Why is my landing page conversion rate so low?

1) Make sure the “low conversion rate” is real (not a measurement or attribution issue)

Confirm your conversion action is firing on the right step

Before changing your landing page, verify that your conversion rate is being measured correctly. I’ve seen plenty of “low conversion rate” situations that were actually “conversion tracking isn’t recording,” which makes every landing page look like it’s failing.

In Google Ads, start in the Goals area and check the Status column for the conversion action you’re optimizing toward. If the status is inactive, failing, or “no recent conversions,” your conversion rate can look artificially low even if users are converting.

Then validate the user journey end-to-end: click an ad (or a test URL with the same tracking parameters), complete the action, and confirm the conversion is recorded. If you’re using a tag-based setup, use Tag Assistant to confirm the tag fires at the moment the conversion happens (for example, on the thank-you page load or a successful form-submit event).

Watch for common tracking pitfalls that depress reported conversion rate

A few issues come up constantly. The conversion tag may be installed, but the configuration doesn’t match the intended conversion action (for example, the wrong conversion identifiers), or it fires on the wrong page (like the form page instead of the confirmation). You can also see problems when the “success” step happens in a modal, inside an iframe, or via an on-page message that never triggers a trackable event.

If you’re using enhanced conversions, validate that user-provided data is actually being captured at conversion time (not just “enabled in settings”). After implementation, you’ll typically want to review diagnostics after enough time has passed for the system to populate the reporting and health checks.

Account for reporting delays, conversion windows, and attribution model effects

Conversion rate can look worse than reality when your sales cycle is longer than you think. If users convert days after the click, your recent date ranges will undercount conversions until enough time passes. This is especially noticeable when you’re checking “last 7 days” performance on higher-consideration offers.

Also remember that attribution settings influence what gets credit. Google Ads supports data-driven attribution and last click, and older attribution models have been deprecated and migrated in many accounts. If your conversion rate changed after an attribution change, that doesn’t always mean the landing page got worse—it may mean credit is being redistributed across interactions.

• Immediate checkpoint: Test a real conversion, then confirm it appears in Google Ads for the correct conversion action.
• Settings checkpoint: Confirm the conversion window matches your buying cycle so you’re not undercounting lagged conversions.
• Attribution checkpoint: If you changed attribution models recently, compare performance over a longer period to avoid false “landing page” conclusions.

2) Diagnose landing page experience issues that silently kill conversions

Mobile experience and speed: the fastest way to lose high-intent users

If you’re buying clicks from mobile (you probably are), speed and mobile usability are often the biggest conversion-rate killers. Google Ads provides a dedicated Landing pages view that helps you quickly spot mobile issues using columns like Mobile-friendly click rate and (if applicable) Valid AMP click rate.

When Mobile-friendly click rate is below 100%, you’re effectively paying for clicks that frequently land on pages that fail mobile usability checks. That typically translates to higher bounce, lower engagement, and fewer conversions—especially on lead gen forms, where friction compounds fast on a small screen.

Speed is equally critical. Even small delays can materially impact mobile conversions, and this tends to show up as “my ads get clicks but nothing happens.” If speed is a known problem and you need an aggressive solution, AMP can be used for eligible experiences, and it’s worth considering when the business case supports it.

Pop-ups, interstitials, and “frustrating” navigation behaviors

Some pages technically work but convert poorly because they interrupt the user. Intrusive pop-ups or interstitials that block the content the user expected to see are a classic example. Another common culprit is anything that interferes with normal navigation patterns (like disabling the browser’s back button, or using misleading click areas). These behaviors reduce trust and can cause users to abandon—even when the offer is good.

From a pure performance standpoint, the cleanest high-converting pages tend to do one thing well: immediately confirm to the user they’re in the right place, then make the next step obvious.

Thin pages and low perceived value (“Why should I trust this?”)

Landing pages that feel like placeholders—thin content, unclear offer, vague claims, or pages that exist mainly to push users somewhere else—almost always convert poorly. Even if you’re not running into formal enforcement issues, users respond the same way: they hesitate, they leave, and your conversion rate sinks.

For ecommerce, this often shows up as sparse product pages without enough clarity on pricing, shipping, returns, or what happens after checkout. For lead gen, it’s usually “form-first, value-later” pages that ask for information before earning the right to ask.

3) Fix technical and policy-related destination problems that ruin the post-click journey

“Destination not working,” “destination mismatch,” and crawl/access problems

Sometimes your conversion rate is low because the landing page experience is inconsistent across users, devices, or locations. Google Ads policy enforcement highlights common patterns: pages that don’t function properly, return errors for crawlers on common devices, redirect unexpectedly, or aren’t accessible in targeted locations.

Even if your page loads for you, it may fail for users due to geoblocks, bot protections that accidentally block legitimate traffic, broken device-specific redirects, or intermittent server issues. Any of those can turn paid clicks into dead sessions, which tanks conversion rate quickly.

Tracking templates, redirects, and URL hygiene

From a conversion standpoint, every extra hop introduces risk: slower load, higher drop-off, and more chances for something to break on certain browsers. Ensure your final URL accurately reflects where users land, avoid redirects to a different domain, and keep your tracking setup consistent so users (and systems) see the same destination content expected from the ad.

If you’re layering tracking parameters, keep them purposeful. Unnecessary parameters can slow things down, complicate caching strategies (if you use AMP), and make debugging far harder than it needs to be.

4) Improve traffic-to-page alignment (because the “wrong click” will never convert)

Search intent mismatch: your landing page can’t save a bad query

One of the most overlooked reasons for low landing page conversion rate is simple: you’re attracting clicks from searches that don’t match your offer. In that case, the landing page isn’t the real problem—your targeting is.

Use the search terms report and search-term-level insights to understand what people were actually looking for when they clicked. If you see informational intent (research queries) but you’re sending users to a “buy now” page, conversion rate will stay low until you either change the targeting or build a landing page designed for that research stage.

Use match types and negative keywords to stop paying for low-intent clicks

Keyword match types are your control lever. Broader matching can bring in more volume, but it can also introduce irrelevant variations that look close on paper yet convert terribly in practice. Tighten keyword themes, and add negative keywords proactively based on what you see in the search terms report.

If you manage multiple campaigns or a large account, account-level negative keywords can be a practical way to prevent the same irrelevant themes from leaking into Search and Shopping inventory across the account.

Ad-to-landing-page message consistency (a major Quality Score lever, too)

When users click an ad, they have a mental expectation of what they’ll see next. If your landing page doesn’t immediately match that expectation—same offer, same terminology, same “what happens next”—you’ll see bounce and low conversion rate even with strong intent traffic.

This is also closely tied to landing page experience as a Quality Score component. Better alignment doesn’t just help conversion rate; it can also support stronger overall efficiency because you’re creating a more cohesive experience from keyword to ad to page.

If your landing page conversion rate looks low, it’s often a mix of “measurement” and “experience” problems: the primary conversion may not be firing on the real success step (or is delayed by attribution settings), mobile speed or intrusive interstitials can quietly push high-intent users away, destination or redirect issues can break the path from ad to page, and even when the page is fine, mismatched search intent, broad match expansion, missing negatives, or inconsistent ad-to-page messaging can send the wrong traffic. Blobr helps you work through these root causes directly from your Google Ads data by continuously monitoring what changed, flagging wasted spend and misalignment, and turning best practices into clear, prioritized actions; and if landing-page relevance is the culprit, agents like the Campaign Landing Page Optimizer and Keyword Landing Optimizer can evaluate ad-to-page consistency and recommend the most relevant page and structure per keyword and ad group.