#betterads

Advertisers continue to ask themselves, “what can I do to improve my Pay-Per-Click ads?” The answer is simple: Look at your ad extensions. Ad Extensions are one of the main components of an ad that is more likely to rank at the top of a search results page. Ad extensions have had a positive effect on click-through-rate, ad relevance, and even cost-per-click. So why not take those extra characters that extensions provide and make something great happen?

Our favorite extensions include sitelinks, callouts, call extensions, and location extensions. Each of these provide more insight into the unique attributes of your business and enhances your ability to reach the target customer at the right level of their purchase journey.

Got these extensions setup? Great, you’ve just enhanced your position in Google Search! Ready to do more? Google has provided us even more extensions that can increase click-through-rate and conversion potential. Here’s a brief rundown of all extensions we recommend using:

Sitelink Extensions: Determine four pages in your site that users historically visit prior to making a purchase or taking an action. You can use Google Analytics to look at user history and find these pages or choose pages that represent important aspects of your business.

A good tip: Always add a direct link to your “Contact Us” as this allows users who are ready to convert the option to take a faster path.

Callout Extensions: Use these to highlight unique selling points of your business as they allow you to stand out among your competitors when searchers see your ads.  

A good tip: Utilize these to highlight current specials or deals.

Call Extensions: Most businesses want prospects calling, above any other conversion, so adding your phone number to your ads only makes sense as it helps searchers who prefer to call and are ready to convert.

A good tip: copy your phone number exactly as it’s shown on your site, otherwise Google may disapprove your call extensions.

Location Extensions: Generally only useful if you have a brick-and-mortar store, utilizing this extension will help people find your store and make an in-store purchase. You can build this extension with two methods, using the manual location extensions in your AdWords Shared Library, or linking to your Google My Business Page.

A good tip: linking to your Google My Business Page will also help get your ads to show in Google Maps.

Structured Snippets: These highlight four or more features of your business, such as products, services, or neighborhoods that your company services.

Price Extensions: Much like Google Shopping, these allow you to provide pricing on your ads for products or services. Showing prices might cancel out customers looking for products outside of your price range, but it also prevents them from clicking on your ad and costing you money. 

Messaging Extensions: This is a brand new extension type which lets a user text message your business. 33% of Americans prefer texting to calling so this extension is a great benefit to picking up those mobile users who don’t want to call and don’t have time to fill out a form online.