Landing Page Checklist for Facebook and Google Ads

An ad’s job is to get the right person to click. The landing page’s job is everything after that. When an ad gets cheap clicks and no sales, the page is usually the reason, and no amount of new creative will fix it.

This checklist is what we go through before we send paid traffic anywhere. It’s written for small e-commerce brands and local businesses, and it works for Meta, Google and TikTok traffic alike. Go through it on your phone, because that’s where most of your ad clicks will land.

1. Message match

The page must continue the conversation the ad started. If the ad promised one thing and the page talks about something else, people leave in seconds.

• The headline repeats the ad’s main promise, in similar words.
• The product or service in the ad is the first thing on the page, not one item in a grid of twenty.
• The offer in the ad (discount, free trial, free consultation, bundle) is visible without scrolling.
• The image or video on the page looks like the ad, so people know they’re in the right place.
• If you run several angles, each angle has its own page or at least its own headline.

The last point matters most for Google Search. Someone who searched “teeth whitening price” should land on a page about teeth whitening with the price on it, not on your homepage.

2. Speed and mobile

Ad clicks are expensive. A slow page throws some of them away before anyone sees anything.

• The page loads quickly on a normal mobile connection. Test it with Google’s free PageSpeed Insights and fix the biggest items it lists.
• Images are compressed and sized for mobile.
• Nothing jumps around while the page loads.
• Text is readable without zooming, and buttons are big enough to tap with a thumb.
• No pop-up covers the page in the first seconds. A cookie banner is required in many cases; an email pop-up on top of it is not.
• The page works inside the Facebook and Instagram in-app browser. Open your ad’s link from the app itself and check, because some checkouts and logins behave differently there.

3. The offer and the action

• There is one main action: buy, book, call, send a message or fill in a form. Not five.
• The button says what happens: “Book a free consultation”, not “Submit”.
• The price is visible, or it’s clear how to find out. Hidden prices make people leave to search elsewhere.
• Shipping costs and delivery times are shown before checkout. Surprise costs at checkout are a common reason people abandon carts.
• For local businesses: the address, opening hours and a tap-to-call phone number are easy to find.
• Forms ask only what you really need. Every extra field costs leads.

If you’re not sure your offer is strong enough, our list of offer ideas for local business ads can help.

4. Proof and trust

A stranger who just clicked an ad doesn’t trust you yet. Give them reasons to.

• Real reviews near the top, ideally with names and dates. If you have good Google reviews, show the rating and a few of them.
• Photos of the real product, place or team, not only stock images.
• Answers to the three or four doubts people have before buying (Does it fit? What if it doesn’t work? How long does it take? Can I cancel?).
• A clear returns, refund or cancellation policy.
• Recognisable payment methods for the country you sell in. Shoppers in different European countries expect different ones.
• Every claim on the page can be backed up. For health, beauty and food, use only claims you’re allowed to make.

5. Tracking

If you can’t measure what happens after the click, you can’t tell which ads work.

• The Meta Pixel (and the Conversions API if you use it) fires on the page view, the key steps and the purchase or lead. See Meta Pixel setup for a small business.
• Google Ads conversion tracking or GA4 is set up for the same actions. See GA4 setup for a small business.
• The purchase or lead is counted once, not twice on a page refresh.
• Your links carry UTM parameters, so you can see each campaign in your analytics.
• Tracking respects the visitor’s cookie choice, and your consent setup passes that choice to Google and Meta. Our guide to cookie consent for small business sites explains the basics.
• Phone calls are tracked if calls are a main source of leads.

Test it yourself: make a test purchase or submit a test lead, then check that it shows up in Meta Events Manager and in Google.

6. Legal basics for selling in Europe

This isn’t legal advice, but these come up again and again with small brands advertising in Europe:

• A privacy policy that names the tools you use for tracking and ads.
• Clear company details. In Germany and Austria, commercial websites need a legal notice (Impressum) with specific information.
• Prices for consumers include VAT, and any extra costs are stated.
• If you show a discount, the “before” price must be a real previous price. EU rules require it to be the lowest price of the last 30 days before the discount, in most cases.
• Terms of sale and information about the right of withdrawal for online purchases.

When in doubt, ask a lawyer in the country you sell in.

How to use this checklist

Don’t try to fix everything at once. Score your page against each section, then fix the section with the most gaps first. Message match and the offer usually make the biggest difference, then speed, then proof.

After every change, give it enough traffic to judge, and change one thing at a time when you can. If you’re also testing new creatives, keep the page stable during the test, so you know which change moved the results.

The free Paid Ads Workbook starts with the questions to answer before you pay for traffic at all, including where your ad should send people. And if you want to see what your local competitors’ pages and offers look like, run the free competitor check.