Google published an official help page on May 6, 2026, formally introducing the site visits asset - an automated feature that displays the aggregate number of times a website has been visited directly inside text ads. The feature, which had been spotted in search results as early as July 2025 and again in March 2026, now has a named product page in the Google Ads Help Center, confirming its functionality, eligibility requirements, and operational mechanics.

The publication of an official help page marks a meaningful step. Features that appear in isolated search results do not always receive formal documentation, and the absence of an official page often leaves advertisers uncertain about eligibility or behavior. That uncertainty is now resolved for site visits.

What the asset actually does

According to Google's help documentation, the site visits asset is a nonclickable text element that appears directly within an ad. It does not function like a sitelink or callout - users cannot click on it to navigate elsewhere. Its sole purpose is to display a count of how many times the domain has been visited, drawing on data from both organic traffic and paid ads traffic combined. Clicks are updated every day.

The displayed count does not show a precise figure. Instead, the badge reflects one of three thresholds depending on which click bucket the domain falls into: 10K+ clicks, 100K+ clicks, or 1M+ clicks. Google's own example illustrates the mechanic clearly - if a domain such as example.com has received at least 100,000 clicks across all its landing pages, the ad may show a "100K+ site visits" badge.

An important detail concerns how clicks are counted when campaigns use multiple landing pages. According to the documentation, when ads point to different URLs within the same domain - such as example.com/shoes and example.com/shirts - the system counts clicks for the entire domain, not for the individual landing page. This means a site with many product or category pages can aggregate clicks across all of them into a single domain-level count.

Eligibility is strict on clicks and infrastructure

Not every advertiser will qualify. According to Google's help page, three conditions must be met simultaneously. First, the domain must have accumulated a minimum of 10,000 clicks within the last 30 days. This is a combined figure from organic and ads traffic across the entire domain. Second, the account must have no policy violations. Third - and technically the most specific requirement - the website must operate on a single-tenant domain or a unique subdomain that distinctly represents the business entity.

That third condition carries a precise consequence for a significant portion of the web. Sites hosted on sub-paths of shared hosting domains are explicitly ineligible. The reason, according to Google's documentation, is that distinct clicks cannot be separated from the primary hosting site. A business running its storefront at a shared hosting provider where multiple tenants share the root domain will not qualify, even if its own traffic would otherwise meet the 10,000-click minimum. A unique subdomain - such as brand.hostingprovider.com - may qualify if it distinctly represents the business entity, but this depends on Google's assessment.

The campaign type scope is specific: site visits are compatible with Search campaigns and Performance Max campaigns. Other campaign types are not mentioned as eligible in the documentation.

No extra cost, no extra setup

According to Google's documentation, advertisers are not charged for site visits themselves. When a user clicks on an ad that displays the site visits badge, the advertiser is charged as they would be under normal click billing. The badge does not create an additional billable event.

Setup requires no action from advertisers. The asset is automated - it deploys based on eligibility signals without requiring advertisers to create a new text ad or configure a new asset manually. This places site visits in the same operational category as other account-level automated assets that Google has expanded throughout 2025 and into 2026, including automatically created assets for responsive search ads and message asset verification requirements.

For advertisers who do not want the site visits badge to appear, the documentation specifies that they must contact their Google representative to turn off the automated asset. There is no self-service toggle visible in the standard Google Ads interface based on the documentation published.

Why Google frames this as a trust signal

Google's help page positions site visits around four stated benefits. The first is user trust and credibility - the argument being that displaying a verifiable metric of site popularity directly in an ad can encourage more confident clicks. The second is engagement, based on the premise that high visit numbers signal relevance and value to users and may improve click-through rates. The third is that it improves ad performance by making ads more relevant and trustworthy. The fourth is scalability - the asset works across multiple ad types without requiring manual creative effort.

These framing choices reflect a pattern visible across multiple Google Ads product announcements: automation features are described in terms of engagement uplift and trust building rather than technical mechanics alone. Whether the site visits badge materially affects click-through rates in practice depends on variables the documentation does not address - including how prominent the badge appears in different auction configurations and whether users distinguish between organic and paid visit sources.

Context: automated assets expanding across Google Ads

The site visits asset is one part of a broader product direction at Google. The Asset Studio beta reached global availability in August 2025, providing advertisers with tools to generate and edit creative assets inside Google Ads directly. In September 2025, Google formally launched Asset Studio with integration of Imagen 4 and Veo video generation capabilities, expanding the platform into comprehensive creative production. The Google Ads API v22, released on October 15, 2025, introduced generative AI asset creation capabilities and new AssetAutomationType values for Performance Max, including GENERATE_IMAGE_ENHANCEMENT and GENERATE_IMAGE_EXTRACTION.

In November 2025, Google added Waze inventory to Performance Max for store goals campaigns in the United States, alongside channel-level reporting improvements. The site visits asset fits the same general pattern: an automated signal that requires no creative work from advertisers and deploys based on account eligibility, designed to operate at scale.

What stays uncertain

Several operational questions are not answered by the documentation as published. The help page does not specify which traffic sources are counted in the domain click total beyond describing a combined figure from organic and ads traffic. It does not clarify whether traffic from non-Google sources is included, which would be a significant variable for sites with large direct or social traffic bases.

The documentation also does not confirm whether the 10,000-click threshold must be met continuously or whether a domain that drops below the threshold loses eligibility mid-campaign. Given that clicks are updated daily, the practical implication may be that eligibility is evaluated on a rolling 30-day basis - but this is inference rather than stated policy.

The phrase "site visits are not guaranteed to serve, even if your account is eligible" appears in the documentation without further explanation. This standard caveat appears in Google's documentation for several automated asset types, but it leaves advertisers without a clear indication of what additional conditions might prevent serving beyond the stated eligibility criteria.

What marketers should do

The site visits asset is passive for eligible accounts. For domains meeting the 10,000-click threshold, operating on single-tenant infrastructure, and carrying no policy violations, the badge may begin appearing in Search and Performance Max campaigns without any action required. Advertisers running large enough domains who prefer not to display visit counts have a clear path: contact their Google representative.

For accounts that do not currently meet the threshold, the 10,000-click minimum within 30 days is a meaningful bar. A domain receiving roughly 333 clicks per day across all traffic sources - paid and organic combined - would meet the minimum. Whether that level of activity corresponds to the scale of advertiser likely to see meaningful engagement lift from a "10K+ site visits" badge is a separate question the documentation does not address.

The formal introduction of this feature, spotted first by Hana Kobzova, follows a pattern PPC Land has documented across multiple Google Ads product cycles: features appear in search results or in accounts before formal documentation arrives, creating a gap between observed behavior and official policy. The May 6 help page closes that gap for site visits specifically.

Timeline

Summary

Who: Google, affecting advertisers running Search and Performance Max campaigns on Google Ads, particularly those operating high-traffic single-tenant domains.

What: Google formally introduced the site visits asset - an automated, nonclickable badge displaying domain click counts in three tiers (10K+, 100K+, 1M+) drawn from aggregate organic and paid traffic - with an official help page confirming eligibility criteria and mechanics.

When: The official help page was published on May 6, 2026. The feature had been observed in the wild since July 2025, with a second sighting in March 2026.

Where: The feature operates within Google Ads, appearing in text ads served through Search and Performance Max campaigns.

Why: Google positions the asset as a trust and credibility signal that requires no creative work from advertisers, deploying automatically based on account eligibility. The feature fits a broader product direction toward automated assets that scale across campaigns without manual setup.

Share this article
The link has been copied!