Using Ad Extensions to Improve Your Ad’s Position and Increase Your CTR

Max Braglia - January 30, 2014

Ad Rank, a value that Google AdWords uses to determine an ad’s position in the Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) officially changed a few months ago. As a result, Google appears to be placing more importance on ad extensions.

As Google puts it, “if two competing ads have the same bid and quality, then the ad with the more positive expected impact from extensions will generally appear in a higher position than the other.” In other words, ad extensions have gone from just another AdWords feature to a “must-do” for anyone running paid search campaigns – especially when the competition is fierce.

Wait – What are Ad Extensions?

Ad extensions provide space for displaying additional business information within your ad, such as a link, an address, or a phone number. Ad extensions have been proven to increase click-through rates by giving customers more reasons to click on your ad.

Some marketers go as far as saying that ad extension optimization has become as important as ad copy optimization, which has always been (and still is) an essential component of any successful campaign.

Using Ad Extensions

Advertisers can choose between many types of ad extensions, including sitelinks, location information, social badges, seller ratings, click to call functionality, and images, just to name a few.

Ad extensions are meant to make your ad more useful. As such, the extensions you choose should directly relate to how you want a user to interact with your brand. For example, e-commerce sites might want to include seller ratings, while a local business might want to include an address or phone number.

It’s important to note that while you can add more than one ad extension, Google will only show one, so you want to make sure that you only use the ad extensions that are the most appropriate for your ad, your business, and the search query you’re bidding on.