If you are unlucky, you Sitelinks show up at the top with your sharing the top spots with 2 other ads. The best case scenario is to have the top spot all to yourself (which is most likely the case with branded terms so it’s not about luck after all).

According to Google, advertisers that have taken advantage of this feature have seen significant CTR improvement in their ad campaigns:

If you’re still on the fence about using Sitelinks, or haven’t looked into it yet, here’s even more reason to add them to your campaigns: on average, campaigns that have used one-line Sitelinks have seen an increase in CTR of more than 10 percent, and those with two-line Sitelinks continue to see the bump of more than 30 percent that we noted back in June.

When it comes to Google Adwords, it never hurts to test new things. If you can improve your CTR by even 2% using Google’s new features, that’s still a significant improvement. Not everyone is going to see the same results. There is some art to writing killer ads after all. But if SiteLinks can give you a better chance to reduce your overall costs per acquisitions, why not try it.

Your ad CTR is a big part of your quality score. Google wants to take your money and a low CPR means they are leaving money on the table. So what they do is raise your min bids to either make you optimize your ads or pay the penalty for your negligence. While increasing your CTR dramatically will depend on many factors, there are simple steps that you can take to gradually increase your click through rate. Here is how:

• Call to action: you should try to use call to action phrases in your ads. Google does put limitations on what you can use in your ads. For instance, Google frowns up using the word “click here” in your ads. But you can use the word “apply now” or similar words, and that usually does the job.
• Keyword Phrases: make sure you have your keywords in the ad. Google emboldens phrases that folks have searched for on Google if you have them in your ads.
• Keyword Insertion: going back to the previous point, if you have an Adwords with more than a few keyword phrases, you can’t possibly fit your exact keyword inside your ad. That’s why you should use Google keyword insertion to automatically show the keywords in your ads that are relevant to what people are searching for. Use {keyword: keywords phrase} in your title, your body, or your URL. You can read more about it here.
• Symbols: Google is not comfortable with folks who use symbols such as “@” or “!” in their ads to attract the searchers’ attention. Having said that, you can still use “!” in your ads body (one time). So you should take advantage of it to set yourself apart from your competitors and attract the searcher’s attention.
• Unique Feature/Benefit: you have heard it before. Being unique can make you stand out in a crowd. Google Adwords has enabled lots of folks to come online and participate, which means in most niches the competition has intensified. What that means for you is that you should provide a unique benefit/feature in your ad to make people want to click on your ad. I would put a major feature or benefit on the first line of the add to grab the attention of the searcher as quickly as possible. Make sure your benefit is relevant to the product you are advertising.

Your CTR on Adwords is only a part of the equation but is a big part of it. In fact, without a good CTR, you are not going to be able to compete effectively. But you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to be able to achieve respectable CTR with your ads. And don’t forget to test your ads! That’s all that matters in the end.