What a small business website needs before you run ads

One service, one page, a clear first screen

The home page tells the story of the whole firm. A person who clicked an ad for “bathroom renovation Bratislava” wants to see bathrooms straight away, not hunt for them in a menu. That is why every advertised service needs its own page with a headline that repeats the promise of the ad.

The first screen, without scrolling, should say who it is for, what the person will get and where: “Turnkey bathroom renovation in Bratislava and the surrounding area: our own crew, a fixed deadline”. Below it, one main button.

Show the page on a phone for five seconds to someone who does not know you and ask what you offer and to whom. If they cannot answer, rewrite the text while the clicks have not yet been paid for.

Proof instead of promises

A person coming from an ad does not know you. Before leaving a phone number, they look for proof that the firm is real.

• Photos of your real work: a phone is fine if the pictures are sharp
• The faces of the people who will come or answer: the owner, the crew, the team
• The firm’s name, IČO, address and phone number, which can be checked in public registers (ORSR, ŽRSR)
• Reviews, only genuine ones, with a link to Google Maps; if you have none yet, do not invent them but show how the work goes
• Stock photos and phrases like “we are professionals with many years of experience” prove nothing

A price, or at least “from”

If the page has no price, some people will go on looking elsewhere, and you have already paid for their click. You do not need an exact sum: a range or a “from” and what pushes the price up is enough. Such a figure will filter out those who cannot afford you before they ever call.

If the price truly cannot be given in advance, write what it depends on and offer a first step with a clear price, for example a site measurement. We also publish “from” prices: a landing page from €600.

A form that actually gets through

An expensive and unnoticed mistake: the form does not send the enquiry, or sends it but nobody sees it.

• Send a test enquiry from a phone and from a computer and check that it arrived where it is read: in the CRM, Telegram or email. Check the spam folder too.
• Repeat the test after every change to the site, and once a week during a campaign.
• After sending, the person should see a confirmation: what happens next and when you will reply, for example within one working day.
• Decide who answers enquiries, including at weekends if the ads run non-stop.
• Ask only for a name, a contact and a few words about the task.
• If sending fails, the form should say so and offer a phone number.

Tracking: count enquiries, not clicks

The ad system learns from what you pass to it as a conversion. Pass it a button click and it will look for people who click, not people who leave an enquiry.

So count one event, “enquiry sent”, and record it only once the server has confirmed it was saved. A click on “Send” would count even if the form was filled in wrongly or the connection dropped. A click on a phone number is interest, not a call. And if you count the “thank you” page, every refresh of it adds another “enquiry”.

Along with the enquiry, save the source: UTM tags from the ad link (utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign) and the gclid, if Google Ads adds it. Then the CRM shows which campaign brought the orders. On pellucide.com everything is set up exactly this way.

Instead of average figures from the internet, after a month work out your own cost per enquiry (spend ÷ number of enquiries) and cost per order (spend ÷ number of orders). Until tracking works, do not increase the budget.

Speed and the mobile version: check for free

In PageSpeed Insights (pagespeed.web.dev) enter the address of the page the ad will lead to and look at the mobile result.

Do not chase 100 points. Work through the specific items in the report: huge images, main content that appears slowly, sluggish scripts.

Then open the page on your own phone over mobile data, not office Wi-Fi. Can you read the text without zooming? Can you call with one tap? Can you fill in the form with your thumb?

Consent, cookies and GDPR in brief

The Google tag and the Meta Pixel set cookies and pass data to advertising systems. That is why in the EU they can, as a rule, only be run after consent, and the cookie banner must give a real choice. Google has Consent Mode for this; have whoever sets up your ads configure it.

The form needs a link to the privacy policy. If visits are counted without cookies, a banner may not be needed for analytics, but it will be needed for advertising pixels.

Ask a lawyer exactly what to write in the banner, the policy and next to the form.

The first 14 days after launch

The first two weeks are for cleaning up, not for a verdict.

• On day one, check the conversions in the ad system against real enquiries. If they do not match, fix tracking first.
• In the first week, open the “Search terms” report in Google Ads every day: what people actually typed.
• Add off-topic queries such as “free”, “DIY” and “jobs” to the negative keywords.
• Do not raise bids blindly. First find out why there are few clicks: narrow keywords, a small budget, a weak ad. A high bid on bad queries only makes bad clicks more expensive.
• Change one thing at a time and write down the date and the change.
• Mark the outcome of every enquiry: not our client, suitable, order.
• A small test budget does not prove that a channel “does not work”: a handful of clicks supports no conclusions. Decide by a rule written down in advance.

Pre-launch checklist

Answer yes or no. Fix every “no” before launch.

• Is it clear within five seconds what you offer, to whom and where?
• Does the ad lead to a page for one service with the same promise?
• Are there real photos of work and people, and no invented reviews?
• Are the firm’s name, IČO, address and phone number shown?
• Is there a price, a range or at least a “from”?
• Did a test enquiry arrive from a phone and from a computer?
• After sending, does the person see a confirmation and a reply time?
• Is “enquiry sent” counted only after the server responds?
• Are the source and UTM tags saved with the enquiry?
• Has the page been checked in PageSpeed Insights and on your own phone?
• Do the ad tags run only after consent, and has a lawyer looked at the policy?
• Is the rule written down by which you will decide after 14 days whether to continue?

Questions and answers

Articles and guides

Other services