Fast Prep Academy: connecting ads, landing pages and tracking into one system.

What I found

I started by tracing the path a student takes from an ad to a landing page to the enquiry form, for each programme separately. Four things stood out.

Some pages had technical issues

A few landing pages had problems that affected how quickly and reliably they loaded. A student who clicks an ad ready to enquire rarely waits for a slow page.

Visitors were leaving before the form

Session recordings showed most visitors leaving before they reached the key information or the enquiry form. That pointed to a structure and messaging problem, not a traffic problem.

Paid traffic was landing on the wrong page

For one programme, paid traffic was going to a duplicate page instead of the intended page. Both pages looked fine on their own. The problem only showed up when I followed the actual path from ad to page.

Tracking was not consistent

Conversion tracking was not consistently in place across UCAT, LNAT and Digital SAT. Without it, budget decisions were based on instinct rather than evidence.

The real problem

None of these issues was dramatic on its own. The real problem was that the website, the ads and the tracking were treated as three separate jobs. Each piece could look fine while the journey between them was broken, and with no reliable tracking there was no way to see it.

What I changed

• Fixed the technical issues affecting page load and stability on the exam-prep landing pages.
• Corrected the duplicate landing page so paid traffic reached the intended page.
• Put conversion tracking in place so ad performance could be measured against real enquiries.
• Reviewed the enquiry forms so every programme had a clear, visible path to enquire.
• Flagged outdated or inconsistent page details so each programme's messaging stayed accurate.
• Mapped the ad-to-enquiry journey separately for UCAT, LNAT and Digital SAT, because each attracts a different student with different questions.

Why I did it in this order

Technical fixes and tracking came first, and scaling came second. There is little value in sending more traffic to a page with technical problems, and there is no way to know whether a later change helped if tracking is not already recording the result.

I also made changes gradually instead of rebuilding the site. The academy was running live campaigns, and gradual changes make it clear which change caused which effect.

How I executed it

1. Research: reviewed each programme's landing page, traffic sources and analytics setup.
2. Audit: combined ads data with session recordings, so I could see both where visitors came from and what they did on the page.
3. Plan: turned the findings into a fix list, ranked by impact.
4. Implement: fixed the technical errors, the duplicate page and the tracking.
5. Optimise: I keep monitoring campaign performance and adjusting as new data comes in.

The result so far

Paid traffic now reaches the intended pages, the technical issues I found are fixed, and conversion tracking is in place across the programmes. For the first time, ad spend can be compared against actual enquiries instead of clicks.

What this project taught me

A good website alone does not create admissions

Admissions come from what happens around the page: the right traffic, a clear path to enquire, and tracking that shows what worked.

Clarity beats polish in the first few seconds

A visitor is asking one question: is this relevant to me? A page that makes them work for the answer loses them.

Fix tracking before you spend more

Missing conversion tracking is the most common gap I see in training businesses. Without it, budget goes to whichever channel feels like it is working.

Small fixes compound

A faster page keeps visitors long enough for the message to matter, and accurate tracking shows which fix actually helped.