Notes for owners · Digital marketing
Your marketing is working but the enquiries are the wrong ones: where to look
When enquiries arrive but few are buyers, check the offer, the audience and the page the advertisement lands on, in that order, before you change the budget.
The GullySales team · Updated 17 Oct 2026 · 5 min read
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The phone rings, so the advertising works. But half the callers want something you do not sell, or cannot pay for it, or are asking about a job. The fault is often not the budget. Look at three things in this order: what the offer promises, who the advertisement was shown to, and what the page says when they land. Change one at a time, and read the last twenty enquiries before touching anything.
First, read twenty enquiries and sort them
Open the last twenty and put each in one of four piles. Could buy from us. Wants something we do not sell. Cannot afford us. Not a buyer at all: a job seeker, a supplier, a student, a competitor. Do not average them. Read them.
The piles tell you where to look. Many in "wants something we do not sell" points to the offer. Many in "cannot afford us" points to the price signal. Many in "not a buyer" points to the audience. If the piles are mixed, start with the page.
| Biggest pile | Most likely cause | Check first |
|---|---|---|
| Wants something we do not sell | The offer names a product or service loosely | The headline of the advertisement and page |
| Cannot afford us | The price band is hidden | Whether any "from" figure or example is shown |
| Not a buyer | Audience is broad, or the keyword is | Search terms, interests, and exclusions |
| Could buy, but never replies | Handling, not marketing | How fast and by whom they were called |
The fourth row is worth saying twice. Some "wrong enquiries" are right enquiries that nobody followed up. If you have not tried calling the same day, do that before blaming the ad. Our note on how quickly a team should respond covers it.
Do the sort with the person who takes the calls, not alone. The one on the phone knows which callers were wasted time and can say what they asked first. Write those first questions down; they are the words your advertisement attracted, and they will show you what it promised without meaning to.
Is the offer attracting the wrong person?
Read your advertisement as a stranger. Does it say who the product is for and who it is not for? "Interior design services" attracts anyone with a room. "Full-home interiors for 3BHK flats, projects from a stated minimum" attracts a smaller, better group.
A free offer, a cheap trial or a "get a quote in minutes" button pulls people who want the free thing. That is not always bad. But if your product starts at a few lakh and the offer is a free sample, you will get the sample hunters.
State the minimum order, the typical job size or the starting point in words. Say who you do not serve. You will lose enquiries, and you should: the lost ones were not buyers.
Is the audience wrong?
On search advertising, look at the search terms report. Find the words that triggered your advertisement and sort them. "Free", "jobs", "cheap", "how to make", "second hand" and "near me" for a service you do not offer in that area are common. Add them as exclusions, but only words that sent several wrong enquiries. One odd day is not a pattern, and a blocked word cannot bring back a buyer.
On Meta or YouTube, check who is shown the advertisement. Look at age band, area and interests. A radius that stretches into towns you cannot reach, or an audience set to "everyone", is a source of wrong enquiries. Narrow it to the places and people you can actually serve. Our guide to Meta advertising for a local business covers radius and creative.
Is the page letting the wrong people through?
Open the landing page on your phone. Count how many seconds it takes to learn what you sell, to whom, and from what price or size. If it takes more than a few, a reader has to guess, and guessers send enquiries.
Put a few filters in the form: quantity or budget range, city, and what they need. Our note on enquiry form design explains how many fields cost you completions. Add a line above the button: "We work with orders above..." or "We serve these areas...". Do not hide the limit.
For example: an office fit-out contractor in Surat
This case is invented. An office fit-out contractor in Surat pays for search advertising for "interior work". Most of the calls come from people wanting a bedroom wardrobe or a single false ceiling. The contractor's smallest sensible job is a whole office floor.
The trouble sits in the keyword and the headline: both are about interior work in general. The change is small. The keywords move to "office interior contractor" and "commercial fit-out", words like "wardrobe" and "bedroom" go onto the exclusion list, and the page says "office floors from 2,000 sq ft, in Surat and nearby". Calls fall by more than half. The ones that come are mostly offices, and the contractor spends the time quoting instead of explaining that this is not that kind of work. A fortnight passes before the first big enquiry arrives, which tests the owner's nerve.
Change one thing, then read the next twenty. If you change the keywords, the headline and the form on the same day, you will not know which one worked.
When to touch the budget
Only after those three checks. If the offer is clear, the audience is narrow and the page filters, and the enquiries are still poor, the channel itself may not suit your product. Try another for a fixed test and compare by orders, not by enquiries. Our guide to attributing orders to a source shows how to keep that score.
If the twenty are in front of you and the piles will not separate, a marketing audit looks at all three checks together, and the marketing hub shows where the fixing work sits. To start, tell us what you need.
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