Key Takeaways
- Unbounce and Ascend2 found that many B2B marketers still send paid traffic to generic pages, weakening conversion potential despite better pre-click targeting and optimization.
- The data reinforces that post-click experience and landing page confidence play a major role in paid media ROI, especially under tighter budgets and resource constraints.
Research from Unbounce and Ascend2 finds that a majority of B2B marketers are directing paid advertising traffic to web pages that were never designed to convert.
The 2026 State of Paid Media ROI Report found that 53% of marketers send most paid advertising traffic to generic website pages or homepages, while just 24% primarily use campaign-specific landing pages. The findings suggest many organizations are undermining campaign performance after the click, despite investing heavily in audience targeting and ad optimization, according to authors of the report
As a result, 62% of marketers who primarily send paid traffic to their homepage report failing to exceed their current ROI goals, suggesting that where a campaign sends visitors may be just as important as the ad itself.
Why Are Marketers Missing Paid Media ROI Goals?
The findings, based on responses from more than 300 marketing professionals across North America, come at a time when marketing teams are under increasing pressure to deliver stronger returns from existing budgets— 90% report budget or resource constraints affecting their paid media strategy, forcing organizations to focus on getting more value from every advertising dollar rather than simply spending more.
“The pressure on marketing teams has fundamentally changed,” said Steve Oriola, CEO of Unbounce in a statement. “Marketers have become incredibly sophisticated at optimizing everything before the click, from audience targeting to bidding strategies and creative. But our research shows many are still sending that carefully targeted traffic to generic web pages that were never designed to convert.”
How Strong Landing Pages Improve Paid Media Performance
The research found a strong relationship between landing page performance and campaign success. Marketers who are highly confident in the performance of their landing pages are more than four times as likely to significantly exceed their paid media ROI targets than those with lower confidence (31% versus 7%), highlighting the critical role post-click experiences play in overall campaign performance.
So why do B2B marketers continue to underinvest in landing pages? While they recognize the impact landing pages can have on campaign performance, 87% say at least one barrier is preventing them from fully utilizing them. The biggest obstacles cited were team capacity, along with limited design and development resources.
Despite recognizing the importance of the post-click experience, many marketers continue to underinvest in it. While 40% say optimizing destination pages is one of the most effective ways to maximize paid media ROI, only 31% invested in landing pages over the past six months, with investment instead flowing toward audience research, AI tools, and ad creative.
“As AI makes it easier than ever to optimize campaigns, competitive advantage will increasingly come from optimizing the entire customer journey, not just the ad itself,” said Oriola.
