Creative Formats & Assets

Promotion Assets vs Sitelink Assets: Timed Offer or Extra Links

In short: Both add extra content beneath a search ad, but one is built to expire and the other isn't. A promotion asset carries a discount amount, an optional occasion label, and a start and end date, and it stops serving on its own once that window closes. A sitelink asset has no such clock - it runs until you manually pause or remove it. Promotion assets make an explicit, verifiable claim that has to match the landing page; sitelinks make no pricing claim at all. Use promotion assets for a defined sale window, use sitelinks for evergreen destinations.

By the AdFlint research team · Fact-checked against current Google and Meta platform behavior · Last reviewed July 2026

Promotion Assets

Highlights a specific discount or offer under a search ad, with an optional occasion label and defined start and end dates.

You set the deal as a monetary or percentage amount, optionally tie it to an occasion such as Black Friday, and give it a date range so it retires itself. Formerly promotion extensions, they earn their place when the discount is the main reason to click. The mistake is forgetting the end date or leaving the offer live after the landing page changed, sending people to a promotion that vanished.

Full definition

Sitelink 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 definition

Side by side.

The differences that actually change what happens in your account.

	Promotion Assets	Sitelink Assets
Core data required	A discount amount or percentage, an optional occasion tag, and a start and end date.	Link text, an optional description, and a URL.
Self-expiring	Yes, it automatically stops serving once the end date passes.	No, it keeps running until you pause or remove it yourself.
What it claims	A specific, verifiable discount that must match the landing page.	No pricing or discount claim of any kind.
Landing page dependency	The page must reflect the actual deal or the click ends in a mismatch.	The page just needs to match the link's stated topic.
Calendar tie-in	Built for sales events - a seasonal sale, a clearance, a launch window.	Not tied to any calendar; evergreen by design.
Visual treatment	Shows as a discount badge with the occasion label, distinct from plain text.	Renders as a plain text link with no discount styling.
Failure mode	The end date is forgotten and an expired or changed offer stays live.	Every link points at the homepage, wasting the extra space.

What actually separates them.

A promotion asset carries a start and end date that Google enforces automatically, while a sitelink runs indefinitely until you manually pause or remove it.

Promotion assets make an explicit monetary claim that must match the landing page, while sitelinks make no pricing claim at all.

Promotion assets can be tagged to a retail occasion, which has no equivalent on a sitelink since sitelinks carry no occasion metadata.

Forgetting a promotion's end date risks showing an expired deal to a searcher, a failure mode sitelinks simply don't have.

Sitelinks diversify the intents one ad can serve across several pages, while a promotion asset concentrates attention on a single incentive to click right now.

Which one should you use?

Use Promotion Assets when

You're running a defined sale window - a holiday sale, a clearance event, a launch discount.
You want urgency to lift click-through during a specific period.
The discount is genuinely the strongest reason to click right now.
You can commit to retiring or updating the offer exactly when it ends.

Use Sitelink Assets when

You have no time-bound offer, just evergreen destinations like locations or resource pages.
Several pages deserve equal footing rather than one offer dominating the ad.
You want something running in the ad's extra space regardless of season.
Your value proposition isn't discount-led - it's built on quality or selection instead.

Common questions.

What happens to a promotion asset after its end date?

It stops serving automatically once the end date passes, so there's no need to manually remove it to prevent an expired offer from showing.

Do sitelinks ever expire on their own?

No, sitelinks have no built-in expiration - they keep running until you pause or remove them, so stale ones only go away when someone notices and acts.

Can I run a promotion asset without an end date?

The asset is built around a date range so it can retire itself, so plan on setting one rather than treating the promotion as a permanent fixture.

Can a promotion asset and sitelinks show on the same ad?

Yes, both can be eligible at the same time, and Google decides which combination actually renders for a given impression.

Or stop choosing between them.

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