How to Drive Targeted Traffic to Landing Pages and Run Real Tests
Once your landing pages are live, it’s time to put them to work. We’ll walk you through how to send paid traffic to your landing pages and how to track that traffic so you can actually learn something from it. We’ll cover what to test, how to set up those tests, and how to read the results without overcomplicating the process.
Whether you’re testing call-to-action copy, pricing, or trying to see if your product has any traction at all. This is where the data starts doing the heavy lifting.
Start with One Clear Goal
Before you run a single ad, get super clear on what you’re testing. Pick one thing and try and for each test, change only one or two things at a time. It will help you get clarity on what is working for you, and what is working against you. A few examples:
- Which headline gets more clicks or scrolls?
- Does version A or B of your product description lead to more engagement?
- What price makes people hit “Add to Cart” most often?
- Are people more likely to sign up, download, or buy?
Once you’ve got that goal, build a landing page focused entirely on it. One message, one CTA. Then send your traffic there through Meta or Google Ads. You can use the data to help refine the features you need at launch, which physical product design works better for your audience, or which price point results in the best ROI.
Use Meta or Google to Send the Right Traffic
I usually start with Meta (Facebook/Instagram) or Google Ads because you can dial in your audience and control your spend without blowing your whole budget in one go.
Meta Ads (Facebook/Instagram)
- Pick Your Objective:
- Go with Traffic if you just want to track who clicks.
- Go with Sales if you’re running ecomm and want to track purchases or add-to-carts.
- Cap Your Test:
- Set a rule to shut down the ad set after 100 unique clicks. That’s usually enough to spot clear patterns without burning a bunch of cash.
- Add UTMs:
- Use their simple URL builder or add something like:
utm_medium=ppcutm_source=facebookutm_campaign=landing-test
- Use their simple URL builder or add something like:
Google Ads
- Pick “Website Traffic” or “Sales” depending on what you’re measuring.
- Make sure your conversion goals are set up properly—either directly in Google Ads or pulled in from Analytics.
- Add UTM parameters with the Campaign URL Builder and paste that full link into your tracking template.
Tracking Is Non-Negotiable
If you’re not tracking properly, you’re just guessing. You want:
- Google Analytics installed and tested
- Microsoft Clarity for heatmaps and session replays (super helpful)
- Google Tag Manager if you’re tracking events like button clicks, scroll depth, or form submissions
Set this up before your ad goes live.
What You’re Looking For
In the next lesson we’ll go over the results. We need about 100 people to hit the page, then it’s time to dig into what they did. We’ll look at actions like:
- Did they bounce immediately?
- Did they scroll or click on anything?
- Did they look up more information about the product or your company?
- Did anyone click your main call-to-action?
- If it was an ecomm page, did they add anything to the cart?
We’ll go through what’s working, what needs tweaking, and what’s worth testing next.
And here’s the bonus: everything you learn from a high-performing landing page can feed back into your homepage or core site. Tighter messaging, better calls to action, and more confidence in what’s actually resonating with your audience.
