Everyone loves a free gift with purchase – the mainstay of high-end cosmetic companies for decades – and even mighty Google likes to get in on a good thing. When you advertise with Google, you get a bump in the form of ad extensions, which have a lot to offer when you are in the know, so let’s take a closer look at some of the highlights.
Google’s ad extensions amount to a feature that highlights additional info about your business, including important, need-to-know upfront information like the following:
With ad extensions, your advertising dollar goes a bit further and can make your business more inviting to potential customers. According to Google, ad extensions can boost your percentages when it comes to clickthrough rates. Building out your ads is good for business, and ad extensions are here to help.
Ad extensions are free, and they apply to all the Search ads within your account, but because it’s Google, it’s not quite that easy. There is no guarantee that an extension will pop up with your ad each and every time – that is a matter for Google’s algorithms and is guided by factors such as the following:
In other words, better understanding ad extensions and making the most of them – to the extent you can control them – is the way to go.
Ad extensions are broken down into 8 so-called dynamic extensions and 11 that must be set up manually, making a grand total of 19. Google controls the dynamic ads, but you will need to play a direct role in any of the manual extensions you implement. While there is no perfect formula for taking on manual ad extensions, the more you know about them, the better prepared you’ll be to address your own unique advertising needs – and there are several standouts that can be good choices for a wide range of businesses.
The most common ad extension is the Sitelink extension, which amounts to something of a prelude to your ad – or a condensed version of your ad. The setup involves you filling in four primary spaces, including:
Sitelink extensions provide potential customers with another opportunity to click on you. They can also help garner more attention and can guide searchers toward additional landing pages you may want to highlight.
Callout extensions come after the fact and amount to a very brief 25 characters that follow your ad description. While your callout won’t stand out from your description text, it does provide you with the opportunity to call out something that you want to bring attention to – something that is worthy of note, such as your 5-star rating, your 20 years in business, your status as family owned and operated, or anything else.
Structured snippet extensions tweak callout extensions by providing a wee list of what you have on offer and are best suited for those businesses looking to promote a catalog of goods or services. Structured snippets allow you to add up to 10 templated headings with up to 25 characters behind each. Some of the categories available include:
Call extensions do just what they say and can help drive calls from interested parties to your business – bypassing the need to click through to your landing page and dig around for your number; a win-win even if your business doesn’t field a lot of calls. Searchers like to know that they can call if they need to. However, being prepared to handle said calls is paramount.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, you get the idea with image extensions, which allow you to display a small, square image below your ad copy. Enhancing what’s visually appealing or instantly recognizable about your brand is what image extensions are all about, but there are requirements for eligibility.
When it comes to your business, no one has to tell you that location is everything, and with the location extension, you can display the location synced to your account below your ad copy, which is a good thing for anyone looking to generate foot traffic. Even if none of the searchers on your site will ever show up on your doorstep, however, adding your location can highlight the fact that you’re local and involved in the community.
Price extensions allow you to cut to the chase and highlight an actual product or service and its price. Part of this extension is templated – including the kind of product and currency – but from here, you can go wild by listing the product name, a jazzy description, the price, and the URL. Within any given buildout, you can include up to eight price extensions, which can prove extremely inviting to your fan base and newcomers.
If there is a form involved – or you are looking to gather valuable info in the shape of a form – you can increase conversions by inviting your guests to fill one out directly from your ad space without any pesky clicking through. The setup, however, is more elaborate than for most of the other extensions, and it’s important to take the time necessary to get it right.
Maximizing the value of your ad spend on Google can feel overwhelming, but with The Web Guys in your corner, you can let that go. We’re here to help you dominate those ad extensions and everything else Google throws your way. You’re not alone out there, so please don’t wait to contact or call us at (317) 805-4933 today.
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