Sitelinks are a great feature of Google AdWords and on average click through rates for ads with Sitelinks is 30% higher than for those without. This makes Sitelinks a powerful tool in your AdWords arsenal.
Sitelinks are only eligible to show on ads that occupy the top 3 positions and you can set up to 6 different links to send visitors to various URLs within your website.
Google states:
Ad sitelinks are designed to appear when an ad provides the “best” result for a search query, and they are most likely to appear for searches for unique brand terms for top-ranked ads with higher quality scores. (However, they may not always be shown for every top-ranked ad.)
Why you’d use them
You can create richer, more relevant ads that improve the value of your brand terms and other targeted keywords. For example, with ad sitelinks you can point to specific information on your site such as gift registries, special deals, holiday or event-related promotions, and store locators. On average, advertisers who use ad sitelinks have seen their ad clickthrough rates improve by 30%
Setting up Sitelinks in Google AdWords
Setting them up is a doddle too, here’s some easy to follow instructions.
- Log into your AdWords Account
- Select the relevant campaign (currently site links can only be set on the campaign level, but this is due to change with enhanced campaigns which roll out this year.)
- Select Ad Extensions
- Select Sitelinks Extensions form the Drop Down
- Select New Extension and then enter your descriptions and URLS.
Sitelinks
Be creative with your descriptions, if for example you are an E-Commerce website then its worth including prices to specific products or ranges or a sitelink to a sale category on your website.
In the above example you can see the Sitelinks have a CTR (Click Through Ratio) of 13.69% which is pretty respectable. Without Sitelinks the ads CTR would be nearer 3-4%.
Within a few months as Google AdWords Enhanced Campaigns are rolled out we’ll be able to add sitelinks at the ad group level rather than the campaign level as we have to now which will make the process of structuring campaigns and ad groups to incorporate Sitelinks much easier.
If you have a Google AdWords Manager, check to make sure they are using Sitelinks on your campaigns and remember to experiment to find out what combinations work best.
