Product page or homepage: where should your ads send shoppers?
Should your ads send people to your homepage or a product page? If the ad shows one product, send them straight to that product’s page. That’s where the sale happens. Your homepage still matters, but mostly as the page shoppers visit next, to check you’re a brand they can trust.
We saw this play out with an e-commerce brand we worked with. Most of its Meta ads sent people to the homepage, which opened with a slideshow that didn't even include the best-selling product. Around 90% of site visitors were on mobile. Over our time working together, we took the brand from five figures to six figures in revenue, and getting the product page and homepage right was a huge part of that.
Why does the product page matter more than the homepage?
When you sell on your own website instead of a marketplace, your website is everything. There’s no marketplace listing doing the trust-building for you, so the page people land on has to do it all.
The ad starts the interest, the page has to finish it
Your ad’s job is to catch attention and spark interest in one specific thing. Someone taps because they want to know more about that product. If they land on a page that shows it straight away, with the details they were curious about, you’re continuing the conversation the ad started.
Land them on a homepage instead, and they have to go looking for it. Most can’t be bothered to do this.
Every extra tap is a chance to leave
With most shoppers on their phones, each extra tap means another page load on a small screen. Sending ad traffic straight to the product page removes the step where people are most likely to give up: finding the thing they came for.
Where should your ads send people?
Match the landing page to what the ad shows. Here’s the simple rule we use:
If your ad shows… | Send people to… |
|---|---|
One product | That product’s page |
A range or category | That collection page |
Your brand as a whole | Your homepage |
Most e-commerce ads that sell well focus on one product, which is why the product page is usually the most important page after the ad itself.
Who visits your homepage when you run product ads?
Mostly people who came from the product page. Once your ads go straight to a product, a large share of homepage visits come from shoppers tapping your logo. They usually want one of three things:
To research you. Is this a real brand? What else do they stand for?
To look at other products. What else do you sell, and does anything go with what they’re about to buy?
To check you’re trustworthy. Do you look established enough to hand over their card details?
So for most ad traffic, your homepage is the second look rather than the first impression. Its job is to reassure people who are already halfway to buying.
What should your homepage show when you’re running product ads?
Put the product from your ads first, above the fold, and your categories below it. That way the homepage confirms what the shopper just saw instead of starting a new conversation.
Above the fold: the product from your ad
“Above the fold” is everything someone sees before they scroll. On a phone, that’s not much space, so use it for your best seller: the same product your ads promote, with a clear way back to its page.
Below it: your categories
Shoppers who want to browse can scroll down to your categories. They’re still easy to find, without pulling attention from the product most people came for.
Why does featuring the advertised product build trust?
When a shopper taps through to your homepage and sees the product from your ad front and centre, it tells them this is your main product, the one other people buy. That’s reassuring. If they find a homepage that never mentions it, they start to wonder whether they’ve landed in the right place.
How did this work for the brand?
We made two changes to how ad traffic moved through the store:
Ads went straight to the product page. Before, most ads sent people to the homepage. We linked every ad for the best seller directly to its page, so shoppers landed on exactly what they had tapped on.
The homepage put the best seller first. The old homepage opened with a slideshow that left the best seller out. We put the best-selling product at the top instead, above the fold on mobile, with the store’s categories below it.
With around 90% of visitors on their phones, both changes were about cutting the taps and scrolling between interest and checkout. They sat alongside a rewrite of the product page itself, which we cover in our guide to product pages that explain.
Frequently asked questions
Should Facebook and Instagram ads go to the homepage or a product page?
If the ad promotes one product, send it to that product page. Meta ads work best when the page people land on shows exactly what the ad showed, with the price and add to cart button easy to reach.
Is a product page good enough as a landing page?
For most single-product ads, yes, as long as the page explains the product clearly and is easy to use on a phone. When you run several ad angles for the same product, separate landing pages for each angle can lift results further.
What should be above the fold on an e-commerce homepage?
If you run product ads, put the product you advertise most above the fold, with a clear link to its page. Categories and other products can sit just below.
Does my homepage still matter if ads go to product pages?
Yes. Many shoppers tap your logo from the product page to research the brand, browse other products or check you’re trustworthy before they buy. The homepage is where they decide whether to come back and finish the order.
Does this apply to Shopify stores?
Yes. It applies to any store on its own website, whether it runs on Shopify or another platform.
See the full project
The product page and homepage were one part of a wider project for this brand, alongside Meta ads, upsells and Klaviyo email flows. You can read how it all came together in the full case study.
Running ads but not sure your pages are pulling their weight? Get in touch with One World Ideas and we’ll take a look with you.