The page the click lands on
Landing pages for Birmingham ads
The page sets the cost per click as well as the conversion rate
Every click you buy lands somewhere, and that page decides two numbers at once: how many of the clicks become enquiries, and, through Quality Score, how much each click costs you for the same position. We build the page or fix the one you have, in the same account and under the same fee as the campaign, because the developer and the PPC manager here are the same person. One search, one page, one thing to do, usable on a phone in under three seconds.
Test your page now
Quence, our free tool, loads the page as a phone on a slow connection would and reports the speed, the form, the number and the headings. No email address needed.
The first three seconds
What a Birmingham searcher needs to see before they scroll
Someone who typed “boiler repair Sutton Coldfield” on a phone, standing in a cold kitchen, gives the page about three seconds. Everything in the first screen exists for them.
- 1
The search, repeated
"Boiler repair in Sutton Coldfield" as the heading, not "Welcome to our website". They need to know they are in the right place before anything else.
- 2
The area, stated honestly
Sutton Coldfield, Erdington and Four Oaks, or B72 to B76, so someone in Solihull knows to ring someone else. A page that claims the whole of Birmingham converts worse everywhere.
- 3
The number, as a button
A tap-to-call link at the top, tracked, with the hours it is answered beside it. On a phone the number is the form.
- 4
The form, short
Name, phone, postcode, one line about the job. Every extra field costs enquiries; the details can be asked on the call.
- 5
What happens next
"We ring back within an hour in working hours" is worth more than three paragraphs about the company. Say it, and then keep to it.
- 6
One reason to choose you
A Gas Safe number, a fixed call-out price, a photograph of the actual van. Something a competitor cannot copy in an afternoon.
Speed
What we measure on a phone, and where the line is
All of it is measured with Google's PageSpeed Insights on a simulated mid-range phone over 4G, because that is what a Bullring shopper or a van driver in Walsall actually has, not what the office broadband shows.
| Measure | The line we build to | What usually breaks it | Why it costs money |
|---|---|---|---|
| Largest contentful paint | Under 2.5 seconds | A hero image the size of a film; fonts loaded from three places; a page builder | Google scores it into landing page experience; visitors leave before the number appears |
| Interaction to next paint | Under 200 milliseconds | Forty scripts fighting for the main thread; chat widgets; consent tools loading everything twice | The tap on the call button does nothing for a second and the visitor taps back |
| Layout shift | Under 0.1 | Images without dimensions; a banner injected above the heading after load | The number moves as the thumb comes down and the visitor hits the menu instead |
| Time to usable form | Under 3 seconds | A form plugin that loads its own framework; a captcha that loads before the fields | The form is the conversion; a form that appears late is a form that is not filled in |
Calls
The number on the page is tracked, and short calls do not count
Most Birmingham service businesses are hired over the phone, so the page has to see calls. A forwarding number swaps in for visitors who came from an ad; the call is attributed to the campaign, the keyword and the search that produced it, with its duration and the hour. Calls over about a minute count as enquiries. Wrong numbers and five-second hang-ups are logged and ignored, because Smart Bidding will otherwise learn to buy more of them.
The form counts once, on submission, never on a thank-you page that can be refreshed. At month end we ask which of the calls and forms became customers, and that answer goes back into the account as the thing to bid for.
One page per campaign
Three Birmingham examples of the split
- A Solihull family law firm
- One page for divorce, one for children arrangements, one for financial settlements. The divorce searcher does not want to read about the other two, and the intake form on each asks the question that qualifies that kind of case.
- A Tyseley MOT and service garage
- One page for MOT with the price and the online booking, one for servicing by make, one for Clean Air Zone compliance checks. The MOT page converts on price and speed; the CAZ page converts on reassurance.
- A Digbeth restaurant
- One page for private hire and Christmas parties with the enquiry form, and the main site for table bookings. Ads for functions land on the function page, never on the menu.
Built, or fixed in place
Where the page lives, and what we will not put on it
Where your site can host a fast page, we fix or add one there, so your domain gets the visit and the page matches the rest of the site. Where it cannot, the page is built on our own stack, hosted on our servers, on your domain or a subdomain of it, with the tracking installed and the form delivered to your inbox and to a log you can see. Either way you own the page and the words on it.
What does not go on it: countdown timers that reset, reviews that cannot be shown to be real, claims of being Birmingham's best or number one, and anything the CAP Code or Google's misrepresentation policy would object to. The page converts on being clear and fast, not on pressure, and a page that breaks the rules gets the whole account suspended.
Keep reading
Next door to this page
Google Ads management
The campaign the page belongs to, and the routine that changes the page from the data.
PPC for Birmingham trades
Where the landing page is almost always the biggest single lever.
Pricing
Page changes are on Growth and above; a new build is quoted.
Get a quote
Send the page address; the reply says how fast it is on a phone and what would change first.
Questions about landing pages
Why not send the ads to my homepage?
Because the homepage answers every question and therefore none. A search for "emergency electrician Erdington" wants a page that says emergency electrician, Erdington, the number, and what happens when they ring, in the first screen. Google also scores how well the page matches the search into Quality Score, so a homepage pays more per click for the same position.
How fast does a landing page need to be?
Usable within about two and a half seconds on a mid-range phone over 4G is the line we build to, measured with Google's own PageSpeed tool rather than on an office broadband connection. The tuning site we fixed went from eleven seconds to under two and a half without a rebuild, which is the kind of change that moves both the cost per click and the conversion rate.
Can you fix my existing page rather than build a new one?
Usually, and it is often the better option. Oversized images, a page builder loading forty scripts, a form plugin that stopped working after an update: most speed and conversion problems are fixed in place on WordPress, Shopify and similar platforms. A new page is built when the existing site cannot host one that converts.
What does a landing page cost?
Changes to an existing page are included from the Growth tier at £399 a month. A new page built from scratch is quoted separately because it depends on what your site can host and whether it needs its own hosting; the reply to the quote form gives the figure.
How do you track calls from the landing page?
A forwarding number replaces yours for visitors who arrived from an ad, so each call is attributed to the search and the keyword that produced it, with its duration. Calls over about a minute count as enquiries; shorter ones are logged but not counted, because a misdial should not teach the bidding anything.
Will the page look like the rest of my website?
Yes, and it will usually be plainer. Same logo, colours and tone, fewer distractions: no menu of twelve links, no carousel, no pop-up. One search, one page, one action.
Do you write the page copy?
We write it and you correct it. The first screen repeats the search, names the area honestly, gives the number and the form, and says what happens next. Claims stay inside the CAP Code and Google's policies, which for a Birmingham solicitor or clinic means no promises about outcomes.
Can the page be tested against another version?
One change at a time, judged on cost per enquiry rather than on clicks, and only once the page has enough traffic for the answer to mean something. Headline, form length and the position of the number are the three tests that most often move the number; colour of the button almost never does.
Send the address of the page your ads land on. The reply tells you how fast it is on a phone and the first change.
If you are not advertising yet, send the page you would use. A page that converts is the cheapest thing to fix before the first pound is spent.