What's costing me more—poorly targeted ads or a bad landing page?

The cost impact of each problem

Poor ad targeting means you pay for clicks from people unlikely to convert. Your cost per acquisition (CPA) rises because you're burning budget on irrelevant traffic. A bad landing page means relevant traffic arrives but doesn't convert, also raising CPA.

How to tell which is your problem

Look at your landing page analytics. If traffic volume is low relative to ad spend, targeting is likely the culprit—fewer clicks means fewer opportunities. If traffic volume is high but few convert, your page is the problem.

Also check bounce rate. High bounce rates indicate either targeting mismatch (wrong audience clicked) or page confusion (page didn't deliver what the ad promised).

The cost of fixing each

Improving targeting requires ad research, keyword refinement, and audience adjustments—mostly time investment. Improving a landing page might need copywriting, design changes, or form field reductions, potentially requiring outside help.

The practical approach

Start with targeting fixes because they're usually quicker. Then run landing page tests in parallel. Most PPC waste comes from sending wrong-fit traffic to mediocre pages, not just one factor alone.