On July 24, 2014, Google introduced their new AdWords feature dynamic sitelinks for the top three ad positions. The sitelinks ad extension shows links to specific pages on your website beneath the text of your ads, in addition to the landing page. You can add sitelinks when you create your campaign and the sitelinks you create will show, unless Google’s dynamic sitelinks will perform better, according to Google. Clicks on dynamic sitelinks will be free, but of course you will still be charged for the clicks on the headline of your add and other ad extensions. Advertisers have the option to disable dynamic sitelinks, however it increases CTR (click through rate) so there should be no reason to.
When Google rolled out Enhanced Campaigns, their motive behind it was to increase adoption of mobile advertising. When Google updated the Ad Rank formula in 2013 to include expected performance of ad extensions their motive was to increase the use of site extensions. However, that wasn’t enough for every advertiser to create sitelinks in every campaign so Google is ensuring the top links have sitelinks by adding dynamic sitelinks, so they can benefit from improved CTR without advertisers setting it up.
Only about 30% of small business owners (advertisers using less than $5,000 per month on AdWords) use sitelinks. Sitelinks take more work to set up and a lot of people simply don’t understand how they work, so they don’t set them up. Dynamic sitelinks allows them to reap the benefits if they are in the top 3 positions without having to understand how it works.
The average CTR on a sitelink is just 0.1%, however having a sitelink with your ad will increase the CTR by about 10%. This means that if you have a CTR of 9% and you add a sitelink it would boost to 9.9%. Sitelinks take up more space and make your ad more noticeable and therefore more likely to be clicked on. On average, the resulting higher CTR from using sitelinks also raises Quality Score by 10%.
There is really no reason to opt out of dynamic sitelinks since it improves your CTR and quality score. Dynamic sitelinks are good for advertisers and, of course, good for Google.
Rebecca Hunter
MOTIONBORG, Inc.
Technology Consultant at MOTIONBORG
With a natural passion for technology, he is always on the search for next great invention to test out and play with. Enjoys sharing his thoughts and knowledge with others through blogging. Helping business owners on how to better utilize technology to their advantage has become the true meaning of success and life.
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