Google AdWords allows you to define additional links (sitelinks) that will show underneath your text ads. For example, your text ad’s main link could send people to your homepage and the sitelinks underneath could link to subcategories on your homepage.

Below is an example of a Best Buy ad showing sitelinks at the bottom (Weekly Deals, Store Locator etc.):

If sitelinks are used in a smart way they are a great feature to boost the performance of your ad. However, many advertisers don’t know how to properly evaluate the performance of ad extensions. And it’s not a big surprise because the right report is a bit hidden in the AdWords interface.

Here are the steps required to check the performance of sitelinks:

Step 1: Click on a search campaign -> Ad Extensions -> Sitelinks extensions

This report shows the aggregated performance of each of your sitelinks. This overview is not very helpful as it shows the performance of each ad extension irrespective of whether it was actually clicked or not. In other words, if an ad with an extension was delivered but the user actually clicked on the headline of the ad (not on the extension) this would still show in the performance report below.

Here’s the right way to analyse your ad extension’s performance:

Step 2: Click on Segment -> This Extension vs. Other

This report breaks down the performance into “This extension” meaning actual clicks on the extension and “Other” meaning the ad extension was delivered but other parts of the ad received the click (either the headline or a different extension that was delivered alongside of this extension).

This report provides the insights you need to evaluate which extensions generate the best click through rate as well as cost per conversion.