What AdWords Extensions Should You be Using?

We previously wrote about The Art of (Search Advertising) War, which featured a small section on AdWords extensions. We would like to expand on that and provide you with a breakdown on what extensions you should be making use of and the best practices to follow.

How do ad extensions benefit you?

Extensions allow you to expand your ad with additional information, giving your target audience more reason to choose your business. The use of extensions typically increases an ad’s click-through-rate by several percentage points.

It is always best to use every extension that is relevant to your business and to ensure that it is as high quality as possible, here are some of the different extension formats that you can make use of in your ads:

Location extensions

Encourage people to visit your business by showing your location, a call button, and a link to your business details page—which can include your hours, photos of your business, and directions to get there.

Top tip: If you want customers to visit your business location but only call a centralised line, rather than a specific locations’ number, use call extensions in conjunction with location extensions.

Callout extensions

Adding additional text to your ad, such as “free delivery” or “24/7 customer support”, are referred to as callouts, and can be used to encourage people to convert offline.

Call extensions

Encourage people to call your business by adding a phone number or call button to your ads.

Message extensions

Encourage people to send you text messages from your ad. Available globally at the campaign or ad group level. 

Sitelink extensions

Link people directly to specific pages of your website.

Top tip: You can make use of words that create urgency, such as “hours left” or “order now”.

Structured snippet extensions

Showcasing specific information to potential customers will generate the most valuable return on investment as you are able to select a predefined header and focus on a specific product or service offering as well as allowing you to include listing items. 

Price extensions

Showcase your services or product categories with their prices, so that people can browse your products directly from your ad. However, these are only available in select countries.

Review extensions

Add quotes or rankings from published sources. Available on desktop in select languages.

App extensions

Encourage people to download your app. Available globally for Android and iOS mobile devices, including tablets. 

Top tip: When selecting your extensions, ensure that you base your decision on your company’s primary advertising goals.

It is important to remember to manage your ad extensions in AdWords, which includes monitoring and constant upkeep as not all extensions are automated. According to Google, here are some best practices that you can follow for ad extension success:

Ad extensions at Campaign Level

Sitelink Extensions

• Apply between six and ten extensions per campaign so that the system rotates the best ones.
• Include additional details.

Call Extensions

• If your product offering varies enough, consider setting up different phone numbers across those offerings. This will ensure that you are able to track progress on different product offerings more easily.

Callout Extensions

• Aim to enable four per ad group, ad campaign or account, with a minimum of two.
• Ensure that you highlight key company attributes that are distinct from what is already mentioned in ads or site links.

Structured Snippets

• Short snippets of 12 characters or less are perfect for mobile campaigns.
• Include as many relevant snippets as possible in the header.

Ad extensions at Account Level

Location extensions

• Filter out locations that do not apply to your business.

Review Extensions

• Refresh the review that you make use of on a quarterly to yearly basis. This depends on how many reviews your company receives.

Automatic Ad Extensions

Some ad extensions are automatic if you qualify for them, these include:

• Seller ratings extensions
• Previous visit extensions
• Consumer rating extensions
• Dynamic structured snippet extensions

Don’t forget to continuously monitor your extensions to learn what appeals to your audience and what doesn’t. For more information you can always make use of AdWords Help. 

The success of your AdWords campaign relies on the time that you put into it, and in some cases it is best to leave the work to a professional. Contact us for a PPC campaign quote today!