Too High CPC? - Find Out Why!

Page speed directly affects your Google Ads costs - and clean code gives you an advantage from day one

Did you know that a slow-loading page can dramatically increase your Google Ads costs? Landing page loading speed is a key component of Landing Page Experience, which affects Quality Score - and this directly determines how much you pay for each click.

Proven impact on costs:

• Increase in loading time from 1s to 3s increases bounce rate by 32%
• Slow pages can increase CPC by up to 40%
• Typical CPA reduction after performance optimization: 15-40%

Why does clean code have an advantage?

Clean code pages are naturally optimized from the ground up:

• No unnecessary JavaScript from dozens of plugins
• Precise control over every resource loaded on the page
• Minimalist architecture without excess code
• No conflicts between plugins slowing down performance
• Easier diagnosis and optimization of performance issues

WordPress vs code in the context of Google Ads:

While WordPress can be optimized (through CDN, caching, image compression, removing plugins), it requires constant work, updates, and monitoring. Every new plugin can worsen performance. Every update can break optimizations.

Clean code offers stable, predictable performance without the need for constant compromises between functionality and speed. This means lower Google Ads costs from day one and maintaining that advantage over time.

Result: Lower CPC, better Quality Score, and greater return on investment from advertising campaigns.

Over the past 3 years, I've analyzed dozens of projects and every time I've seen the same pattern: slow pages = more expensive ads = wasting marketing budget. And every time, hand-coded pages proved to be the salvation.

PageSpeed = AdSpeed (or Google Ads mathematics)

Google doesn't talk about it loudly, but Quality Score in Google Ads takes into account landing page loading speed. This means that if your page loads in 4 seconds instead of 1.5 seconds, you pay more for each click.

I recently worked with a client who ran an online store on WordPress. Their page loaded in 5.2 seconds. The cost per click in Google Ads was 4.50 PLN. After migration to code (loading time: 1.1 seconds), the cost dropped to 2.80 PLN per click.

Savings: 1.70 PLN on each click. With 500 clicks per month, that's 850 PLN monthly savings = 10,200 PLN annually.

Real case study: E-commerce in the fashion industry

Initial situation:

• WordPress + WooCommerce
• 12 active plugins
• Loading time: 4.8s
• Bounce rate: 68%
• Customer cost from Google Ads: 85 PLN

Problem: The owner was spending 15,000 PLN monthly on Google Ads, but only 2% of visitors were buying anything.

Root cause analysis (WordPress):

1. Elementor generated 890 KB of unnecessary CSS
2. WooCommerce loaded 23 JavaScript files on every page (even on the blog!)
3. Gallery plugin downloaded all product photos at once
4. WordPress core + themes added another 45 HTTP requests

Results after 2 months:

• Loading time: 1.2s (-75%)
• Bounce rate: 31% (-54%)
• Conversion rate: 4.8% (+140%)
• Customer cost: 42 PLN (-51%)

Monthly savings: 6,450 PLN on the same advertising budget, but with twice as good results.

Why do hand-coded pages load so fast?

1. Zero overhead

WordPress must load the entire environment even for a simple contact page. A hand-coded page loads only what's needed.

2. Byte-level optimization

Every line of CSS and JavaScript is manually optimized. There are no unnecessary libraries, conflicting styles, or duplicated code.

How to measure how much you're losing on slow loading?

Simple calculation:

1. Check bounce rate in Google Analytics
2. Measure loading time in GTmetrix
3. Count monthly budget for ads

Formula: For every second above 2s, you lose ~15% of traffic = 15% of advertising budget down the drain.

Example:

• Budget: 5,000 PLN/month
• Loading time: 5 seconds
• Loss = 3s × 15% = 45% of budget = 2,250 PLN monthly
• Annual loss: 27,000 PLN

A hand-coded page is not just speed - it's a business strategy

After years of observing this market, I'm sure of one thing: companies that invest in speed dominate their industries.

The question is: How much more do you want to pay Google for ads instead of investing in technology that will work for you for years?

If the answer is "too much," then maybe it's time to talk about migration to code. Your marketing budget will thank you.