What Are Google PPC Sitelinks?
Google PPC sitelinks are an extension of your PPC advertisement. Sitelinks take people to specific pages on your site. They provide your brand with extra real estate in addition to the ad copy. Sitelinks are easy to set-up and can improve click through rates and overall advertising performance.
Unlike organic sitelinks, PPC sitelinks can be edited.
Related Article: Understanding organic sitelinks
PPC Sitelink Extension Examples
Below are sitelinks for Biocorneum, a popular brand we sell on DermWarehouse, our in-house eCommerce brand. For the sitelinks for this advertisement, we want people to trust our brand, so we send them to interior pages that are trust indicators. There’s a lot of mistrust when it comes to skincare products so letting them know we’re a dermatologist owned with thousands of online reviews is important.
When Do Sitelinks Populate?
Just because you create a Google sitelink doesn’t mean it will populate along with your advertisement. Google’s algorithm determines when to serve sitelinks based on relevancy.
From my observation in managing PPC campaigns, when you have a strong quality score and your ads populate in top positioning, you’ll have a stronger possibility of your sitelinks populating.
Below is another example where sitelinks aren’t populating for the advertisers in the 2, 3 and 4 position on Google Ads. The top ranked advertiser, Midstate Basement Systems has their sitelinks populating.
When your sitelink isn’t appearing, it’s a reminder that you need to make sure your PPC campaigns are well optimized.
Sitelink Character Limit
For the headline of the sitelink, you get 25 characters. There are also two descriptions, each of which receive 35 characters.
According to Google, you need at least 2 sitelinks for desktop and at least one sitelinks for mobile for the sitelinks to appear in the ad. On desktop, you can show up to 6 sitelinks. For mobile, your ad can show up to 8 sitelinks.
How to set-up sitelink extensions
I recommend setting up sitelink extensions at the account level. This way, you have these ready to go for every campaign you set up. Then, if you want to add more specific extensions at the campaign or ad group level, you can do that as well.
Below are the directions to create ad extensions at the account level. You can also watch my video on sitelink extensions. I’ve bookmarked the exact time in the video when I start setting this up.
- Click all campaigns
- Click ads & assets and then assets
- Note: within some accounts, this section is called “ads & extensions.” If you’re seeing this, click on extensions and then follow the same instructions below
- Click the + icon
- Click Sitelink
- Get to work on your sitelink extensions!
Other type of Google PPC extensions
There are other extensions that can enhance your PPC advertisement in addition to sitelink extensions:
- Image extensions
- Callout extension
- Structured snippet extension
- Call extension
- Lead form extension
- Location extension
- Affiliate location extension
- Price extension
- App extension
- Promotion extension
You should use more than just sitelink extensions. For our agency, we use location extension when we’re targeting ads in Columbus. We use image extensions to highlight the personality of our brand. We also use call extensions during business hours to try to generate phone calls.
For DermWarehouse, since we’re selling eCommerce products, we use sitelinks and price extensions, since we’re promoting products.
Need help selecting the best sitelinks? Contact The Media Captain
In Closing
- Sitelink extensions can drive relevant traffic to key pages throughout your site.
- Sitelinks can align with key promotions and initiatives taking place in your business.
- You need great advertisements in order for sitelinks to populate.
- Sitelinks are easy to set-up.
- Don’t settle on just sitelink. There are other extension options available.
