A launch microsite in a week: a run sheet, tracking and a plan to take it down

A campaign microsite is a small page, or a few pages, made for one launch: a product, an event, an offer. It runs for a few weeks and then comes down. This page is a process guide. It covers the time plan, the domain choice, tracking, testing and the takedown. For a comparison of the builders themselves, see a landing page with no developer.

I also explain where Higgsfield, an online platform for AI images and video that can also build sites through an AI agent, fits and where it does not.

This page may contain affiliate links from which Blur Studio earns commissions.

The problem: a launch needs a page, not a web project

The builders' own marketing says you can have a page in minutes. That is true for the page. The delays come from things around it: waiting for a domain setting to spread across the internet, finding that the form does not send leads to the right inbox, and forgetting that ad links will break the day the page is deleted. A week is enough if you do those in the right order.

Decide the one goal and the one number

Pick one action you want a visitor to take: sign up, book a call, pre-order. Write one sentence for the call to action. Pick one number that tells you if it worked, for example sign-ups per 100 visitors. Everything else on the page, including the menu, should help that one action or be removed.

Minimum sections: a headline and offer, one piece of real proof, how it works in three steps, the form, a short FAQ, and a small legal line that includes consent. If you collect emails, add a consent statement and a link to your privacy page, and check local rules for marketing emails (for example GDPR in Europe or CAN-SPAM in the United States) before you send anything. This is information, not legal advice.

Microsite or a landing page on your own site?

Zoomforth, which sells microsite software, names three reasons to use a separate microsite: its own address and its own analytics (so the campaign report is clean), its own look when a partner or a narrow audience needs it, and no waiting in a developer queue. Leadpages and Mida make similar points. The cost is a new address with no search history and one more thing to look after. If your main site lets you add a page in an afternoon and the look fits, a page on your own site can be the better choice. Pick the microsite when you want clean numbers, a different look or a hard end date.

Teaser, launch day, afterwards: one page, three jobs

Zoomforth describes a launch page in three phases on the same address. Before launch it teases and captures emails with a countdown and a signup form. On launch day it becomes the hub with the announcement, a demo, price and a way to buy. Afterwards it turns into a resource page with answers to real customer questions. Its guide suggests starting four to six weeks before a product launch. My seven day run sheet is the lean version for a small offer or event, not a replacement for that longer plan on a big product launch. Zoomforth's six blocks are a good checklist: a one sentence announcement, features grouped by what changes for the buyer, price and availability, proof, an FAQ, and one call to action repeated down the page. A short demo video near the top gives you a second number to watch, how much of it people play.

Domain choice: a subdomain of your brand or a new domain

A subdomain is an address that sits in front of your main domain, such as launch.yourbrand.com. I would use one for most launches. It keeps trust and some search value with your brand, and you can remove it without touching your main site. A separate domain is useful when the campaign is meant to look like a separate brand, but it starts with no history.

Before you pick a builder, confirm that it supports the subdomain pattern you want. Wix, for example, says on its plans page (read 3 November 2026) that you need a Premium plan to connect a domain you own. Higgsfield's help center documents only Higgsfield subdomains that can be renamed, and tells you to contact it for anything else, so ask support first if your brand domain matters. Canva's help center has sections on publishing to free or paid domains and managing DNS, but its details and prices could not be read.

DNS (domain name system, the address book of the internet) changes can take hours to reach everyone. That is why the domain step comes before the build in the run sheet below.

A seven day run sheet

T is launch day. This is a plan you can run, with timings I suggest.

When	Task	Done when
T minus 7	Offer, copy and the single goal final	One sentence offer and one number agreed
T minus 5	Builder chosen, domain or subdomain pointed at it	The address loads a blank page
T minus 3	First full build	Every section filled with real content
T minus 2	Test script, tracking checked	All test steps pass
T minus 1	Freeze changes, soft launch to staff and friends	Three outsiders submitted the form
T	Launch, watch the first hours	First real sign-up arrives
T plus end	Redirect, export, archive	Old link lands on a live page

Where Higgsfield's builder fits

Higgsfield's published build log (9 August 2026) lists a campaign microsite that runs a few weeks and then comes down as a suitable use for its AI-built sites. Its own demonstration took under two hours and 8 messages. Higgsfield's Supercomputer, its agent, can build and deploy sites from a written brief on paid plans, and credits are deducted per step. In that example, the build used 1,479.32 credits, about $74 at the twenty credits to the dollar rate of the plan Higgsfield used, mostly for the agent's own reasoning. Higgsfield itself says credit rates differ between plans and regions, and that the agent's own work does not show a price before you approve it. That is one data point, not a quote.

Two practical points from the log matter for a launch:

• Deploy delay. After you change the site, the live address keeps serving the previous version until a deploy of a minute or two finishes. Publishing again without deploying does nothing. Schedule your last change early on launch day.
• Invented details. The agent made up product specs in that example. Give it a fact sheet and check every claim.

What is not documented: forms, analytics and lead capture for a site that is not a generator, and a custom domain. In Higgsfield's own example, visitors have to sign in with a Higgsfield account to use the page's generator, and Higgsfield's Apps help article says people who use a published app sign in with their own Higgsfield accounts. That suits a tool, not a plain sign-up page for the public. If your launch page is a plain form and proof, use a template builder. If it is a small interactive tool, the agent is worth a capped try. More detail is on the Higgsfield website builder page.

Builders in brief, for a short campaign

• Carrd, a one-page site maker, shows Pro from $19 a year, with forms that connect to many email tools. Cheapest for one page.
• Wix, a drag and drop site builder, showed Light at $17.77 a month (including GST, so the price depends on your region), a 14 day refund window for a first Premium upgrade, and Premium needed for your own domain.
• Canva, a design tool that can also publish websites, is a fit if your team already designs in it. Its website price and limits could not be read.

For a four week campaign, yearly billing matters. A plan shown as a monthly price but paid for a year up front means you pay for twelve months unless you cancel inside the refund window. Wix says the 14 day refund applies to the initial upgrade to a Premium plan. Put a calendar reminder on day 12, and read the term on the live page.

Tracking pack: UTMs, a thank-you page and a daily sheet

1. UTM codes. UTM tags are short labels added to a link so your analytics can tell where a visit came from. Use one pattern: source (instagram), medium (paid), campaign (spring-launch). Keep it in a sheet so everyone spells it the same.
2. Thank-you page. Send form submissions to a separate thank-you address. Fire your conversion tag there, so a conversion counts only when the form works.
3. Daily sheet. For 14 days, write down visits and sign-ups each morning.
4. Pass and fail up front. Decide before launch what counts as success. Illustrative thresholds, not benchmarks: 10 percent form conversion on warm traffic (people who already know you) and 2 to 3 percent on cold traffic. Adjust to your own numbers.

Also give the page a plain title and a one-line description that say what it offers, and add a share preview image, so a link posted in chat or social shows a proper picture. For a hero image, see where to get one.

Mobile and form test script

1. Submit the form empty. It should refuse.
2. Submit junk in the phone and email fields. It should refuse or clean it.
3. Submit a real address from a phone. The lead should reach the right inbox within a minute.
4. Check the thank-you page and the conversion tag.
5. Repeat in a private browser window.
6. Open it on a mid-range phone on mobile data. Time how long the first screen takes to appear.
7. Paste the link into a chat app and check the share preview.

Pass: all steps work on two different phones. Fail: any lost lead or a first screen that takes more than a few seconds. Fix before launch.

Lead handling: who replies, and how fast

A page that collects leads nobody answers is a waste. Name the person who checks the inbox, set a reply target (I suggest the same working day), and write the first reply message before launch. If you use a CRM, send submissions straight to it rather than by email alone.

Takedown: redirect, export, archive

When the campaign ends, do not delete the page and walk away. Ad links, emails and posts still point to it.

1. Export the sign-up list and store it where your consent records live.
2. Set a 301 redirect (a permanent forward) from the microsite address to the most relevant evergreen page on your main site. Schedule it in advance, because deploy steps can take time.
3. Save a copy of the page code or screenshots for your records.
4. Remove it from your sitemap and stop paid ads that point to it.
5. Cancel the plan, if it was for the campaign only.
6. Keep the page as a template. The next launch then starts from a tested form, tracking setup and layout, not a blank page.

Redirecting is not the only choice. Zoomforth lists three ways to retire a page: redirect it to a lasting page, leave it live with a clear "this campaign has ended" note and a link to a current option, or strip the countdown and offer terms and keep it as a resource. Pick one before launch. A promo page left live and indexed months after the offer ended is the failure to avoid.

Cost comparison for a four week page (illustrative)

Route	Likely cost	Time cost
Carrd Pro	$19 a year, plus a domain if you need one	Half a day to a day
Wix Light	About $17.77 a month as shown in one region, check your price and term	A day
Higgsfield agent build	About $74 in credits in the vendor's one example, plus a paid plan	Hours, plus review of every claim
Freelancer	Ask for a quote	Days, plus briefing time

The cost that matters most is your time to test. If a competitor's launch page is only text, an image and a form, a template takes about 30 minutes, and you can spend the saved hours on the offer and the follow-up message.

Who should skip the AI route

• Your page is a standard form with proof. Use a template.
• You need your own domain and cannot confirm it works.
• The launch needs integrations with a CRM, payments or consent flows. Ask a developer.
• No one can review every sentence the AI writes.

Outputs from AI tools may not be unique, you need rights and consent for any real face or voice, and real footage should stay where a claim must be real.

How I'd approach this

I would book the domain step first and the copy second, because those two decide whether launch day holds. I would build in a template, run the test script on two phones, and write the redirect task into the calendar before launch, not after. If the page is a small tool, try an agent such as Higgsfield's Supercomputer on a throwaway version first and read the real credit use. Related launch material: a launch teaser video and product reveal effects.

When launches are frequent, Blur Studio builds the repeatable workflow around them: a page template, form routing to your CRM, and a shared asset library. See how I work with business owners.