A landing page is where paid traffic arrives, and it decides whether the click was worth buying. The advert can only get somebody there. Everything after that is the page's job.
Why the landing page matters more than the advert
Improving an advert changes how many people click. Improving the page changes how many of those people become customers, and that multiplies through every number after it.
Consequently the same budget can produce very different results with identical targeting. A page converting twice as well halves your cost per customer without a single change to the campaign.
Cost per lead, cost per customer and return on spend all move when the page moves. So how those measurements join up is worth reading before you touch any campaign setting.
Continue the advert, do not restart it
The most common fault is sending paid traffic to a homepage, where the visitor has to start again and work out whether you do the thing they searched for.
A landing page should repeat the promise in the advert, in similar words, above the fold. If somebody clicked an advert about emergency repairs, the first thing on the page should be about emergency repairs rather than about your company history.
That match is worth more than any design change. It is also the cheapest to fix.
What belongs on a landing page
Six things, and very little else.
- A headline saying exactly what this is and who it is for.
- The specific detail that separates you, such as speed or coverage.
- What happens after somebody enquires, and how long it takes.
- Answers to the two or three objections everybody raises.
- Proof, in the form of real reviews or real work.
- One clear action, repeated where a decision gets made.
Notice how much is missing. A landing page is not a website, and every extra choice on it reduces the chance of the one you wanted.
What to remove from a landing page
Removing is usually more effective than adding, and it is faster.
Take out the full navigation, since every link is an exit. The second and third call to action compete with the first, so those go as well. Then remove the paragraphs about your history, the stock photography that could belong to anybody, and anything requiring the visitor to decide what to do next.
Forms, and the trade they represent
Every field you add lowers the number of people who finish and raises the quality of the ones who do.
That is a trade rather than a rule, so make it deliberately. Ask for what you genuinely need to respond usefully, plus at most one qualifying question. Then say what happens next, because uncertainty is what stops people at the last step.
Landing page speed, and phones
Most paid traffic arrives on a phone, on mobile data, from somebody with limited patience.
So test the landing page on a real phone away from office broadband. Check the thing you want people to do is reachable without scrolling past three screens. Check the phone number dials with one tap. A page taking several seconds to appear loses a share of the traffic you have already paid for.
Testing a landing page properly
Change one thing at a time, and give it enough visitors that the result means something.
Headlines, the offer, the form length and the proof usually move results most. Button colours rarely do. Decide in advance what result would make you keep the change, then act on it rather than starting a third version while the second is still running.
Where volume is low, sequential testing over longer periods is honest enough, provided you compare like periods rather than a busy month against a quiet one.
Keep a record of what you tried and what happened. Landing page work repeats itself across campaigns, and a note from six months ago saves you rediscovering the same answer twice.
One page per thing you sell
A single page covering nine services matches none of the searches that brought people to it.
Build one landing page for each campaign, matching the promise closely. That sounds like more work and usually is not, because the pages share a structure and differ only in the specifics that matter.
Measuring the right thing
Conversion rate on its own can be improved by attracting fewer, better visitors, which is not the same as improving the page.
So look at conversion rate alongside the quality of what arrives. A page whose enquiries close at half the rate of another page is worse, even with a higher conversion rate. That comparison needs somebody in the business marking which enquiries were real.
Where to start
Take the campaign spending most, look at where it sends people, and ask whether the first screen answers the search that produced the click.
Fix that, remove the navigation, shorten the form by one field, and check it on a phone. Landing page work is unglamorous and it usually returns more than anything available inside an advertising platform.
Then leave it alone long enough to see the effect. Because the traffic is bought rather than earned, the answer arrives quickly, and a fortnight is usually enough to know whether the change helped.
Frequently asked questions
Why does the landing page matter more than the advert?
Because improving the advert changes how many people click, while improving the page changes how many of them become customers. A page converting twice as well halves your cost per customer with no campaign change at all.
Can I send paid traffic to my homepage?
You can, and it is the most common expensive mistake. A homepage makes the visitor start again and work out whether you offer what they searched for. Send them to a page about that exact thing.
What should be on the page?
A headline saying what this is and who it is for, the detail that separates you, what happens after enquiring, answers to the usual objections, real proof, and one clear action. Very little else belongs there.
Should I remove the navigation?
For paid traffic, usually yes. Every link is an exit, and a landing page is not a website. Removing competing choices tends to improve results faster and more reliably than adding anything new.
How long should the form be?
As long as you genuinely need, plus at most one qualifying question. Each field lowers completions and raises quality, so treat it as a deliberate trade. Say what happens next, because uncertainty stops people at the last step.
What should I test first?
Headlines, the offer, form length and proof. Those move results most. Button colours rarely do. Change one thing at a time, give it enough visitors to mean something, and decide in advance what would make you keep it.
Do I need a separate page for each campaign?
Yes, where the campaigns promise different things. One page covering nine services matches none of the searches that brought people to it. The pages share a structure and differ only in the specifics that matter.
Is conversion rate enough to judge a page?
No, because it can rise simply by attracting fewer visitors. Look at conversion rate alongside how well those enquiries close. A page with a higher rate and worse enquiries is the weaker of the two.