So Google has been going crazy with deciding to release a million new things at once. Although they had, in my opinion, a few early releases like Buzz and Wave, they have recently released and are currently testing in other Countries, some new tools to help you with your PPC campaigns. These tools are pretty new but seem so obvious which is I guess why no one thought of them.
Everyone is so focused on “Thinking Out Side The Box” that they sometimes forget to look for the most obvious things which may have been left in the corner of the box, stuck to the flap or underneath or in the mix of packing materials. Sometimes these obvious things can really help to make the difference for Advertisers and Marketers and I think Google may be on to a few things with these new PPC tools.
Google PPC Plus Boxes:
Plus boxes are more commonly known as the little expandable boxes from Google Maps that expand and show more information about “trusted” companies or “verified” companies in the SERPs and on the Maps results. Although these are great, Google USA now has the option to add Plus Boxes or PPC Plus Boxes to your PPC campaigns. What happens when you turn these on is that in your PPC results in the SERPs you will now be able to add in an expandable plus box on your ad.
When the box is clicked so that it expands, it now shows an image (I don’t think it charges you for the box expanding but they do charge you when the click is made. Check with your Google rep to verify for sure.) which in my opinion helps to make your ad a little more targeted.
Not only does your ad draw the attention of potential customers, but if you aren’t selling a particular model or only carry a specific brand and model of a product, you can now show this in your ad and help keep irrelevant traffic and clicks away. On the other hand if you don’t show the correct image you could end up driving away relevant traffic.
To set this up to test it all you have to do is connect your PPC account to the Google Merchant Center and then log into AdWords. Then you click on the campaign you want to run the Google Plus Boxes for PPC on (They offer it on a campaign wide basis, not an AdGroup Basis). Next you click on the settings tab and underneath Ad Extensions you can turn this on. (I highly recommend you contact Google Support with live chat as well if you have never done this before).
Google PPC Phone Extensions.
Google PPC Phone Extensions are another tool that Google has recently rolled out. It allows you to add in a phone number to your search results for Mobile devices and cell phone so that when your PPC result comes up in search results they can click the phone number like a link and call in to make a purchase. I love this one because when I look through analytics I am seeing a very quickly growing mobile purchasing Market. You can also buy a unique number to use for these ads so that you can track which sales came from mobile devices and which were normal.
Google Additional Site Links
These are kind of cool as well. You can add up to 4 additional links to your ads so that you can deep link and send more relevant traffic from your ads to more targeted places within your site. Although it isn’t anything amazing, it can definitely be a pretty good option, unless you get charged per click.
Google keeps releasing newer tools each month it seems like and if you want to keep up to date or find a way to set them up and use them, or get a proper tutorial, contact your Google rep. I would like to warn you though that you cannot always trust them, you have to also use your own best judgment.
Again, these are just my thoughts and opinions and you should not let them influence your business decisions. Do your own research and decide what makes the most sense for you and your company. If you would like to contact me for help with your campaigns, please feel free to leave a comment or write me through the about us page.
