Using Adwords Extentions – Sexy Google Ads are Better Ads

This is a guest post from leading PPC Affiliate and PPC Consultant Don Batsford Jr.

What are Google Adwords Extentions & why use Adwords PPC Extentions?

In late 2013, Google made it very clear that advertisements featuring ad extensions would be given better Quality Scores. Ad extensions consist of any links or content outside of the traditional title and two lines of description central to Adwords text ads. At 25 characters for the title length and 35 characters for each line of description, any chance to expand ad relevance and size should be looked at as an opportunity. Also, Adwords’ Quality Score is a major piece of the underlying algorithm that determines ad rank and bid.  Higher quality score ads will show above ads bidding the same cost per click and may even pay less.

Google has let us know that extensions make ads look sexy. So it is time to implement any and all that are a good fit for your campaigns. Some examples of Google Adwords Extensions include:

How to use Google Adwords Extentions & What they are.

Site Links – Site Links allow you to place clickable deep navigation under your ad. At a length of up to 25 characters feel free to use the title copy from related adgroups to keep the searcher from passing over your ad if they don’t see what they want at first. Every Site Link must have its own unique destination URL and non-letter characters may not be used. Great spot for category and product suggestions.

Call Extensions – Call extensions allow you to feature a phone number next to your ad copy. Options include displaying your own number or using a Google owned number that will track calls greater than a certain duration as a conversion. On mobile devices a call icon with appear that will start a call from the handset when clicked on.

Review Ad Extensions – This new extension allows you to feature 3rd party endorsements or awards under your ad copy. Customers can feel more confident seeing recognition or reviews about a given advertiser.

Social Extensions – Google would love to let its users know how many Google+ followers an advertiser has. Using the Social Extension option will connect a Google+ account to an Adwords account and display the “in circles” total. Interesting for Google+ users, this also happens to make an ad bigger and it will take up more of that precious real estate at the top of a search listing.

Seller Ratings – This is where that line of stars displayed next to some ads comes from. Great to have, but a merchant will need to have a solid track record with review services before they show up. The stars will appear after 30 individual reviews and an average of 3.5 or higher.

Beta Extensions – Google has several extensions that are in beta that are not available to the general public. Your Adwords representative can request that your account be included into these products as they are tested. Ask about subjects including: images, email submit fields, zip code boxes and pull down navigation.

Just remember to include traffic and sales from all sources when determining ROI.

Results from using adwords extentions:

(Don is under an NDA with all clients so he cannot share screen shots, however here is what he has found as a result of using Adwords Extentions.)

Ads featuring Site Links show at least a 20% increase in clicks across several verticals. Not to mention that the increased CTR drops the cost per click and the added deep navigation directs users more quickly to content that interests them, increasing conversion rates. When implementing Site Links, at least four should be added if possible. In the top ad position more than four Site Links might be shown, but display formats can shift. Site Links should be ordered in degrees of importance, in case of any truncation rather than something like alphabetical. Overall – more clicks, less costs and higher conversion.

Don Batsford, Jr. has been a full time online marketer since 1999. He is the Founder and Managing Director of MAQQ, an online advertising agency, specializing in paid search, social and mobile marketing campaigns. Previously, Don was a Founder of 31 Media, a customer acquisition and consulting firm, marketing online campaigns for companies ranging from Fortune 500 firms to entrepreneurial endeavors. Don was also in Business Development at Commission Junction, a ValueClick company. In addition, Don was also the Co-Founder of AskFor, a shopping technology and data management start-up. Don received his Masters of Business Administration from Clarkson University and Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Saint Michael’s College.  Follow him on Twitter at @batsford.