The Intent Mismatch Story
đ§Why good traffic still converts poorly, Media buyer index of the week, and more!
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In this newsletter, youâll find:
đ§The Intent Mismatch Story
đ Paid media got more expensive, while returns got pickier
đ Ad of the Day
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đ§The Intent Mismatch Story
Most landing pages donât fail because theyâre slow, ugly, or confusing.
They fail because theyâre trying to answer too many questions at once.
Traffic arrives with intent. Not interest. Not curiosity. Intent. And intent is specific. Itâs shaped by the query, the ad, the promise, and the mental state of the person who clicked.
The moment that intent hits a page that isnât designed for it, conversion collapses.
The common mistake is treating landing pages like destinations instead of filters.
One page. One flow. One narrative meant to work for everyone.
But traffic isnât uniform. Some visitors are ready to buy. Some are comparing. Some want reassurance. Some want proof. Some are trying to decide if this even applies to them.
When a single page tries to serve all of those states, it ends up matching none of them particularly well.
This mismatch creates a chain reaction that most teams miss.
When intent isnât matched, users hesitate. Hesitation increases dwell time without progress. That behavior feeds back into the ad system as weak engagement. Weak engagement reduces delivery. Reduced delivery increases CPC.
By the time conversion rates drop, the auction has already adjusted against you.
This is why landing page quality now affects ad performance before it affects revenue. Intent matching isnât about personalization gimmicks or endless variants.
Itâs about structural clarity.
A page needs to make a fast decision about who it is for and who it is not. The opening message must align with the promise that earned the click. Distractions that serve other intents need to be removed, not accommodated.
This is where many teams lose leverage. Search demand, keyword intent, competitor positioning, and landing page messaging are often planned in isolation. Without seeing how intent is expressed upstream, pages default to broad messaging that feels safe but converts late.
This is where Semrush One comes in. By unifying search intent signals, competitive context, and content alignment in one system, it helps teams identify which intents are actually being paid for and whether landing pages are built to resolve them quickly.
Pages stop trying to cover everything and start resolving the right thing. You can start your 7-Day free trial now!
This also changes how pages should be evaluated.
Instead of asking, âDoes this page convert well overall,â the better question is, âWhich intent does this page convert best?â
If you canât answer that, youâre likely sending mixed traffic into a single flow and hoping averages work out.
They wonât.
As ad platforms tighten delivery around engagement and experience signals, intent mismatch becomes expensive faster.
Better ads canât fix it. More traffic amplifies it. Optimization downstream wonât save it.
The fix is upstream.
Match the page to the intent that earned the click. Design for resolution, not coverage.
Because the real cost of a bad landing page isnât lost conversions. Itâs paying more for traffic that never had a chance to work.
đ Paid media got more expensive, while returns got pickier
Last week looked like a classic efficiency squeeze. Some channels got cheaper to buy, but conversions and payback did not follow. That gap is forcing teams to protect margin, tighten targeting, and re-earn scale with better offer and landing page alignment.
The Breakdown:
CPC - Costs rose on Meta, YouTube, Microsoft, and Pinterest. Costs fell on Google, Amazon, TikTok, and Snapchat. If you are leaning on the rising-cost channels, expect more pressure to refresh creatives faster and control waste with tighter audience and placement rules.
CAC - CAC rose on Meta, Google, Amazon, TikTok, YouTube, and Pinterest. CAC fell on Microsoft and Snapchat, signaling weaker conversion quality in the biggest reach channels, so teams should prioritize post-click fixes and re-test value props before scaling spend.
ROAS - YouTube led with +16.50 percent ROAS, with Snapchat also up +5.29 percent. Meta, Amazon, TikTok, Google, Pinterest, and Microsoft all lagged, with Amazon down -18.06 percent. Scale belongs to channels where returns improved, not where clicks got cheaper.
Budgets stayed concentrated, with Meta holding a 65.68 percent share while performance weakened. The biggest spend expansion was YouTube at +23.70 percent share change, while Snapchat pulled back sharply at -23.65 percent. Rebalance by protecting winners, and isolate losers into smaller test lanes until ROAS stabilizes.
đ Ad of the Day
What Works:
1. Core Trigger: This turns a boring task into identity. A domain is framed like claiming your name, not buying a product, which makes the action feel personal and overdue.
2. Why The Copy Works: âYour name deserves a homeâ feels warm and human, not technical. It reframes the domain as ownership and legitimacy, not a checkbox for entrepreneurs.
3. Funnel Job: This is an activation ad. Itâs designed to get first-time builders moving, because once someone claims a domain, theyâre way more likely to finish the site.
If your product has friction, sell the first step, not the full journey. Make the starting line feel fast, simple, and emotionally rewarding.
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