The ad and the page,
built as one asset

The landing page affects ad cost directly on Google and indirectly everywhere else. On Google, landing-page experience feeds Quality Score, and a better score lowers your cost per click for the same ad position.

Indirectly, the effect is often larger. A page that converts twice as well halves your cost per acquisition without touching the media budget, and that holds on Meta, TikTok and every other platform. Platforms also learn from conversions, so a page that produces more of them gives the algorithm better data and improves delivery. This is why we look at the page before we raise a budget: a fix to the first screen is frequently cheaper than any amount of extra spend.

You need a separate landing page for every meaningfully different promise or audience, but not for every keyword. Building one per keyword produces dozens of thin pages that nobody maintains and that age badly.

The test we use is simple: would the first screen need to change? If a campaign for wedding venues and a campaign for corporate event venues need different headlines, images and proof, they need different pages. If two keyword groups are really asking for the same thing, one page serves both. Where small differences matter, such as the city name or the service in the headline, we use dynamic text on a single page instead of copying the whole thing several times over.

Message match means the landing page visibly repeats the promise, wording and look of the ad that brought the visitor there. When it is strong, people know within a second that they are in the right place; when it is weak, many leave immediately.

In practice that covers several things: the headline restates the offer from the ad, the same image or colours appear, the price or discount mentioned in the ad is visible without scrolling, and the button asks for the same action. A common failure is sending a specific ad, such as a spring offer, to a general home page that never mentions it. We check match for every ad in an account, not only the new ones, because old ads drift.

Most ads should go to a dedicated landing page or a specific service page, not to the home page. A home page has to serve every visitor, so it offers many choices and rarely matches the single promise an ad has just made.

There are exceptions. Brand search ads can reasonably go to the home page, because the person is looking for you in general. Very small businesses with one service sometimes have a home page that already works as a landing page. For everything else, a focused page with one message and one action converts better. Where a dedicated page is needed, our web team builds it in your existing site so it shares your design and tracking.

A landing page for paid ads should include a headline that repeats the ad’s promise, a clear explanation of the offer, proof that it is credible and one obvious action. Everything else is secondary and should support those four things.

A typical structure we use:

• A first screen with the headline, a supporting line, a relevant image and the main button.
• Specific detail on what the buyer gets, including price or a price guide where the ad mentioned it.
• Proof such as reviews, examples of past work or recognisable partners, only if they are real.
• Answers to the two or three objections that stop people enquiring.
• A short form asking only for what you actually need.

It must load quickly on a phone, since most ad traffic is mobile.

When ads get clicks but no enquiries, the cause is usually on the landing page or in the tracking, not in the ad itself. The ad has done its job by earning the click; something after the click is losing the person.

We check in this order. First, tracking: is the form actually reporting submissions, or are enquiries arriving by phone and email without being counted? Second, message match: does the page say what the ad promised? Third, the page itself: speed on mobile, a confusing first screen, a long form or a missing price. Fourth, the traffic: are the search terms or audiences genuinely relevant? Most problems show up within the first two checks, and both are fast to fix.