Previously, I have discussed why Google SEO is an important task to complete prior to undertaking Google AdWords pay-per-click advertising campaigns. If you were to watch Google AdWords tutorials themselves, they will tell you that where you place in a search result on their system when doing AdWords PPC advertising is a resulting combination of your bid price on a keyword phrase combined with your Quality Score – and this is defined by them as “useful information” to the consumer which means, in essence, how much they like your site and its content.
There is a lot of competition these days to get to Page One on a Google search engine paid search and to get there, you need to both outbid others and Google needs to like your site in relation to the end-user keyword phrase searching being done through their search engine.
As you learn more about using Google AdWords to promote your business, you will also learn about their “Google Ad Extension” features which, if you implement them for your promotional ads, will increase your quality score and will give your site a stronger argument in Google’s eyes for getting to Page One of a Google paid search.
Why will “Google Extensions” help your score? This is due to the fact that by using these extensions, you are helping to target more “relevant search content” for the Google search user – and Google likes that. So, lets dig a little deeper into these extensions and how to use them for your Google AdWords ad placements.
Once you login to the Google AdWords environment and view the initial “Dashboard” screen, You will see on the left side of your screen a menu option titled “Ads and Extensions”. Clicking on that menu option brings you to this section of the Google AdWords system where across the top, you will see three options: Ads, Extensions and More. Click on the Extensions tab.
In the center of the Extensions screen, you will see a “+ – Create Ad Extension” button. Clicking that button opens up a popup window containing different types of Ad extensions. Let’s go down the list of these to discuss what they do for your ads. Note: verbiage below comes directly from Google Help pages.
Location extensions
Encourage people to visit your business by showing your location, a call button, and a link to your business details page-which can include your hours, photos of your business, and directions to get there. If you want customers to visit your business location but to call a centralized line (rather than specific locations’ numbers), use call extensions with your location extensions.
Affiliate location extensions
Help people find retail chain stores that sell your products.
Callout extensions
Add additional text to your ad, like “free delivery” or “24/7 customer support.” Callouts can be used to encourage people to convert offline.
Call extensions
Encourage people to call your business by adding a phone number or call button to your ads.
Message extensions
Encourage people to send you text messages from your ad. Available globally at the campaign or ad group levels.
Sitelink extensions
Link people directly to specific pages of your website (like “hours” and “order now”). Google will display up to 8 of these within the framework of an ad. A great way to improve your site’s Quality Score.
Structured snippet extensions
Showcase information potential customers will find most valuable by selecting a predefined header (like, product or service category) and listing items.
Price extensions
Showcase your services or product categories with their prices, so that people can browse your products right from your ad.
Review extensions
Add quotes or rankings from published sources.
App extensions
Encourage people to download your app. Available globally for Android and iOS mobile devices, including tablets.
In summary, as you build your Ad Groups and sales campaigns within the Google AdWords system, using the ad extensions described above will help you to show better within Google search engine results and will help you fare better against similar ad purchasing competitors who are not using extensions. In fact, Google mentions in their Help documentation that in certain instances, they will place your add in a search result above a competitor’s even if there’s was the lower keyword phrase bid and your ad will place at the lower bid price per click instead of your own, thus saving you some advertising expense.
Dan Grijzenhout
