PPC 101: Ad Extensions

When we first take on a new client, we are often asked to perform an audit of their Adwords account. One of the first things that I look at when performing an audit is ad extensions. It may not take a lot of time, but it can really enhance your ads. Their presence alone can improve your ad quality. Many hours can be spent optimizing ad text, but that same ad may not perform as well as a mediocre ad with extensions. We have seen vast improvements in campaigns while implementing ad extensions in situations where they weren’t being used previously.

What are Ad Extensions?

Ad extensions appear along with your ads. They serve to enhance your ads by giving additional, relevant information beyond that of a regular ad and more information is always a good thing. Do you have a physical location? There’s an extension for that. Do you prefer to have customers call you? There’s an extension for that. Do you have an app that you want to promote? You get the idea. This gives the consumer options to choose from when clicking on your ad.

Additionally, due to recent changes in ad ranking, extensions will also affect your position. When compared to ads without extensions, ads with extensions tend to appear higher.

There are several different types of ad extensions and every company should be able to take advantage of at least two or three. We always try to take advantage of as many as possible, as extensions really serve to enhance your customer’s experience. Below, we’ll explain a few different types of ad extensions and discuss their benefits.

Different Types of Extensions

Sitelink Extension

This is one of the more useful extensions I see. Nearly any company can take advantage of this extension as it creates links to additional areas on your website. In the example below, you can see that there are links to things like supported devices, original shows, and Latino viewing. Sitelinks  also allow you to show descriptions, which gives your ad a lot more real estate on the page. Once again, this extension gives your customer options and allows them to locate exactly what they’re looking for.

App Extension

The app extension is pretty self-explanatory. If you have an app that you would like to promote, use this extension. App extensions gives the user a direct link to download the app. This can be very helpful to mobile users and customers that may not be aware that you have an app. It’s also a great way to improve your app’s visibility.

Call Extension

The call extension is great for users that are performing searches on their phone or mobile device. It gives them the ability to directly call your company without having to memorize or write down phone numbers, or even leave their browser. If your sales process requires a lot of lead nurturing, then this could be an excellent extension for you as it encourages additional communication. This extension can also be customized to only show during your business hours—very helpful for those that aren’t open nights and weekends.

Callout Extension 

These are great for getting additional text into an ad. This extension comes highly recommended as it doesn’t require any additional resources. We use this extension a lot in conjunction with the Sitelink extension. If your business has additional perks like free shipping or 24/7 service, it’s definitely in your advantage to create corresponding extensions. Callout extensions can only be 25 characters long, so it’s important to be selective. Google will include anywhere from 2-4 callout extensions depending on the length, so it’s better to not use all 25 characters and fit more extensions in your ad.

Location Extension 

If you have a physical shore then this is the extension for you. It will detect customers near your location and provide the address for them in the ad. It also provides the phone number for that specific location. Clicking on the link will pull up Google Maps and provide directions from the user’s location. Overall, it’s a very helpful extension that really improves the user’s experience.

Review Extension 

This is a relatively new extension that can really add some additional value to your ads. If you have a third party source that has written about your product, you can link the review in your ad. It is especially helpful if the review was done by a credible source. The extension can be difficult to setup since Google requires the visit to the review site to be a good experience for the user. If the review site has any advertising prior to viewing the article, there is a good chance the extension will be rejected by Google. Still, if the extension can be used, it is definitely worth it. And if someone clicks on the review link, you aren’t charged for the click!

These are the standard manual extensions that can be used to enhance your ads. We try to apply these as much as possible whenever they’re applicable. There are some additional extensions that you may have noticed in the example ads, such as Customer Ratings. These are automatic extensions created by Google which advertisers don’t have any control over. Stay tuned as we cover these types of extensions in a future post.