Landing Page Relevance: The Missing Link in Performance Marketing
Performance marketers invest heavily in driving traffic to websites by optimizing bids, refining audience targeting, and A/B testing creatives. But all too often, there’s a disconnect between what we know about visitors (their audience segment, intent, or referral source) and what they experience on the landing page.
If your landing page delivers a generic experience that ignores the visitor's context, you’re missing the opportunity to lock in their attention and avoid the dreaded bounce. Fortunately, minor tweaks can make a big difference in relevance, engagement, and, ultimately, conversion rates.
Personalized landing pages targeting specific customer segments shortened our sales cycle by 15%. - Gordon Ferris, Director of Growth at Marin.
In this post, we’ll explore why landing page relevance matters, simple ways to improve it, and how to use URL parameters to personalize content dynamically.
Why Landing Page Relevance Matters
When someone clicks on your ad, being greeted with a different message on the landing page gives them a moment to pause. And when people pause, it creates an opportunity to bounce. In fact, research from Unbounce suggests that over 70% of consumers feel frustrated when website content isn’t personalized to them.
Here’s what happens when landing pages fail to match visitor intent:
High bounce rates – Visitors quickly leave if they don’t see what they expected.
Lower conversion rates – Irrelevant messaging doesn’t resonate, leading to less overall engagement with the site and lower sales.
Wasted ad spend – You pay for the traffic, but fail to capitalize on the opportunity.
Lower Ad Rank – Landing page relevance is a factor in Ad Rank, improved relevance will lower costs and move you higher on the SERP.
But by aligning your landing page with visitor context, you can create a more engaging experience and increase conversions without increasing ad spend.
Simple Ways to Increase Landing Page Relevance
You don’t need a complete website overhaul to improve relevance. Here are three simple tactics to start with:
Align Headline & Copy with Ad Messaging
This is admittedly basic, but your landing page should reinforce the promise made in your ad. In the example below, the ad promised speed, which should be reflected in your landing page language.
Personalize Based on Audience & Context
Taking this a step further, you can personalize broadly targeted content based on what you know about the Visitor, including audience segments (e.g., new vs. returning customers), intent or referral source. Building a new LP for each ad could be daunting, but another approach is to use dynamic text replacement tools (available in platforms like Unbounce, Optimizely, or Webflow’s Optimize) to automatically match landing page text with ad copy.
In the example below, the visitor has given us more information based on the query, and the ad matches their interest well. With a small change to the landing page, you can create the continuity that will drive engagement.
How this works
One of the simplest and most effective ways to personalize landing pages is by passing information via URL parameters. These are small bits of text added to the end of a URL that can trigger changes on the landing page. If you add parameters like: ?headline=50off&cta=ShopNow you can dynamically update the page’s headline and CTA without creating multiple versions of the page.
Add Parameters to Your Ad URL:
In your ad settings, modify the final URL to include custom parameters. Example:
https://example.com/landing-page?headline=50off&cta=ShopNow
You may also be able to use the the existing UTM parameters that have information about the campaign and ad content. Marin makes this process easy with our automated URL builder. You can tag your campaigns, keywords and ads with Marin Dimensions and reference these in the URL builder rules
Modify Your Landing Page to Read These Parameters
If using Webflow’s Optimize or Optimizely, set up dynamic text fields that adjust based on the parameter values. See your platforms help for specifics on this setup.
Customize Page Elements Based on Parameters
• Headline: Change the headline dynamically using JavaScript.
• CTA Button: Adjust the call-to-action text or destination.
• Images & Offers: Show different images based on audience segment.
If you’re not using a built-in personalization tool, you can implement this with a small JavaScript snippet. Of course, ChatGPT or Gemini can be a big help setting this up.
Final Thoughts: Relevance = Higher Conversions
Landing page relevance is one of the most overlooked but impactful ways to boost performance marketing results. You can create a frictionless journey that drives more conversions by aligning the page experience with what you already know about your visitors—through dynamic text, audience-based personalization, and simple URL parameters.
If you’re new to Marin, let us show you how our platform can transform your performance. Request a Demo today to see how we can help you manage, optimize, and grow your campaigns across Amazon, Google, Meta, and more—all from one unified platform.
