Landing page audit checklist before you judge the traffic
Message match, one ask, proof, friction, and the mobile read. Fix these before you decide the channel failed.
Publisher: AI MarkTool. Published 2026-10-19. Updated 2026-10-28 No individual author is named.
Message match
Put the ad or email next to the headline. The promise that earned the click should be recognizable in the first screen. "Cut no-shows" sending people to "modern patient engagement" is a mismatch. The visitor did not ask for a category slogan.
Run the landing page audit with both texts. Do not start by blaming the keyword.
One ask, visible proof, less friction
One primary button. A newsletter link in the header is a second campaign. Proof is a quote, a logo you have permission to show, or a number you can source. If you have none, say what the workflow does and leave the number out.
Friction is every field and every surprise after the click. If the button says "book a 20-minute review" and the form asks for company size, budget, and a paragraph, the audit should flag the gap between the promise and the form.
Rewrite only the failed lines
Read the page on a phone width. If the ask sits under three screens of preamble, move it up. Then rewrite the headline and the button in the landing page copy generator, and paste the new draft back into the audit. Changing traffic while the mismatch is still there spends money to reconfirm the finding.
Know the sample before you call a winner
A higher rate on day two is not a finished test. Decide the baseline rate and the absolute lift in percentage points, then collect the visitors that formula asks for. The A/B test sample size calculator uses a two-sided z-test, unpooled variance, alpha 0.05, power 0.80, and equal groups, and rounds up to a whole visitor. It does not say which headline is better.
Fix message match before you spend that sample. A mismatched page makes the larger sample describe the wrong offer.
Sources and gaps
- Kim, sample size for two independent proportions States the two-sided z approximation with unpooled variance and equal groups. The calculator uses that shape with alpha 0.05 and power 0.80. The paper does not pick a winning headline.