Want to improve Google AdWords performance by driving more relevant traffic to your website? If so, Ad Extensions can be an incredibly powerful tool.

Why Use Google AdWords Ad Extensions?

If you haven’t used ad extensions before, you’ve definitely seen them pop up when doing a Google search.

By including ad extensions, you’re able to improve your online visibility by increasing the amount of space of your ad, increase relevant website traffic by providing direct links to specific pages within your website, highlight specific offerings including services and brands, and increase calls by incorporating your phone number directly into your ad.

In the example below, you’ll notice a phone number for Google, a list of services as well as styles, and descriptive sitelinks just below the ad that are actionable and clickable—all things that would be much more difficult to influence or control with organic search.

Which ad extensions should you use to improve your clickthrough rates and AdWords campaign performance? We always start with a core group.

Sitelink Extensions

Sitelink extensions can be an incredibly effective way to call specific attention to relevant information on your website based on your sales process and products/services. You can customize the content of each link as well as the description, making it easier for prospective customers to find the information they’re looking for. Sitelinks can also dramatically increase the size of your ad—something that can be particularly important when competing for visibility with other ads that aren’t using sitelinks. Even though it’s optional, we always encourage our clients to include a unique description for each sitelink.

Callout Extensions

As the name implies, callout extensions give you a place to promote unique offers and selling features to shoppers. Unlike sitelink extensions, callouts aren’t clickable.

Structured Snippet Extensions

Structured snippets appear just below your ad copy and are used to highlight specific aspects/details of your business. These can include amenities, brands, or even the specific neighborhoods you serve.

Call Extensions

Any AdWords campaign is only as effective as your ability to get online shoppers to take action. One of the best ways to do so is by including a call extension for your business. Here, you enter your phone number to your ad making it quick and easy for people to call.

Where to Start

These are just some of the many Google AdWords ad extensions currently at your disposal. If you are currently running AdWords campaigns and you are not using ad extensions, we definitely encourage you to give them a try. To track marketing campaign effectiveness, you also want to make sure you have the right conversion tracking in place through Google AdWords and/or Google Analytics—something we’ll cover in a future post.

Have questions about how to optimize your Google AdWords campaigns? Just send us a message. We’ve been able to help small business clients make dramatic improvements to their Google AdWords campaign performance—generating significantly more leads at a fraction of the cost.