Displaying ads on a pay-per-click model can be expensive. Companies, and people, who manage Google Adwords campaigns know the effort required to achieve good performance. Saying that, the payoff of from Google Adwords can be immense. It can help you get a constant stream of bookings, orders or whatever you count as a conversion for your company.
Maximising Performance
There is a large number of factors which influence Adwords performance. In this post we’ll be looking at the use of ad extensions to improve the performance of your ads. Ad extensions provide more information on your text ads. This information can include your reviews, phone number, information on other services, etc. The following list briefly discusses the extensions and who should use them.
- Call extension – A simple method of displaying your phone number on the ad. It appears alongside the URL and can be measured for incoming calls. This is useful for businesses which need to speak to their customers for sales or support purposes for e.g. a law firm.
- Location extensions – You can display your address for customers to easily find your store or office. As expected, this extension is useful for businesses which require customers to visit them in person for e.g. a restaurant.
- Seller ratings – This is a very effective way of improving the appearance of your ads by displaying star ratings collected from a third party service like Trust Pilot or Reviews. The latter is the more affordable service. You’ll need at least 30 verified reviews before your ratings are displayed, and they are automatically displayed; so not something you have control over.
- Callout extensions – These extensions display bite sized information about your service or product. They need to be one or two word features/benefits about your service or product.
- Sitelinks extensions – These extensions are useful for showing links to other pages on your website. They can be very useful in displaying relevant information and features of the product/service, while directing users to the relevant pages.
The screenshot below shows an ad which is using multiple Adwords extensions.
The use of extensions can help improve the performance of your ads through an increase in clicks at potentially lower costs. The lower costs can be achieved through improved quality scores. Extensions are necessary, but you’ll also need effective ad copy, a well designed PPC landing page and clear marketing to communicate with your audience.
If you don’t already, you should look into using extensions to improve your Adwords performance. Your competitors are likely to be using them already.
