How do I improve ad-to-landing page relevance?

What “ad-to-landing page relevance” really means in Google Ads

Ad-to-landing page relevance is the consistency of your “promise” from the moment a person searches, to the ad they click, to the first few seconds on the landing page. When that promise is tight, you typically see higher conversion rates, lower wasted spend, and stronger overall efficiency because you’re attracting the right click and then confirming to the user that they’re in the right place.

Where relevance shows up (and how the platform evaluates it)

In Search, the most practical way to “see” relevance is through keyword-level diagnostics like Ad relevance and Landing page experience, plus the broader Quality Score (1–10). Quality Score is built from three components: Expected clickthrough rate, Ad relevance, and Landing page experience. Those component statuses are shown as Above average, Average, or Below average, and they’re benchmarked against other advertisers competing on the exact same keyword, using recent history (typically the last 90 days).

Two important mindset shifts here: first, Quality Score is a diagnostic tool, not a KPI you should chase in isolation. Second, it isn’t an input to the ad auction. Use it to find where the “promise chain” is breaking (keyword-to-ad or ad-to-page), then fix the underlying messaging, structure, or landing page experience.

Diagnose the mismatch: a fast, reliable workflow

Start with keyword-level signals (before you start rewriting everything)

If you’re trying to improve ad-to-landing page relevance, start by identifying which keywords are actually experiencing a relevance problem. Otherwise you’ll waste time polishing ad copy in ad groups that are already aligned, while missing the handful of keywords causing the drag.

• In the keyword reporting view, add columns for Quality Score, Ad relevance, Landing page experience, and Expected CTR.
• Add the historical versions of those same columns (the “(hist.)” metrics) so you can tell whether your changes are improving the trend or you’re just seeing noise.
• Segment by day when you’re actively testing, so you can spot when the diagnostic status shifts after launches or landing page updates.

Then trace the full “promise chain”: query → keyword theme → ad → landing page

Once you’ve found the keywords with weak Ad relevance and/or Landing page experience, work in this order: fix account structure first, fix ad messaging second, fix landing page content third, and fix technical destination issues throughout. In my experience, most “relevance” problems are really “one ad group is trying to do three jobs,” which forces one generic ad to point to one generic page. The result is a click that feels slightly off, even if the offer is decent.

A clean diagnostic question to ask: “If I removed the logo and navigation, could a user still tell they landed on the exact thing the ad promised within the first screen?” If the answer is no, relevance will be hard to sustain no matter how much you bid.

Fixes that move the needle: aligning ads, landing pages, and destinations

1) Tighten ad groups so each one has one clear intent and one best landing page

Your fastest relevance gains usually come from separating unlike keywords into separate ad groups (or separate campaigns if needed). Group keywords by theme or product/service category, not by “everything we sell.” When each ad group represents a single intent, you can write ads that mirror that intent, and you can choose a landing page that fulfills it without forcing users to hunt.

When you rebuild structure, don’t overcomplicate it. The goal is simple: each ad group should have a small set of closely related keywords that can all honestly share the same primary headline message and the same most-relevant landing page. If you find yourself writing “catch-all” headlines to cover the ad group, the ad group is too broad.

2) Write ads that echo user language and make one clear promise

For responsive search ads, use the Ad strength feedback as a practical guardrail while you build relevance. Provide a full set of varied headlines and descriptions, keep them genuinely unique, and avoid pinning too aggressively unless you have a compliance reason. Stronger asset variety helps the system assemble combinations that better match different searches within your theme.

Relevance improves when your ad text uses the same language the user searched and the landing page uses. That doesn’t mean awkward keyword repetition; it means clarity. If the keyword theme is “emergency plumber,” your ad should unmistakably communicate emergency plumbing (not just “plumbing services”), and your landing page should immediately confirm availability, service area, and next step.

Also make your call-to-action consistent. If your ad pushes “Book online,” the landing page should make booking the primary action. If your ad pushes “Call now,” the landing page should make calling effortless, especially on mobile.

3) Make the landing page instantly confirm the ad’s promise

Landing page relevance isn’t about stuffing keywords into paragraphs. It’s about expectation matching. The landing page should closely match the ad and keywords, and it should mirror the call-to-action. Put the most important information near the top so users don’t have to scroll to figure out whether they’re in the right place.

From a practical CRO standpoint, I look for five “above the fold” elements that keep relevance high: a headline that repeats the core promise, a short supporting line that clarifies who it’s for, a proof element (like reviews, guarantees, or key differentiators), a primary call-to-action that matches the ad, and a visible confirmation of the offer (pricing, promotion, availability, or what happens next).

Don’t ignore usability. Pages that are cluttered, pop-up heavy, or frustrating to navigate tend to erode both user confidence and conversion rate. Clear navigation, fast access to the next step, and genuinely useful, original content make it easier for the click to turn into a lead or sale.

4) Eliminate “destination friction” that quietly destroys relevance

Even if your messaging is perfect, relevance collapses when the destination doesn’t load reliably, can’t be crawled, or doesn’t match what the ad claims it will open. At minimum, your final URL must be correct and functional, and your expanded URL (final URL plus tracking templates/parameters) must lead to the same content users expect.

This is where I see experienced teams get tripped up: tracking setups and redirects. If your tracking template routes users to different content than the final URL, or redirects users across domains, you can run into destination mismatch problems and create a broken, inconsistent experience. If you use tracking in the final URL itself, you may need to insert the {ignore} tag before tracking parameters to prevent mismatches. If you’re using tracking templates, using a landing-page macro like {unescapedlpurl} helps keep tracking separated from the actual landing page address, so URL changes don’t create hidden inconsistencies.

• Confirm the final URL loads on common devices and doesn’t return server/client errors.
• Confirm the expanded URL (with tracking applied) resolves to the same content as the final URL.
• Avoid redirects that send users to a different domain than the one implied by the ad.
• Ensure the destination is accessible in the locations you’re targeting (no region blocks that prevent access).
• Ensure your site isn’t blocking the AdsBot crawler (for example via robots.txt restrictions or unreadable robots.txt).

5) Use the Landing pages view to spot mobile and speed issues that affect outcomes

Relevance isn’t just “topic match”; it’s also the experience of getting what you clicked for without friction. In the Landing pages reporting area, review mobile-focused columns like Mobile-friendly click rate and Valid AMP click rate to identify pages that fail mobile usability checks or don’t consistently load as valid AMP (if you use AMP). You can also view expanded landing pages to see the real, fully assembled URLs that users and crawlers hit, which is extremely helpful for diagnosing tracking-related inconsistencies.

If mobile speed is a chronic issue and your business is heavily mobile-driven, consider building faster mobile landing pages (including AMP where it fits your stack). Faster load times tend to reduce abandonment, which supports both conversion performance and the overall post-click experience.

How to apply this in a real account (without getting stuck in endless rewrites)

If you want a simple execution plan: pick one campaign, then pick the ad groups with the most spend and the weakest Landing page experience and/or Ad relevance statuses. Split mixed-intent ad groups into tighter themes, write responsive search ads that clearly match each theme, and point each ad group to the most specific landing page that fulfills that theme’s promise. Finally, verify that the expanded URL lands on the same content and that crawlers can access it. Do that consistently, and ad-to-landing page relevance stops being a vague concept and becomes an operational habit that lifts conversion rate while reducing wasted clicks.

Improving ad-to-landing page relevance in Google Ads starts by tightening the “promise chain” from the search query to the keyword theme, then to the ad, and finally to what users see above the fold on the landing page; a practical way to spot where that chain breaks is to review keyword-level diagnostics like Ad relevance and Landing page experience (using Quality Score as a troubleshooting signal), then focus fixes on the small set of keywords and ad groups dragging performance by splitting mixed-intent ad groups, rewriting ads to echo real user language and make one clear promise, and updating the landing page so the headline, proof, and primary CTA immediately confirm that promise—while also eliminating destination friction like broken URLs, redirects, or tracking mismatches. If you want help operationalizing this consistently, Blobr connects to your Google Ads and can run specialized agents such as the Campaign Landing Page Optimizer and Keyword Landing Optimizer to check ad-to-page alignment at scale and surface concrete, ready-to-apply recommendations without you having to manually audit every keyword and URL.