- An ad promises one thing, and the page it opens should deliver exactly that.
- One offer, one action. Call, book or request a quote, and nothing else to distract from it.
- Google Ads rates landing page experience as one part of an ad's Quality Score.
- Track where each lead came from, so you know which ads pay for themselves.
Why your homepage lets ads down
Picture someone tapping an ad that says "Fall furnace tune-up, $99". They land on your homepage: a menu with twelve services, a photo slider, a paragraph about your history. The $99 offer isn't mentioned anywhere they can see.
They paid attention to your ad for three seconds. Your homepage asked them to start over, and most won't.
What a landing page is
A landing page is a single page built for one campaign. It repeats the promise from the ad, explains the offer, shows proof that you're good at it, and asks for one action. There's no full menu and nothing else competing for attention.
You can have one for a seasonal offer, a new service, a flyer or a radio spot. Each campaign gets its own page.
What Google looks at
If you run Google Ads, the landing page isn't only about conversions. Google rates each ad's Quality Score on three things: expected clickthrough rate, ad relevance and landing page experience. Landing page experience is how relevant and useful the page is to the people who click.
A page that matches the ad's promise gives you the best chance on that third measure. A general homepage often doesn't.
What a good trades landing page includes
- A headline that matches the ad. If the ad says "$99 furnace tune-up", so does the top of the page.
- The offer, stated plainly. What's included, the price, and any limits or deadline. Be clear about taxes and conditions.
- Where you work. The towns you serve, so people outside your area don't waste a call.
- Proof. Recent Google reviews, the licences or certifications you hold and your warranty.
- One clear action. A tap-to-call button, a short form or online booking. Pick one main action and make it obvious.
- Fast loading on a phone. Most ad clicks come from phones, so test it on yours.
- Consent wording on the form. Say how you'll contact them and that they can opt out of texts.
Track every lead
The point of paying for ads is knowing what you got for the money. Give each campaign its own page, and add tracking tags (often called UTM parameters) to your ad links, so every lead arrives labelled with the campaign it came from.
Then compare a simple number for each campaign: what you spent, divided by the leads it brought in. Keep the ads that bring jobs at a cost that makes sense, and stop the ones that don't.
Common mistakes
- One page for every ad. A furnace ad and a drain-cleaning ad need different pages.
- Forms that ask too much. Name, phone and the job are enough to start.
- Offers that have expired. An ad that still runs after the deal ended costs you trust.
- No phone number. Plenty of people still want to call. Make the number tappable.
When it's worth it
A landing page earns its keep when you're paying for attention: search ads, social ads, mailers with a QR code, radio or a trade-show offer. For people who already know your name and type it into Google, your homepage is fine.
When you send ad clicks to a landing page, make sure the leads land somewhere you'll see them quickly. Our guide on why contact forms lose jobs explains why speed matters.
Put this to work
Dedicated Campaign Landing Page is a Velocity accelerator component, at C$97/mo + C$150 setup. Velocity follows your Traction trial, so the first step is Traction's 30-day free trial.
This article is general information for business owners, not legal advice. Survey figures are US consumer research where noted; we are not aware of equivalent published Canadian surveys and do not present them as Canadian data.