AdWords Ad Extensions, as their name suggests, extend your ads by including additional details about your business along with your ad. As we’ll see in this article, using ad extensions is very important in helping your ads rank high in the search results page.
Ad Extension Types
There are several different types of ad extensions. Some of the most widely used ad extensions include:
Call Extensions
This type of extension adds your business phone number or a click-to-call button to your ad. This makes it easy for potential customers to contact you either by calling the number in the ad or by clicking the Call button (on mobile devices) to actually call you.
Here’s what you might see on a desktop or tablet computer:
Here’s what a Call extension might look like on a mobile device:
Location Extensions
Use this extension to include your business address with your ad. This is great for searchers of all kinds as they can determine how close your location is to theirs. Also, if they are in the area, what starts out as an online search for information can easily turn into a stop into your physical location.
Sitelink Extensions
With sitelink extensions you can add additional links to pages on your website right below your ad; this is in addition to the link in your ad’s heading. Add links to product category pages, your contact page, the page with your hours of operation or whatever you want to make easily available to searchers.
One caveat with sitelink extensions is that you cannot have two links within your ad point to the same page; in other words, each link within an ad must point to a unique page on your website.
Here’s what an ad with Sitelink extensions might look like:
Benefits of Ad Extensions
In the past, the main benefit of using ad extensions was the improvement you would most likely see in your CTR (click-through rate). This generally occurs for a few reasons:
- Your ad gets more attention with the added details
- There are more links for a searcher to click on
- Searchers feel more comfortable with ads that include these additional details
In October of 2013, a new incentive was added for using ad extensions: Google updated their Ad Rank calculation to include the expected impact of ad extensions on the CTR of your ads. Ad Rank determines if your ad shows and in what position within the search results. Because of this change to the Ad Rank calculation, using as many of the available ad extensions as possible has become even more important.
Summary
Ad extensions can help your AdWords campaign perform better and get your ads ranking higher. Google is always adding new ad extensions, so be sure to keep up-to-date with what’s available.