Ad extensions increase your visibility in search engine results.
Here’s how Image Extensions, Structured Snippets, Quote Extensions, and Call Extensions can help.
Not all ad extensions are created equal, and they serve different marketing purposes.
Whether it’s Google Ads or Microsoft Ads, ad extensions can help increase your visibility in search results and improve ad performance.
Ad extensions also allow for additional or more elaborate messages that don’t fit into the base ad copy, even with the new RSA format.
Don’t miss this opportunity.
Explore four PPC ad extensions that you should be using today.
1. Image extensions
Photo accessories are available worldwide.
The visual consumer experience when browsing products and services online has become more important in recent years.
Image extensions help create a more visually appealing search ad to engage with potential customers.
These extensions improve the relevance of your search ad by including images of your products or services in the ad.
Image extensions appear on both desktop and mobile devices.
These images are not banner ads and you need to follow them requirements In terms of content, quality, etc.
You choose which images to upload to be displayed along with the ad text.
Another option is to use dynamic image extensions that select the most relevant images from your ad’s landing page and include them in your ad.
Once you opt in to this feature, images from your landing pages will be included as ad extensions in your campaigns.
To get started with Dynamic Image Extensions, go to the Extensions tab in your account and click Add dynamic visual additions.
No pictures, no problem!
You can create image extensions using stored images.
Now, you can choose from a collection of stock photos provided by Google. Go to Image options drop down and select stock photos.
Next, choose the image that you think is most relevant to your ad.
2. Structured snippets
Structured snippets are a “no brainer” feature for ad extensions.
They list specific aspects of your product or service.
It is one of the simplest ad extensions to build because there is a pre-defined “header” for the values and you don’t need landing pages because they don’t link to the website.
Each snippet extension has a “title” like:
- means of comfort.
- Trademarks.
- the places.
- certificate programmes.
- Courses.
- Featured Hotels.
- insurance coverage.
- alive.
- service catalogs.
- Models.
- show.
- styles.
- Species.
After selecting the address, enter the values - such as “Free WiFi” or “Pool” for amenities.
These extensions appear frequently on both platforms.
Here is an example of company branding:
Image courtesy of Google Ads, May 2022This simple ad can add value by giving the searcher more information and distinguishing your ad from competitors who don’t use this extension.
3. Price extensions
Price extensions are a great alternative for advertisers who don’t have product feeds and can benefit from showing products and services at price points.
Price extensions are shown in search results below the main ad text and can be useful in getting more attention to the ad as well as driving deeper content on the advertiser’s website.
A minimum of three to eight items or cards can be added per price extension.
The researcher can then scroll and click on the items individually to view them.
Similar to structured snippets, Google has predefined types of additional price information:
- Trademarks.
- events.
- websites.
- alive.
- product categories.
- product levels.
- service categories.
- service levels.
- services.
Each card has a title and description of 25 characters each, which appear above and below the price.
The advertiser also has the opportunity to use the price qualifier.
This is designed for products or services that don’t have a single set price point, so “from”, “until” and “average”.
For example: “Monday dinner specials starting at $35.”
These extensions can be included at the account, campaign or ad group level.
Adding to the ad group level is a great place for more granular items that are assigned to a subgroup.
For example: “European Vacations” vs. “French Vacations”.
This ad extension can also be scheduled for a start and end date, along with hourly custom scheduling.
Do I hear an upcoming seasonal promotion with additional price information?
I think so.
4. Call extensions
Call extensions provide a phone number with your ads that redirect to the official phone number.
These are still very relevant as an advertising tactic as mobile has become the primary device for many searchers.
Advertisers who have avoided call extensions in the past should take a second look.
Besides connecting searchers directly to the business via a phone call, using a PPC platform’s forwarding numbers will display call information, call conversions, and valuable search data on how people found the phone number.
did you know
You can turn on call recording and get phone calls recorded from ads saved by Google for 30 days.
In the following screenshot that blurs out the private data, the caller’s phone number, area code, and a complete recording of the call are listed.
Image courtesy of Google Ads, May 2022A phone call can be counted as a transfer, which is determined by the number of seconds the caller spends on the phone call.
The number of seconds must be determined based on each company’s unique phone behavior to hang up callers.
If phone call lengths frequently fall below this limit, or many calls go unanswered, this is a good time to review some simple optimization ideas:
- Do many numbers come out “wrong”? This could be due to the ad being run by different brand names or competitors based on keywords. Check your search queries and ask the phone representatives what they hear from the callers. These keywords can be used as negative keywords.
- Too many missed calls? Make sure to schedule the announcement only during business hours when someone is available to take that call. That might mean not showing ads during your lunch hour, for example.
- Calls from physical locations not served by your business? This is usually just a case of adjusting geotargeting to be more precise. Although it can provide an opportunity to learn more about these callers and the current market demand.
Bonus: automatic Plugins + Manual Ads Extensions
When you sign up for automatic extensions, Google Ads will create the extensions for you and display them with your ad if it is expected to improve your performance.
These automatic extensions will now be eligible to display alongside their manually created counterparts.
Google Ads introduces several new improvements that make it easier to manage sitelinks, callouts, and structured snippets.
When you create sitelinks, callouts, and structured snippets, you can add them at the ad group, campaign, or account level.
This will make it easier to review and manage the extensions that Google Ads creates for you.
To see which automated extensions are showing with your ads, look for “auto-generated” extensions in the table view of the extensions page.
Final thoughts
Ad extensions can be critical to rising above the competition in search results with more visibility and strategic messages.
It’s important to review and audit your ad extensions on a scheduled basis (try every quarter) to ensure you know more about new opportunities available and revisit old ones.
More resources:
- 14 Types of Google Ads Extensions and What They Do
- These 8 Pay-Per-Click Best Practices May Not Be Best for Your Business
- Top 10 Pay Per Click Trends To Know In 2022
Featured image: Top Popular Vector / Shutterstock
