Google Ads gets clicks but no B2B leads? Find the real bottleneck.

You can have a healthy click-through rate and still struggle to generate new business. The first response is often to change bids, keywords or budgets. Those changes can help, but only after you know where the buyer journey fails.

1. Are the actual searches commercially relevant?

Read the search terms report, not just the keyword list. Separate purchase and supplier enquiries from research, recruitment, free templates and consumer searches. A term can be topically relevant and still attract buyers who will never fit your offer. Prioritise commercial value and customer fit rather than raw volume.

2. Does the landing page answer that search immediately?

Google's own guidance says landing pages should match ads and keywords, load quickly, provide a good user experience and offer a clear call to action. [1]

Look at the exact page people land on. Does the headline name what they searched for? Are relevant proof, fit and next steps visible? A buyer seeking a particular B2B solution should not have to navigate a general product catalogue before they can ask a question. Often the best next action is to request a quote or arrange a relevant conversation.

3. Can a mobile visitor actually complete the enquiry?

Test narrow screens, with the consent layer open. Check whether the main CTA can be tapped, whether the keyboard obscures form fields, and whether submission confirmation is visible. A button can exist in the HTML and still be effectively unreachable. Follow the whole path through a marked test enquiry.

4. Is a tracked conversion the same as a received lead?

Not necessarily. An ad platform may count a button click or a form start that never reaches a sales inbox. Conversely, a valid enquiry can arrive without a recoverable ad attribution. Compare the ad-platform event with Analytics and real enquiry delivery. Exclude labelled QA and spam from business counts.

5. Are those enquiries worth pursuing?

For each genuine enquiry, capture whether the company fits, why it fits or does not, whether a proposal was made and – when known – whether the work was won. Do not optimise only for the lowest cost per form submission when low-quality enquiries consume the sales team's time.

6. Choose the intervention that fixes the bottleneck

• Little relevant search visibility: diagnose coverage, keywords and delivery.
• Many irrelevant search terms: refine intent, match types and exclusions.
• Relevant clicks but few contact attempts: inspect the offer, landing page and CTA.
• Form starts but missing enquiries: check mobile usability, submission handling and delivery.
• Many contacts but few suitable companies: improve qualification and message match.
• Qualified enquiries without sales progress: review response speed, handover and proposals with the client's team.

Use client evidence without inventing attribution

Leadforge's public JobOutfit case documents a B2B enquiry journey designed around buyer context instead of sending visitors into an undirected product list. That is evidence of the delivered journey, not proof that one channel caused sales. [2]

The Transfershop case documents the business evolution of an ongoing Growth Partner engagement. It illustrates why real commercial outcomes should be evaluated alongside advertising metrics. [3]

The diagnostic sequence is straightforward: search intent → relevant entry page → clear next step → genuine enquiry → fit and quality → business outcome. Only then decide whether SEO, Google Ads, CRO or sales handover deserves the next hour.