On August 9th, Adwords upgraded their mobile sitelinks to allow for a much higher level of user engagement. Google is calling them ‘tappable’ sitelinks. Replacing the old static mobile sitelinks, the new tappable sitelinks allow a user to scroll left and right through mobile ad sitelinks. Google says this will double the likelihood of a user to click on your sitelink.
Sitelinks were one of the first ad extensions that Google rolled out in 2006. Sitelinks allow an advertiser to call out different relevant pages of their site within their paid ad, increasing the likelihood that a user can find what they’re looking for. Advertisers get more real estate to showcase their offerings and users get more information to be able to inform their decision making. It’s a win-win situation, which is why sitelinks continue to be the most favored ad extension across mobile and desktop.
What is interesting to note is that the new mobile ad sitelinks look and have the exact same functionality as organic sitelinks. Which, if it isn’t clear to everyone, is another attempt by google to make ads look as much like organic content as possible.
We’re excited to see how the new sitelink format affects the programs we run for our clients. Stay tuned for an update once we see the data!