Google Ad Extensions

A Brief Introduction to Google Ad Extensions

When it comes taking your business online, there is little question that appearing in Google searches is one of the very best ways to increase brand awareness and bring in more customers. With an entire world of businesses online and an estimated 70,000 Google searches performed *per second*, the real trick when it comes to your digital presence, is knowing how to be seen.

Google Ads

While using search engine optimization (SEO) strategy to generate new, exciting and relevant information on your website is a great way to increase organic click rates to your site, another option is to pay for advertising through Google Ads (formerly Google Adwords). With this, you can set up advertisements that are targeted to specific audiences of your choosing, which are then displayed first when those audiences do a search for a business like yours on Google. You then pay Google a commission every time a customer clicks on the ad you created, known as a pay-per-click advertising method.

Using Google Ads is a smart option when looking to boost your website’s visibility, especially in conjunction with other digital marketing strategies like remarketing, SEO, social media marketing, content marketing, and public relations. It is, in its simplest form, a powerful marketing tool, but to further increase success within Google Ads, you will also want to understand and take advantage of their extensions feature.

Google Ads Extensions

Extensions are added pieces of information that can be included in your Google Ad to increase or improve functionality for potential customers, thus increasing your chances of attracting them. Some of the most popular Google Ad extensions include:

• Sitelink Extensions include specific pages of your website (like blog, contact, catalogue, menu, offers, and more) under the general website link so that customers can jump directly to the page they are looking for, rather than having to navigate through your site from the homepage, allowing them to quickly get to where they want to go.
• Call Extensions, which place a button directly onto Google search results that allow a customer to call your business with one click, an easy way to build trust with your customers and reduce potential frustration at the same time.
• App Extensions, to allow customers to download your business’ app instead of having to use a desktop or mobile site, which can be more cumbersome. And an easier user experience directly translates to higher sales.
• Review Extensions include customer reviews with your business ad, a huge incentive for potential customers looking to take a chance on your business or your products.
• Callout Extensions to help to grab a specific target market’s attention in classic marketing style that has been shown to work again and again by showing a particular group of people, that you understand their situation and can offer a solution with your business, product, or service.
• Location Extensions can tell a potential customer where your business is, how far away you are from their exact location, and can even provide directions for them to get to you. All extremely powerful ways to help customers and gain their loyalty and their business.
• Offer Extensions give you the power to provide a discount to potential customers straight from their Google search, attracting more customers through the digital door straight away.

Image Extensions

In addition to those above (and many, many more!), image extensions are a brand new extension that Google is just starting to roll out (it’s currently in beta testing) and available, for the time being, to select Google Ads customers only. It’s worth looking into, though, as widespread use is expected in the near future. As the name suggests, image extensions allows a business to place a small image next to its appearance in search engine results, particularly useful for products, but also a great marketing tool for services, too, as great visuals are always an attention-grabber as well as a way to quickly display your company’s professionalism, quality, and performance. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words!

Using Google Ads to Your Advantage

From simple and complex, broad to highly specific, you can use Google Ads extensions to help whatever you are trying to achieve within your marketing strategy. Knowing them all, their functionality, and their success rates based on your industry, products, and consumers is a full time job in itself, though, and one that is usually best left to professional digital marketing agencies like Peppermint, not only for stress and time management, but for best return on investment. Our dedicated digital marketing team have the industry experience and know how to design and implement a Google Ad campaign that can help achieve your sales goals as well as build brand awareness and increase customer loyalty – much often at a lower cost than business owners are able to do themselves.

Are you new to Google Ads and need help setting up a marketing strategy specific to your goals and business objectives? Are you already using Google Ads but not happy with the results you’re seeing? As a leading digital marketing agency based in Estepona, Marbella, Peppermint is well versed in helping businesses of all sizes. Contact us today and we’ll be happy to assess where you are, discuss where you want to go, and plan how we can get you there!