Why Your PPC Campaigns Need To Be Using Advert Extensions

At the start of this year Google retired the review extensions format from their adwords platform; affecting many third-party review sites and PPC advertisers who relied on the credibility of their reviews to generate click throughs.

But, even with the retirement of review extensions there are still many features that can be used to optimise your campaign. There are a whole host of advert extensions that you can use to make your adverts stand out in the google search engine landscape. Find out more about the remaining extensions and implementing them below:

Why Use PPC Extensions?

Advert extensions are designed to help your account’s performance, through a variety of factors. The advert extensions take up more space in google’s search engine results which, on some devices such as mobiles, can even end up pushing your competitors below the fold (below the visible screen).

Extensions provide your consumers with additional information which can either give them enough information to drive them further down the conversion funnel once they’ve clicked on your website, or give them an overview that’s clear enough to decide they don’t want your services, which means you save on wasted clicks and unnecessary spend.

Advert extensions have been shown to improve click through rate as they make your advert more eye-catching and you can utilise the additional text capabilities to provide persuasive content to encourage your audience to click through.

Extensions boost your campaigns’ performances and are completely free to use – meaning there’s no downside to implementing them.

What Types Of Extensions Are Available?

There are an array of extensions available to your campaign, all of which showcase different features of your product. Advert extensions that can enhance your adverts include:

• An extension that shows additional pages of your website, allowing consumers to go directly to those links.
• Call extensions. Allowing users to call your business directly from the advert.
• Callout extensions. These let you include relevant pieces of text about your services to showcase additional benefits. Examples include: ’24 hour service’, ‘free shipping’, ‘available worldwide’ and more.
• Message extensions. Similar to a livechat, the message extension takes the user to a pre-populated message that allows you to respond to their message on a mobile or similar device.
• Structured snippets. The structured snippet outlines specific aspects of your service, such as a catalogue of your offerings, or locations your services are available.
• Location extensions. Use these to make users aware of a physical location for your services.

How Do I Add A PPC Advert Extension?

Advert extensions are added in the adwords dashboard. Along your main campaign tabs you’ll find the tab ‘ad extensions’. This allows you to assign advert extensions at either an account, campaign or ad group level.

Within the tab you can view individual data about your advert extensions – allowing you to analyse which extensions have high click through rate and conversion rates. Like adverts, you can schedule your advert extensions to appear at certain times or end on a particular date.

Will All My PPC Advert Extensions Show?

Although you can add as many extensions as you want, they won’t always appear in searches. Google’s algorithm displays advert extensions when it deems that the extension shown will most likely increase the advert’s performance. Generally, the higher your advert position the more likely that multiple advert extensions will show – making it important to optimise your adverts for high ranking positions.

For help with your PPC strategy and advert extension optimisation, get in touch today.