How to test your website before running Google Ads

Your ads are written and the budget is set. From the first click, you pay for every visit, even if the website lets the visitor down.

When a campaign brings clicks and no enquiries, there are four suspects: the ads, the page, the enquiry route and the tracking. Test the last three before launch. Then a weak result points at the ads, not at a broken website.

What does a working enquiry path look like?

A visitor should get from your ad to a reply without hitting a dead end.

Before running Google Ads, follow one test enquiry the way a stranger would: click through, use the page on a phone, send the enquiry, make sure someone answers and check that Google Ads counted it. Each step has a visible pass or fail.

Here's the route at a glance.

Step	What you do	A pass looks like
1. Landing	Open every page your ads can reach	The right page loads, test code intact
2. Phone	Use the page on mobile data	You find the offer and main button fast
3. Enquiry	Send a named test through each contact option	Every test reaches the right inbox or phone
4. Reply	Answer the test like a real enquiry	Someone sees it and replies
5. Count	Run Tag Assistant during a test	Google Ads marks the conversion verified

Go in order: tracking a form that never sends tells you nothing.

Does the ad land on the page you expect?

Start with the address, because every other check happens there.

The final URL is the page people reach after clicking your ad. Also check your campaign for Final URL expansion, which lets Google send clicks to other pages on your site. It's switched on by default once you opt into AI Max for Search. Test every page that can get a paid click, or switch it off.

Then make sure the click code survives. Google adds a code called gclid to the address after an ad click, and a redirect can strip it before Google Analytics sees it. Google documents a test you can run yourself:

1. In Google Ads, open Landing pages and copy an address from the table.
2. Paste it into your browser without loading it, and add ?gclid=TesTER-123 to the end. If the address already contains a ?, add &gclid=TesTER-123 instead.
3. Press Enter.

Pass: the page loads and gclid=TesTER-123 is still in the address, capitals unchanged. Fail: an error page, or the code is altered or gone.

A redirect is the usual suspect. If the page jumps to a slightly different address, such as the www version, use that address as the final URL and test again. If the code still vanishes, your developer needs to change the redirect.

Can a stranger use the page on a phone?

Use your own phone with Wi-Fi off, because a laptop on fast internet hides too much.

Look at the first screen only and ask three questions:

• Does the headline match the ad? If the ad promises same-day boiler repair and the page opens with "Welcome to our company", the visitor has to hunt for the reason they clicked.
• Can you see the main button straight away?
• Is anything covering it? Cookie banners, chat bubbles and sticky bars can sit right on top of it.

A slow page has its own checks in our guide to slow mobile pages, and a not secure warning needs fixing before you spend anything. Unsure whether the page explains your offer? A website audit reviews what visitors see: design, UX, speed, copy and SEO.

Does a test enquiry reach a person?

Send the kind of enquiry a customer would, through every contact option on the page.

Use your public domain in a private window, not a preview link. Label the test so you can search for it, for example Ads test Thursday 15:10. Then try each route:

1. Form. Find the message in the inbox your team actually reads. If it never arrives, follow our contact form checks before changing anything else.
2. Call button. Tap it. The dialler should open with your full, correct number.
3. WhatsApp button. It should open a chat with your business number. WhatsApp's click-to-chat format is https://wa.me/ plus the full international number, with no plus sign, spaces or dashes.
4. Booking link. Book a real slot, check that the invite arrives, then cancel it.

If any of these buttons does nothing at all, our checks for website buttons show how to find out why.

Now treat your test as a real enquiry. Who got it? Would anyone see it at seven on a Friday evening? Does the confirmation tell the visitor what happens next?

An enquiry nobody answers costs the same as one that never arrived.

If a test enquiry gets lost on its way to you, we can find where it stops and repair it. On a custom-coded site, we fix the page, links, redirects and form, and quote once we've seen how deep the problem goes. Framer and Webflow sites are outside our repair work, though we're happy to talk about a rebuild. Book a free intro call, which commits you to nothing, or reach us at hi@aruno.studio, on WhatsApp or on Telegram at @mihaipostelnicu.

Is Google Ads counting the enquiry?

Delivery and counting are separate checks, so test both.

First, watch what happens after you submit. A conversion set up with a page address counts visits to one page, usually a thank-you page. A form that shows "Thanks!" in place, without changing the address, is invisible to that setup. It needs a conversion event that fires after a successful send, which is developer work.

Then run Tag Assistant, which starts from inside Google Ads:

1. Open Goals, then Summary, and choose All conversions.
2. Find your enquiry conversion. If it says Unverified, Tag inactive or Needs attention, hover over the status and select Troubleshoot. For an active conversion, open Tag Assistant directly.
3. Enter your landing page address, not the thank-you page, and select Connect.
4. Send a test enquiry in the window that opens, then select Finish.

Pass: Tag Assistant shows the conversion as verified. Google says your account updates after about 30 minutes, and conversions from real clicks can take 3 to 24 hours to reach reports. Status names vary, so hover over a status and read Google's explanation.

Two things make a working setup look broken:

• How you tested. Test conversions made in Tag Manager preview mode, or by opening the thank-you page directly, may not show in Google Ads.
• Your cookie banner. Test once after accepting cookies and once after rejecting them. Google's debug view shows nothing for visitors who haven't consented, so an empty screen after "Reject" means the banner is doing its job.

This is general information, not legal advice. Ask a qualified professional what your cookie banner has to do.

Google Analytics shows the test under Reports, then Realtime, but its form event only proves a form was submitted. For Meta ads, the Ads Data Advisor extension runs the same check.

What should you send your developer?

When a check fails, tell your developer the step, what you saw and when.

This shows where each failure usually leads.

Failed check	Likely cause	Who fixes it
gclid disappears	A redirect	You (final URL) or your developer
Form says sent, nothing arrives	Sending setup or wrong address	Your developer
"Thanks!" appears, no conversion	No event after a successful send	Your developer
Tag Assistant finds no tag	Tag missing or blocked	Your developer or whoever runs your ads
Nobody replies to the test	Nobody owns the inbox	You

Fix them in that order and run the whole test again. A short message like this gets a specific answer:

Hi, I tested an enquiry on [page] at [time]. [Step] failed: [what I saw]. Can you check whether our redirects keep the gclid parameter, and whether the form's conversion fires after the message is sent or on the click? Please send me the Tag Assistant result once it's fixed.

Run the test before the campaign starts and again whenever the page or form changes. If every step passes and enquiries stay quiet, you'll know it's the ads to look at.