It’s tempting to see your competition as the biggest obstacle to success, particularly in the cutthroat world of online advertising, where platforms like auction-based ad platforms often see prices rise with increased competition.

However, this isn’t the whole story.

Your high cost-per-lead isn’t your competitor’s fault. It’s your ineffective headline, generic copy, uninspiring images, and poorly utilized calls to action that are to blame.

Want more leads without breaking the bank? Stop focusing on your competitors and start fixing these self-inflicted advertising errors.

Why Your Competition Doesn’t Matter When You’re Making These Mistakes

While benchmarking and understanding industry conversion rates are beneficial to a certain extent, they can only take you so far.

The truth is, your advertising success (or lack thereof) is primarily your responsibility, not your competition’s. This isn’t a criticism, but a reality check. Your competitors don’t directly determine your click or lead costs. Your Quality Score does. The same applies to your Relevance Score on Facebook. These metrics are directly influenced by your chosen keywords or topics, the effectiveness of your landing pages, and the quality of your ads in attracting and guiding people from their initial interest to your desired outcome. Often, simple errors in these areas are the main things preventing you from achieving your desired (and deserved!) outcomes. Meanwhile, top performers aren’t concerned with the competition. They’re too busy creating and testing. These high-achieving accounts often have at least 10 different landing pages, testing up to many as 100 ads to find the most effective combinations. Improved ad performance translates to better scores, lower lead generation costs, and ultimately, increased profits. Let’s examine some common yet detrimental ad creative mistakes on platforms like AdWords, Twitter, and Facebook that could be hindering your results, along with solutions to address them.

3 Self-Sabotaging AdWords Mistakes (& How to Fix Them)

Making mistakes in AdWords is easier than you think, especially given the slim margin for error with commercial, transactional searches that often result in purchases. For instance, consider soccer (or football as it’s known globally). The pinnacle of European club soccer, the Champions League final, is a massive event. Imagine a matchup like the Clippers versus the Lakers in the NBA finals. Tickets for such an event would be in high demand, leading to fierce competition for pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. This is why the following ad might have underperformed in the weeks leading up to the game:

While including the search phrase in the headline is a good start, the ad becomes too generic. This brings us to Mistake #1: Failing to consider timing and intent. Think about it: When searching for tickets at this stage, you know which teams are in the final. You’re looking for specific tickets, not just any “tickets available for all teams.” Additionally, the vague ad copy is too broad to be effective. It lacks specificity and could apply to numerous events. Compare this with the following example:

This ad includes a sitelink mentioning the specific teams competing in the Champions League final. This degree of specificity and relevance is what grabs a user’s attention. But what if you, like me, were stuck at work during the game and couldn’t jet off to Europe? Sadly, sitting is the new smoking. This leads us to a search for a “standing desk”:

At first glance, this ad seems fine. It features the brand [Evodesk] and the search term [standing desk] in the headline, a benefit-oriented first line with a reasonable starting price, and a second line listing additional features (though presenting them as benefits or outcomes would be more effective). They even include a testimonial from Entrepreneur media for added credibility. However, despite all this effort, they direct you to their homepage. While their homepage might be impressive, sending PPC traffic there is a major landing page mistake. This is Mistake #2: Expecting your homepage to do too much. Your homepage likely serves a specific purpose, like highlighting your company’s strengths or showcasing your product range. It’s probably not designed for targeting visitors with transactional intent from a specific keyword phrase. As a result, your messaging becomes diluted when multiple keywords (with varying value propositions) compete for attention, negatively impacting your Quality Score. As we’ve discussed, a lower Quality Score leads to a higher cost-per-click (and higher cost-per-lead or sale), even if your ad appears lower than competitors on search engine result pages (SERPs). If standing desks are too pricey, don’t worry. If sitting is truly as harmful as smoking, we might not be around long enough to enjoy them anyway. Investing in life insurance might be a better use of our resources. (Yes, that escalated quickly. And apologies for the awkward transition.)

This first ad example is “meh,” starting with a confusing headline that doesn’t align with the user’s search query of “life insurance.” Mistake #3: Not using the exact search query in your headline weakens relevance signals, affecting your CTR and Quality Score, and increasing your effective CPC. It also ignores the importance of message match, potentially hurting your conversion rate. Furthermore, what does “Top 10 Life Ins Companies” actually mean? Is it referring to a single company among the top ten, or will clicking lead to a list of the top ten? It fails to set clear expectations. This forces the searcher (who turned to AdWords for quick, specific answers) to decipher a trail of vague clues. Searchers value their time and don’t appreciate a Da Vinci Code puzzle. Now, compare this with a good example from Amica:

Amica’s headline is straightforward and clear, directly addressing the user’s need. The description provides context for the numbers, explaining their relevance and potential cost implications. The testimonial at the bottom adds a layer of credibility and risk reversal. Overall, Amica’s ad feels more relevant, polished, and well-structured.

3 Mistakes That Will Sabotage Your Twitter Ads (And Counter Examples to Learn From)

Twitter is an effective platform for building brand awareness and capturing leads. Its visual nature means image quality significantly impacts CTR (up to 18% more clicks, in fact). However, this only holds true if done well. Consider this example:

The issue here is obvious: The image is completely unrelated to the ad’s message. It fails to convey what users will gain by clicking, a crucial factor considering irrelevant images can actually reduce conversions by being distracting. On Twitter, where scrolling is rapid, capturing attention quickly is paramount. Contrast this with SuperImageMarket’s approach:

This ad uses a hero image to showcase the offer and immediately communicates its primary benefit through text, which is helpful for those who skim. Effective Twitter ads also prioritize clarity over cleverness (much like the AdWords example earlier). According to HubSpot, “clearly stated offers” outperform “ambiguous copy” by achieving:

• 18% higher click-through rates
• 29.8 times more retweets Here’s an example:

While Contentful might sound appealing, the ad’s message is unclear. Its biggest problem? It’s too complex. You likely know what an API and a CMS are. Tech-savvy individuals might even be familiar with Middleman. However, if you’re already overwhelmed by the firehouse of data, deciphering this ad without a clear example, interface, or use case is unlikely. Let’s see how HubSpot, the company behind this concept, does it differently:

The right side of the image instantly conveys the ad’s purpose and importance (though the finger image is somewhat irrelevant and distracting). The description, “Get Your Inbound Certification Here,” complements the graduation cap image, clarifying the offer, and the CTA subtly reinforces the message. The result is an ad that, while not revolutionary, is immediately understandable. Unlike this example from LED in Stone:

This ad creative misses the mark entirely. It lacks a strong headline with a clear value proposition. The copy is disjointed, with truncated text and inconsistent formatting. The random hashtags distract from the link, and the image, despite being high-quality, doesn’t showcase the product in use, making it difficult to understand. This starkly contrasts with this excellent example from Treehouse:

Treehouse teaches coding but doesn’t make it the ad’s central focus. Instead, they highlight the primary outcome for their customers (better jobs and improved quality of life). They’re selling a transformation, avoiding direct competition on features or price. Both the Treehouse and HubSpot examples exemplify the importance of concision (a crucial yet often overlooked ad copywriting principle). Besides its stylistic benefits, data supports the effectiveness of being concise. Shortening your headline or title to eight words can result in a 21% CTR lift. We’ll now explore how this same principle applies to boosting Facebook ad performance.

3 Facebook Ad Mistakes to Avoid (And Best Practices to Implement)

While Google AdWords excels in driving commercial transactions and Twitter ads are ideal for building initial brand awareness, Facebook ads offer a unique funnel with unmatched targeting capabilities, allowing you to precisely target specific demographics. However, you’ll notice that the creative fundamentals remain consistent across platforms. While audience targeting and specific settings differ, a pattern emerges when analyzing effective ads and common mistakes, irrespective of the platform or campaign objective. Here are the core principles of a successful Facebook ad:

• Headlines: Succinctly summarize your offer’s value proposition.
• Copy: Focus on specific benefits and outcomes users can expect.
• Images: Visually communicate the offer’s essence or how it’s used.
• Call to Action: Clearly state the desired action and the benefit of taking it. When done well, it appears effortless, but the importance of each element is easily overlooked. Let’s examine how OptionPundit misses the mark to learn from their mistakes:

This ad had potential but falls short due to poor execution. The excessively long copy lacks basic punctuation and consistent capitalization. The headline suffers from similar issues, and the supporting copy is entirely truncated, leaving its message unclear. Facebook ads need to communicate value instantly! The image could have been effective by showing users what they’d be downloading, but the incorrect sizing obscures the book, making it look amateurish and undermining the ad’s credibility. Always optimize your ad images for their intended platform. Next, we have IQ Options, who come closer to the mark:

This ad immediately grabs attention with its conciseness and visually appealing image. They cleverly utilize a ‘tripwire’, an irresistible low offer, to minimize the perceived risk of getting started. A $10 minimum deposit for a $1 trade makes trying their platform appealing and accessible. However, the truncated headline fails to convey its full message. Ideally, Facebook ad headlines should be around 5 words (based on a study analyzing over 37,259 Facebook ads). One effective technique for crafting concise headlines is using one of the 5 “most persuasive words in the English Language” to highlight the primary benefit:

• New
• You
• Free
• Because
• Instantly Let’s now see all these elements combined in an ad where every component works harmoniously to drive action. Here’s a prime example from an unexpected source…

You probably didn’t expect this, did you? Regardless of your political stance or beliefs, the execution of this ad is undeniable. The introductory content is compelling, using powerful and emotionally charged words like “secretly,” “sneak,” and “shocking.” The image reinforces this message with the universally understood Trojan Horse metaphor (complemented by a well-designed button). The headline features a clear, direct call to action, hinting at a must-know secret and creating urgency, while the brief supporting copy continues to place blame on an external entity, effectively uniting the ad’s target audience.

Stay Focused on the Prize

In the online world, your primary goal is to capture attention, competing against countless other businesses for a few precious seconds of your prospects’ time. However, this emphasis on competition can be detrimental, causing you to lose sight of controllable factors that impact your success. While market competition influences general advertising costs, your actual expenses (and returns) depend more on your execution of creative elements: compelling headlines, benefit-driven copy, engaging hero images, and clear calls to action. These factors directly influence your click-through rates, Quality Scores, and Relevance Scores. Mastering them is crucial for your success!