Mountain View, California — In an attempt to further entice its cash-cow users, global search engine giant Google over the weekend unveiled few enhancements to it AdWords. Since 2009, Google AdWords’ Sitelinks is known to be a fantastic tool for optimizing PPC adverts, and according to various reports that states the company has unveiled a new format for AdWords ads displaying with three lines of sitelinks. Also Google announced that it will begin reviewing new paused ads, the same way it reviews active ads.
Brett Tabke posted a thread at WebmasterWorld linking to a Google FAQ page on the various ads that qualify for sitelinks and the type of sitelinks available. Besides, Melissa Mackey, writing in an article published by Search Engine Watch, mentions we have seen some AdWords ads are being displayed with three lines of sitelinks, and Google has updated its help documents to indicate that “up to six” and “three-line” Ad Sitelinks are now being displayed.
According to Google’s help page, Ad Sitelinks can be displayed in four different formats: three-line, two-line, one-line, and embedded:
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Three-line and two-line formats: Sitelinks are designed to trigger in situations where an ad provides the ideal answer for a search query. These ads are most likely to trigger on unique brand terms.
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One-line format: Sitelinks will trigger with more generic terms, but may also include brand terms.
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Embedded format: Sitelinks will trigger whenever your ad qualifies to appear above the search results and the text in your ad exactly matches one or more of your Sitelinks.
Mackey has devised a list of 11 of the reasons Google AdWords Sitelinks as such a fantastic tool and below is just a summarized selection of the reasons she provided:
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Sitelinks have a great CTR: Mackey describes that the click-through rate (CTR) provided by the tool is ‘far above average’. Taking a couple of minutes out to set it up, it is possible to gain a CTR exceeding 10 per cent for the links in your account.
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Provides area for ad text: Having just 95 characters to create a PPC ad with is tough, however Sitelinks is somewhat streamlined to sneak in extra ad copy. Mackey points out that there are around six extra opportunities to add any text that you may deem necessary to your PPC ad.
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Sitelinks can be utilized to promote your social media presence: The feature can be adopted to publicize social media profiles such as Facebook. Though AdWords may have certain guidelines as to what can be said, it is possible, if you are creative, to feature links to social media in Sitelinks.
Previously, Ad Sitelinks were only exhibited in one-line, two-line and embedded formats. In generally, the multi-line AdSitelinks are only displayed when the ad is considered an ideal match for the user’s search query, and is usually triggered by a query that includes a brand name.
Sitelinks are an AdWords extension that authorizes advertisers to include up to 10 direct links to internal pages on their sites, and Google then chooses which of those to display for a particular query. Besides, Sitelinks are compatible to work with every type of PPC campaign, be it one centered around e-commerce or lead generation — it can be assured it will ultimately work effectively. Google also recently expanded the number of Sitelinks that display in organic search results, as well.
In another development, Google is now examining new paused ads, and existing paused ads will simulate in toto in the coming weeks: “We are pro-actively reviewing paused ads to eliminate unnecessary delays in getting your ads approved and ultimately enhance your ability to plan and manage campaigns,” explains Lauren Barbato of Google’s Inside AdWords crew.
It seems Google want to make it effortless for AdWords advertisers to get their campaign creative in order ahead of a product launch, sale, or the upcoming busy holiday season, for example, to avoid a delay in approval — or worse, being disapproved and having to change an ad to go through the review process again.
Google has been alerting all AdWords advertisers to the change via an email:
Dear AdWords Advertiser,
We’re writing to let you know about some upcoming changes to the types of ads we review.
What’s happening? Starting September 6th, we’ll begin reviewing paused ads the same way we review active ads. This means that your new and existing paused ads will be sent through the standard ad approval process. As a result, if your paused ads violate one or more of our AdWords advertising policies, they’ll likely get disapproved.
Why? We’re proactively reviewing paused ads to eliminate unnecessary delays in getting your ads approved and to ultimately enhance your experience with Google AdWords.
When? Starting September 6th, we’ll begin reviewing new paused ads, followed in the coming weeks by the review of existing paused ads.
“New and existing unreviewed paused ads will be subjected to the standard ad approval process,” she adds. “This means that paused ads will be subject to our AdWords advertising policies, and ads that contravene one or more of our policies will be disapproved. If your paused ads were originally disapproved, it is easy to resubmit them to be reviewed again.”
To do so, simply edit and save the ad, and it will automatically resubmit to Google. Any change in approval status will be displayed in the Status column. It will either say Eligible, Under Review or Disapproved.
“Just be aware that changing the actual ad (such as editing text or uploading a new image) is the same as deleting the original ad and creating a new one, so after editing the ad, any statistics will be reset to zero,” Google reminds advertisers in the help center. “The same is true when you copy an ad to another ad group.”
Nevertheless, Google will inform the advertiser in case if there is any unwanted issues, and will further instruct how to go about getting an ad approved. The approval process is explained here.