We’ve all been there – that sinking feeling when an ad campaign begins to falter. Your cost-per-click is rising, conversions are decreasing, and the budget is getting burned more quickly than expected. The question is: do you jump in to try to diagnose the issue, try a quick fix, or cut your losses and pause the campaign altogether?
It depends on a number of variables, such as the phase of your campaign, the resources at your disposal, and how bad the performance has dropped. Let’s discuss when each strategy is most ideal for Australian companies competing in the digital advertising space.
Diagnosing the Problem
Don’t make any knee-jerk reactions without diagnosis. Begin by looking at your key performance indicators from the last 7-14 days. Check for trends in click-through rates, conversion rates, cost-per-acquisition, and quality scores.
Typical symptoms reflect specific issues. Plummeting impressions could mean you’re facing rising competition or budget constraints. Rising costs with steady traffic usually signal decreasing ad relevance or audience saturation. High traffic with poor conversions, however, signal landing page problems or targeting mismatches.
Australian companies must take into account seasonalities and domestic market conditions too. School holidays, public holidays, and significant sporting events can also greatly impact the success of campaigns for various industries.
Repairing the Campaign
Once you’ve resolved the underlying cause, strategic solutions can often resuscitate campaign performance. Targeting optimisation is your first line of defence. Tighten up your audience to exclude underperforming demographics or geographic regions. For Australian campaigns, exclude remote areas where shipping costs make conversions unlikely.
Bidding strategy changes can also yield instant results. As competition may have risen, try testing a shift from manual to automated bidding, or change your target cost-per-acquisition to align with prevailing market conditions.
Ad creative and copy refreshes fight against audience fatigue—a common issue in Australia’s smaller market, where the same users see your ads repeatedly. Experiment with new headlines, descriptions, and images. Using local references and Australian spellings can help increase relevance scores and user engagement.
Don’t neglect landing page optimisation. Make your destination pages quick to load, and mobile performance strong and consistent with the messaging in your ads. Australian consumers anticipate quick, mobile-friendly experiences, especially during major shopping events.
Suspending the Campaign
Stopping and re-grouping is often the most reasonable choice. It is an understandable approach when diagnostic efforts reveal underlying campaign issues that would require a significant amount of rebuilding. If your customer lifetime value is far outpaced by cost-per-acquisition, you must move swiftly.
Seasonal companies should go dark during seasons that are slow by their nature, rather than fighting the market. A Sydney air conditioning company can go dark in winter campaigns rather than spend budget on low-intent traffic.
When you pause, pause strategically. Download performance data to analyse, document lessons learned, and schedule calendar reminders to plan relaunch. Think about keeping brand awareness with lower-cost display campaigns while removing high-cost search ads from circulation.
Making the Right Choice for Your Campaign
The decision to diagnose, fix, or hold back is based on your own individual circumstances. New campaigns should be diagnosed and tried to fix, as they haven’t had the time to optimise. Well-established campaigns with abrupt performance declines should be investigated immediately.
Be realistic about your resources and work with a digital marketing agency to make decision-making easier. Australian small businesses with little time might do better with tactical pauses or quick fixes than with protracted diagnosis. Large organisations can afford detailed analysis and incremental fine-tuning.
Remember that online advertising is iterative. Today’s pause can become tomorrow’s successful relaunch. The key is to make data-driven, not emotional, decisions and to take a long-term perspective on your ad investments.