Google Ads Extensions Cheat Sheet
Google also offers advertisers an additional benefit: google ad extensions. These extensions add the extra flair that can make your account stand out. Today, we’re indulging in the richness of ad extensions.
I will guide you through all the essential information to make the most of these extensions, covering what each one entails, who should incorporate them, and offering tips and best practices for each.
What are Google Ads extensions?
Google Ads extensions are extra elements that are dynamically added to your Search ad displays as they appear on results pages. These extensions offer supplementary details to those viewing your ads, enhancing the overall quality of the audience’s experience.
Google ad extensions, currently referred to as “assets” on the Google Ads platform, encompass supplementary details such as site links, product prices, and your contact number.
These elements are visible to potential customers before they click on your ad. It’s important to note that these assets are exclusive to Google search ads, those that appear prominently at the top of Google search results. Consider them as augmentations designed to enhance the overall impact of your Google ads.
How do Google Ads extensions function?
Google Ad extensions are complimentary and can be applied to all Search ads at the account, campaign, or ad group level.
Their display is not assured every time your ad is shown, as Google’s algorithm determines when they appear based on factors such as ad placement, other ads on the page, past extension performance, and more.
Imagine you’re using Google to search for a specific product. You input your search query and encounter two ads at the top of the Search Engine Results Page (SERP): one displaying only a company name and description, and the other featuring links to landing pages for various products, details about promotions, images, and a phone number.
Which one would likely capture your click? Most likely, the ad with more information—the one leveraging Google ad extensions.
Google ad extensions prove to be a formidable tool for advertisers seeking ways to distinguish themselves in a competitive market.
In this article, we’ll delve into the various types of Google ad extensions and elucidate how you can employ them to broaden your reach and enhance your Return on Investment (ROI).
Enhanced Visibility on Search Results Pages
In the absence of ad extensions, Google search ads are confined to just a few lines of text, making them relatively small and less compelling.
The inclusion of extensions serves to significantly enlarge the ad’s footprint, occupying more space at the top of search results. Image extensions, in particular, have the ability to capture the attention of scrolling searchers.
Google’s algorithms prioritize ads equipped with relevant and useful extensions, thereby increasing the likelihood of your ad securing a prominent position on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). This elevation in visibility augments the chances of users clicking on and exploring your links.
Potential to Attract High-Quality Leads
Ad extensions empower you to provide potential customers with additional details about your business and offerings, including pricing and product descriptions.
This implies that individuals clicking on your ad are already interested in the price or product, as opposed to merely visiting your site for clarification. They are more likely to be genuinely interested in what you are selling, potentially making them more prepared to make a purchase.
Improved ROI for Ad Campaigns
The incorporation of Google ad extensions has the potential to enhance the overall performance of your search ads without incurring additional costs.
The heightened visibility on search results pages, coupled with the ability to attract more qualified leads, often results in elevated click-through and conversion rates. Consequently, this translates into a superior return on investment (ROI) for your ad campaigns.
How many extensions does Google Ads offer?
Google Ads provides a total of 19 ad extensions, with eight being dynamic and the remaining 11 set up manually. While we’ve categorized them as such, there’s no definitive answer on which type is better.
Manual extensions necessitate a few minutes of your time to set them up according to your preferences, whereas dynamic extensions are generated by Google’s algorithm using various data and information from your account and website.
The 11 Google Ads extensions that require manual setup
Let’s explore each of the manual Google Ads extensions. For each extension, I’ll provide:
- A preview of its appearance within the platform.
- An explanation of what the extension is and instructions on how to set it up.
- Best practices to consider.
- A glimpse of how the extension looks when live on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP).
Sitelink Extensions: Sitelink extensions rank among the most prevalent Google ad extensions. These are extra links displayed beneath your ad on the SERP. Conceptually, Sitelinks can be viewed as “mini ads” due to their setup and purpose resembling that of an ad.
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- Preview: Four available spaces for you to fill in.
- Setup: Includes the actual link text (referred to as “Sitelink text” on the platform), functioning like an ad’s headline. Also, two description lines, each limited to 25 characters, providing an option to add more context to your link. Lastly, the final URL needs to be added.
- Best Practices: Consider crafting compelling Sitelink text and utilizing the description lines wisely.
- Live SERP Preview: [Visual representation of how the extension appears on the SERP.]
Who should utilize google ads sitelink extensions?
Any advertiser aiming to boost their click-through rates should consider using Sitelinks. These extensions provide an additional avenue for viewers to click, thereby helping drive traffic to your website.
Even if you have different objectives for your pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns, Sitelink extensions can still prove beneficial. They occupy more space on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP), making them advantageous for brands seeking to enhance awareness or compete directly with rivals.
These extensions are also valuable if you have specific landing pages on your website that you want to direct viewers to. For instance, commonly featured Sitelinks include “About” pages, “Contact Pages,” or “Testimonial” pages.
Best Practices for Sitelink Extensions
Sitelinks are presented in sets of two, four, and so on. Therefore, you need to set up at least two Sitelink extensions simultaneously for them to be applicable to your ads.
To prevent ad disapprovals, ensure that your Sitelinks direct users to the same domains as your ads. As is the case with all elements in Google Ads, it’s crucial to fill out your Sitelink extensions with content rich in keywords whenever possible.
Extensions for Call Out
Callout extensions in Google Ads have gained popularity for their straightforward and concise appeal. These extensions consist of brief text snippets (and by brief, I mean a maximum of 25 characters) that appear following your ad descriptions.
On the search engine results page (SERP), they blend seamlessly with your description text. This type of Google Ads extension serves as a means for you to include extra text that you might not have had space for otherwise. It enables you to highlight aspects that may have been overlooked, such as “BBB A+ Rated” or “Family Owned & Operated.”
Who should utilize them?
Google Ads callout extensions are suitable for any business, irrespective of your objectives. They contribute to enhancing the appearance of your ad on the SERP, providing an opportunity to incorporate additional keywords that can elevate your ad rank.
Best Practices for Callout Extensions
Avoid excessive repetition in your callout extensions. As these extensions appear immediately after your descriptions, it’s essential not to fatigue your audience by repeating the same information.
Structured Snippet Extension
Structured snippet extensions share similarities with callout extensions but come with a unique twist. They present a brief list or catalog of the services or products you offer. Like callout extensions, they appear adjacent to your ad description text and appear indistinguishable from the viewer’s perspective.
To establish a structured snippet extension, you need to select a “Header” language and category. This serves as templated text that will automatically precede your chosen structured snippet listings. Following this, you can include up to 10 values, each limited to 25 characters.
Who should leverage them?
Although you can tailor structured snippets to suit a variety of businesses, they are predominantly employed by advertisers seeking to promote products or services, given the available templated heading options.
Here are the categories of structured snippet extensions:
- Amenities
- Brands
- Courses
- Degree programs
- Destinations
- Featured hotels
- Insurance coverage
- Models
- Neighborhoods
- Service catalogue
- Shows
- Styles
- Types
Best Practices for Structured Snippets
Ensure that your structured snippets clearly communicate the specifics of what you’re offering. For instance, instead of merely stating “bundles available,” consider itemizing the specific components included in that package.
Image Extensions
The nomenclature of this Google Ads extension succinctly elucidates its intent: showcase an image beneath an ad. You have the option to upload square 1×1 images, with a maximum size of 5120KB, to be displayed beneath your ad text.
Who should employ them?
Image extensions can be advantageous for any business presenting visually appealing products or services. However, Google has specified additional criteria for eligibility. To qualify for Google Ads image extensions, your account must meet the following conditions:
- Your account has been active for a minimum of 90 days.
- You possess a positive track record of adhering to policies.
- Active campaigns, including Search ads, should have been running for at least a month.
- Your account should not fall within a sensitive vertical category, such as sexual content, alcohol, gambling, or healthcare.
Best Practices for Image Extensions
In addition to maximizing the visual appeal of your Google Ads image extensions, Google provides additional recommendations within the image extension creation portal.
Here’s a brief overview of the platform’s suggestions: “Images must adhere to the quality standards of Google Ads. Features like logo overlay, text overlay, gifs, and blurry or poorly cropped images are not permitted.”
Essentially, the goal is to ensure that your image is a clear and high-quality photograph, rather than a business logo or any other refined graphic.
Extensions for Calls
Call extensions are designed to encourage individuals to call your business by including a phone number of your choosing in your ad. In mobile ads, the extension is displayed beneath the ad, while for desktop, it appears next to your display URL.
This feature enables viewers to access your contact number without the need to click on a landing page. As a result, individuals can make direct calls to your business through this Google Ads extension.
Who should leverage them?
Even if your business doesn’t heavily depend on phone calls, I still advise most advertisers to utilize this Google Ads extension. It serves as an extra avenue to enhance the quality of your ad, increasing the likelihood of engaging the viewer.
Best Practices for Call Extensions
While encouraging calls is beneficial, it’s crucial to be prepared to manage the incoming calls to prevent call abandonment. Implement a system to monitor and respond to any calls generated through your call extensions.
Extensions for Lead Forms
If your goal is to boost conversions, Google Ads lead form extensions provide a solution. They enable your audience to complete a form directly within your ad, eliminating the need to navigate to a separate landing page.
This Google Ads extension involves a more detailed setup process. Be prepared to follow all the necessary steps, such as accepting Google’s Terms of Service, configuring the questions, creating a submission message for completed forms, selecting a call to action, and deciding on the method for tracking and/or exporting any leads you receive.
Who should utilize them?
Any business aiming to generate leads or gather information from its audience should make use of Google Ads lead form extensions.
Best Practices for Lead Form Extensions
Allocate some time for the initial setup to ensure it meets your preferences. Another effective lead form strategy is to minimize the number of fields to prevent form abandonment.
Lastly, have a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system in place to which you can export your Google Ads form-fills for lead tracking and nurturing.
Extensions for Locations
Location extensions display an address beneath your ad copy. However, you can’t simply input any address. Instead, you’ll have the choice to select from locations already linked to your account, derived from the business information stored in your settings.
Who should leverage them?
If you’re aiming to boost in-person visits to your business, incorporating this Google Ads extension is a logical choice. Even if your business doesn’t have a physical location, showcasing the origin of your business can still add a “local touch” to your advertising.
Best Practices for Location Extensions
Regularly review and update your address in this Google Ads extension to ensure it aligns accurately with the corresponding ads. In some cases, advertisers opt to assign specific extensions to ads with particular location targeting parameters.
If you choose this approach, it’s advisable to routinely check and confirm that the correct location extension is appropriately applied.
Extensions for Affiliate Locations
Designed for multi-location or franchise marketing, Google Ads introduced the affiliate location extension. This is a standardized extension that enables you to select from a predefined list of either general retailers or auto dealers worldwide, which you can link to your ad.
When a viewer encounters your ad, the affiliate location extensions will display the nearest location of the retail or auto chain based on the viewer’s proximity.
Who should leverage them?
If you retail products through a prominent retailer or dealer, you have the option to employ this Google Ads extension. Otherwise, it is advisable to utilize a standard location extension instead.
Best Practices for Affiliate Location Extensions
Ensure that the chain you select for this extension is one you genuinely collaborate with. This implies maintaining consistent product availability across all locations affiliated with the chosen chain.
Extensions for Pricing
Google Ads price extensions are centered on products and offers, enabling you to showcase individual items along with their prices and descriptions. The extension provides templated options, including the type of product, currency, and price qualifiers.
After selecting these parameters, you can specify the product name, description, price, and final URL. You have the flexibility to include up to eight price extensions in a single setup.
Who should leverage them?
Remarkably, the templates provided by Google for this extension offer considerable flexibility. Any business seeking to display prices for items such as service bundles, events, products, neighborhoods, or locations (especially for real estate marketing) may find this extension beneficial.
Best Practices for Price Extensions
If you don’t regularly review your extensions, exercise caution to avoid including seasonal prices that may expire or become inaccurate in the future.
Extensions for Apps
App extensions facilitate the promotion of app downloads beneath your ad copy. To utilize this extension, your app must already be listed on either iOS or Android. Once listed, you can search for it to appear as an extension option.
Who should leverage them?
Unlike some of the more universally applicable Google Ad extensions, App extensions are specifically intended for businesses with a mobile application.
Best Practices for App Extensions
Consider employing this ad extension within your Search campaigns to enhance an existing app campaign. This approach allows you to optimize your opportunities for app downloads across various Google Ads campaign types.
Extensions for Promotions
Promotion extensions are ideal for showcasing time-sensitive offers or discounts. Much like price extensions, they provide a selection of templated options for promotion types, details, and currencies. Finally, you’ll input the description of the promoted item, a final URL, and decide whether to set a start and end date or run the extension indefinitely.
Who should leverage them?
This extension is versatile enough for any advertiser, making it suitable for a broad range of offers, sales promotions, or discounts.
Best Practices for Promotion Extensions
Make use of the start and end date options, especially since this extension is best suited for short-term deals (otherwise, consider using price or structured snippet extensions instead). This approach allows you to “set and forget” the extension without concerns about it becoming outdated.
Automated Extensions in Google Ads
For those with limited time for PPC auditing or management, automated extensions, also known as “dynamic” extensions, offer a convenient option with minimal oversight required.
Dynamic extensions are not customizable. Google’s algorithm generates them using information from your landing pages, the queries you appear for, historical data, business settings, and other relevant factors.
To enable or disable these automatic Google Ad extensions, navigate to “Automatic extensions” at the bottom of your initial extensions page. From there, click on the three dots in the top right to access “Advanced Settings.”
Since the concepts of dynamic sitelinks are similar to that of the manual ones we walked through, here’s a simple, quick list of all the dynamic Google Ads extensions
- Dynamic sitelinks
- Dynamic callouts
- Dynamic structured snippets
- Automated app extensions
- Automated location extensions
- Dynamic image extensions
- Longer ad headlines
- Seller ratings
Google Ads Extensions FAQs
To wrap up, here are some additional questions and answers regarding extensions.
Can I manage the display timing of specific Google Ad extensions?
While you cannot directly dictate when Google displays a particular extension, you do have the option to schedule any of your manual extensions. Similar to ad scheduling, you can specify certain days or times when selected extensions are eligible to appear. You can find this feature under “Advanced settings” in any of the ad extension setup screens.
Are Google Ad extensions applicable to all ad formats?
No, Google Ad extensions are exclusive to Search ads. In this discussion, I’ll be specifically referring to Search ads since they are the only campaign type that supports the display of Google Ad extensions.
This alignment makes sense given that most extensions are primarily text-based. Additionally, Display, Video, and other placements don’t readily accommodate extra add-ons as SERP placements do.
Are Google Ad extensions adaptable?
Yes, Google Ad extensions are responsive and will automatically display across different device types (unless, of course, you’ve excluded a device in the campaign settings). However, their visibility on mobile devices is typically less frequent due to the limited space available on the SERP within those smaller screen dimensions.
Do Google Ad extensions incur additional costs?
No, Google Ad extensions are entirely free. So, why not take advantage of them to enhance your account?
Where can I locate Google Ad extensions within the platform?
Navigate to the light gray column menu second from the left, and click on “Extensions” under the “Ads and Extensions” option.
Is there a limit to how many extensions I can use?
No, every type of Google Ad extension has its own use and you may want to try a few. In fact, you can try as many Google Ad extensions as you like.
However, going too crazy with too many could be a mess to manage, plus top-performing extensions may get favored by the algorithm making it more difficult for any underdog extensions to compete. It’s best to test a few at a time.
Google Ad extensions: a new luxury unlocked
Ad extensions are special tidbits of Google luxury since they don’t take a ton of time or resources to create, and they only help your ad quality grow. So, go ahead and treat yourself to Google Ad extensions.
Let’s recap with a full list of the extensions. Google Ads manual extensions include:
- Sitelink extensions
- Callout extensions
- Structured snippet extensions
- Image extensions
- Call extensions
- Lead form extensions
- Location extensions
- Affiliate location extensions
- Price extensions
- App extensions
- Promotion extensions
Google Ads automated extensions include:
- Dynamic sitelinks
- Dynamic callouts
- Dynamic structured snippets
- Seller ratings
- Longer ad headlines
- Automated app extensions
- Automated location extensions
- Dynamic image extensions