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Veronika Höller Talks On A Perfectly Set-up But Poor Performing Campaign

In this episode of PPC Live The Podcast, I sit with Veronika Höller to unpack a real-world PPC mistake — from campaigns that looked perfect on the surface to the deeper issues that were quietly killing performance.

From “perfect” campaigns to zero revenue

Veronika Holler didn’t walk into a broken account. Quite the opposite. Everything looked right — clean structure, strong creatives, solid budgets, conversions coming in. On paper, it was a high-performing PPC setup.

But there was one problem: it wasn’t driving revenue.

That disconnect forced a deeper look beyond surface-level metrics. Because while impressions, clicks and conversions were ticking up, the campaigns weren’t actually delivering business impact — and that’s where things started to unravel.

The real issue: nothing stood out

The turning point didn’t come from inside the account. It came from looking outside it.

During competitor research, Veronika realised the brand sounded just like everyone else. The messaging blended into the market. There was no clear reason for a user to choose them over competitors.

From a user perspective, the ads weren’t wrong — they were just forgettable. And in a crowded category, “good” isn’t enough.

That insight reframed the entire problem: it wasn’t a performance issue. It was a positioning issue.

Starting again — from scratch

Instead of tweaking the existing campaigns, Veronika made a bold call: rebuild everything.

That meant new messaging, new creatives, and a new strategic foundation. One key shift was defining not just ideal customers, but also who they didn’t want to target — using anti-ICPs to sharpen the messaging.

They also introduced stronger localisation, tailored landing pages by market, and platform-specific strategies instead of copying campaigns across channels.

It wasn’t optimisation. It was a reset. And it worked.

The mistake that nearly broke everything

But earlier in her career, Veronika made a far more painful mistake — one that many PPC marketers will recognise.

She applied a recommended target CPA… without increasing the budget.

The result? Campaigns stopped delivering. Performance tanked. And worst of all, it went unnoticed over a weekend.

By Monday, the damage was clear — and the client was not happy.

Owning the mistake — and fixing it fast

There was no hiding from it.

Veronika immediately admitted the mistake, explained what happened, and took responsibility. That honesty changed the outcome. While the client was initially frustrated, the situation de-escalated quickly because there was no deflection — just a clear plan to fix it.

The lesson stuck: don’t blindly apply recommendations, and always understand the full context before making changes.

Why failure is part of getting good

For Veronika, mistakes aren’t something to avoid — they’re essential.

“You can only be good if you fail,” she said.

That mindset now shapes how she works and how she mentors others. Mistakes aren’t a sign of incompetence — they’re a sign that work is being done, tested, and improved.

And more importantly, sharing those mistakes helps others avoid repeating them.

The biggest issue she still sees today

Despite all the changes in PPC, one problem keeps showing up: tracking.

Broken implementations, over-reliance on micro conversions, and poor setup in tools like Google Tag Manager are still common.

In a world of smart bidding and automation, bad data doesn’t just limit performance — it actively misleads it.

Without clean tracking, even the best campaigns will fail.

AI won’t fix average marketing

Veronika is clear on one thing: AI is not a shortcut to better performance.

If you feed it average data, you’ll get average results.

Too many marketers rely on AI tools to analyse accounts without first understanding what needs to be improved. But AI can’t create differentiation — it can only optimise what’s already there.

Standing out still requires human thinking, strategy, and creativity.