Since the launch of Google’s new PPC Sitelinks, it has not been uncommon to see the use of symbols within the ad extensions, these symbols can help to make advertisers ads stand out in what is becoming an ever more crowded search engine results page.
Being initially confused as to whether the use of symbols was contravening Google’s editorial policy or not, we ran tests with various shapes and images. Interestingly none of our Sitelinks were disapproved and increases in CTR ensued.
However…!
As of last week one of our accounts that used Sitelink Symbols, stopped showing Sitelinks… interestingly after checking the account, under the ad extensions tab, none of the Sitelinks were disapproved, but they were certainly not showing or accruing any clicks/impressions.
As such we decided to try and remove the symbols in one campaign, and Hey Presto, the Sitelinks appeared!
So it would seem that Google have now developed the review technology to automatically locate and prevent Sitelinks with Symbols from appearing… a shame, as I felt they gave an extra degree of creativity within what is becoming an incredibly uniform SERP.
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