One of your best opportunities to gain valuable clicks in the search engine results page (SERP) is to take up as much real estate across relevant paid and organic search results as possible. When it comes to paid search, that means making your ads appear as big as possible with relevant and compelling information.
Enter ad extensions. Google Ads ad extensions are an invaluable asset to any paid search strategy. Ad extensions make your ads bigger, pushing other search results down the page and increasing the visibility of your ads. They not only make ads bigger, but they also make them better by giving users quicker access to the information they are searching for, ultimately driving more clicks. According to Google, including ad extensions tends to drive a 10-15% increase in click through rate (CTR). In addition, ad extensions can improve your quality score and ad rank as well.
Oh, and did I mention that they are free to add? That’s right. You’ll only pay for the click on an ad extension, which is the exact same cost-per-click (CPC) you’d pay for a click on your ad.
How Ad Extensions Display In Search Results
Note the dramatic difference in the size and visual appeal of the ad on the right with the various ad extensions enabled compared with the basic text ad on the left without ad extensions. It’s easy to see why the more robust ad has a better shot at pushing other search results further down the page, capturing a user’s eye and earning more clicks.
Choosing Which Google Ads Ad Extensions To Use
To start, use at least one ad extension per ad group. But the more ad extensions you enable within your ad groups, the better. Check out the various extension options below to see which ones might make the most sense for your products and services and enable as many as possible:
App Extension
App ad extensions allow you to promote your website and your app from a single search ad. App extensions display a button below your search ad encouraging users to download your app for shopping or purchases.
Call Extension
Call ad extensions, or click-to-call extensions, allow you to include your phone number on your ad, which can significantly increase click-through rates (CTR).
Callout Extension
Callout ad extensions are small snippets of text that display below your ad highlighting additional detail, features or benefits relevant to your products and services.
Location Extension
Location ad extensions allow you to display your business address below your search ad, which is invaluable for gaining foot traffic at your physical location, especially for mobile ads where users are typically searching with intent to visit a store. You’ll need to link your Google Ads account with your Google My Business Account to enable this feature.
Affiliate Location Extension
Affiliate Location ad extensions are most useful for brands that sell their products through a variety of other retailers. With Affiliate Location extensions, customers can quickly find the best retail chains near them to buy your products.
Messaging Extension
Message ad extensions display a button encouraging users to send a text for more information. In our increasingly mobile world, this Message extension option makes it easier than ever for users to connect with advertisers.
Price Extension
Price ad extensions showcase the prices for your products and services within a carousel below your ad. Price extensions tend to drive more relevant clicks by weeding out users that are not within your price point. If your business offers any products or services that have a price, your next step should be enabling price extensions.
Promotion Extension
Promotion ad extensions appeal to users searching for sales or special offers relevant to your business. They display with a price tag icon below the ad, highlighting a sale, coupon or discount offer. Take advantage of promotion extension for holidays or seasonal events such as Back-to-school, Black Friday or holiday sales.
Sitelink Extension
Sitelink ad extensions are a simple, effective way to increase CTR and are, not surprisingly, one of the most commonly used ad extensions in Google Ads. Sitelinks display as additional, relevant links below the main ad, making it easier than ever for users to click into content that’s relevant to their search query.
Structured Snippet Extension
Structured Snippet ad extensions allow you to include an additional three lines of header text that highlight key aspects of your business, including:
- Amenities
- Brands
- Courses
- Degree Programs
- Destinations
- Featured Hotels
- Insurance Coverage
- Models
- Neighborhoods
- Service Catalog
- Shows
- Styles
- Types
Automated Ad Extensions
Google may also pull in additional information from various other sources to create any of the following automated ad extensions: Consumer Ratings Extensions, Dynamic Sitelink Extensions, Dynamic Structured Snippets, Previous Visit Extension, Seller Ratings Extensions, or Social Extensions.
Since you cannot control these automated extensions, we recommend implementing as many manual extensions as you can to better control your ad’s messaging.
Getting Started With Google Ad Extensions
Don’t wait! Log in to your Google Ads account today and begin setting up your ad extensions. There’s no need to guess what works best. Set up as many relevant ad extensions as possible. From there, Google will choose the best performing combinations of ad extensions to display and optimize for the searcher’s experience, showing the most relevant and useful content based on the search query.
