Ad Extensions: Introduction – Getting the Most Value out of Your Marketing Dollars
It’s no secret that the first step in converting customers is to drive prospects to your website. To do cost effectively throughpaid ads it is essential for you to ensure your ads are not only relevant to the person’s needs but also that your ads stand out from your competitors.
Historically, the only option available to accomplish this goal was a 70 character written description. Today, the description is not enough. If you perform a query for most any product or service, you will notice that other than promotions, pricing, or years in business, most ads to not contain anything that is truly unique.
Even when companies create ads that offer something unique and valuable to their prospects, this message is often overlooked as the ads themselves blend in with the all the other ads. Let’s face it. Who really takes the time to read and digest every description in every ad before clicking? This consumer behavior can lead to wasted clicks, inaccurate analytics data, and poor website engagement.
So the next logical question is: How can I differentiate my ads so they grab the attention of my target market while minimizing wasted clicks? The answer is by using Ad Extensions.
An Introduction to Ad Extensions
When all else is equal, using Ad Extensions will differentiate the top performers from the mediocre.
This is an introduction to an ongoing 6 series where each Ad Extension will be discussed individually.
1. Sitelinks Ad Extensions
Sitelink ad extensions allow advertisers to show links to specific pages on a website. These links will show beneath ad text, providing additional ad space.
2. Location Ad Extensions
Location extensions allow advertisers to add location data about a business to an ad. When set up properly, a company with many locations can show addresses closest to the user.
3. Call Ad Extensions
Call extensions provide a contact phone number as an additional line in the ad. These can be extremely beneficial for advertisers who use multiple tracking numbers and want to view performance at a device, campaign or keyword level.
4. App Ad Extensions
For companies that depend on app downloads in their business model, App extensions are an easy way to promote their business and drive app downloads. App extensions display a link below an ad and when clicked upon it takes users to their app store where the app begins its download.
5. Review Ad Extension
Review extensions are provides a great opportunity to add credibility for the advertiser. These extensions show positive reviews from reputable third parties. These reviews, along with the source, will be displayed in quotes below an ad.
6. Callout Ad Extensions
Callout extensions allow the advertiser a couple extra lines of text to appear with an ad display in ads at the top and bottom of search results. The main difference between callouts and sitelinks is that callouts do not link to any specific page.
Ad Extension Benefits
Each type of ad extension has its unique benefits which will be discussed in the applicable series. However, the purpose behind each extension is to provide a better user experience. Below are just a few of the direct and indirect benefits of ad extensions.
- Ad Extensions provide users additional information to help determine if you meet their needs before clicking on your ad, thus; minimizing wasted clicks. In addition to making the best use of every dollar you spend, this will indirectly improve the reliability of analytics data, website site engagement and potentially SEO rankings.
- Ad Extensions has a direct impact on CTR by displaying the right message, product, address, or phone number, in addition to your compelling text ad.
- Another indirect benefit of using Ad Extensions, especially if the competition isn’t utilizing extensions as well, is that your ads will take up a greater share of the first page, leaving less room for competitive ads.
Although the process of setting up ad extensions is fairly simple, the true benefit comes from the ability to understand the data being provided by the benefits and optimizing towards this information. If you have questions regarding ad extensions and can’t wait for the series to be completed, please contact DirectiveGroup. We are here to help and guide you as needed.
