Solved: USA Google Ads Campaign Not Generating Leads

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out! I had a look over the situation you described. It sounds like a really tough and stressful spot to be in, especially when you've just joined a new company and a key campaign suddenly stops working. It happens, and the fact you're actively seeking solutions is the right first step.

I’m happy to give you some initial thoughts based on my experience. This is all based on what you’ve told me, of course, but hopefully it gives you a few new avenues to explore. We've managed a lot of B2B SaaS campaigns over the years, and a sudden performance drop is something we've had to diagnose more than once.

We'll need to look at why the campaign performance dropped...

First off, let's talk about the changes you made. Switching to Broad Match is a big one. I know you said it worked well at your last place, and it can be a powerfull tool for discovery, but for a niche product like MLM software on a tight budjet, it was likely the single biggest factor in your performance drop. B2B keywords are expensive, and Broad Match gives Google a lot of leeway to show your ads for searches that are only vaguely related to what you offer. You've probably spent the majority of that 70% budget on clicks from people searching for things like "how to start an mlm", "mlm scam reviews", or "herbalife jobs", rather than businesses looking for MLM management software. This would absolutely tank your conversion rate and eat your budget with nothing to show for it.

You need to get back into your search query report for the US campaign immediately. My guess is you'll see a lot of irrelevant searches that have been triggering your ads and getting clicks. For every pound or dollar you spend on an irrelevant click, that's money that can't be spent on a click from a potential customer. With a $3,000 monthly spend for the US, you can't afford any waste. Your previous Phrase and Exact match strategy was likely in place for a good reason: it gives you control, which is paramount with a small budget.

The other thing is competition. You've seen competitors bidding on your brand name, which is a clear sign the auction is getting more aggressive. This drives up your Cost Per Click (CPC) across the board. When your CPCs go up but your budget stays the same, your total number of clicks goes down. Combine higher costs with lower quality traffic from Broad Match, and you've got a recipe for zero leads. It's also worth looking at auction insights to see who else is competing and how aggressively. Are new players in the market? Has an existing competitor just recieved a new round of funding? These things can have a massive impact almost overnight.

The shared budget is a bit of a red herring here. It's a useful feature, but it can't fix a fundamental problem with targeting and traffic quality. All it does is ensure your budget gets spent, but if it's being spent on the wrong things, it just accelerates the waste. I’d definately recommend turning that off for now and going back to individual campaign budgets so you have more direct control over spend until the performance issue is resolved.

I'd say you need to reconsider your core offer and funnel...

Even with the best traffic in the world, if your website and offer aren't compelling, you won't get leads. This is probably the most overlooked area in paid advertising. People focus so much on the ads they forget about what happens after the click.

You’re selling B2B software, and it's a specific, high-consideration product. Changing an MLM software platform is a massive undertaking for a business. It’s not an impulse buy. They only do it if they have a significant pain point or a compelling reason to switch. Your landing page needs to speak directly to that pain. Does it? Or does it just list features?

I've run quite a few campaigns for B2B SaaS. Some see an ROI in days, but most take a lot longer to get right. A lot is dependant on the offer. What is your main call-to-action? Is it "Contact Us"? "Book a Demo"? "Get a Quote"? For a B2B SaaS product, the single best offer you can have is a completely free, no-commitment trial. Let them get their hands on the software. A demo is a barrier to entry; it requires them to schedule time and talk to a salesperson, which many people are hesitant to do early on. A free trial lets them explore on their own terms, get hooked on the product, and then they'll be ready for a sales call. I see you offer a demo, but that's not quite the same. Your competition almost certainly offers free trials, and if you don't, you're at a huge disadvantage from the start.

Your landing page copy is also a massive factor. Is it just a wall of text about features? Or is it persausive, benefit-driven copy that addresses the specific problems your target customer faces? We use specialist SaaS copywriters for our clients for this very reason. Proffesional copy can easily double or triple conversion rates. It needs to build trust instantly. This means social proof: testimonials, case studies, logos of clients you work with, any industry awards. Without these trust signals, people will be very hesitant to hand over their contact details, especially in a niche like MLM which can sometimes attract skepticism.

Here's a quick demonstration of how you could frame features as benefits in your ad copy or on your landing page. People don't buy features, they buy solutions to their problems.

This shift from talking about yourself to talking about them is subtle but makes all the difference.

You probably should restructure the Google Ads account...

Okay, let's get tactical. If I were in your shoes, I would immediately pause the US campaign that's burning cash. You can't keep spending with no return. It's time for a hard reset. Here’s what the restructure might look like.

1. Go back to basics with keywords. Ditch Broad Match entirely for your core campaigns. Rebuild your ad groups using a tight combination of Phrase Match and Exact Match keywords. This gives you back control over who sees your ads. You need to be incredibly deliberate. Your keywords should reflect high commercial intent, things like "mlm software providers", "direct selling software platform", "best mlm commission software". You should also have a very, very robust negative keyword list to filter out all the irrelevant traffic I mentioned earlier. This is not optional; it's essental. Your negative list should include terms like "free", "jobs", "recruitment", "reviews", "scam", "how to join", and the names of specific MLM companies that aren't relevant to your software.

2. Simplify your campaign strucure. With a small budget, you don't need dozens of campaigns. I'd suggest a simple, clean setup something like this:

• -> Campaign 1: US - Core Services (Exact Match). This should contain your absolute best, highest-intent keywords. Give this the majority of your budget. These are your money-makers.
• -> Campaign 2: US - Brand (Exact Match). You were right to bid on your brand. Keep this in a seperate campaign so you can monitor its performance and ensure you're protecting your brand traffic from competitors. This should be very cheap and have a near-100% impression share.
• -> Campaign 3: US - Remarketing (RLSA). This is critical. You need a campaign that only targets people who have already visited your website. These people are already familiar with you and are much, much more likely to convert. You can bid more aggressively for them and show them different ad copy, perhaps promoting your free trial or a specific case study.

3. Implement proper split testing. You mentioned creating new ads, which is great, but how are you testing them? You should have at least two or three ad variations running in each ad group at all times. Test different headlines, different descriptions, and different calls-to-action. Once you have a statistically significant winner (e.g., one ad has a much higher click-through or conversion rate), pause the loser and write a new ad to test against the winner. It's a continuous cycle of improvement. This alone can make a huge difference.

I recall one instance where a client, a Medical Job Matching SaaS, was struggling with a Cost Per User Acquisition of over £100. It was crippling their growth. By implementing a rigorous restructure focused on tight keyword control, remarketing, and relentless split testing, we were able to reduce their CPA to just £7. It was a complete turnaround, and it started with pausing what wasn't working and rebuilding it correctly from the ground up.

You'll need to think beyond Google Search...

While fixing your Google Ads is the immediate priority, you also need to recognise that for a B2B SaaS product, your target audience isn't always actively searching on Google. The pool of people searching for "MLM software" at any given time is finite. To grow, you need to find potential customers before they even start searching.

This is where other platforms come in. Given you're selling to businesses, your number one alternative should be LinkedIn Ads. The targeting capabilities on Linkdin are unmatched for B2B. You can target people based on their exact job title (e.g., "CEO", "Founder", "Head of Operations"), company size, industry, and even target employees at a specific list of companies. Imagine being able to serve your ads directly to the key decision-makers at the 500 biggest MLM companies in the United States. You can't do that on Google.

I remember one campaign we ran on LinkedIn Ads for a B2B software client, where we targeted specific decision-makers and achieved a cost per lead of just $22. These were highly qualified leads because we knew we were reaching the right people. You could run a campaign promoting a helpful guide or whitepaper (e.g., "The 5 Biggest Compliance Mistakes MLM Companies Make") in exchange for an email address, using a LinkedIn Lead Gen Form. This builds your email list with potential customers that you can nurture over time.

Don't dismiss Meta Ads (Facebook/Instagram) either. While the B2B targeting isn't as granular as LinkedIn, it can be suprisingly effective and often cheaper. We ran a campaign for a B2B software tool that generated over 4,600 registrations at just $2.38 each. You could target interests like "direct selling" or "network marketing" and layer that with behavioural targeting like "business page admins" or "small business owners". The most powerfull use of Meta for you, however, would be for retargeting. Anyone who visits your website from a Google Ad can then be shown ads on Facebook and Instagram, keeping your brand top-of-mind and pulling them back to your site.

With your current budget, you can't do everything at once. But it would be a very smart move to take a portion of your US budget (say, $500-$1000) and run a small, focused test on LinkedIn for a month. Compare the cost per lead and the lead quality to what you were getting from Google. It might just be a more efficient channel for you.

This is the main advice I have for you:

I know this is a lot to take in, so I've put together a table summarising my main recommendations into an actionable plan. This is the kind of roadmap we would build out for a new client in your situation.

Why you might want to consider expert help...

Implementing all of this correctly is a significant amount of work. It involves strategic thinking, technical execution, copywriting, and multi-channel management. As a new person in the role, taking all of this on while also dealing with the pressure of a failing campaign is a massive challenge.

This is often where working with a specialist agency can make a difference. It's not just about offloading the work; it's about investing in expertise to get results faster and avoid costly mistakes—like the one you've just experienced. An experienced team has been through this dozens of times and can diagnose and fix issues far more quickly. We can bring in our specialist copywriters, our strategists, and our platform experts to build a cohesive system that works.

If you feel it would be beneficial, we offer a free, no-obligation initial consultation where we can take a proper look inside your ad account with you. We can review your setup, your strategy, and your landing pages together on a call. It's usually incredibly helpful for potential clients as it provides immediate, actionable feedback and gives you a real sense of the expertise we could bring to your campaigns.

Hope this helps give you a clearer path forward. You're asking the right questions, and with a methodical approach, you can definitely turn this around.

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh