Perform any search on Google and you’ll see a number of ads displayed above and alongside the natural listings, but some of the ads stand out more than others, taking up a lot more space and providing much more information.  

How’s that so? Does the advertiser pay more so that they can take up more space?  

No, it’s the use of ad extensions - when understood and used effectively they can make a significant difference in your Google AdWords account performance.

So what are they?

Ad extensions are a way of adding further information and functionality into the ad text that is usually displayed. There a different types of extension that may or may not be appropriate for your campaigns and you can set them at campaign and ad group level - e.g. you can set the extensions to appear for all ads in a campaign, or all ads in an ad group. Some of the extensions are also available at account level.

Here’s a brief synopsis of the different types of ad extensions that are available.

  • Sitelink extensions - enables you to add in up to 4 more links as well as two lines of descriptive text for each link
  • Review extensions - lets you shout about the good things that other people are saying about your company
  • Seller rating extensions - shown in stars and obtained from various different third party review sites
  • Structured snippet extensions - allows you to show specific features of your products or services, such as brand or models
  • Location extensions - show your company’s location as well as a link to directions for people on mobile devices
  • Call extensions - display a contact number next to the add or a click to call button for those searching on a mobile phone
  • App extensions - if you have a mobile app, then you can display a link directly from your ad

Why should you use extensions?

Real estate on the search engine result page is becoming increasingly in demand and competition for each click is becoming more and more fierce. Therefore, it’s important that you use every weapon in your armoury to attract the attention of the searcher and win the click. Take a look at these two ads. Which one is more likely to attract your attention

 


The first ad is using callouts, structured snippets, sitelinks and has seller ratings as such it demands more room on the results page, but as well as size, t provides a much greater level of detail than the second ad which is just using the standard headline and description lines. There’s more reason for the reader to click through to the first ads website.

Adding ad extensions increases your click-through rate which alone is a good thing as more people are getting eyes on your website. But the spin off of increasing your click-through rate is an increase in quality score and an increase in quality score improves your position and reduces your click costs

Extensions are really easy to set up and because of the increase in traffic that they generate, it is well worth the effort learning how to use them.