September 5, 2017

Google AdWords doubles the number of Sitelinks

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Michael Jenkins
Michael Jenkins

CEO - Shout Agency
[email protected]

Overview

You do not pay for an advertisement just to get eyes on your latest campaign. You advertise online because you want to increase your company’s revenue. A large part of this process involves tracking your results to see what services your customers need.

Google Ads helps you to track specific offers with Sitelinks. These trackable links have been a tremendous boon to retailers and other digital marketers looking to increase sales of specific items on their website.

Google AdWords has long been a go-to platform for businesses looking to increase their online visibility and drive targeted traffic to their websites. Recently, Google made a significant update to its ad format by doubling the number of sitelinks available to advertisers. In this blog post, we will explore this exciting development and discuss how businesses can leverage the increased number of sitelinks to maximise click-through rates, enhance user engagement, and ultimately achieve their advertising goals.

Sitelinks play a crucial role in enhancing the effectiveness of Google AdWords campaigns. They provide additional opportunities for businesses to showcase specific pages or sections of their website directly within their ad, enticing users to explore more of their offerings. With the recent update, businesses can now display up to eight sitelinks, offering a more comprehensive and diverse representation of their website’s content.

The expanded number of sitelinks opens up new avenues for businesses to capture user attention and drive higher click-through rates. By strategically selecting relevant and compelling landing pages, businesses can present a more tailored ad experience to users, increasing the chances of them clicking on their ads and exploring their website further. This increased engagement not only boosts website traffic but also improves the overall user experience.

Furthermore, the expanded sitelinks feature enables businesses to highlight various aspects of their offerings, such as specific product categories, services, promotions, or informative content. By showcasing a wider range of options, businesses can cater to different user preferences and align their ad messaging with specific user needs, increasing the likelihood of conversions and customer satisfaction.

In the following sections of this blog post, we will delve deeper into the practical strategies and best practices for leveraging the increased number of sitelinks in Google AdWords campaigns. From selecting the most relevant landing pages to optimizing the sitelink text and monitoring performance metrics, we will provide actionable insights to help businesses make the most of this powerful advertising feature.

Join us as we explore the latest update to Google AdWords and uncover the immense potential it holds for businesses to boost their online presence, engage with their target audience, and drive tangible results. With the increased number of sitelinks, businesses can create more impactful and comprehensive ad experiences that capture user attention, encourage exploration, and ultimately lead to increased conversions and business growth.

What are SiteLinks?

“Sitelinks” are Google Ads website links to specific pages on your website. You can use them to advertise a specific product page or highlight store hours. Sitelinks vary from company to company, but they should increase the value of your Google Ad to customers.

They are especially beneficial when advertising to customer deeper in your funnel. A prospect who visited your site previously does not need the basic info about your business. Your prospect needs specifics on how the product benefits them.

For example, Nike uses Sitelinks for a Back to School campaign as well as their new Mariah Flyknit Racer shoes for runners.

The Back to School campaign targets kids (and their parents) who want to look fashionable on the first day in classes.

Conversely, runners might not be interested in Back to Schoolwear. Instead, runners want to know which shoes give them an edge over the competition.

Google also helps you use this feature by seeing detailed click data for each Sitelink.

You can review the data by campaign, ad group, or ad. Then segment each Sitelink to see how it performed against other parts of your ad.

Once you review the data, you can then edit your sitelink extensions based on your analysis.

This extra data provides a wealth of opportunities for businesses to market their products to customers. The more choices you have, the more tests you can run to see which products customers purchase. By extension, these additional tests can speed up your Ads results.

Note: Google does not charge advertisers extra for these sitelinks. Google’s reasoning behind this is that Sitelinks provide additional relevant ad content to users. Anytime Google can add value to searchers they will take advantage of the opportunity.

What’s Changing with Sitelinks?

Google wants to extend the number of Sitelinks for Google Ads from 4 to 8 links.

According to the Ads Help section, the text used to say ads on mobile devices could “show up to 4 links” and now reads “it can show up to 8 links.”

The most interesting part of this change is how it affects mobile devices and tablets. That change is vital, because the 8 links will now show up as a carousel on mobile devices for customers to scroll through the Sitelinks until they find a relevant option.

Avner Pinchover provided a screenshot comparison (see below) with the change in verbiage.

This is a continuation of a theme we have seen from Google in recent years to improve their mobile text ads. With mobile now compromising almost 60% of all searches, it is vital for Google to enhance their mobile ads. This way they can continue dominating the mobile advertising space.

For example, last year Google rolled out their new Price Extensions on mobile. This allowed users to explore different prices directly from Google’s search screen.

Those price extensions showed a row of prices, and the click-through went straight to a landing page. This combination increases conversions on mobile devices as more and more users make quick decisions on mobile devices as they become more comfortable with the platform.

Furthermore, Google also made it possible to tap the Ads Sitelinks on the mobile carousel. This is how they doubled the number of Sitelinks. The carousel made it easier to access all 8 Sitelinks on a mobile device.

The previous version had a cut-off text that was not interactive. The early result from these changes let to searchers doubling their engagement with Sitelinks.

Final Thoughts

Google Ads Sitelinks provide another tool in your arsenal to connect with prospects through paid search. As Google continues to improve its mobile ad software, they make it easier for businesses to connect with their ideal customer to their high-value products.

If you are interested in using Google Ads for your business, contact us at Shout for a free consultation today.

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        As Founder and Director of Shout Web Strategy, Michael Jenkins is at the forefront of digital marketing. Since it’s inception in 2009, Shout has built a strong reputation as one of Australia’s leading strategic SEO agencies, assisting online businesses to formulate, implement and track successful marketing strategies. Michael is a respected thought leader and digital strategist, specialising in online strategy, corporate SEO, Google retargeting, email and conversion rate optimisation, and online reputation management. Follow Michael on Google+, connect with him through LinkedIn or visit the Shout Web Strategy website.

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