Better Ads via Better Sitelinks

Sitelinks are an important part of successful ads.  They show value to potential customers before a click occurs, while also being (along with other extensions) a factor of ad rank.  User interaction with sitelinks is so strong that you should consider them a basic part of your ad text - title, description, display URL and sitelinks.  Optimize the messaging in this space routinely, just as you do with ad text.

Many advertisers aren’t taking advantage of this excellent feature just yet, so before we start optimizing you may need to implement them.  Adding sitelinks boosts the average CTR on an ad by 10-20% (+20-50% when the search is one of your branded terms), so that implementation should be time well spent.

Make sure to have at least six active sitelinks for desktop and four active sitelinks for mobile, but remember that you can go all the way up to twenty total per ad group or campaign.  Sitelinks allow 25 characters for the link itself, and that space allows for testing.  We’ve found that somewhat shorter sitelinks are the most effective, though, so try to keep them closer to 18-20 characters for desktop and 12-15 characters for mobile.

We think sitelinks are a great proven feature, and we also think that they can be made better.

Reporting on Sitelinks

Start by knowing how you’re doing.

When reviewing these statistics, remember to compare sitelinks to one another and not to overall ad performance (as CTR on sitelinks is almost universally lower than a click on an ad, even though an ad with sitelinks will perform better than an ad without sitelinks).  You can also look at a sitelink’s contribution to the entire creative.  If you segment by “This Extension vs. Other” you can see if that extension is encouraging clicks on the headline or other links.

Identify your strong performers in terms of CTR (on the link itself or the surrounding ad), conversion rate, and conversion volume to establish a baseline of what target you can shoot for with low performers.  If certain sitelinks aren’t receiving a lot of impressions they’ve been passed over by the system, which means that you could probably work on improving those first.

(Quick aside - Beyond normal reporting, it’s also a good idea to do a simple sense check.  Are those the six {or twenty} pages that would be the most useful for your customers?  Even if CTR or impressions are low, is there a minority of your users that will find that sitelink very useful?  You may want to keep that link in place for them.)

Once you’ve found what’s not working, try out new text to improve performance.  If CTR is fine but your conversion rate is lagging, you could be sending traffic to the wrong page or setting user expectations incorrectly with a misleading link.  As with your ads, even top performers could potentially be improved upon.  Think about something new you may want to try.

When viewing your sitelink data, the info is available at the ad, ad group, campaign, and account level.  Add or remove these columns on the Ad Extensions tab to determine just how specific you want your info to be.

Testing Your Sitelinks

Pure A/B testing isn’t possible because each sitelink must point to different content.  When you’re identifying what’s lagging behind, recognize that other variables can muddle your results (things like ad tests, bid changes or seasonality).  You can try out variations of sitelinks in different campaigns or sets of ad groups to see what works better, but it’s still not going to be a perfect solution.  Recognize the imperfection of this whenever reviewing your results.

Sitelink testing shouldn’t be as frequent as your ad testing (due to the lack of A/B testing).  Monthly or quarterly reviews might make sense for you, depending on your volume.

Apply ad copy testing principles to your new sitelinks.  Think of distinct calls to action and benefits that relate to a user’s search and the page you’re directing them to.  You can also take lessons from previous ad tests and apply them.  For example, you can use losing (but still strong) ad copy as your sitelinks or their descriptions.

Sitelinks with Additional Detail

You also have the option to add additional detail to your sitelinks, which is great opportunity to prove value to customers before they click.  At present, sitelinks automatically serve descriptions where appropriate.  That feature is going away in the near future, though, so add in descriptions yourself sooner rather than later.

Mobile Sitelinks

Try to speak to mobile users.  Think about mobile intent and how it differs from desktop, and then reflect that way of thinking in your sitelinks.  You’ll also want to keep mobile sitelinks shorter (to around 12-15 characters) to ensure they aren’t cut off.

Closing

You can show users valuable information about your site right in your ads via sitelinks.  It’s imperative that they’re present, and once they’re there you should focus on making them as good as they can be (just as you do with the ads themselves).  Sitelinks not only increase the relevance of your ads, they increase the relevance of the user experience you deliver after the click.

Top 3 Ways to Measure Conversions Using Estimated Total Conversions

In October, Google announced Estimated Total Conversions as a first step to providing you with a more holistic view of the conversions driven by AdWords. It is available to all advertisers who use AdWords conversion tracking. Estimated Total Conversions includes conversions you see today, such as online sales, as well as new conversion types like cross-device conversions and calls. Learn more

These insights are particularly important to understand because consumers are now constantly connected, using multiple devices throughout the day. In the next few weeks, this will be even more pronounced as people shop for holiday gifts. A recent holiday study shows that 84% of consumers who are likely to use a mobile or tablet device while shopping this holiday season, will start shopping on one device and finish on another.

Google os making it easier for advertisers to understand these consumer behaviors with new insights that are part of Estimated Total Conversions, a new column in AdWords.

Estimated Total Conversions includes cross-device conversions, which are also shown in a separate column to highlight their importance.

3 ways to use Estimated Total Conversions to improve business results

1. Take another look at your desktop/tablet bid. Once you see more conversions that can be attributed to AdWords, your total ROI from AdWords will change. Re-calculate your desktop/tablet cost-per-acquisition (CPA) based on these cross-device conversions. If your CPA has improved using this measure, you might want to look for opportunities where you may be able to increase position and volume by increasing your bids.

2. Capture the full value of mobile.  Many experienced search marketers are already using this data to make business decisions, by starting a test on campaigns that previously did not show on mobile.  Within a few weeks of showing ads on mobile devices, these advertisers started to see conversions they could not before -- those that started on a mobile phone and ended on another device. These insights led to important business decisions like adjusting mobile bids or shifting budget to reflect the new ROI of their keywords.

Amber Yeray, Digital Marketing Manager at EXPRESS, a national fashion retailer, has been working with her agency partner, RKG, to understand the new insights offered by Estimated Total Conversions.

“Cross-device conversions have shown that total estimated conversions are up 7%, with a 17% lift from mobile-initiated conversions. EXPRESS and search marketing agency partner, RKG, are now able to increase mobile bids for areas of the account that show the most impact from mobile -- driving more volume while remaining efficient.”

3. Spend only the most profitable dollar. The total value of your AdWords investment might change once you’re able to see more conversions. Whether it’s AdWords, other digital channels or offline media, think about investing your dollar into the most profitable channel possible.

Estimated Total Conversions provides new insights that may help you optimize bids and budgets to improve performance. Amit Shah, Vice President of Online, Mobile & Social at 1-800-Flowers, used the new insights that he gained to make more informed budget allocation decisions.

“After measuring cross-device conversions that began on a mobile device, we saw a 4% increase in total conversions measured in AdWords. With the full view offered by Estimated Total Conversions, we can correctly understand attribution across channels and make better decisions on achieving marginal spend optimization.”

These are just a few of the tips that we will continue to share as we hear feedback from you. Check out these best practices along with a walkthrough of Estimated Total Conversions in a recent webinar Google has hosted.

Enhanced Sitelinks... Explained !!

Ads that provide detail and precision can help people make more informed decisions. Sitelinks help people find information deeper in your site so they can get to where they want to go faster. In February 2012, Google has improved sitelinks by using text from other ads in your account or My Client Center to create sitelinks with additional detail.
Lets go one step further today by enabling you to nominate specific text for your sitelink descriptions from within your AdWords account. This will allow you to control the descriptions that display when this sitelink format shows.

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In our testing, users have reported that sitelinks with additional detail were more useful and relevant, and clickthrough rates were significantly higher than the same ad with traditional 2- and 3-line sitelinks.

The new sitelink format with additional detail is available only in enhanced campaigns with upgraded sitelinks. Enhanced campaigns enable you to reach people with the right ads in the right context - location, time of day and device type - without setting up and managing numerous campaigns. All campaigns will be upgraded to enhanced campaigns on July 22nd.

After upgrading to enhanced campaigns, you will have the option of adding extra text to your sitelinks - simply fill out both lines of the "Description" field when creating a new sitelink or editing an existing sitelink.

Click here to enlarge

Note that your ads won't always show sitelinks, and when they do, the format that appears could vary.

The core guidelines for sitelinks remain the same with these improvements:

• Sitelinks cannot violate the duplicate sitelink URL policy
• Sitelink text cannot use keyword insertion
• In addition to this 4 sitelink view, there is also a 2 sitelink variation

To learn more about sitelinks with additional detail, check out the sitelinks article in the AdWords Help Center.

Engagement Ads- More Views Less Cost

Which newbie already has 1,000 daily campaigns running from 44 of the top AdAge 100 brands including Kate Spade, Audi, and Under Amour? Engagement Ads on the Google Display Network let advertisers connect with consumers across the web with visually rich, immersive experiences – and advertisers only pay when someone chooses to engage with their ad. And for some early stocking stuffers we’re bringing you these creative new formats across all screens, in a shoppable format, and with a simplified set up.

Engagement Ads go Multi-Screen
“We want consumers to have the same experience with our brand, whether they're connecting with us from their laptop at work or their tablet from home,” says Kim Kyaw at Jaguar Land Rover North America. “Being able to run a consistent campaign across devices is essential, and we've found the cost-per-engagement pricing to be very effective.”

Land Rover's Driven Campaign

Mobile Device

Lisa Brewer, Director of Audience Development, PEOPLE Digital, agrees. “We were able to strategically showcase our content in a format designed for cross-platform engagement, ensuring we delivered content wherever our users wanted to consume it, helping us have our most streamed Sexiest Man Alive reveal to date.”

PEOPLE's 2013 Sexiest Man Alive 

Tablet

Engagement Ads go Shoppable
Tis the season for shopping, and the “collection lightbox” format lets marketers showcase a number of items that shoppers can click and purchase, right from within the ad unit.

Engagement Ads go Easy 
We’ve also made it easier than ever to set up and run a new Engagement Ads campaign, with a simple workflow and user interface. The new self-service feature gives you the chance to take more control of your ad campaign, so you can get started telling your brand’s story right away.

Source: Adwords Blog

Make Most of Dimensions Tab in AdWords

The dimensions tab has lots of options, with this in mind I have picked out the top 5 reports I think you should be using:

1)      Reach and Frequency

This report allows you to see how many  unique visitors are clicking on your ads and how often those users are being exposed to your ads. It’s important to remember this is an estimate based upon sample data. This gives you an understanding of how often users are seeing your ads. This could provide multiple benefits:

• If users are only seeing your ad once, it could mean you need to increase your bids or expand out your targeting to increase exposure to your target audience. Additionally you might want to reassess your ad copy, if users are only seeing it once it needs to be impactful! I recommend utilizing the impression share reports in association with this as there might be a lot of missed impressions at the moment which could be improved by increasing your bidding strategy.
• There is the opportunity to use the frequency capping feature. This allows you to limit the frequency to which your ads are shown. You could look at the reach and frequency of your display ads to determine the level  you set your frequency capping too. This could be particularly important with remarketing as you might want to check you are not “overloading” potential customers with your remarketing ads. For example, in the chart below you can see that around 70% of my unique users saw my ad four times or less, however there is still a decent proportion of users who have seen ads 5 times or more. For this client I only do remarketing, based on this I might look at different time periods and then adjust my frequency capping to ensure people aren’t being followed continuously by my ads:

2)      Labels

If you are using labels, the dimensions tab allows you to easily see all metrics sorted by your labels. This is great if you want to easily sort your account within the adwords interface. The main way I use this is through the “Labels – Ads” tab. If you are doing ad testing across your account, you could apply different labels to the different types of ads, in the “Labels – Ads” section of the dimensions tab you would then be able to see performance by label. This would allow you to easily see how ad a is performing in comparison to ad b on a top level basis. You could see this data at account, campaign or ad group level. I have separated out a quick example below, I can easily see how many impressions my sale ads are getting in comparison to my normal ads. I have also labelled up by mobile ads separately so I can see how often these are getting shown:

As well as using this to compare ad labels, you could also do this at campaign, ad group or keyword level. For example you could label the keywords you think are “key” to the account, and then label the rest of the keywords that are less important to you with a different label. In this tab you could then see the volume of traffic you are getting for the rest of your account versus the key areas of the account easily. This report allows this data to be compared at ease.

3)      Time

This is a very important report, that you should definitely be taking advantage of when optimizing your account. There are lots of different time periods available to look at:

All of these time periods should be used when analyzing your data. You will be looking for:

• Days that perform particularly well for you. Do you tend to see an increased conversion rate at the beginning of the week? Do you see less traffic at weekends?
• Times that perform well for you. Are there certain hours of the day when you see higher conversion rates? Are there certain hours of the day when you see your ad position fluctuate? If your ad position decreased during peak hours, you might set bid adjusters to increase your position. If your ad position increases in the evenings, you might want to reduce bids or maximize traffic when your competitors are pausing their ads.
• Days that perform worse for you. Do you see lower conversion rates on certain dates? If you do, you may want to reduce your visibility on those days.
• Times that perform worse for you. Are there certain hours of the day where you see higher traffic volumes with no conversions, perhaps overnight? If so, you might be able to reduce bids or visibility during this time to increase your aggressiveness at other time periods.

Additionally you may want to use this information to influence the rest of your marketing strategy, for example if you notice that certain time periods work well for you you might want to co-ordinate your email marketing with this.

4)      Geographic

The geographic report allows you to see where your audience are based (based on their physical location or location of interest). This is a great tool to find out where you get most of your traffic from, where you have the highest conversion rate etc. I recommend monitoring this over multiple time periods as it may change. For example different areas might react differently to when you have a different offering, the simplest example is when you have full priced to when you have everything reduced.

To make the most of this report I recommend adding additional columns for example region and town and city. This will enable you to see the exact town where you are getting traffic from. How you use this data will really depend on your objectives. However, I normally sort by impressions and see how the traffic is behaving in areas where my search volume is high. Are there certain areas where you have a better ROI? If so, you might want to add a bid multiplier on that area, increasing your bids to increase your volume here. It could be interesting to download this report for multiple time periods and see if the areas change. For example if you open a new store, do more offline marketing, change your offering slightly etc.

5)      Destination URL

The destination URL report collates all of the destination URL’s used at this level. If you have 3 ads in each ad group each going to 1 of 3 URL’s, if you looked at this report at campaign level you would be able to see performance  by URL across that campaign. This could be an easy way of seeing at top level which URL’s are working best. If you have lots of destination URL’s in a campaign, this could also be an easy way to see a quick summary!

All of this data can be exported from the interface into other programs such as excel where you can analyze and manipulate the data until your heart is content.

Please feel free to post comments in the tab below, we will get back to you shortly !!!