A good PPC landing page does one job: it confirms the visitor is in the right place and makes the next step obvious. Most pages that waste ad spend fail on a handful of fixable points, such as a headline that doesn't match the ad, too many choices, weak proof, slow loading or broken tracking. This checklist covers the 12 fixes we check first, with a quick way to test each one.
Landing page optimisation is often where the cheapest gains sit, because you've already paid to get the visitor there.
What Makes a Good PPC Landing Page?
A PPC landing page is built for one audience, arriving from one type of ad, with one action in mind. That's different from a homepage, which has to serve everyone. The best pages feel like a continuation of the ad: same promise, same language, and a clear way to act on it.
Your landing page conversion rate is the share of visitors who complete that action. Rather than chase a benchmark from another industry, measure your own baseline and improve it fix by fix.
Does Your Page Match the Ad That Sent the Visitor?
1. Match the headline to the ad and keyword
If your ad says "Same-Day Boiler Repair in South London" and the page opens with "Welcome to Our Heating Services", the visitor has to work out whether they're in the right place. Many won't bother. Message match means the headline repeats the core promise of the ad, using the words the searcher used.
How to check: Put your top five ads side by side with their landing pages. If the main promise in the ad isn't visible in the page headline, fix it.
2. Give each page one goal
Every extra link, menu item or secondary offer is another way to leave. Decide the single action the page exists for, whether that's a quote request, a booking, a call or a purchase, and remove anything that competes with it. You can keep a phone number alongside a form if both lead to the same outcome.
How to check: Count the clickable elements that don't lead to your main conversion. Full site navigation, blog links and social icons are the usual culprits.
3. Make the top of the page do the heavy lifting
The area visible before scrolling should answer three questions: what is this, why should I care, and what do I do next. That means a clear headline, one or two lines on the benefit, and a visible call to action.
How to check: Show the top of the page to someone for five seconds, then ask what you offer and what they're meant to do. If they can't answer both, rewrite it.
Will Visitors Trust You Enough to Convert?
4. Put proof next to the decision
Visitors from paid search often don't know you. Reviews, client logos, accreditations and short case studies reduce the risk of getting in touch. Proof works best close to the call to action, not buried at the bottom of the page. Make it specific: a named review that mentions the service beats a generic "great company" quote.
How to check: Scroll to your main form or button. Is there at least one piece of genuine proof within view of it?
5. Be clear about price, process and who you are
Uncertainty kills conversions. If people have to enquire just to find out roughly what something costs or what happens next, many will go back to the search results and click a competitor. You don't always need a full price list. A "from" price, typical project ranges or a short explanation of how pricing works can be enough.
Add the basics that signal a real business: company name, address or service area, contact details, and a short "what happens after you submit" note.
How to check: Read the page as a first-time visitor. Can you tell roughly what it costs, what happens next and who you'd be dealing with?
How Do You Remove Friction From a Google Ads Landing Page?
6. Cut form fields to what you need now
Every field you add is another reason to stop. Ask for what you need to make the first contact useful, and collect the rest later. For many lead-generation businesses that's a name, a contact method and one qualifying question. B2B brands sometimes need more to filter out poor-fit leads, which is a fair trade-off, but make it a deliberate choice rather than a default.
Also check the mechanics: clear labels, helpful error messages, no CAPTCHA unless spam is a real problem, and a form that works with autofill.
How to check: Fill in your own form on your phone. Time it, and note every field you hesitated over or had to correct.
7. Write calls to action that say what happens
"Submit" and "Learn more" tell the visitor nothing. Use button text that describes the outcome, such as "Get my quote", "Book a table" or "Check availability". Repeat the call to action further down longer pages so people don't have to scroll back up.
How to check: Read only your buttons, ignoring the rest of the page. Do they make sense on their own?
8. Fix page speed and Core Web Vitals
Paid visitors are impatient, and a slow page means you pay for a click that never sees your offer. Google's Core Web Vitals guidance sets "good" targets of a Largest Contentful Paint within 2.5 seconds, an Interaction to Next Paint under 200 milliseconds and a Cumulative Layout Shift below 0.1. These are search guidelines rather than Google Ads rules, but they are a sensible standard for any page you send paid traffic to.
Common fixes include compressing and correctly sizing images, removing unused scripts and third-party widgets, and reserving space for elements so the page doesn't jump around as it loads.
How to check: Run the page through PageSpeed Insights and look at the mobile field data first, then the lab diagnostics.
9. Design for mobile first
Check where your paid traffic actually comes from in Google Ads before deciding what to prioritise. For many consumer brands it's mostly phones. On mobile, the call to action should be reachable without hunting, tap targets should be big enough, phone numbers should be tap-to-call, and pop-ups shouldn't cover the content.
How to check: Segment conversion rate by device in Google Ads. If mobile converts noticeably worse than desktop, test the page on a real phone, not just a desktop browser resized.
How Does Landing Page Experience Affect Quality Score?
10. Improve landing page experience, not just the Quality Score number
According to Google Ads Help, Quality Score is built from three components: expected click-through rate, ad relevance and landing page experience, which Google describes as how relevant and useful your landing page is to people who click your ad. Google also states that Quality Score itself isn't an input in the ad auction. It's a diagnostic tool.
That matters. Don't chase the number for its own sake. A "below average" landing page experience rating is a signal that the page doesn't deliver what the keyword and ad promise, which usually means fixes 1, 3, 5 and 9 above. Fix the experience and the ad performance tends to follow.
How to check: Add the Quality Score and landing page experience columns at keyword level in Google Ads. Start with high-spend keywords rated "below average".
How Do You Know Your Landing Page Optimisation Is Working?
11. Track the conversions that matter, properly
You can't improve what you can't measure, and broken tracking is more common than most businesses think. Make sure form submissions, calls, bookings and purchases fire as events, are marked as key events in GA4 (Google renamed GA4 "conversions" to key events) and are set up as conversion actions in Google Ads, so bidding learns from real results.
Watch for double counting, for example a thank-you page and a form event both firing for one lead, and for primary conversion actions that include low-value actions like page views.
How to check: Submit a test lead, then confirm it appears once in GA4 and once in Google Ads. Compare a month of tracked leads against what your CRM or inbox actually received.
12. A/B test the things that change decisions
Button colour tests rarely tell you much. Test the elements that change how people decide: the headline and offer, the form length, the proof shown, the price presentation or the page layout. Run one meaningful change at a time, give the test enough traffic and time to reach a reliable result, and judge it on qualified leads or revenue rather than raw conversion rate.
How to check: For each test, write down the hypothesis, the metric and the minimum run time before you start. If you can't, the test isn't ready.
When Should You Bring in a CRO Agency in London?
Many of these fixes can be done in-house. The harder part is knowing which problem costs you most, and having the skills to fix it properly.
It's worth getting help if your campaigns are spending well but leads aren't following, if your tracking numbers don't match reality, or if you've changed the page several times without a clear result. Our conversion rate optimisation service looks at the page, the data and the customer journey together, and works alongside our Google Ads management in London so the ads and the page are planned as one.
Where the page itself needs rebuilding, our conversion-focused web design team handles it, and our tracking and analytics specialists make sure GA4 and Google Ads are counting the right things.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I send Google Ads traffic to my homepage?
A: Usually not. A homepage serves every visitor, so it rarely matches a specific ad closely. A dedicated page for each main service or offer gives you better message match and a single clear goal.
What is a good landing page conversion rate?
A: It depends on your industry, offer, price point and traffic quality, so outside benchmarks are a weak guide. A better approach is to measure your own baseline accurately, then improve it. A lower rate on a high-value offer can still be very profitable.
Does landing page experience affect what I pay per click?
A: Google says Quality Score isn't an input in the auction, but the factors behind it, including landing page experience, reflect how relevant and useful your ads and pages are. Improving them generally supports better ad performance. Treat Quality Score as a diagnostic, not a target.
How many landing pages do I need for a PPC campaign?
A: Enough that each main theme in your account has a page that matches it. For a single-service business that might be one or two. For businesses with several services, locations or audiences, it's usually one page per core theme.
If your ads are getting clicks but your landing pages aren't turning them into enquiries, we can help. Kinsman & Co is a London-based Google Partner working with ecommerce, hospitality, B2B and lead-generation brands. Book a call with our CRO team and we'll walk through your pages, your tracking and the fixes most likely to make a difference.
