Site Link Extensions for Paid Ads

What? Ad Sitelinks is a feature for paid listing ads that let you include up to 4 additional links to deeper content on your site beyond the main landing page. With Sitelinks, you automatically extend the value of your AdWords ad by showcasing additional targeted and relevant links for users.  The site links are only available to the top-performing ads.

How? Adding site link extensions is done through your AdWords campaign.  You can do up to 10 site links and Google will rotate the site links as well as track their results.  If a user search triggers your ad to run with Sitelinks, Google will include up to 4 additional links on your ad, along with the main landing page link.

Why? Sitelinks provide a better user experience for the individual searching.  Users are able to find relevant information that directs them to specific, deeper pages on the website. For the advertiser, Sitelinks can improve website performance and track which pages users are interested based on the Sitelinks.
A Sitelink Extension has no additional cost; it will not directly raise the bidding price on keywords.  In our results, the average CPC for Sitelinks was significantly less.  The average CPC for a campaign was $0.88 but the Sitelink was $0.33.

The CTR with Sitelinks goes up dramatically higher.  A campaign with a 2% CTR had a Sitelink CTR of 21.28%.  Users were interested in the ads and clicking while finding the information they wanted.  The Sitelink landing pages were also relevant to the user causing this increase in CTR.

Conclusion: By providing searchers with more options they are more likely to find exactly what they are looking for and click on your ads.  Having a higher CTR directly correlates with a lower CPC and better ROI.  The Ad Sitelinks feature makes it easy to update seasonal or limited promotions such as specials, packages, and seasonal events. At Milestone, we enable site links for all our clients and are seeing great ROI.