Introduction

Sitelinks are fast becoming one of the most popular ad extensions for advertisers. For this reason it’s essential that our platform allows users to track their sitelink conversions. With Sitelinks URL Builder, you can do just that.

Sitelinks URL Builder will allow you to track conversions back to the keyword that triggered the sitelink. It does this by using the {copy:xxx} parameter to copy the triggering keyword from the parent creative's destination URL (i.e. the ad that your sitelinks appear below).

This article describes Sitelinks URL Builderfor non-upgraded Microsoft URLs. To read about using URL Builder for Google and Microsoft Upgraded URLs, please read our advanced guide.
 

For general guidelines on tracking sitelinks, check out this Support Center documentation.

Important notes before enabling Sitelinks URL Builder

Following are some key points you should consider before activating this feature:
 

• If you use redirects, there are some URL structures that are unsupported. Please see A Guide to Sitelinks URL Builder's Supported URL Formats for more information.
   
• If you already have parameters within your sitelinks URLs, this feature will not remove them. You should remove the parameters manually, then click Save to re-append parameters using {copy:xxx}.

How to enable the Sitelinks URL Builder

You can enable Sitelinks URL Builder by following these simple steps:
 

1. Click the Admin link in the upper-right of the screen.
    
2. Navigate to the Revenue sub-tab.
    
3. Click URL Builder from the menu on the left.
    
4. Once the URL Builder pop-up launches, choose Microsoft from the list of available publishers. If the URL Builder has not yet been set up for Microsoft, click on the Plus Sign (+) at the bottom left, select Microsoft, and click Add. Once Microsoft has been added, click into Microsoft from the list of publishers on the left-hand side.
5. Click on the Action drop-down in the top right of your URL Builder.
    
6. Within the Action drop-down, click + New Template and choose Sitelink. 
    
7. From here, you should see Sitelink displayed in the drop-down at the top of your URL Builder. Make sure this is visible when you are editing your Sitelink URL Builder to ensure the settings are at the correct level. 
    
8. Click the New URL Parameter button.
    
9. From here you can fill in all of your sitelink-specific parameters, give the string a name, and click Add.

How to add a new sitelink

You can create sitelinks using a bulk upload to the Platform. For more information about this, please read our Support Center article. 

How to append tracking for existing sitelinks

When Sitelinks URL Builder is first enabled, your existing sitelinks will not be updated or modified. To append tracking to existing sitelinks based on your recently enabled URL Builder settings, you can follow the steps below. Alternatively, you can modify your sitelink destination URL’s by adding a forward slash to the end of the URL in order to trigger URL Builder as mentioned below under the Important Information section:
 

How the platform builds sitelink URLs

In order to track conversions to the keyword properly, Sitelinks URL Builder needs to include the dynamic parameters that are used to identify the triggering keyword. To do this, the feature uses the {copy:xxx} parameter. When {copy:[parameter name]} is included in a sitelink URL, both Google and Microsoft recognize this and copy the relevant details to the sitelink’s destination URL.

With Sitelinks URL Builder enabled, the platform will automatically copy over the relevant parameters as specified in your URL Builder settings.

Using Autocorrect with sitelinks

Autocorrect is available for sitelinks in just the same way as it does for other trackable objects (such as creatives, placements, and keywords). If you have any questions or issues using it in this way, please speak with your platform representative.

Important information

• The Platform does not currently support multi-edit of sitelinks. To kick-off Sitelinks URL Builder, you must use single-edit/single-create or bulk edit as described above. 
   
• There are some URL structures that are unsupported. Please see Sitelinks URL Builder’s Supported URL Formats for more information.
   
• If your sitelink Destination URL has not updated with the redirect tracking parameters or if it still matches the Click Through URL if using redirects, add a slash "/" at the end of the URL via single or bulk edit. This slash will trigger that an "edit" is made, and should then add on the missing redirect tracking parameters on the Destination URL. This will create an Activity Log job. When you confirm that the Destination URL looks correct for your sitelinks, you can post this to the publisher.
   
• Sitelinks edits made in the platform will not synchronize to the publisher if the sitelink is in Pending Review status in Google. Please make certain your sitelinks are in an approved status before making any edits.
   
• If using redirects and you have the Build Sitelink URLs option checked off, you may not see the "Click Through URL" field within the Ad Extensions page for your site links (there is only a "URL" field, meaning the system does not recognize that the account is set to build sitelink URLs). This is typically an easy fix in which you would just need to reinforce this setting again:
  • Navigate to Admin > Revenue sub-tab > URL Builder in the left-hand menu > SITELINK SETTINGS
  • Check Do not build Sitelink URLs and Save
  • Check Build Sitelink URLs and Save