The PPC For Beginners series is designed to help those who are new to PPC gain high-level knowledge of the functions of a successful PPC campaign.

This is the third blog in our PPC for Beginners series. Our beginner’s series blogs build upon one another, therefore, we highly recommend reading them in order. Click the links to read PPC For Beginners Pt. 1: Prepare, Target, and Remarket and PPC For Beginners Pt. 2. Build Your Foundation. Read on to learn about how Ad Extensions can benefit your PPC campaign. 

If you’ve made it this far in our series, you have a solid baseline understanding of PPC. In Part 1, you learned how to do your homework to set up your PPC campaign for success by considering all the variables of your campaign in relation to your personal goals and budget. In Part 2, you learned about the individual parts of an Ad Campaign as well as how you can reach your audience and measure the impact of your campaign through landing page design, tracking, targeting, remarketing, and keyword assignment. Our final blog unveils how you can get more out of your marketing dollars by using Ad Extensions to improve your rank, visibility, and click through rate at no extra cost to you.

Ad Extensions

Ad Extensions provide a way for you to showcase more of your product, brand, or service features underneath your actual ad. Ad Extensions help you maximize the performance of your ads by expanding the ad to give viewers valuable information about your product upfront. When used correctly, Ad Extensions maximize your ad value by showing viewers more reasons they should click on your ad.

Ad extensions allow you to take up more space on a page when your ad is shown, at no extra cost to you. You only pay what you’re already paying for ad placement. This is valuable because taking up more space on the results page makes it more likely for your ad to be seen (and clicked). Higher visibility can drive traffic to your site and give you more opportunities to capture leads. In addition, Google ranks ads with ad extensions higher than those without ad extensions, bumping you closer to the top of the page of search results and increasing your ad value.

There are several types of Ad Extensions. The following is an overview of the features of each Ad Extension, and some insight about when it makes sense to use them.

Sitelink Extensions

Sitelink extensions are a way for you to promote more features of your business by adding links to your ad. You can direct viewers to enticing parts of your website such as your sale page, your store hours, and/or a featured product. These are displayed as either a hyperlinked title or as a hyperlinked title with a short description. Sitelink Extensions make it easy for viewers to click directly on what they’re searching for, rather than having to search for it by clicking on your website.

Callout Extensions

You can “call out” defining information about your service, brand, or product that separates you from your competition. For example,

• 25 years experience
• Book online
• No appointment needed
• Certified Technicians
• 100% Money Back Guarantee
• Free 30-day trial

Using Callout Extensions is a way to give viewers a deeper understanding of why they should choose you by mentioning powerful selling points of your business upfront.

Structure Snippet Extensions 

Structure Snippet Extensions give you the space to emphasize specific features of your product or services. They include a header and a description. These are similar to callout extensions, except that they feature specific products rather than qualitative features of your business.  For example, a Structure Snippet Extension for a tech company may include:

• 24/7 Tech Support
• Computer Repair
• Phone screen repair
• Electronic Recycling

Location Extensions

Location Extensions display a hyperlinked business address, a phone number, and a map marker. These extensions make it easy for viewers to find your business, making them a must-have for businesses with a physical address that want foot traffic, such as a restaurant, retail store, or hospital. Clicking the address will take viewers to a maps page to help them find your physical address.

Affiliate Location Extensions

These are closely related to Location Extensions, the big difference between the two is that Affiliate Location Extensions do not direct people to your physical location, but instead help a viewer find the retailer closest to them that sells your product.

For example, Doc Martens may use an affiliate location extension because their shoes are sold in various retail locations.  Affiliate Location Extensions are displayed on an ad as a map marker with the hyperlinked number of retail locations in the area. For example, an Affiliate Location Extension may be displayed as, “See 5 retailers near Seattle, WA”.

When the link is clicked, it takes viewers to the maps page where it displays pins marking the retail locations nearby.

To recap, while the Location Extension directs viewers to your business locations, the Affiliate Location Extension directs viewers to businesses where your product is sold. If you are a retailer with a physical business, the Location Extension is usually the best option for you.

Review Extensions

If you’ve earned a coveted award, write-up, or third party ranking, Review Extensions allow you to display these in your ad. Review Extensions require a quote or paraphrased quote with a hyperlinked source. These are especially valuable if you’ve won awards that help you stand out from your competitors, or that help you prove the value of your product or the trustworthiness of your company. An example of a Review Extension is:

• Trusted by Microsoft
• Earned Seattle’s 2017 Restaurant Of The Year Award

Call Extensions  

Call extensions encourage viewers to call your phone number. On a mobile device, a Call Extension may be displayed as a phone icon that, when clicked, calls the phone number. On a desktop, a Call Extension may be displayed as a phone number.

A Call Extension is a great way to reinforce a CTA like, “Call us now for a free quote!” It is also a valuable extension for a business that advertises emergency services because a viewer can immediately call you without wasting time clicking through your website looking for a contact number.

Message Extensions

Message Extensions are similar to call extensions except that they occur over messaging rather than over the phone. These extensions allow visitors to immediately inquire about your business via text message. A message extension may read:

• “Want to make an appointment? Send us a text!”

Message Extensions are a great way to set appointments or answer questions.

Price Extensions

You can show customers details about your services and pricing by displaying your product, price, and a few brief details. This gives viewers a better understanding of the products before clicking. Price Extensions also help to ensure that only interested parties who are looking for that product in that price range will click your ad. Being upfront with prices prevents against empty leads, saves PPC dollars, and channels warmer leads to your website. A Price Extension may look like this:

• Women’s Sunglasses
  • Starting at 59.99
  • Various color options, polarized

App Extensions

If your business has an associated app, you may want to use an App Extension. An App Extension is a link that directs those who click the link to the App Store or Google Play, straight to your mobile app download screen. This is a great Extension if you’re trying to get more people to download your business app. For example, Amazon may display an App Extension like this:

• Get The Amazon Mobile App

Ad Extensions And Your Campaign

Now that you have a deeper understanding of how Ad Extensions can help you make the most of your Ad Campaign by enticing viewers to click your ad, you may be ready to get started with your own Ad Extensions. Creating Ad Extensions is easy, simply go to the Ad Extensions tab in Google Ads (previously Google AdWords) and follow the prompts.

By referencing this digest of the different types of Ad Extensions, you should have a good idea of what Extensions will best help you achieve your business goals. Google Ads recommends using all the extensions relevant to your business goals to get the most out of Ad Extensions.

It’s important to mention that even though you’ve set up Ad Extensions on your ad, your extensions will not always show. In short, your Extensions will show when:

•  Google predicts that the Extensions will improve the performance of your Ad.
• Your ad is already being posted above the minimum Ad Rank as determined by Ads.

Learn more about when Ad Extensions are shown.

This is the third blog in our PPC For Beginners Series. For any additional questions, or for help launching your own PPC campaign, contact us at Fujisan Marketing for information about how we can help.