A Location-Based Marketers Guide to Upgraded Sitelinks & Call Extensions
by Admin
05 Apr
by Daniel Mew
by Daniel Mew
http://www.mediative.ca
Sitelinks and Call Extensions have long been used as tools to boost the performance of AdWords paid search campaigns for advertisers targeting at the local level. They offer the ability for your ad to do more, whether it is linking to the latest special offers on your site, giving directions, or making it easier for potential customers to get in touch with their nearest store location. Along with the upgrades to bid management and location targeting that came with the launch of Enhanced Campaigns, Google has also launched a series of updates and new features to Sitelinks and Call Extensions that will provide major benefits to advertisers targeting at the local level.
http://www.mediative.ca
Sitelinks and Call Extensions have long been used as tools to boost the performance of AdWords paid search campaigns for advertisers targeting at the local level. They offer the ability for your ad to do more, whether it is linking to the latest special offers on your site, giving directions, or making it easier for potential customers to get in touch with their nearest store location. Along with the upgrades to bid management and location targeting that came with the launch of Enhanced Campaigns, Google has also launched a series of updates and new features to Sitelinks and Call Extensions that will provide major benefits to advertisers targeting at the local level.
Sitelinks
Sitelinks is a tool that enables advertisers to provide up to 6 additional links other than the main link within their AdWords ads. This gives the advertiser the opportunity to promote extra material that potential customers may find useful, even if the main body of the ad is not exactly what they are looking for.
Google’s updates to this feature include:
In addition to these opportunities, a change to the format for Sitelinks has reduced the character count from thirty five to twenty five. This change represents Google’s answer to the general feeling that Sitelinks are best kept short and sweet.
Call Extensions
Much like Sitelinks, call extensions allow advertisers to add extra information to their ads that is not part of the main body of text, in this case in the form of a link to directly place a call to the business when clicked on from a mobile device.
The key update to call extensions is the ability to schedule your calls. Advertisers can now set their call extensions to start and end on specific dates and set the extensions to run on specific days of the week or times of the day.
As with the changes to Sitelinks, there are formatting implications with Call Extensions. Telephone numbers are no longer allowed in the description lines of the ad text, forcing advertisers who would like to include their telephone number to use Call Extensions.
Local level advertising
When combined with the new geo-targeting features, these updates offer powerful new tools for businesses advertising at the local level. For example, with the new Sitelinks features a national restaurant chain that has deals that run on certain days of the week (e.g. Wing Wednesdays, Two-for-one Tuesdays etc.) is able to schedule Sitelinks that promote the correct offer on the correct day of the week. The same restaurant may also know that no one is available to answer phone calls before 9am or after 11pm. With the new Call Extension features, the advertiser would be able to schedule the phone number to show only between these hours, thus ensuring that a member of staff is available to take the call.
About the Author
Daniel Mew is a Performance Media Strategist at Mediative, with responsibilities including developing client’s digital marketing strategies across major PPC networks, analyzing account performance, and implementing recommendations. Daniel is continually searching for new developments that will enable clients to gain a competitive advantage and maximise the return on investment of their digital marketing campaigns. Originally hailing from the UK, where he graduated from Swansea University with an MSc. in Business Management, Daniel moved to Canada in 2010 where he has worked in digital marketing for clients of all sizes across a wide range of industries.
Sitelinks is a tool that enables advertisers to provide up to 6 additional links other than the main link within their AdWords ads. This gives the advertiser the opportunity to promote extra material that potential customers may find useful, even if the main body of the ad is not exactly what they are looking for.
Google’s updates to this feature include:
- Segmenting Sitelinks by device: Sitelinks can also now be segmented by device, allowing different information to be shown depending on whether the user is using a desktop or mobile device, presenting opportunities for mobile users to easily get directions, or desktop users to be able to buy products.
- AdGroup level Sitelinks: Sitelinks can now be defined at the AdGroup level within AdWords, giving advertisers more flexibility in the messaging for their ads.
- Precise scheduling: Scheduling updates allow Sitelinks to be shown on specific dates, days, or hours of the day, which is useful for time-specific offers.
- Advanced reporting: Reports can now easily be generated for specific Sitelinks giving the ability to optimize[LE1] the campaigns individually from within the AdWords platform.
In addition to these opportunities, a change to the format for Sitelinks has reduced the character count from thirty five to twenty five. This change represents Google’s answer to the general feeling that Sitelinks are best kept short and sweet.
Call Extensions
Much like Sitelinks, call extensions allow advertisers to add extra information to their ads that is not part of the main body of text, in this case in the form of a link to directly place a call to the business when clicked on from a mobile device.
The key update to call extensions is the ability to schedule your calls. Advertisers can now set their call extensions to start and end on specific dates and set the extensions to run on specific days of the week or times of the day.
As with the changes to Sitelinks, there are formatting implications with Call Extensions. Telephone numbers are no longer allowed in the description lines of the ad text, forcing advertisers who would like to include their telephone number to use Call Extensions.
Local level advertising
When combined with the new geo-targeting features, these updates offer powerful new tools for businesses advertising at the local level. For example, with the new Sitelinks features a national restaurant chain that has deals that run on certain days of the week (e.g. Wing Wednesdays, Two-for-one Tuesdays etc.) is able to schedule Sitelinks that promote the correct offer on the correct day of the week. The same restaurant may also know that no one is available to answer phone calls before 9am or after 11pm. With the new Call Extension features, the advertiser would be able to schedule the phone number to show only between these hours, thus ensuring that a member of staff is available to take the call.
About the Author
Daniel Mew is a Performance Media Strategist at Mediative, with responsibilities including developing client’s digital marketing strategies across major PPC networks, analyzing account performance, and implementing recommendations. Daniel is continually searching for new developments that will enable clients to gain a competitive advantage and maximise the return on investment of their digital marketing campaigns. Originally hailing from the UK, where he graduated from Swansea University with an MSc. in Business Management, Daniel moved to Canada in 2010 where he has worked in digital marketing for clients of all sizes across a wide range of industries.
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