Key Takeaways
- Google updated its advertising systems to better judge landing page quality for search ads.
- A new predictive model focuses specifically on the navigation experience after clicking an ad.
- This aims to improve user experience and might result in fewer, but more relevant, ads being shown.
- Steve Oriola, CEO of landing page company Unbounce, believes this highlights the importance of well-designed landing pages.
- Oriola doesn’t foresee generative or agentic AI completely replacing the need for landing pages soon.
Google recently enhanced how it assesses the quality of landing pages linked from search ads. The update introduces a predictive model designed to better understand the user’s navigation experience once they arrive on a page.
This new model helps Google’s systems more accurately determine if landing pages offer helpful navigation or lead users to unexpected places. The goal is to improve the overall experience for people using Google Search and clicking on ads.
By focusing on navigation quality, Google anticipates it can reduce frustrating experiences for users. This might even mean showing fewer ads overall if they don’t meet these higher quality standards.
Steve Oriola, CEO of Unbounce, views this change positively. “Google is making itself responsible for whatever happens beyond the click,” he noted, suggesting the move encourages advertisers to create better landing pages.
According to insights shared with MediaPost, Oriola emphasized that creating specific, optimized landing pages is crucial for conversions, which is what Google’s system evaluates.
He pointed out that many marketers still direct ad clicks to their general homepage rather than a dedicated landing page, possibly due to cost, effort, or simply not understanding the value.
Looking ahead, Oriola doesn’t believe technologies like generative AI or upcoming “agentic AI” (AI that acts on a user’s behalf) will make landing pages obsolete.
While acknowledging AI’s potential, he argued that users often prefer to review and approve actions, especially for tasks like online shopping, rather than letting AI handle everything autonomously.
People search online for many reasons beyond just shopping, Oriola added. He feels that while agentic AI offers value, it won’t eliminate the need for search, websites, or how content is presented online. He sees AI as a tool that complements, rather than replaces, these elements.
