Lead Form Assets vs Sitelink Assets: Capture the Lead or Send the Click
In short: Both attach directly to a search ad to make it do more before or after the click. Lead form assets skip your landing page entirely by opening a Google-hosted form the searcher fills out without leaving the results page. Sitelink assets keep the visit on your site but route it to a more relevant page than your default landing page. Lead forms are built for capturing a lead in one step, sitelinks are built for letting a diverse audience self-select a destination. One-line chooser: use lead form assets when the goal is the fewest steps to a name and phone number, use sitelinks when your site already converts and different searchers need different pages.
By the AdFlint research team · Fact-checked against current Google and Meta platform behavior · Last reviewed July 2026
Lead Form Assets
Attaches a form directly to a Google ad so someone can submit contact details without visiting your site, formerly called lead form extensions.
Google shows a hosted form after the click, prefilled from the signed-in account, and you retrieve the leads by webhook or CSV download. It suits mobile-heavy searches where a slow landing page loses people. Two things trip advertisers up: leads never reach your CRM unless the webhook is wired and monitored, and the low friction that lifts volume also admits unqualified submissions, so qualifying questions matter.
Full definitionSitelink Assets
Extra clickable links shown beneath a search ad, each pointing to a different page and carrying its own short description text.
Formerly called sitelink extensions, these expand the ad's footprint and let one ad serve several intents at once, such as pricing, locations, or a specific product. Google decides how many to show and which ones, based on query and device, so add at least four to qualify for larger layouts. The common mistake is pointing every sitelink at the homepage, which wastes the space.
Full definitionSide by side.
The differences that actually change what happens in your account.
| Lead Form Assets | Sitelink Assets | |
|---|---|---|
| What happens after the click | Nothing - there's no click-through, the form opens inline and submission is the conversion. | A normal pageview on the page you chose, so your site still has to close the sale. |
| Where the lead data lives | Inside Google Ads itself, pulled by webhook, CSV export, or a CRM integration. | Your own site's analytics and CRM, exactly like any other landing page visit. |
| Campaign types it runs on | Search, Display, YouTube, and Demand Gen campaigns. | Search campaigns - the classic format sitelinks were designed for. |
| Minimum count to serve | One live form is enough to show. | At least two, though four or more unlocks the larger sitelink layouts. |
| What breaks silently | The webhook stops firing and leads pile up unread in the dashboard with nobody checking. | Every sitelink points at the homepage, so the extra links add clicks without adding relevance. |
| Policy exposure | Restricted or reviewed more heavily in sensitive categories like finance and healthcare, and requires a privacy policy link. | Standard ad policy only - no extra review tier beyond normal landing page rules. |
| Qualification control | A qualifying question field can filter submissions before they count as a lead. | No qualification step - anyone who clicks lands on the page, qualified or not. |
What actually separates them.
A lead form asset ends the funnel inside the ad itself, while a sitelink asset only redirects the funnel to a different page on your site.
Lead form submissions are conversions Google recorded on its own servers, so if the webhook or export isn't checked the leads exist but nobody sees them; a broken sitelink destination just shows up as a normal page in your analytics.
Sitelinks let one ad serve several different search intents by giving each intent its own page, where a lead form asset offers only one intent: submit this form.
Lead form assets carry extra Google policy review in sensitive verticals that sitelinks don't face.
Sitelinks scale with how many good pages your site has, while lead form assets scale with how well one form is designed, since there's only ever one form per asset.
Which one should you use?
Use Lead Form Assets when
- Your landing page is slow on mobile and you're losing people before it finishes loading.
- The offer is simple enough to qualify with three or four form fields - name, phone, service needed.
- You run in a vertical where phone or email capture is the entire goal, like local services or education inquiries.
- You have a CRM or spreadsheet workflow ready to receive leads by webhook or regular export.
Use Sitelink Assets when
- Your site has several strong pages - pricing, locations, a specific product line - that serve different search intents.
- You want to increase the ad's footprint on the results page without adding a new conversion mechanism.
- The buying decision needs more than a name and phone number, like comparing products or reading details.
- You already track on-site conversions well and don't need Google to host the capture step.
Common questions.
Can I run lead form assets and sitelink assets on the same ad?
Yes, they're independent asset types and Google will decide which combination to show based on the query and device. Running both gives Google more inventory to choose from, but it also means you should check both are performing - a lead form quietly outperforming or underperforming sitelinks can shift your traffic mix without you noticing.
Why aren't my lead form leads showing up in my CRM?
The Google-hosted form only stores submissions inside Google Ads by default - nothing pushes to a CRM unless you've connected a webhook, a native integration, or you're manually exporting the CSV. This is the single most common reason lead form campaigns look like they're spending with no results: the leads exist, they're just sitting unread in Google Ads.
Do sitelinks cost extra to show?
No, sitelinks and lead form assets don't have a separate cost - they're part of the ad and any click on them is billed at the same rate as a click on the main headline. What changes is which page or step gets the traffic, not the price per click.
Will adding a lead form asset stop my sitelinks from showing?
Not directly - Google can serve both assets on the same impression when there's room, and it picks the combination it predicts will perform best for that query. If lead forms are converting at a much higher rate, Google's system may favor showing them more often, which can look like sitelinks losing impression share even though nothing was manually turned off.
Or stop choosing between them.
AdFlint picks the setting, writes the ads, and keeps optimizing inside the Google and Meta accounts you already own.
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