Guide · Campaigns
Landing Page Checklist for Lead Generation Campaigns
Landing page checklist: use this list to check your headline, form, proof and speed before you send paid traffic to a page. It takes about 20 minutes, and it can save a week of wasted clicks. The five parts below follow how a visitor sees the page, from the first look to the final click.
Why check the page before you buy traffic
Paid traffic costs money on every click. A weak page wastes that money. Google Ads rates the page you send people to, and it calls this score landing page experience. It sits next to expected clickthrough rate and ad relevance as one of the three parts of Quality Score.
Google describes landing page experience as how relevant and useful your page is to people who click your ad. The rating is "Above average," "Average" or "Below average." It compares you with other advertisers whose ads showed for the same keyword over the last 90 days.
Google also says Quality Score is a diagnostic tool, not a number to chase. If the landing page status is below average, it points to the page as the place to look first. The rest of this checklist gives you that look in five parts.
Sources: Google Ads Help, About Quality Score
1. Headline and offer
A visitor decides in seconds whether they are in the right place. Check these points first.
- The headline repeats the words from the ad or search. If the ad said "free quote for office cleaning," the page says so.
- One sentence under the headline says what you do and who it is for.
- One offer only. A quote, a call, a guide. Not three at once.
- The button text names the action, such as "Get my quote."
- The offer and the button are visible without scrolling on a phone.
This part maps to the relevance half of Google's definition. If the page and the ad do not match, nothing else on the list will save it. Send each ad group to its own page where you can.
Sources: Google Ads Help, About Quality Score
2. The form
The form is where most leads are lost. Every extra field is one more reason to leave.
- Ask only for what you need to make the first call or send the first reply. Name, email or phone, and one short question is often enough.
- Label every field in plain words, with the label above or beside the box.
- Use the right keyboard on a phone. A phone field should open the number pad.
- Show clear error messages next to the field that failed.
- Tell people what happens next, such as "We reply within one working day."
- Test the form yourself on a phone and on a laptop. Confirm that the lead really reaches your inbox or CRM.
That last test is the one teams skip. A broken form looks fine and costs you every click.
Sources: Google Ads Help, About Quality Score
3. Proof and trust
People who do not know you need a reason to give you their details. Proof does that job.
- Real customer names, logos or short quotes, used with permission.
- Numbers you can back up, such as years in business or projects finished.
- Your business name, address or contact details in plain sight.
- A short line on how you handle the data in the form, with a link to your privacy notice.
- No claims you cannot support. Skip "best in the city" unless you can show why.
Keep this section short. Two or three strong proof points beat a wall of badges.
Sources: Google Ads Help, About Quality Score
4. Speed and stability
Google has given public targets for page experience. In its Web Vitals guidance, three measures make up the Core Web Vitals for 2020. Each has a target.
Measure What it tracks Good target Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) Loading Within 2.5 seconds of the page starting to load First Input Delay (FID) Interactivity 100 milliseconds or less Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) Visual stability 0.1 or less Google suggests judging a page at the 75th percentile of page loads, split across mobile and desktop. A page passes when it meets all three targets at that level.
Here is the check in practice:
- Run the page through a speed tool on a phone setting, not only on desktop.
- Compress the main image and set its width and height so the text does not jump when it loads.
- Remove scripts you do not use, such as old chat widgets and extra trackers.
- Make sure the button does not move just as someone goes to tap it.
Google lists these targets as the set for 2020 and says the metrics will change over time. Treat them as a floor, not a finish line.
Sources: web.dev, Web Vitals
5. Tracking and the final test
A page you cannot measure cannot be improved. Before you spend, run through this last list.
- A thank-you page or event fires when the form is sent, so your ad account counts the lead.
- You can tell each campaign from the others, for example with tagged links.
- The page works on a small phone, a large phone and a laptop.
- The headline, offer and button match the live ad word for word.
- Someone outside your team has sent a test lead and timed the reply.
Start with a small budget for a few days. Read the results, fix the weakest part of the page, and then scale up. Keep the one-offer rule in mind as you edit, because every change should make the next step clearer.
Sources: Google Ads Help, About Quality Score
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