Search Marketing Enhancements: Google Adwords Ad Sitelinks

Search Marketing Enhancements: Google Adwords Ad Sitelinks
Increasing choice and relevancy in search ads

Background
A handful of AdWords Account was selected to participate in an exclusive beta test of a new feature called Ad Sitelinks. Chosen accounts were 1 of only 500 out of over 5 million AdWords accounts to participate. Accounts were selected based on high campaign performance; and specifically high click-thru rates, but it still is like winning the lottery.

What is Ad Sitelinks?
Ad Sitelinks is a new AdWords feature that allows advertisers to extend the value of their existing AdWords ads by providing additional links to deep content within the site. Rather than sending all users to the same landing page, Ad Sitelinks will display up to 4 additional destination URLs for users to choose from. By providing users with more options, the ad is more targeted and relevant to a wide variety of users. Sitelink’s success started with natural search listings and is transferring into paid search.

Figure 1 - Ad without Ad Sitelinks

Figure 2 - Ad with Ad Sitelinks

What are the potential benefits to advertisers?

Qualified leads - Ad Sitelinks is a great way to get more qualified leads to the site and improve the profitability of the search campaigns. One of the best ways to improve an ad’s conversion rate is to have highly relevant, targeted landing pages. With Ad Sitelinks, users are able to select the destination that best matches their specific interests. This means more users are likely to find ads relevant, less likely to get lost on the site, and more likely to convert into a sale or lead.

Increased clicks and click-thru rate - With Ad Sitelinks, search ads will stand out among other competitive ads. By adding additional relevant links, users with have more options to find what they are looking for. Thus, making ads smarter and more accessible for users.

With more clicks, the CPC (cost per click) may be higher, but if it turns out that the clicks are from relevant visitors (who don’t bounce on the first page and who continue to key pages and actions), this is a great enhancement to paid search — more engaged users!