What should you check on an ad’s landing page?
Four things: it loads, it lands on the right page (not the homepage or another domain), any redirect keeps the query string so UTMs and click IDs survive, and it does so quickly, with as few redirects as possible.
A broken landing page keeps spending: the platforms charge for the click whether or not the page loads.
The redirect problem nobody sees
Redirects are everywhere: http to https, with or without www, an old campaign page sent to a new one. Most carry the query string across. The ones that don’t are invisible: the page loads fine, but the utm_ tags and the click ID are gone, so the visit shows up as direct traffic and the conversion isn’t credited to the ad. The fix is usually to put the final URL in the ad.
Check before launch, then every week
Pages get taken down and sites get rebuilt while campaigns keep running. Check new ads before they go live with the campaign setup checker, build consistent tracking links with the UTM builder, and spot campaigns whose conversions suddenly stopped with the ad account health check.
How to check your ads’ landing pages
- Collect the final URLs. Paste them in, one per line, or export your ads from Google Ads or Meta Ads Manager with the final URL or website URL column and drop in the file.
- Run the check. Each URL is loaded like a click, following every redirect.
- Fix broken pages first. Pause or repoint ads on 404s and server errors: they pay for clicks that go nowhere.
- Then fix tracking. Where a redirect drops the query string, use the final URL in the ad so UTMs and click IDs arrive.
Frequently asked questions
How do I check if my ad’s landing page is broken?
Paste the ad’s final URL into the checker. It loads the page the way a click would, follows every redirect, and reports the status: a 404 or 410 means the page is gone, a 5xx means the server is failing, and a domain that doesn’t resolve means it is misspelled or expired.
Why are my UTM parameters missing in Google Analytics?
Often a redirect drops them. If the ad points at a URL that redirects (http to https, a trailing slash, an old page to a new one) and the redirect doesn’t carry the query string across, the UTMs never reach the page. The checker shows which parameters made it to the final page.
Do redirects break gclid and fbclid?
They can. Google Ads and Meta add a click ID (gclid, fbclid) to the URL when someone clicks. If a redirect strips the query string, the click ID is lost and conversions can’t be tied back to the ad. The checker adds a test parameter to every URL to see whether the query string survives.
Why does the checker say it couldn’t fully check a page?
Some sites block automated requests with bot protection, returning 401, 403 or 429 even though real visitors get the page. The checker reports that rather than calling the page broken; open it in a browser to confirm.
Is anything stored?
Only the URLs are sent, to load each page; nothing is stored. If you drop in an export, it is read in your browser and only the URLs found in it are checked.