Should You Use Microsites for AdWords Campaigns?

There are also functionality questions you need to answer. Within your main site, can you effectively perform the following tasks:

• Build forms that capture leads effectively?
• Adjust the layout?

One of the reasons marketers build landing pages on microsites or stand-alone pages is that the technology behind forms and lead nurturing — think HubSpot, Eloqua or other CRM providers — tend to require less effort than building the pages within their main website. For most small to midsized companies, however, it probably makes sense to house these on stand-alone areas.

Those are two of the big-ticket "decision trees" around microsites for AdWords campaigns. There are smaller ones, but the key idea is to understand what the environments lean towards, capitalize on the strengths and plan how you'll mitigate against the weaknesses.