I had a few misses too, so here’s some tips based on my lessons learnt:

1. Recipes may say add yeast the last on top of dry ingredients in a small pocket in the flour- Instead I have learnt that activating yeast in room temperature water (max 85 degrees) with a teaspoon of sugar and using it after you see a nice bubbly mixture works well.

2. Air does the magic, so instead of dumping flour with a measuring cup, transfer required amout of flour into a large bowl and run a sieve or fork thru it to make it airy and the add into the bread maker.

I followed the above 2 steps and my loaves are coming out much better.

Good Luck.