Landing: first screen, offer, CTA

You can run the perfect campaigns on the perfect creative and waste your budget if the landing page converts by 1%. Landing is the final link in the performance chain, and in it all the mistakes of the previous stages plus your own are concentrated. On my projects in 2026, the difference between an “average” landing page (CR 1.5–2%) and a “good” one (CR 4–7%) is it’s the difference between “the channel doesn’t pay for itself” and “the channel is scaling.” This chapter is about landing page structure that really works.

why a separate landing page for a campaign?

The main mistake of small businesses is to pour advertising on the main page of the site. Home the page is “about everything for everyone”: ten services, three product categories, reviews, The feedback form is somewhere below. Such a page converts by 0.8–1.5%. Landing under a specific offer from a specific campaign converts 3–5 times better.

The rule is simple: one channel → one campaign → one keyword → one landing page with one offer. This is called match: the user searched for “buy a dance mat” I saw an ad about a “dance mat with 24 hour delivery” and ended up on the page specifically about this service. Each discrepancy between stages drops CR by one and a half to two times.

structure of a working landing page

A standard landing page with a CR of 4-7% consists of 7–9 blocks located in a strict sequences:

1. First screen. H1 with specific benefit + subheading + CTA + one visual/video. No “market leaders” or “innovative solutions”.
2. Client problem. What hurts him. Here we get into his head - We show that we understand the pain.
3. The solution is in three steps. How do you solve this problem. The shorter - so much the better.
4. Social proof. Reviews, cases, numbers, customer logos.
5. Tariffs/price. Transparent. If the price is complex - range + calculator.
6. FAQ. 6-10 questions covering key objections.
7. Final CTA with form. Minimum fields - phone + name is enough.
8. Footer. Legal information, contacts, TIN/OGRN.

More details about the structure - separate blog article.

first screen: where half the conversions die

The user decides to “stay or go” within 3-5 seconds of the first screen. On this screen Four questions must be answered:

1. "What is this?" — clear name of the product/service
2. "For whom?" — what user segment
3. “Why is this better?” — main benefit/USP
4. “What should I do?” - specific CTA

Good H1: “Press your feet dance mats - we will deliver in 24 hours in Moscow.” Bad: “Quality dance and sports products.” A good CTA: “Leave a request - We’ll call you back in 15 minutes.” Bad: “Find out more.”

five common mistakes that drop cr by half

1. Home page instead of landing page. Throw “buy a rug” onto the page with 50 categories - loss of 60–70% of potential conversion.
2. Too many forms and buttons. 5 CTAs per page = 0 CTAs. One main + one backup - no longer needed.
3. Form with 8 fields. Phone + name – converts by 5–10%. Same most + email + position + company - by 1–2%. Fields “eat up” CR geometrically.
4. Lack of social proof. Without reviews, numbers, landing cases looks like a scam. Trust drops, CR drops.
5. Long way to CTA. The user must scroll four screens to the form. On mobile, this is the death of conversion.

mobile version: 70% traffic, 50% attention

In RF-performance 2026, 65–75% of traffic is mobile. At the same time, mobile conversion usually 1.5–2 times lower than the desktop one. Reasons:

• Long sheets of text that are difficult to scan with your finger
• Forms with ten fields that cannot be filled out using the iPhone keyboard
• CTA buttons 30x30 px that are impossible to hit with your finger
• Images are too heavy, page takes 5+ seconds to load
• Pop-up that covers half the screen and does not close

What we do: we test the landing page primarily on the iPhone SE (small screen) and Mid-range Android device (slow processor). If on these CR devices are more than 2 times lower than the desktop one - the landing page is broken, not advertising.

loading speed: core web vitals 2026

Google and Yandex have been using speed as a ranking factor since 2024. For performance this has a double effect: a slow landing page drops CR and at the same time reduces the quality score in Direct.

Target metrics 2026:

• LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) < 2.5 s
• FID/INP (responsiveness) < 200 ms
• CLS (visual shift) < 0.1
• Time to interactivity < 3 s

We check through PageSpeed Insights, correct through image compression (WebP), disabling heavy scripts on the landing page (no need to drag ten metrics and chat widget), preload of critical resources.

shapes: smaller is better

Each additional form field is minus 5–10% CR. Therefore:

• Request for a call. Phone only. Name is optional. CR usually 7–12%.
• Application for calculation of services. Phone + 1–2 context fields. CR 4–7%.
• Registration in SaaS. Email + password (or directly OAuth via Google/Yandex). CR 5–10%.
• Application for expensive services (B2B). A little longer: name, company, email, phone, budget, what are you interested in. CR 2-4%, but lead quality is high.

Testing via A/B: “short form” versus “long form”, looking not at CR, but at CPL high-quality leads (a short one gives more cheap ones, but of lower quality).

landing page audit checklist

1. The first screen has H1, CTA, the main benefit is that they are visible without scrolling.
2. The CTA button is contrasty and does not blend into the background.
3. On page 1-2 there are basic CTAs, nothing more.
4. The form has a maximum of 3 fields for a regular application.
5. There are at least 3 elements of social proof (reviews, numbers, cases).
6. LCP less than 2.5 seconds.
7. Images in WebP, not PNG/JPG weights larger than 100kb.
8. The mobile version adequately compresses the content, buttons are 44+ px.
9. UTMs are transmitted to the form through hidden fields and end up in CRM.

in the next chapter

Chapter 11 - analytics and attribution. GA4 + Ya.Metrika, last-click vs data-driven, offline conversions and a long customer journey to B2B.