Google's new landing page screenshots and what they mean for digital marketing agencies

Google's now shows your landing pages in Demand Gen ads

Running Google ads for businesses? Google recently announced a significant update to their Demand Gen campaigns: landing page screenshots are now automatically included in ads.

This visual preview feature is designed to boost engagement and introduces new considerations for digital marketing agencies managing campaigns for their SMB clients.

It's no longer just about optimising pages for search, they have to look the part too - which comes with most opportunities and risks for your organisation when pitching Google ad services.

What's changing with Google Demand Gen ads?

Google's adding a checkbox option labelled "Show a screenshot of your landing page in your ads" and it looks like they're enabling it by default for some advertisers.

This means instead of users clicking through based just on your client's carefully crafted ad copy, they're now seeing an actual preview of the landing page before deciding whether to engage.

For now, this feature is only showing up in lead gen video ads, but let's be real — if it works, Google will roll it out everywhere faster than you can say "conversion rate optimisation."

For digital marketing agencies selling solutions to small businesses, this update creates both opportunities and challenges:

1. New client expectations to manage

Your SMB clients will now be judged not only on their ad creative quality, but on the visual appeal of their landing pages from the very first impression. This raises immediate questions they'll likely ask you:

• "Do we need to redesign our landing pages?"
• "Will this hurt our conversion rates if our site isn't visually perfect?"
• "How do we know if our landing pages are good enough for this feature?"

2. Elevated importance of website aesthetics

While website performance has always been essential, this update specifically elevates the importance of visual design. SMBs with dated websites or those that haven't invested in mobile responsiveness may see decreased performance with this automatic preview feature.



3. Quality assurance becomes more critical

With landing pages now visible within the ads themselves, consistent quality assurance across all client landing pages becomes even more critical. An outdated or poorly designed page could negatively impact campaign performance.

How digital marketing solution providers can leverage this change?

Google's best interest is always to improve the user's experience and this update aligns with the fact that consumers are attracted to visuals and almost removes those "click-bait" landing page titles for users. But sometimes Google updates feel like a threat to digital solution providers. Whilst these predicted changes to the way Google shows ads will take some getting used to, it also comes with great opportunities for providers.

3 tips for leveraging the Demand Gen updates:

1. Conducting proactive landing page audits

Before this feature affects your clients' campaign performance, run comprehensive audits across all client landing pages that might appear in Demand Gen campaigns. Look specifically at:

• Visual appeal on both desktop and mobile
• Consistency with brand guidelines and ad creative
• Page load speed (since slow-loading elements might appear in previews)
• Overall conversion optimisation elements

2. Creating new service offerings

This update provides an excellent opportunity to introduce new service packages:

• Demand Gen Landing Page Optimisation: A focused service to ensure landing pages are optimised specifically for preview display in Google ads
• Campaign-Specific Landing Page Design: Custom landing pages designed specifically to work well with the screenshot preview feature
• A/B Testing for Preview Optimisation: Testing different landing page designs to see which performs best when previewed in ads

3. Educating your clients

Position your agency as an expert by proactively informing clients about:

• How this change might affect their current campaigns
• What steps they should take to optimise for this feature
• The potential impact on conversion rates and click-through performance

How to prepare SMB clients for landing page previews

To ensure your SMB clients are ready for this change, consider implementing these strategies:

1. Prioritise above-the-fold Content

Since screenshots will likely capture only the top portion of landing pages, help your clients prioritise their most compelling content and visuals "above the fold." Key elements should include:

• Clear value proposition
• Strong visual elements
• Minimal distractions or clutter

2. Strengthen visual consistency across channels

The visual journey from ad to landing page should feel seamless. Audit your clients' campaigns to ensure:

• Consistent colour schemes between ads and landing pages
• Matching imagery and styling
• Coherent messaging from ad to landing page

3. Implement regular landing page QA processes

With landing pages now directly visible in ads, help your clients establish regular quality assurance checks:

• Weekly visual inspections of all active landing pages
• Regular testing across different devices and screen sizes
• Monitoring for any temporary promotions that might make screenshots outdated

Using Insites to master this Google update

For agencies managing multiple SMB clients, staying ahead of this change requires efficient tools and processes. Insites offers solutions specifically designed for agencies selling digital marketing services at scale:

Comprehensive website audits

Our Insites for Sales tool allows your team to quickly run detailed audits on client websites, identifying potential issues before they impact ad performance. In just 60 seconds, you can generate reports covering:

• Website performance scores
• Mobile-friendly optimisation
• Image optimisation issues
• Content quality assessment
• Core functionality evaluation

Competitor comparison

Help your clients understand how their landing pages stack up against local competitors with our competitor analysis feature. This powerful comparison tool enables you to:

• Show clients where they stand relative to competitors
• Identify industry benchmarks for landing page quality
• Create urgency around landing page improvements when competitors are outperforming them

Quality assurance at scale

For agencies building or managing websites for clients, our Insites for Website Builders tool provides:

• Standardised quality assurance processes
• Performance tracking across multiple sites
• Comprehensive reporting dashboards
• Automated checks for critical landing page elements

Adapt now or fall behind

Google's addition of landing page screenshots to Demand Gen campaigns signals an important shift: the boundary between ads and websites is blurring. Digital marketing agencies that quickly adapt to this change will position themselves as leaders while providing additional value to their SMB clients.

By proactively addressing this update through landing page audits, enhanced service offerings, and client education, your agency can transform a potential challenge into a competitive advantage and revenue opportunity.

Want to get ahead of Google's landing page preview feature? Book a discovery call to see how Insites can help your sales team identify landing page issues, create data-driven improvement proposals, and close more deals with clear, actionable insights.