For service businesses chasing leads, paid search can feel like a knife fight in a phone box. There’s only so much room and everyone’s after the same customer. For you to win the sale, your competition has to lose it.

I’ve never been in a knife fight, in a phone box or anywhere else, so I’m guessing about that part. But “stab harder, faster and more often” is about how it feels when you’re up against businesses chasing the same leads. In business, thankfully, it’s a lot less gruesome. You give people a stronger reason to choose you, build a landing page that makes it clear, and get back to them while they’re still looking. Then you take away the friction that makes it harder to buy.

When a campaign is struggling to turn leads into customers, I usually find one of three things going on.

1. You’re sitting out the fight

Your campaigns aren’t showing up when people search for what you sell. Maybe you’re bidding on the wrong terms (ones that feel right, but have no evidence), or your ads are so ineffective that you’d save money by switching them off. Either way, customers are making a decision and you’re barely in the running. Start by checking whether you’re visible on the searches that have actually brought you customers - not just the ones you think you are.

2. You’re in the fight, but hiding in the corner

When you and your competitors bid on the same searches, you’re all competing for the same demand. The advertisers with the highest share of voice are the ones customers see most often, so they have the most influence over what buyers expect. If those advertisers start pushing an offer, that offer can quickly become the benchmark everyone else is judged against.

Black Friday is a good example. I’m generally against it because it’s an easy way to give away margin. But imagine you sell apples and the sellers customers see most often are all advertising 20% off. Your ad still says you’re the best apple seller. You might have better apples, but unless the ad gives people a specific reason to pick yours, it’s easy to see why your click-through rate would fall.

You can still compete on something customers care about, whether that’s faster delivery, clearer pricing or an appointment they can book this week. If you can’t give them a reason to choose you on that search, find another phone box.

If CTR drops the thing you are competing with isn’t as important to your customers as you think.

3. You’ve brought a spoon

You’ve got a decent offer and your ads are bringing people in. Then they land on a page that barely mentions what they clicked for. They manage to enquire, but nobody calls them back until the next day. By then, another business has answered their questions and got them booked in.

Remember: if they clicked your advert and filled in your form. They also did it for your competition - you’re in a fight to win them from your competitors.

You’ve paid to get a prospective customer’s attention, then made them do the hard work of buying from you. A landing page that carries through the promise in the ad, a sales team that knows how to handle the enquiry, and a clear next step can make the same campaign worth a lot more.

This is the one I see most often. Acquisition costs rise, someone says the leads are getting worse. Before you change the campaign, try buying from your own business. Click the ad, send an enquiry and see how long it takes someone to help you take the next step. That’s often where you find the spoon.

Want to know who is going to win the fight?

If you want to know who’s winning the fight, enquire with two of your competitors as well. See how quickly they get back to you, how well they answer your questions and how easy they make it to book. Then put those experiences alongside your own and ask yourself who you’d buy from.

Better still, get an independent expert to mystery-shop all three businesses. When you know your own sales process inside out, it’s easy to overlook the bits a customer has to figure out for themselves. An expert can show you where a competitor made it easier to buy and what to fix first.