This article describes Sitelinks URL Builder for clients who have not yet migrated to Google's Upgraded URLs. To read about using URL Builder for Google Upgraded URLs, please read our Support Center article
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 allows 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).
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}.
You can enable Sitelinks URL Builder by following these simple steps:
Click the Admin link in the upper-right of the screen.
Navigate to the Revenue sub-tab.
Click URL Builder from the menu on the left.
If you have selected Use the Same Settings for All Publishers, you'll see the Publishers box, which includes a section labelled Sitelinks Settings. If you use specific settings per publisher, you'll find the Sitelinks Settings section within the Yahoo! Japan tab of the Publishers box. Here you can choose whether or not to build Sitelink URLs.
You can create sitelinks using a bulk upload to the Platform. For more information about this, please read our Support Center article.
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:
Go to the main Campaigns tab and click into any campaign.
Go to the Ad Extensions sub-tab and view the sitelinks page.
Click the Create Report button. This will export all sitelinks.
Next, download the export from Reports > Completed Reports.
Open the report, then remove any existing tracking.
Remove any extra report header rows, or columns which are not in this list:
Account
Campaign
[Sitelink ID]
[Link Text]
[Click Through URL]
[Destination URL]
[Start Date]
[End Date]
[Device Preference]
[Status]
Save as a new bulk sheet and re-upload it to the Platform.
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.
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.
Autocorrect for Microsoft sitelinks is not yet supported in the Platform. Please use the instructions in the How to Append Tracking For Existing Sitelinks section above to manually add tracking.
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 A Guide to 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 Yahoo! Japan. 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.
