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Nine out of ten marketers say budget constraints are weighing on their paid media programs, but many still overlook one of the biggest drivers of performance: what happens after the click. A new study from Unbounce and Ascend2 found that marketers consistently invest more time and money in targeting, creative, and AI than in the landing pages and post-click experiences that ultimately determine whether paid traffic converts.
The survey of 304 paid media professionals in the United States revealed a clear gap between what marketers believe improves ROI and where they actually invest. While 40% say landing page optimization is one of the most effective ways to maximize paid media spend, only 31% have invested in landing pages in the last six months. Budgets were instead devoted to audience research (40%), AI tools (39%) and advertising creation (38%).
The results suggest that budget pressure doesn’t simply force marketers to spend less. This pushes them toward faster, easier optimizations within ad platforms while leaving behind more resource-intensive post-click work.
Budgetary pressure shifts spending upstream
Budget limitations have become almost universal. Ninety percent of marketers reported budget or resource constraints for paid media, with testing and experimentation being the most impacted areas. Audience targeting, ad creative and reporting were also affected, while almost half said landing page creation or message matching had suffered from tighter resources.
This trend continued in spending decisions. Audience research, AI tools and ad creative attracted the largest share of new investment, while landing pages ranked far behind, although marketers recognize their importance. The report finds that marketers who exceeded their ROI goals invested more equally in audience research, AI, attribution, testing and landing pages, instead of concentrating their resources in a few highly visible areas.
The AI followed the same pattern. Eighty-six percent of marketers said they use AI in paid media, and nearly three-quarters said it improves ROI. However, most have used AI for reporting, audience targeting, platform tools, and advertising content. Only 19% used AI to create or optimize landing pages, even though marketers who exceeded their ROI goals were about twice as likely to use AI in these areas.
Clicking is not the problem
Many marketers also undermine their own targeting efforts after getting the click.
More than half of respondents send paid traffic to general website pages rather than campaign-specific landing pages. Twenty-eight percent primarily direct visitors to existing product or category pages, while 25% direct them to the homepage. Only 24% primarily use dedicated landing pages designed for individual campaigns.
The mismatch becomes more evident when considering the campaign’s goals. Forty percent of marketers focused on direct sales send traffic to general product or category pages rather than to destinations specifically designed for conversion. More than a quarter of marketers who run lead generation campaigns still send prospects to their landing page.
This strategy appears to have a cost. Nearly two-thirds of marketers who primarily send paid traffic to their landing page said they were not exceeding their ROI goals, while marketers exceeding their goals were less likely to rely on landing pages and more likely to use reusable or campaign-specific landing pages.
Marketers know what works, but don’t prioritize it
The report reveals that marketers understand the value of post-click optimization. Audience targeting ranked first as the most effective way to optimize paid media spend, followed by landing page optimization, before removing underperforming channels, changing platforms, or setting spending caps.
Their daily priorities tell a different story.
More than half said audience targeting receives the bulk of their optimization efforts, followed by ad creative and bidding strategy. Landing pages and post-conversion experience rank low on the list, although they are widely considered important contributors to ROI.
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The report highlights operational constraints rather than strategic disagreements. Team capacity, design and development resources, expertise, maintenance, and software budgets were the main barriers preventing greater use of landing pages. In other words, marketers generally know that post-click experience is important. They often lack the people, time or resources to improve it.
The most successful teams seem to solve this problem by treating paid media as an end-to-end system rather than a series of disconnected optimizations. Throughout the report, marketers exceeding their ROI goals consistently invested more in landing pages, attribution, testing and post-conversion improvements, as well as audience targeting, creative and AI, suggesting that the biggest gains come from strengthening the entire customer journey rather than simply generating more clicks.
The full report can be downloaded here. (Registration required)
The position Marketers Know What Improves Paid Media ROI, But Are Not Investing Enough in It appeared first on MarTech.
