Google Ad Extensions – The Complete Guide

So, what are Ad Extensions?​

Ad extensions are essentially additional contents that appears beside the ads and provides additional information about the business. Using these extensions you can include the location of the business, its phone number, rating, etc. in the ad. The objective is to upgrade and make our ads more relevant for the user. Maximal usage of extensions is desirable also because it may increase the volume of the ad and make it more visible in comparison with other ads on the page – which will improve the click rate, bring an increase in the quality rating and a decrease in the click price.

Importance of Ad Extensions

Ad extensions consist an inseparable part of Google’s auction formula, as follows: maximal Cost per Click (CPC) * Quality Score (QS) (1-10) * extension performance = Ad Rank. What does that mean? It is simple. Using extensions directly influences your ad rating and may improve its relevance, which may increase its chance to be seen among the first results.

Extension Types

Call Extension

The Call extension will allow you to add your business phone number by the ad. The phone will appear as a button which allows the user to make a direct call to the business. The direct call is only allowed via mobiles, but it will also appear (not clickable) in the desktop search results. Pay attention to time this extension to the business operating hours, when there is someone available to answer calls.

Warm recommendation: follow the incoming calls from your ad with a measurable number, which you can extract through external companies (like CallRail).

Site Links Extension

Using this extension you can include the ad with links to specific pages on your site. The great advantage is to present the user with a variety of offers provided by the website even before he enters it, so the clicking on a specific page will testify that this is a highly relevant client.

It is important to emphasize that the control over the timing and the way the extensions are presented is provided entirely to Google, and we have no way to influence it, or the amount of site links that will appear.

Location Extension

The location extension allows to present the business address with a map, and also the business operating hours. The location extension is highly important especially when regarding a business with a physical branch, that wants people to arrive.

If the business has many branches (did anyone say Superpharm?) the system presents the user with the nearest branch.

In order to use the location extension you should create and link a Google My Business account to your Adwords account, which is recommended to any business.

Callout Extension

This extension enables to integrate short sentences about the benefits and suggestions of the business (the text is not clickable). This is another important extension that helps us increase the volume of the ad in order to capture more “place” on the search area.

Price Extension

This extension presents a clear price on the business’ products or services that appear in the ad.

You should take into consideration that presenting the price may decrease the traffic volume from the ad, but it will bring more relevant clicks and a higher quality of traffic.

Pay attention: price extensions will appear in the ad only when it is ranked 1.

Promotion Extension

This extension presents various discounts the business offers, coupons or special deals. This extension presents the sale usually with a price tag icon at its side – which provides the ad more area and makes it significantly more prominent in relation to the other ads on the search page.

Important tips:

  • Notice that you can time the sale extension specific dates, like for holidays or special occasions.
  • It is highly important to match your landing page with the discount you displayed in the ad. For instance, if you displayed a 20% discount coupon in your ad – mention it on your homepage and on every page in your website.

Review Extension

This extension allows the display of a critic provided to your business by a third party. The critic must be from an external website and provided during the last 12 months.

This is an important extension that may increase your credibility to the potential client, and give your ad a significant advantage over the competition.

App Installation Extension

If your business has an app, it is possible to link it with the campaign.

Aside the ad, there will be a download button for the app an image of its icon and a motivation button of your choice.

Pay attention to link the app to the ad account and add the app in the extensions.

Message Extension

The business you are promoting would rather receive messages than phone calls? This extension will allow the client to reach the business directly through an SMS (through the mobile only).

Advanced tip: here also, there is an option to measure the messages as conversions. Create a measurable phone number (through third party companies like MASKYOO) and feed it into the messaging extension. This way you can know how many messages you received using the Google campaign, much like the contact extension.

Structured snippet Extension

This extension allows to add three headlines that emphasize important aspects of the business. The headline is selected from a structured Google list. The tests are not clickable.

How to Define Ad Extensions?

  1. Choose the relevant campaign or ad group.
  2. In the right hand menu, choose the “ads and extensions” tab.
  3. In the upper menu, click “extensions”

4. Click the large + icon to create a new extension.

5. Choose the extension you wish to create.

6. Fill in the missing fields according to the extension you chose. On the left hand side you can see a preview of your ad with the extensions you already completed.

7. Click “Save” and be encouraged – you have created a new extension!

Timing Extensions by Days and Hours​

You can time all your extensions by specific days and hours according to the needs of your promoted business:

Timing your extensions can be highly critical in certain cases. For instance, if we want to promote a certain sale for a limited amount of time, we have to care ti time the sale extension to the discount period, to match the ad and the landing page and not to refer users who expected a certain discount to a discountless landing page.

Summary

  1. Improving the rank and the rating of the ad: Google has confirmed it considers relevant use of the ad extension in the quality score established in the campaign.
  2. Increasing the , click-through rate (CTR)
  3. Increasing the “area” of your ad – maximal (yet relevant) use of many extensions will usually bring an increase in the volume of your ad, which will make it more visible compared to other results on the page, and may drastically increase the amount of entrances to the website from the ad.
  4. No research needed – you will not need to examine for yourself which are the extensions that you should link to the campaign. Create as many relevant extensions and Google will do the work for you and display only the best working extensions.

About me

Reut, 24 years old, manages campaigns in a variety of channels.