Blog Playbooks · The Benchmark Playbooks · Part 13
The nine website checks: what a lead from your ad sees on a phone
Our free benchmark report opens your website on a phone and checks nine things. Here is what each one is, why it matters to someone who just tapped an ad, and how to fix it.
We have run over 18,920 Meta ads, and every playbook in this series so far has been about the ad. This one is about what happens after the tap. An ad can do everything right and still lose the lead on the page it sends people to. Most of the time that page is your website, and most of the time the person is on a phone.
That is why our free benchmark report does not read your site the way a desktop browser does. It opens it on a phone-sized screen, looks at the first screen first, photographs it, and then reads the whole page. It checks nine things, each a plain yes or no, and then times how long the page takes to load on mobile. If a check cannot be run, for example the site does not load, it is left out of the report rather than guessed.
Source: Creative Benchmarks, benchmark.sneeze.it
The first screen: offer, button, call
The first three checks are about what someone sees before they scroll.
1. A clear offer. The report looks for a reason to act today: a free first visit, a trial, an intro price, a new customer special. Someone who tapped an ad came for something. If the page does not say what that something is, they have to work it out, and many will not bother.
2. A button on the first screen. It looks for a button or link on the first screen of a phone that asks for an action, such as book, join, start, claim or call. Many people who land from an ad never scroll. If the next step is below the fold, a lot of them never see it.
3. Tap to call. It checks whether tapping your phone number actually dials it. A number that shows on the page but cannot be tapped fails this check. On a phone, calling should take one tap. If people have to copy the number, many will not.
An ad can do everything right and still lose the lead on the page it sends people to.
The rest of the page: capture, price, proof
4. Somewhere to leave a name and number. The report looks for a form that asks for a phone number or email, or for an online booking tool. It recognizes 21 common booking and scheduling tools, so if you book through one of them, it should find it. An ad can only send you a lead if the page has somewhere to leave one.
5. Prices. It looks for a price on the page, such as a monthly rate or a per-visit price. People who see a price and still ask are ready to buy, and people who cannot find one often just leave. You do not have to show every price. A starting price, written as a monthly or per-visit rate, is enough.
6. Reviews or testimonials. It looks for reviews, testimonials or ratings on the page itself. A stranger from an ad has never heard of you. Other people saying you are good does the convincing that your own copy cannot.
The plumbing: pixel, Google tag, https, speed
The last three checks are invisible to the visitor and matter just as much.
7. The Meta pixel. The report checks that the Meta pixel is installed. The pixel tells Meta who became a lead, so it can find more people like them. Without it, Meta is guessing, and every ad you run is learning less than it could.
8. A Google tag. It checks for a Google tag, the code behind Google Analytics and Google Ads tracking. Without one you cannot see which ads and searches brought the visits that turned into customers.
9. https. It checks that the site loads securely. Phones warn people away from sites without it, and Meta trusts them less.
Plus load time. Separately from the nine, the report asks Google's PageSpeed Insights how long the main picture takes to appear on a phone. It passes at 2.5 seconds or less, which is the line Google itself counts as good. Past that, more people from an ad give up before the page appears. If PageSpeed does not answer, this line is simply left out.
The playbook: fix them in this order
You do not have to fix all nine this week. Fix them in the order that loses you the most leads first.
- Run the free report on the page your ads point to
Not your home page if your ads go somewhere else. The report should look at the exact page a lead lands on.
- Fix the plumbing first: https and the pixel
These are usually quick for whoever manages your site, and until the pixel works, Meta cannot learn from the leads you do get.
- Make sure there is somewhere to leave a lead
A short form or a booking link, visible without hunting. If you have neither, nothing else on this list matters yet.
- Put the offer and a button on the first screen
Look at the page on your own phone. Without scrolling, can you tell what you would get and what to tap? If not, move both up.
- Make the phone number tappable
Ask whoever manages your site to turn every phone number into a link that dials. It is a small change.
- Add a price and some proof
A starting price and two or three real reviews near the button. Real ones only, from real customers, with their permission.
- Check the load time last
If the main picture takes longer than 2.5 seconds on a phone, start with the largest image on the first screen. It is often the cause.
- Run the report again
Confirm each fix shows as a yes. Then look at your ad results over the following weeks, comparing like for like.
A worked example, purely hypothetical. Say you spend $1,500 a month and your ads bring 60 leads, so $25 a lead. If fixing the page meant the same clicks turned into 66 leads instead, your cost per lead would drop to about $22.73 without changing a single ad. We are not saying a fix will do that; the point is that a page fix applies to every ad you run, which is why it is worth doing before you make more ads. For what good and bad cost per lead looks like by kind of ad, see what 18,920 Meta ads say about cost per lead.
Once the page is right, the ad work in the rest of this series counts for more. A four-week creative test plan is the natural next step.