Over a million businesses rely on Google Adwords for a number of reasons. Some choose pay-per-click advertising because their company is brand new and needs to build exposure. Others stick with it because they see a consistent influx of new website visitors and online sales. The best perk about Adwords? You can target your ads to customers in certain countries, regions, cities, or within a set distance from your business or store. As with any tool that helps improve marketing reach and ROI, there’s always a feature often overlooked that’s quite valuable. In this case, I’m talking about PPC ad extensions.
Ad extensions have always been a good idea, but recently they’re becoming an essential piece to helping businesses stand out and gain higher click-through-rate (CTR). If you’re not currently using ad extensions, it’s time to get them running! Ad extensions, by definition, provide additional information (“extending” from your text ads) to searchers about your business. This can include the company phone number, links to other pages within the site, special offers, and more. And by taking up additional space, they make ads more prominent in results. Including even one type of extension immediately earns a better placement in ad ranks!
Too many businesses are not using PPC ad extensions, but it’s not necessarily because they don’t want to. Some advertisers genuinely don’t know anything about it, while others believe the basic setup is good enough because they’re too busy to fine-tune their accounts. Extensions essentially get left out of the process because they’re seen as a hassle. But, if you were to take that additional step and add them in, you’ll soon see the rewards can be well worth the time. All you have to do is decide which ad extensions are most beneficial to your business goals.
Ad Extensions Options
Sitelink Extensions. Links that help people find what they’re looking for. Say your business owns a shoe store, for example. If your ad is targeted to a specific landing page such as men’s shoes, it would be beneficial to include other important links for customers such as store hours, women’s shoes, and children’s shoes. Sitelinks can also include short descriptions of what each page is about. By showing additional information with site links, ads can be more relevant to customers. The example below of a Nike’s Adwords ad shows how site links and brief descriptions appear. Keep in mind that the number of site links seen on search results differs on search platforms. You can have up to six site links shown on desktops and tablets, but only four through mobile.
Call Extensions. Provides the company phone number in ads. Adding your business phone number encourages potential buyers to make a call—very straightforward and readily available instead of searching through the website to find it. And if users are searching by phone, all they have to do is click the number and it instantly dials. Phone numbers can be shared across ads within an ad group or an entire campaign. According to Google Adwords, call extensions typically increase CTR by 6-8%. Sticking with our Nike example, the ad below displays a call extension for a local shoe store that sells the brand.
Location Extensions. Help people nearby find a storefront that includes the business address, phone number, and a map marker. Location extensions are great if you’re urging buyers to physically come to your business. To use location extensions, however, you must have a Google+ Business page. And trust me, there’s plenty of additional benefits to having a “Google My Business” page. Companies with location extensions in their ads see a 10% increase in CTRs on average. And if you’re searching on mobile, location extensions include a link with directions. Our local shoe store ad also includes a location extension, as seen below.
Review Extensions. Showcases positive, third-party reviews from reputable sources. Reviews are more important than ever because consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Adding a quote from a positive review gives your ads one more reason for consumers to click. Google announced at the beginning of July 2015 that PPC ads can now show ratings and reviews from Google Business listings on desktops and tablets. Previously, ratings came from third-party sites and they could only be used if a business had accumulated over 30 reviews. Since Google+ Business location information is already automatically linked to Adwords, all you have to do is enable location extensions. Though I could not find a shoe-themed review extension, this is what to expect from Google+ review extensions.
The four options I mentioned are the most popular ad extensions used for Adwords, but there’s plenty more your business might excel with, including App extensions, customer ratings, previous visits, and more. If you want to improve upon your PPC advertising or get a campaign started, we can help. Contact Sage Island and we’ll make sure your ads are getting the traffic you want and the sales your business needs.
