Solved: Ads, traffic, but no Aberdeen sales (The Real Reason)

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out! Happy to give you some initial thoughts on this. Getting traffic but no sales is one of the most common, and frustrating, problems in paid advertising. It’s almost always a sign that there’s a major disconnect somewhere between the person you’re targeting, the message you're showing them, and what you’re asking them to do after they click.

The fact it's specific to Aberdeen suggests it could be a local demand or competition issue, but more often than not, the root cause is in the strategy itself. We need to basically work backwards from the sale that isn't happening and figure out where the customer journey is breaking down. It's usually not one single thing, but a combination of factors.

You probably should stop paying for traffic...

This is going to sound contrarian, but the first thing you need to do is stop trying to get 'traffic'. It's a vanity metric. I see this all the time. Business owners are pleased they're getting hundreds of clicks, but clicks don't pay the bills. On platforms like Meta (Facebook/Instagram), when you choose a campaign objective like 'Traffic' or 'Brand Awareness', you are giving the algorithm a very specific, and very literal, instruction: "Find me the cheapest possible clicks" or "Show my ad to the most people for the least money".

The algorithm is ruthlessly efficient. It goes out and finds the users within your target audience who are known to click on things but never buy anything. Why? Because those users aren't in high demand from other advertisers who are optimising for sales. Their attention is cheap. You are, in effect, paying the world's most powerful advertising machine to find you the worst possible audience for your product. You are paying to attract window shoppers.

The immediate fix is to change your campaign objective. You must optimise for the action you actually want. If you want sales, your objective should be 'Sales' or 'Conversions'. If you want leads, it should be 'Leads'. This tells the algorithm to go and find people who have a history of doing that specific thing. Yes, your cost per click (CPC) will go up. Your cost per thousand impressions (CPM) will go up. But the quality of the person clicking will be infinitely higher, because you're now fishing in a completely different pond. This is the single most impactful change you can make, and you need to do it before you touch anything else.

We'll need to look at who you're actually talking to...

Once you've fixed your campaign objective, the next problem is usually the audience. Forget the sterile, demographic-based profile your last marketing hire made. "People aged 25-55 living in Aberdeen" tells you absolutely nothing of value and leads to generic ads that speak to no one. To stop burning cash, you must define your customer by their pain. You need to become an expert in their specific, urgent, expensive nightmare.

Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) isn't a person; it's a problem state. Let's imagine you sell high-end, ergonomic office chairs. Your ICP isn't "office workers in Aberdeen." It's "the freelance graphic designer in Aberdeen with chronic back pain who's terrified they'll miss a project deadline because they can't sit at their desk for more than two hours." See the difference? One is a bland demographic; the other is a visceral, urgent problem.

For a service business, like an electrician, your ICP isn't "homeowners." It's "the new parents in Cults who just bought a fixer-upper and are terrified by the flickering lights in the nursery, worrying about the safety of their old wiring."

Once you've isolated that nightmare, you can find them. Where do they go for solutions? The graphic designer probably follows design blogs, uses specific software like Figma or Adobe Creative Suite, and might be in Facebook groups for Scottish freelancers. The new parents are probably in local parenting groups, following Aberdeen property pages, and searching Google for "emergency electrician Aberdeen". This intelligence is the blueprint for your targeting. Do this work first, or you have no business spending another pound on ads.

This is how you build an audience strategy. You start with this highly specific, pain-aware audience using detailed targeting. This is your 'Top of Funnel' (ToFu). As they visit your site, you then build 'Middle of Funnel' (MoFu) retargeting audiences of people who viewed a product but didn't buy, and 'Bottom of Funnel' (BoFu) audiences of people who added a product to their cart but abandoned it. I've run campaigns for eCommerce brands where we've seen a 691% return just by properly structuring these audiences and tailoring the message to each stage.

I'd say your message isn't hitting home...

If you're getting clicks but no sales, it's possible your ads are attracting the wrong kind of attention. Your ad copy and creative needs to filter people, not just attract them. It must speak directly to the 'nightmare' we just defined. This is where copywriting frameworks come in.

For a product or service, you use Problem-Agitate-Solve (PAS). You don't just sell the thing; you sell the way out of the problem.

• Weak Ad (e.g. for a local gardener): "Gardening Services in Aberdeen. Patios, lawns, and more. Call for a quote." (This is boring and blends in with every other ad.)
• Strong PAS Ad: "(Problem) Is your garden an overgrown jungle you're too embarrassed to let guests see? (Agitate) Another summer weekend wasted wrestling with the lawnmower and weeds, while your neighbours enjoy their perfectly manicured space? (Solve) Get your weekends back. We transform chaotic gardens in Aberdeen into beautiful, relaxing sanctuaries. Click for a free, no-obligation garden plan."

For a product that creates a transformation, you can use Before-After-Bridge.

• Weak Ad (e.g. for a meal delivery service): "Healthy Meal Delivery in Aberdeen. Fresh ingredients, delivered to you." (So what? Why should I care?)
• Strong BAB Ad: "(Before) It's 6 PM. You're exhausted, the fridge is empty, and you're about to order another expensive takeaway. (After) Imagine delicious, healthy, chef-prepared meals ready in minutes, helping you feel energised and hit your health goals. (Bridge) Our meal plans are the bridge. Get 30% off your first week and reclaim your evenings."

Your ad's job is to make the right person in Aberdeen think, "That's me! They understand my exact problem." This pre-qualifies them. Anyone who doesn't have that problem will just scroll past, saving you the cost of their worthless click. A well-written ad acts as a filter, ensuring that the traffic that does arrive on your site is far more likely to convert.

You'll need a better offer and a stronger shopfront...

This is the most common failure point. A prospect, intrigued by your ad, clicks through to your website... and then what? If the first thing you ask them to do is 'Buy Now' or 'Book a £2,000 Service', you are asking for a massive commitment from a total stranger. It's like asking someone to marry you on the first date. It's too much, too soon.

Your offer is likely the problem. You need to create a low-friction, high-value entry point. Instead of asking for the sale, can you offer something that solves a small piece of their problem for free (or for a very low cost) to earn their trust?

• For eCommerce: A 15% discount on their first order, a free gift with purchase, free shipping. One subscription box client we worked with saw a 1000% return on ad spend largely by optimising their introductory offer.
• For a Service Business: A free, instant online quote. A free 15-minute diagnostic call. A downloadable PDF guide to "5 Common Electrical Faults Aberdeen Homeowners Face".
• For a B2B Company: Not "Request a Demo," which is arrogant. Instead, offer a free "Website Speed Audit" or a "LinkedIn Profile Review." Give them value first.

This offer needs to be presented on a website that screams 'trustworthy'. I haven't seen your site, but most sites I audit that have this problem are full of red flags: slow loading times, poor quality images, no clear contact information, no customer reviews or testimonials, confusing navigation. It needs to look professional and make it incredibly easy for the visitor to take that first, low-risk step. It must be obvious what you do, who you do it for, and what they should do next.

Before you spend another penny on ads, you have to answer a fundemental question: what is a customer actually worth to you? Without knowing this, you're flying blind, scared of spending £50 on a lead that could be worth £5,000. This is where calculating your Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) is so important.

You'll need a plan of attack...

So, putting this all together, what should you do? It’s not about finding one magic bullet, but about systematically fixing each broken part of your customer acquisition process. The traffic you're getting now isn't the right traffic, and even if it was, your website and offer probably aren't strong enough to convert them. It's a two-front battle, and you need to fight both.

You need to go back to basics and build a proper foundation before you scale your ad spend. It's a bit of work upfront, but it's the only way to build a predictable and profitable advertising system instead of just gambling your money away. I've detailed my main recommendations for you below:

As you can see, fixing this goes way beyond just tweaking an ad setting. It's a strategic overhaul. Getting it right involves a deep understanding of platform mechanics, audience psychology, and conversion-focused design, which can be a lot to handle on your own.

This is the kind of end-to-end diagnosis and rebuild we do for our clients. For one B2B software client in the medical recruitment space, we reduced their Cost Per Acquisition from £100 down to £7, and we’ve helped eCommerce stores achieve over 600% return on their ad spend by implementing this kind of rigorous, fundamentals-first approach.

If you'd like to go through your specific situation in more detail, we offer a completely free, no-obligation strategy session where we can audit your ad account and website together. It might help give you some more clarity on the best path forward.

Hope that helps!

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh