Google Ad SiteLinks Adds "Embedded" Format

Google AdWords is always experimenting with new formats, improved targeting, and other ways to make both Google and all its advertisers a little more money. Their most recent experiment is embedded Ad SiteLinks, which automatically link portions of your ad’s text to sub-pages within your site.

How SiteLinks Works

As you can see from the example above, the concept to this new ad format is straightforward: you get an extra link to a location other than your default destination URL. However, you’re not actually going through and creating a complex set of HTML code for the ad. Rather, you just sign up for Ad SiteLinks.

The Ad SiteLinks program has been running since 2009 and has gradually been expanding since. The original format of those links placed additional desination URL options at the bottom of the actual advertisement, and only came up if 1) the advertiser had added specific terms and a page URL to the Ad SiteLinks interface inside Adwords and 2) the Ad SiteLinks were very close matches to the actual search query. If your ads seems to be providing exact responses, Google would provide up to two lines of links.

The exact same resource is used for the embedded format. You create the AdWords Ad as normal, but now Google will match up text in your ads with you SiteLink text and will hyperlink sections of your advertisement. This will only happen when all of the following are true:

• Your SiteLink text is highly relevant to the user query.
• Your adveritsement is appearing above the search results.
• You don’t qualify for the one- or two-line SiteLinks formats.

Setting Up SiteLinks

Google’s implmenting this because it can direct people to deeper pages on your site that are more likely to be relevant and lead to user action. It’s also anticipated that your click-through rate will increase when embedded links appear. So, are you in? Here’s how to get signed up:

1. Log into AdWords as normal.
2. Go into the campaign where you want to add the SiteLinks extension.
3. Go to the “Settings” tab and scroll down to “Ad extensions.”
4. On the message that indicates that you can manage your extensions using the Ad extension tab, click on the hyperlinked phrase “Ad extensions tab.”
5. You will be taken to the Ad extension settings for your current campaign. This tab will now be availble in this and all other campaigns.
6. Below the tab names you’ll see a row that starts with “View.” Click on “View” and select “Sitelinks Extensions.”
7. Click the “New extension” button (directly below “View”).
8. Fill out the link text and URLs. Make sure that you either match the text here to your advertisements or the text in your advertisements to the links you add here.
9. Click “Save.

That’s all that’s required. Google will now provide your links in embedded, one-line, and two-line format, and will give you specific analytics on the CTR, CPC, and other details of your SiteLinks.