Send each ad to the page that repeats its words, its offer and its next step, not to the home page. Visitors stay when the page confirms the click, and quality score rates that match.

The click you paid for

Late August, a wasp nest under the deck, and somebody searching on a phone for wasp nest removal. An ad promises same-day removal, and they tap it.

The page that opens is the company's home page: a photograph of a technician, a paragraph about twenty years in business, and a grid of eleven pests. Wasps are on the second row.

Nothing on the first screen repeats the ad. Not wasps, not same day, not the town it named.

So they go back to the results and tap the next ad. The click has been paid for; the visit ended before it began.

What the visitor checks first

A person who taps an ad has just read a promise. The first thing they do on the page is look for it.

Advertisers call this message match. Visitors would call it being in the right place.

A home page fails the check for an ordinary reason: written for everyone, it confirms nothing in particular to anyone.

On a phone the problem is sharper. The first screen has room for a heading and perhaps one short paragraph, and words that are not there might as well not be on the page.

What has to carry over from the ad

The fourth goes missing most often. Ads carry claims, and claims are what visitors check first. A promise made in the ad and nowhere on the page reads like one the business would rather not repeat.

How ads end up on the home page

Nobody chooses the home page deliberately. It was the address typed in when the campaign was set up, often when it was the only page there was.

Then campaigns grow. One ad group becomes six, each for a different service, and every one still sends people to the same place.

Sometimes the right page exists, but the ads and the page were written by different people, so the page talks about pest exclusion while the ad says keeping mice out.

The fix is the same either way: one page for each promise, and each ad pointed at its page.

Why quality score follows

Google Ads scores each keyword from one to ten, using three ratings: expected click-through rate, ad relevance and landing page experience.

Landing page experience asks whether the page is relevant to the search and the ad, and easy to use on a phone. It is shown as above average, average or below average.

The rating changes what you pay. Ad position depends on the bid together with these ratings, so a well-matched page can win the same position for less.

It is also a fair summary of the visitor's view. In its own way, the rating asks the question every visitor asks in the first few seconds.

Give each ad group its own page

Each ad group should cover one service, with ads about that service and a final URL, the address the ad opens, pointing to the page about it.

Where that page does not exist, the ad group is the reason to write it: a heading in the ad's words, what is included, the price, the area, and a phone number near the top.

The display path in an expanded text ad, the two short fields after your domain, should describe that page too. So should each sitelink, which should open the page it names.

A worked example

A gutter cleaning company in a Fraser Valley town sends two crews out cleaning gutters from early fall until the last leaves are down, and installs gutter guards year round.

Its cleaning ads read Gutter Cleaning, Fully Insured, Book Before the Rains. Like the gutter guard ads, they opened the home page, which led with a sale on guards.

Cleaning was a tile further down, and the insurance details appeared only on the about page. Somebody with gutters full of leaves and the rains coming saw a page selling guards instead.

A page was written to match the ad: the heading Gutter Cleaning and Downspout Flushing, what a visit includes, prices by house size, what the insurance covers, the towns served and the next open weeks.

A short form sits beneath a phone number that can be tapped. The cleaning ads and sitelinks open that page; the gutter guard ads keep the home page, which leads with guards.

Responsive ads raise the stakes

Responsive search ads combine up to fifteen headlines in any order. Every claim among them has to be true on the landing page, including a test offer that ended months ago.

Read the headlines against the page every few months, and remove any it cannot back up.

Checking your own ads

Take the five ads that spend the most and open each final URL on a phone. Read only the first screen.

Ask the visitor's questions: are the ad's words here, is its offer here, can I act without scrolling. Any no is a page to change.

Then add the quality score columns to the keywords table and look for below average landing page experience beside expensive keywords. Those pages cost twice: a higher price per click, and a visitor who leaves.

The counter-case

Not every ad needs its own page.

Searches for your business name are different. The person already knows you, and the home page suits them, provided the phone number is easy to find.

A business offering one service, whose home page already leads with it, may be matched already. A small campaign can start with the ad groups that spend most.

Wherever the money goes, the page should repeat what the ad promised, in the ad's words, on the first screen.

Before the next invoice

  1. List your ad groups by monthly spend.
  2. Open each final URL on a phone.
  3. Read only the first screen of each page.
  4. Write a page for each promise without one.
  5. Point ads and sitelinks at the matching page.
  6. Match the display paths to the page.
  7. Check landing page experience beside each keyword.

Step three is the test that matters, because it is the visitor's own. Whatever sits below the first screen, the person who tapped the ad has usually decided before reaching it.

Writing headlines that each hold up on their own is covered in expanded text ads and the new responsive ones.

Frequently asked questions

Why not send ads to the home page?

Because it was written for everyone and confirms nothing in particular. Somebody who tapped an ad looks for its words and offer first, and leaves when they are missing.

What does message match mean in advertising?

The landing page repeats what the ad said: the same service in the same words, the same offer and area, and the action the ad asked for.

How does the landing page affect quality score?

Landing page experience is one of three ratings behind quality score, with expected click-through rate and ad relevance. Better ratings can win the same position for less.

What should the landing page show first?

The ad's words in the main heading, any offer with its conditions, the area served, the ad's claim, and the phone number or form, all before scrolling on a phone.

Do responsive search ads change anything here?

Yes. Google combines up to fifteen headlines in any order, so every claim among them must be true on the page, including old test headlines nobody removed.

Can searches for our name use the home page?

Usually. People searching for your business name already know you, and the home page suits them, provided the phone number and main services are easy to find.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Ads still sending everyone to the home page?

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