn't "Why are my ads not converting?" but "How much can I afford to spend to acquire a Milanese customer, and is my current funnel capable of hitting that number?"
Let's do the maths. You'll need three numbers:
- Average Revenue Per Account (ARPA): What do you make per customer, per month/year?
- Gross Margin %: What's your profit margin on that revenue?
- Monthly Churn Rate %: What percentage of customers do you lose each month?
The calculation is simple: LTV = (ARPA * Gross Margin %) / Churn Rate %
Let's say you have a SaaS product. Your average customer in Milan pays you €100/month (ARPA), your gross margin is 80%, and you lose 5% of your customers each month (churn).
LTV = (€100 * 0.80) / 0.05 = €80 / 0.05 = €1,600.
Each customer you acquire in Milan is worth €1,600 in gross margin over their lifetime. A healthy business model aims for a 3:1 LTV to Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) ratio. This means you can afford to spend up to €1,600 / 3 = ~€533 to acquire a single customer. If your sales process converts 1 in 10 qualified leads, you can afford to pay up to €53.30 per lead. Suddenly, your perspective shifts. You stop chasing cheap, low-quality clicks and start focusing on acquiring high-value leads, even if they cost more.
Use this calculator to figure out your own numbers. It might surprise you.
This is the main advice I have for you:
To fix the problem in Milan, you need a systematic approach. Guessing won't work. You need to stop, diagnose, and rebuild your approach specifically for this market. It's more work upfront, but it's the only way to build a sustainable and profitable presence there.
| Action Step | Description | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Full Funnel Audit | Use your website analytics (Google Analytics, etc.) to map out the user journey for Milan traffic. Find the exact page where they drop off. Is it immediately on the landing page (high bounce) or at the checkout? | You can't fix a leak until you know where it is. This moves you from guessing to a data-driven diagnosis. |
| 2. Define the Milanese "Nightmare" | Conduct market research. Talk to potential customers in Milan if you can. What are their specific pain points that your product/service solves? How do they talk about them? | This is the foundation of your entire strategy. Your messaging, offer, and targeting will all be built on this understanding. Without it, you're just shouting into the void. |
| 3. Localise Your Offer & Landing Page | Hire a native Italian copywriter to rewrite your landing page. Don't just translate. Review your pricing, payment options, and add local trust signals (Italian testimonials, local contact info if possible). | This builds trust and ensures your value proposition actually connects. It shows you respect the local market and aren't just another foreign company trying to make a quick sale. |
| 4. Relaunch with a Test Budget | Create a new, Milan-specific campaign. Use the newly localised landing page and ads written around the "nightmare" you've identified. Start with a small, controlled budget to validate your new approach. | This minimises risk. You test your new hypothesis on a small scale before committing a larger budget, allowing you to learn and iterate quickly. |
| 5. Build a Retargeting Layer | Since you are getting clicks, you have an audience of people who have shown interest. Create a separate retargeting campaign specifically for your Milanese website visitors. Show them different ads - maybe a testimonial or a special introductory offer. | These are warm leads. It often takes multiple touchpoints to convert a customer, especially in a new market. Retargeting keeps you top-of-mind and gives them another reason to reconsider. |
Tackling a new international market like Milan is genuinely difficult. There are so many cultural and behavioural nuances that you can't see from the outside. The process I've outlined requires expertise not just in running ads, but in market entry strategy. For instance, I remember one client, a medical job matching SaaS, that was struggling with a £100 cost per user acquisition. By digging into their funnel and refining their offer, we brought that cost down to just £7. For another client, an eCommerce brand selling women's apparel, this same focus on getting the fundamentals right led to a 691% return on ad spend. This kind of rigorous, data-led, and culturally aware approach is what makes the difference.
You might find that getting an expert pair of eyes on your campaigns and strategy could save you a significant amount of time, money, and frustration. We offer a free, no-obligation initial consultation where we can take a look at your account together and give you some specific, actionable advice on your Milan situation.
Regards,
Team @ Lukas Holschuh
