The form is the leak
Published:
Most paid traffic that “doesn’t convert” filled the hero and died on the ask. Company-before-email, a silent fail, and a “Book a tour” eyebrow on a free-grade promise add decisions the click did not buy. Ask the minimum. Make submit honest. Evergreen how-to: Form friction.
The ask has to finish the job
If the ad sold a free grade, the form eyebrow cannot switch the job. That is message match at the last step. SiteRevenue scores Form when a public form exists (omit-safe when form_checkout is null). Higher module score = healthier, not “more fields.”
Baymard’s guest-first checkout research is about ecommerce. The analogue on a marketing page is: do not force account creation when email-next would deliver the artifact. Check 16 on the checklist.
The rest of Form is hygiene that paid mobile traffic actually hits:
- Labels and errors readable at phone width.
- Inputs ≥16px so iOS does not zoom.
- Tap targets ≥24px (WCAG 2.2 2.5.8).
- Loading, success, and failure obvious — no silent fail.
- Post-submit next step (email, calendar, dashboard), not a dead thank-you.
We do not invent Core Web Vitals. A 16px input is a path issue, not a fake INP.
The sample friction-heavy form is a labeled wireframe, not a live customer audit.
How to ship this week
| Change | Effort |
|---|---|
| Email first; company optional or later | S |
| Match eyebrow + submit to the hero verb | S |
| Visible error + loading + success | S |
| One sentence after submit: what happens next | S |
Then re-audit the live URL. Empty re-runs burn a credit.
What this is not
- Not an authenticated checkout audit. Public pages only. Dashboards are out of scope.
- Not a password-policy review. Baymard’s full checkout list stays in research; we do not pretend we scanned
/account. - Not Ads ingest. Optional outcome fields are hints.
- Not a lift statistic. No invented conversion-rate deltas.
Read next
- Matching guide: Form friction on landing pages
- Related: CTA hierarchy · Message match · Trust
- Sample · Free grade
More notes: Dual CTAs split the click · The phone fold is the landing page · All posts