Last week Google announced that they will be standardizing all AdWords display URLs to display in lowercase characters. By standardizing all of the display URLs on within sponsored ads Google is able to improve user metrics, including clickthrough rates. We may not question that standardizing all of the URLs on a page improves click-through rates; however, the question is whose clickthrough rates are improved?

Is Google standardizing URLs so that paid links receive a greater amount of clicks? The answer to that is unclear at this time. In making this change, Google has failed to provide it’s advertisers with the supporting data. From a purely financial standpoint, this makes perfect sense. The more people click on paid links, the more money Google makes. Given Google’s advocacy for being more open sourced, they are very selective on what they are open with.

I believe it should be up to individual advertisers, not Google, to act in the best interest of their brand. Testing the various aspects of your ad copy to improve overall click through rates and conversions is the advertisers job. Google should reward advertisers who test and optimize, rather than implementing blanket changes without divulging supporting data.