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Does your landing page keep the promise your ad makes?

An ad starts a conversation and the landing page has to continue it. A message-match checklist that runs from the search someone makes to the enquiry they send.

By Digital Advisors Publisher Bob Jones 2 min read

A printed search ad card on the left joined by a taut string to a smartphone showing a web page on the right, on a magenta background. Two bold labels, "AD" on the card and "PAGE" on the phone, with a large green tick between them.
Illustration: Digital Advisors

An ad starts a conversation. The page it leads to has to continue it. A visitor should never have to work out whether they’ve landed in the right place. This checklist runs from the search someone makes to the enquiry they send.

Put the journey side by side

Write down the search or audience you are targeting, the ad headline, the landing-page headline and the primary action. Read the four in order. Do they describe the same service, area and next step?

An illustrative example: an ad for garden tidy-ups in a particular suburb should lead to a page that explains that service and where it’s available. A generic page listing every landscaping service leaves the visitor doing work the page should have done.

Check what could be misunderstood

  • Is the advertised offer actually on the page?
  • Are qualifications or exclusions visible before the visitor enquires?
  • Does the main button describe what happens next?
  • Does the form ask only for information needed for that next step?
  • Does the confirmation set a realistic expectation for a reply?

Run this review on a phone as well as a desktop. Check the actual destination URL, not just the page you meant the ad to use.

Agree what counts as a useful enquiry

A form submission is not automatically a suitable customer. Record whether each enquiry matches the service area, type of work and capacity of the business, and keep that separate from raw enquiry volume. With those counts, our enquiry conversion calculator shows your landing page’s visit-to-enquiry rate and how many enquiries become customers.

The enquiry tracker records a source, status and next action for each one. Keep the file in your own business storage and leave sensitive customer details out of shared copies.

Make one coherent change

If the offer is unclear, change the ad and page together. If the offer is clear but the form fails, fix the form first. Record what changed so the next review compares against a known version of the campaign. The weekly marketing review is a simple way to do that.

Disclosure: AdPages, a Google Ads and landing page service, shares ownership with Digital Advisors. This checklist works with any advertising provider and does not imply a guaranteed conversion rate.

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