Stop blaming ads—your slow website is killing conversions

If your ads look fine but results feel flat, the culprit usually isn’t your media buyer—it’s your website. Founders tell us the same story: increased spend, lower conversion, rising CAC. Then we open their site on 4G and watch it crawl. The hero video weighs as much as a product demo. Fonts load like it’s 2012. The form asks for everything except a passport. That’s not a funnel—it’s friction.

Pretty doesn’t convert. Performance does.

Design matters. But design that ignores speed, clarity, and decision paths is just decoration. A beautiful, slow website is a very expensive brochure. Most visitors don’t see your craftsmanship—they see a spinner, a jumpy layout, or a confusing hero with no clear next step.

Speed is the foundation. When pages are slow, bounce rates spike and ad dollars evaporate. On mobile, every extra second of load time compounds drop-off. If your first paint, layout shift, and input delay are off, it doesn’t matter how clever your headline is—people won’t stick around to read it.

A website that sells does three things well

• It loads fast on real phones, not just your office Wi‑Fi. Aim to pass Core Web Vitals on mobile: fast Largest Contentful Paint, minimal layout shift, responsive interactions. Practical moves: compress and lazy‑load images (WebP/AVIF), avoid auto‑playing hero videos, keep third‑party scripts lean, load only the font weights you use, and tame heavy interactions.
• It says one clear thing above the fold. Visitors should instantly grasp who you help, the outcome you create, and the next step. Example: “Turn complex operations into smooth workflows. Book a 15‑minute assessment.” Pair that with a single primary CTA—not three competing options.
• It removes friction and closes the loop. Short forms, or better: a two‑step form that qualifies without scaring. Social proof near CTAs. Pricing cues or ranges if relevant. Instant scheduling. And automation that confirms, routes, and follows up without a sales rep chasing spreadsheets.

The silent tax on your ad spend

Imagine $10,000 in monthly ads at a $2 CPC. That’s 5,000 visitors. On a healthy, fast page converting at 2%, you get 100 leads—$100 per lead. Slow page, confusing CTA, extra friction? Drop to 0.8% and you get 40 leads—$250 per lead. Same audience. Same creative. The only change is your site’s ability to load and guide.

Founders often try to fix this with “more traffic.” But pouring more water into a leaky bucket doesn’t fill it. Fix the bucket.

The WeCraft way

WeCraft Studio builds high‑performing Webflow sites and the automation that makes them sell. Our approach is simple:

• Diagnose: We audit speed, Core Web Vitals, messaging, and funnel analytics. Real device testing, not lab-only scores.
• De‑bloat and accelerate: Optimize assets, strip redundant scripts, rationalize fonts, tighten interactions, and structure pages for speed. Webflow done right is fast.
• Design to decide: Clear value prop, focused CTAs, social proof where it matters, and forms that qualify without killing intent.
• Instrument and automate: Events tracked end‑to‑end. With n8n, leads get routed to your CRM, enriched, scored, and sent to Slack in seconds. Calendars sync. Follow‑ups trigger automatically. No more manual busywork or lost leads.
• Iterate: We test headlines, layouts, and CTAs—not for aesthetics, but for lift.

A 7‑minute checklist to spot the leaks

• Run your homepage and top landing pages through PageSpeed Insights on mobile. If you’re failing Core Web Vitals, fix speed before tweaking copy.
• Kill auto‑playing hero videos. Use a lightweight image and defer media below the fold.
• Compress images to WebP/AVIF and lazy‑load everything below the fold. Limit to 1–2 font families and only the weights you need.
• Remove duplicate pixels and heavy third‑party scripts. Use one tag manager and defer non‑critical tags.
• Make one primary CTA. Repeat it where decisions are made. Don’t hide it in a mega‑menu.
• Shorten forms. If you need qualification, use a stepped form and offer instant scheduling after submit.
• Track what matters: form start/submit, schedule complete, and key micro‑conversions. Pipe UTMs to your CRM.

If you’re spending on traffic, your site should feel instantaneous and obvious. That’s the difference between “nice design” and measurable revenue. If you want an honest, fast diagnostic, WeCraft can audit your speed and conversion flow, and show you the three biggest fixes that reduce CAC. Fix the site, then scale the spend.