Ad Extensions In 5 Days! Site Links – Small But Mighty!!

This is the first installment in our series Fully Utilizing AdWords’ Ad Extensions in Just 5 Days! Today we will discuss how amazing site link extensions can be for your PPC campaigns.

If you were a pay per click metric or cool option to use in a PPC account, what would you be?  I would be a site link extension for sure.  In fact, when they first came onto the scene, I posted an article all about them which you can read here!  They are one of the easiest and best options that you can use in Google AdWords to increase your click-through rate.  Need people to find a more specific page on your site in just one click? Use a site link.  Need to expand your customer’s knowledge of the deeper content on your site? Use a site link.  Want to just be nice and provide a better user experience for searcher?  Use a site link.  See a pattern here?  If that isn’t reason enough for you to get them into your account immediately, then I don’t know what else can convince you!  Perhaps some evidence would influence your decision… because we all know, the proof is in the pudding.

What are they?

Site link extensions are simple.  They are additional links to deeper content on your site that is not the main landing page, which are “tagged” onto the bottom of your search-based ad.  They provide a more relevant user experience by showcasing extra and targeted links.

When Should I Use Them?

Every account, no matter how large or small, can benefit from site links. Now keep in mind, there is one caveat for site links.  You can only use them on top performing ads.  So if you have an account that you have just started, you probably don’t have enough data yet to warrant Google allowing you to use site links.  It doesn’t take too long to gather that data, so don’t fret!  You will be up and running soon.

I have seen excellent results in my small budget accounts.  I love using site links because they don’t rack up additional spend in the account – they’re just a free, underutilized tool!  My client’s budget fluctuates between $1750 and $3750 per month.  There is not a lot of room in there to test big fancy things or let the display network run for a full month without wrecking my overall CTR.  So, to increase my click-through rate and create more brand awareness for this client, site links are a must.  Here are examples of two different months for this client based on spend levels per campaign.

High spend month:

Low spend month:

Regardless of spend, you can see that the CTR is fairly high and the cpc is not bad either!  Another thing to keep in mind about cpc costs with site links is that many times, your cpc for the site link will be far less than the average campaign cpc.  For example, in my high spend month, the site link overall cpc total was $0.37 and the Of course, these metrics will vary from product to product or service – this client sells a very high end product with a really long sales cycle, so them selling a product for $500k is worth the $0.26 click!  The larger the net we can cast for them in the PPC lake, the better.  Brand recognition is key for them.  CTR is the great PPC metric to concentrate on to achieve this goal.  Check out this post for more small budget account tips too!

Where Can I Sign Up!?

Again, it’s simple!  Just follow these steps:

1 – Sign into adWords and click into the campaign you would like to add site links to

2 – Click the Ad Extensions tab

3 – Select View: Sitelinks Extensions from the drop down menu about the extensions table

4 – Click New Extension and type in the description of what you would like the name to show up as, as well as the URL you want the link to point to

5 – Save it!  Done!  Congratulations!  You are ready for your site links to raise your CTR!

You can create new site links for each campaign or you can copy existing site links from other campaigns.

Hopefully, this has convinced you that site links are the best invention since pudding or Bill Cosby sweaters.  Ok, well, maybe not THAT great, but for PPC they are an awesome tool.  Make sure that you check out the rest of our series this week.  We have lots of great information to make your CTR soar!