What to check on your website before launching ads

Ads are paid for by impressions or clicks, not by inquiries. If the website is not ready to receive a person, the budget is spent and inquiries do not come. A check before launch takes little effort and pays off. Below - what to look at.

Why check your website before launching ads?

Ads only bring a person to the page. After that, the website decides: whether the offer is clear, whether it is easy to leave an inquiry and whether the inquiry reaches you. If something is broken along this path, no ad settings will fix it.

Besides, without analytics you will not know what worked and what did not, and you will not be able to reallocate the budget.

Does the inquiry form work?

This is the main point. Send a test inquiry from a phone and from a computer and make sure it arrived where it should: in your email, a work chat or a spreadsheet.

Also check the message after sending: the person should see that the inquiry has been received. If the form silently reloads the page, they may send it again or leave. I described other reasons why a website may not bring inquiries in the article Why Your Website Gets No Leads.

Does the page match the ad?

A person clicks an ad about a specific service and expects to see exactly that service. If they land on the home page, where this service is not mentioned, they leave.

Send ads to a page that delivers on the promise of the ad. For a separate service this can be a landing page - I wrote about how to build it in the article Landing page for a service: which blocks you need and in what order.

Is the offer clear on the first screen?

A person from an ad has little patience. On the first screen they should understand what you offer, for whom and what to do next. If they have to scroll for that, attention is lost.

Test yourself: show the first screen to someone you know and ask what is being sold here. More on this - in the article The hero section: what belongs on the first screen.

How does the website look on a phone?

A person from an ad may come from a phone, so check the website on a phone, not only on a computer:

Text - reads without zooming in.

Buttons - can be tapped with a finger and do not overlap.

Form - is easy to fill in, the keyboard does not cover the fields.

Phone number - can be tapped and opens a call.

Is analytics set up?

Without analytics, ads turn into guesswork. Before launch, check:

Tracking code - installed and registering visits.

Goals - a form submission counts as an inquiry.

Link tags - they show which ad a person came from.

Then you will see not only clicks, but also which ads bring inquiries.

Are contacts and prices visible?

If a person would rather call or message you than fill in a form, the contacts should be in plain sight. Make sure the phone number and messenger are visible without searching.

If the page shows no price, a person from an ad may leave for a competitor who shows it. Show at least a "from" guide.

How much does an ad-ready website cost?

A landing page - from $190, a multipage website - from $490, a complex project - on request. In a landing page for ads I include a form with a submission confirmation, a mobile version and goals in analytics. The article Landing page or multipage website: what your business needs will help you choose the format.

If your ads are already running but inquiries are few, write to me - I will look at the website and tell you what is getting in the way.