So what are ad extensions actually?
So what are ad extensions actually? Ad extensions are essentially additional content that appears alongside ads and provides more information about the business. With extensions, you can include the business location, phone number, business rating, and more in the ad. The goal is to upgrade and make our ads more relevant for the user. Maximizing the use of extensions is also worthwhile because it can increase the ad’s size and make it stand out compared to other ads on the page – which will naturally improve the click-through rate, lead to an increase in Quality Score, and a decrease in cost-per-click.
The Importance of Ad Extensions
Ad extensions are an integral part of Google’s auction formula, as follows:
Max CPC * Quality Score (1-10) * Extension Performance = Ad Rank
What does this mean? Quite simply, using Google extensions directly affects your Ad Rank and can improve its relevance, increasing its chances of ranking among the top results on the page.
Types of Extensions
Call Extension
A call extension allows you to add the business phone number alongside the ad. The phone number will appear as a button that allows the user to directly dial the business. Direct dialing is only available on mobile, but will also appear in desktop search results (as non-clickable text).
Make sure to schedule this extension for the hours when the business is active and capable of answering calls.
Hot tip: Track incoming calls from your ad using a tracking number, which you can obtain via third-party companies (such as Maskyoo, for example).
Sitelinks Extension
With this extension, you can include links to specific pages on the website in the ad. The big advantage is presenting the user with the variety of offers available on the site before they even visit it, so clicking on a specific page indicates that this is a particularly relevant customer.
It is important to emphasize that control over the timing and display manner of extensions is entirely under Google’s control and we have no way to influence it, as well as the number of sitelinks that will actually appear.
Location Extension
The location extension allows displaying the business address along with directions/map, as well as business hours. The location extension is very important when it comes to a business with a physical branch that wants people to visit it.
If the business has multiple branches (Super-Pharm, anyone?), the system will show the user the branch closest to them.
To use the location extension, you must create and link a Google My Business account to your Google Ads account, which is recommended for any business anyway.
Callout Extension
This extension allows you to incorporate short phrases about the business benefits and offerings into the ad. (The text is not clickable). This is another important extension that helps us increase ad size in order to take up more “real estate” in the search area.
Price Extension
This extension displays a clear price for the business’s products or services featured in the ad.
Keep in mind that displaying a price might decrease traffic volume to the site from the ad, but will result in more relevant clicks and higher quality traffic.
Note: Price extensions will only appear in the ad when its rank is 1.
Promotion Extension
An extension that displays various discounts offered by the business, coupons, or special deals. The extension usually displays the promotion with a price tag icon next to it – which gives the ad more real estate and makes it stand out significantly compared to other ads on the search page.
Important tips:
• Note that you can schedule promotion extensions for specific dates, such as holidays or special events.
• It is very important to align your landing page with the promotion displayed in the ad.
For example, if the ad showed a 20% discount coupon – mention this on the homepage and preferably on every page of the website.
Review Extension
An extension that allows displaying a review given to the business by a third party. The review must be on an external site and from the last 12 months.
This is an important extension that can increase your credibility in the eyes of potential customers, giving your ad a significant advantage over competitors.
App Extension
If your business has an app, you can connect it to the campaign.
A download button for the app will be added next to the ad, along with its icon image and a call-to-action button of your choice.
Make sure to connect the app to the ads account and add the app in the extensions.
Message Extension
Does the business you are promoting prefer receiving inquiries via messages rather than phone calls? This extension allows the customer to contact the business directly via SMS (mobile only).
Pro tip: Here too, there is an option to track messages as conversions. Create a tracking phone number (as mentioned, via third-party companies such as Maskyoo) and enter it into the message extension. This way you can know how many messages you received through the Google campaign, in the same way as with the call extension.
Structured Snippet Extension
This extension allows you to add three headers highlighting important aspects of the business. The header is chosen from a predefined Google list. The texts are not clickable.
Lead Form Extension
Lead form extensions help you capture the interest of potential customers when they search for your company, products, or services on Google.
Lead form extensions are used only as extensions for Search network campaigns, so all targeting and bidding options are determined by the campaign to which the extension is attached.
How to set up extensions in Google
1. Select the relevant campaign or ad group.
2. In the left menu, select the ‘Ads & extensions’ tab
3. In the top menu, click on “Extensions”
4. Click on 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 selected. On the left, you can see a preview of the ad combined with the extensions you have already filled in.
7. Click “Save” and pat yourself on the back – you’ve created a new extension!
Scheduling extensions by days and hours
You can schedule all extensions for specific days and hours according to the needs of the business you are promoting:
Scheduling extensions can be very critical in certain cases. For example, if we want to promote a specific limited-time promotion, we will make sure to schedule the promotion extension only for the promotion period, to create alignment between the ad and the landing page, and avoid directing visitors who expected a certain discount to a landing page without promotions.
How do we measure extension results?
The results of our extensions are no less important than those of our campaigns. Through measurement and monitoring, we can know what works and what doesn’t – and accordingly perform accurate and proper optimization to maximize results.
First, log in to GOOGLE ADS:
Once logged in, click on “Extensions”.
We will now move to the extensions dashboard.
We can see which extensions exist under each campaign, play around with the columns, and examine any result we want, for example: clicks, cost per click, leads/conversions on the site, impressions, and more.
We can choose which extension type we want to examine using a filter.
We can choose which extension type we want to examine using a filter.
Summary
1. Improving Quality Score and Ad Rank: Google has previously confirmed that it considers relevant use of ad extensions in calculating the Quality Score determined in the campaign.
2. Significantly increasing your ad’s click-through rate (CTR).
3. Increasing your ad “real estate” – Maximum (yet relevant) use of as many extensions as possible will generally increase your ad’s size, which naturally makes it stand out significantly compared to other results on the page, potentially drastically increasing the amount of traffic to your site from the ad.
4. No need to conduct research – You won’t need to test on your own which extensions are best to add to the campaign. Create as many relevant extensions as possible and Google will do the work for you and only show the extensions that perform best.
A Little About Me
Reut, 24 years old, multi-channel campaign manager.
