Ad extensions are an important part of optimising your paid search ads and can help with ad rank. These extensions allow you to add additional pieces of information to your ads, which then gives searchers more to read and more reasons to choose your product or service.
They typically help to increase an ad’s click-through rate and aim to help maximise the performance of your ads by allowing businesses to further appeal to their target audience and giving ads greater visibility.
Extensions come in a range of different formats, some which are manual and some which are automated, although some can be both. Ad extensions are available on Google and Bing, but businesses should note that it is best to use all of the extensions that may be relevant to your goals as Google Ads will select which extensions to show in response to individual searches on Google.
In this blog we will be focusing on the ad extensions in Google, so stay tuned for our next blog on Bing ad extensions.
Will ad extensions show all the time?
Adding an extension to your ad won’t guarantee that it will appear with your ad all the time. Extensions appear with your ad when:
- The extension(s) is predicted to improve your performance.
- Your ad’s position and Ad Rank is high enough for extensions to appear. To show extensions, Google Ads requires a minimum Ad Rank.
Different types of Ad extension:
Callouts
Callout ad extensions let you include additional text on your ads that can be used to highlight key information about your business’s products and services. This extension is often used to highlight promotional offers.
You can choose where to add callouts and schedule when you’d like them to appear. Similarly to sitelinks, you can add them at account, campaign, and ad group level, plus they will show in a variety of ways depending on device and other factors.
Google recommends creating 4 callouts in order for them to perform well. For them to gain impressions you must have a minimum of 2.
Sitelinks
Sitelinks are exactly what they say on the tin, links to a site. They can link to different pages on your site and even to your business’s LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube pages. They’re a great way to link to other relevant areas of your website that might help users in their journey to purchase (i.e. a blog about the product or accessories for the product).
They will show in a variety of ways and this can depend on the device, ad position and several other factors. You can add sitelinks to your ads at account, campaign, or ad group level.
Structured Snippets
Structured snippets allow you to highlight certain parts of what you’re advertising. For example, if you are advertising a hotel, you may want to highlight amenities such as the pool, conference centre, or free Wi-Fi.
If you don’t add any structured snippets to your ads, Google may automatically include dynamic structured snippets.
Make sure you have a minimum of three snippets on your ad and that they are related to your main headers.
Message Extensions
Message extensions allow people to click on your ad and contact you by text message.
When you include this extension, you can create the message in advance. It will then show up in the person’s messaging app when they click on your number.
You can schedule message extensions so that they only show up at certain times, giving you a bit more control over how many messages you are receiving. You can also connect this extension to third party software or get text messages sent to your email.
Message extensions can be added at the account, campaign, ad group, or ad level. They can also run on any search campaign, ad group, or ad.
Location Extensions
Location extensions are great for helping people find your business. They show your business address, phone number, and a map marker with your ad text.
Location extensions are useful when you have a physical premise that you want users to find, such as a shop or café. These extensions are great for helping to drive footfall to your store or physical location.
For location extensions to show, you must link your Google My Business account to your Google Ads account. You can even add multiple addresses and target your ads around your different business addresses.
Affiliate Location Extensions
Affiliate location extensions help people locate nearby retail stores that carry your products. This type of extension is particularly useful for retailers or automotive dealers who may have their products stocked by other businesses or have multiple stores.
These extensions are not available in all countries.
Call Extensions
Call extensions, as you may guess from the name, allow you to add phone numbers to your ads.
This feature allows customers to call the business directly by simply clicking on the number, and is particularly handy for customers who know exactly what they need or want.
Price Extensions
Price extensions appear below your ad and show specific products and pricing information. They can display in a couple of different ways, and each price extension has its own link.
When people click on your price extension they will be taken straight to that product on your website, making price extensions perfect for highlighting specific products.
Promotion Extensions
Promotion extensions let you highlight sales and promotions in your ads. When adding this extension you can choose the label that will appear in bold. For example, you could have “Deal”, “Offer”, “Mother’s Day”, etc.
App Extensions
App extensions allow you to include a link to your mobile or tablet app in your ad. You should use this extension if you have a mobile app that’s live in Google Play or the Apple App store.
Seller Ratings
Seller rating extensions are used to highlight businesses that have high customer ratings. The seller rating extensions show a combination of information and reviews.
In most cases you will need over 150 unique reviews and a rating of 3.5 stars or higher for this extension to show.
Ad extensions are essential for the performance of your ads, and could make a difference to your CTR. For more advice on how to get your ads to perform well, get in touch with the experts at AdPilot today.