14 Types Of Google Ads Extensions & What They Do

Google Ads extensions are the perfect tool to help you incorporate additional relevant information to your ads and stand out from the competition.

Online advertising is very competitive and businesses will do anything to get an edge on the competition. This is especially true with PPC advertising. After all, each search results page only allows a limited number of PPC ads, so qualified clicks are valuable.

Google offers advertisers a variety of ad extensions to help increase ad rank and click-through rate. Extensions effectively give you more space on the search results page if your ad qualifies. Or, as Google Ads states, “extensions create more reasons to click your ad.”

Google Ads gives priority to the top ad positions when displaying extensions, positioned on the left side above all organic listings.

What are Google Ads extensions?

You may already have guessed the answer to this one: Google Ads extensions extend your ads, claiming more real estate on search engine results pages (SERPs) and helping searchers make decisions. Extensions expand your ad with additional information, giving people more reasons to choose your business. These may increase an ad’s clickthrough rate by several percentage points. Extension formats include call buttons, location information, links to specific parts of your website, additional text, and more.

Why Should You Use Them?

There are two main benefits to ad extensions that are so ubiquitous, nearly every advertiser can benefit from them:

1. They allow you to provide more information: Larger ad text lets you make a stronger case to targets about why they should click on your ad.

2. They increase your visibility on SERPs: The larger size of extended ads makes them more impactful. Through these two factors alone, ad extensions can increase your clickthrough rate (CTR) significantly – possibly several percentage points. And this isn’t even considering their other benefits, which include:

• Improved lead quality: By providing more information, extended ads allow poor-quality leads to self-disqualify, so you get fewer irrelevant clicks. The people who click through to your landing page are far more likely to take the desired action.
• Better ad ranking: Google uses a variety of factors to determine your ad position, including expected CTR, relevance, and landing page experience. Simply using ad extensions will automatically improve your ranking, because it allows Google to offer a better variety of ad formats.
• Better use of your PPC budget: Because they improve your CTR, ad extensions can help lower your cost-per-click (CPC), which in turn means you’re getting more out of your paid ad spend.

Manual and Automated Extensions

There are two general extensions categories: manual, which requires some setup, and automated.

Most of the extensions discussed here are manual, though some of them can also be dynamically applied by Google when it predicts they will improve performance.

It’s important to note Google announced several changes to automated extensions, including allowing them to be shown alongside manually added extensions like sitelinks, callouts, and structured snippets (more on these later).

This allows your ad to claim more SERP area and generate more clicks. They can also be added at an ad group, campaign, or account level, and may be included in reports.

Benefits of extensions

Google Ads extensions can boost the effectiveness of your ads in a number of ways. When implemented properly, they provide extra snippets of detail needed to create robust, high-performing search ads. Here are the main benefits of using manual Google Ads extensions:

• They are free. There is no cost to incorporate extensions into your Google Ads campaigns.
• Your ads will perform better. Relevant extensions contribute to better quality scores and can increase your ad rank.
• Your ads will be more appealing to searchers. Ad extensions are proven to improve clickthrough rate and conversions.
• You’ll gain more qualified clicks. Since extensions allow you to provide more relevant information, the clicks you get are more likely to be the ones you’re looking for.
• Your ads will have a greater visual presence. Extensions help your ad take up more space on the search engine results page, getting you more clicks and setting you apart, visually, from your competition.

14 Types Of Google Ads Extensions

Now that we’ve covered the basic categories of extensions, let’s dive deeper into the different types.

1. Location Extensions

Location extensions list your location on its own line, helping people find your location(s), a map to your location, or the distance to it. These may also include a phone number or call button for mobile users.

This extension, which can be automatically applied, is ideal for any business that depends on in-person transactions, including restaurants, retail locations, and service providers like barbers or beauty salons. There are also benefits for primarily online companies, as a physical address can increase your legitimacy in the eye of customers.

Location extensions are a useful tool if your product is sold nationwide. They provide users with information on nearby retail stores that stock your product. Like location extensions, affiliate location extensions are useful for encouraging people to visit a nearby store where your products are sold.

2. Product Extensions

Product extension is the strategy of placing an established product’s brand name on a new product that is in the same category. Small companies can deploy the practice in the same way that large firms have, in order to increase sales of a popular product by offering variations.

By linking your Google Merchant account to Google Ads, product extensions allow you to enhance your products listing. This is a useful tool for any campaign in which you’re selling goods related to your target keywords. Because products are more specific than location or phone number, you’ll want your campaigns to be more granular, particularly if you sell a wide variety of products.

3. Sitelink Extensions

These are additional links you can add to your search ads. Sitelink extensions are a great way to make a huge impact on a search engine results page. Moreover, this extension works most effectively for more general branded ads where the links direct searches to specific products or services. It is one of the best ways to ensure the clicks you get are extremely relevant to your business’s offerings.

Sitelink extensions allow targets to choose where they would like to go, as opposed to just visiting your landing page. Making it easier for users to find exactly what they’re looking for can increase your CTR significantly.

Common pages used with sitelinks include Contact Us pages, pricing pages, sale pages, and testimonials pages. Ecommerce sites have used them to great effect when directing customers to specific categories pages. These can be added manually or dynamically as an automatic extension.

4. Seller Ratings Extensions

Seller ratings are an automated extension that showcases a business’ high ratings. To add this extension, Google gathers ratings from various reputable sources that aggregate business reviews. This extension shows your overall rating, as well as the total number of reviews. They also sometimes include a qualifier to describe the rating (e.g., same-day delivery).

This extension displays below text ads, showing your rating on a scale of 1-5 (alongside 5 stars) and the total number of reviews that generated the rating. Sometimes Google also provides some type of qualifier to describe why you received the rating.

Since seller ratings are designed to help advertisers improve ad performance and earn more qualified leads, they typically only appear when a business has at least 150 unique reviews and an average rating of at least 3.5 stars. 

5. Callout Extensions

Callout extensions are short bits of text that appear after your ads’ descriptions. Callouts can provide additional, focused information and are a great way to set yourself apart from the competition. 

Since you only have 25 characters per callout extension, it’s best to use snappy, impactful phrases. Phrases like “Free Shipping” and “Family Owned” are catchy and highlight unique aspects of your business. Remember to follow these callout extension best practices:

• Short and sweet: You only have 25 characters — make it count! And use 6 per campaign.
• Use fragments: Google made these intentionally short, so it should be scannable. “Comfortable treatment” rather than “We provide comfortable treatment.”
• Broad appeal: All callout extensions need to apply to the entire offering you advertise for.
• Numbers and specifics: “Locations Nearby” is shorter but not as concrete or compelling as “3 convenient locations.”

For example, if you want to promote a 25% off sale, free delivery, or your business’s 60th anniversary, callout extensions are perfect. You’re allowed six of these extensions per campaign, and they need to apply to the entire offering you’re advertising.

The best callout extensions tend to use numbers and specifics (i.e., “5 left in stock,” works better than “limited quantities remain.”) If your website includes useful information like “online reservations,” these descriptions can be added automatically as a dynamic callout, as well.

6. Structured Snippets Extensions

Another way to provide additional information about a product or service is with a structured snippet extension. Structured snippets are limited by a header, which must be selected from 12 predetermined categories, like “courses,” “styles,” or “types.” These  snippets may not be relevant for every business, as they are only effective if your offerings match the headers. But they are a way to highlight extra information that could convince a searcher to click on your ad.

The main benefit of structured snippets is more qualified leads. Why? Because when people already know about specific information on what you want to give them, they’re primed to convert once they click and land on your site. Use structured snippets to communicate specific amenities, types or categories, and destinations or locations. Additionally, follow these best practices:

• Prioritize value: only include information that truly attracts or helps new customers. Use at least 2, ideally 4, structured snippets per headline.
• Header-Snippet match: don’t just copy-paste a list of general snippets every time. Match the amenity, type of product or service, or location to the headline you are advertising with.

7. Call Extensions

Call extensions show your phone number and allow customers to call you directly from your ad. They are an extremely valuable tool because, for many businesses, calls are the goal of their Google Ads. Since call extensions promote the immediate action of making a phone call, it is especially important to schedule this extension to show only during business hours, when someone is available to accept the call.

The call extension is a lifesaver for businesses that want calls from customers. You can put your phone number directly in the ad, so the friction between a lead and your business is basically zero. It makes it easy for searchers to call directly from your ad. They include a click-to-call phone number in your ad for mobile users. And if you’re not available 24/7 to take calls? No worries. Call extensions allow you to specify your availability schedule down to the hour. They won’t show up outside of those times. Just remember to:

• Enable phone call conversations reporting so you can measure performance.
• Provide a great experience on your end. If customers call you and get a lackluster response from the front desk (this includes waiting to return their call for more than an hour), that’s on you. The success of all calls but especially ones you pay for  will depend on how well you train your staff. You got this.

8. Affiliate Location Extensions

Affiliate location extensions are a useful tool if your product is sold nationwide. They provide users with information on nearby retail stores that stock your product. Like location extensions, affiliate location extensions are useful for encouraging people to visit a nearby store where your products are sold.

An affiliate refers to an individual or other organization officially connected to another. In this case, you use affiliate location extensions to direct users to other locations that are authorized to sell your product. Affiliate location extensions are best for manufacturers.

9. Price Extensions

It’s no secret that price is a key factor in almost every buying decision. Price extensions let you set cost expectations upfront, establishing transparency and helping build trust with searchers. Price extensions show a carousel of prices of a few showcased items beneath your ads on mobile and tablet devices. It’s a great way for businesses to drive highly relevant clicks to their site. While the transparency of price extensions can result in fewer clicks, the clicks you do receive will be more intentional and more likely to convert.

The primary value of price extensions is not to prevent your employees from deceiving customers but setting clear expectations. They inform users about pricing up front, and an informed user means that when they decide to reach out or show up to your store or website, they’re more ready to book an appointment or buy from you.

Again, pricing transparency increases trust and prepares users who click on your ad for the content on your landing page. They’ll have a higher conversion or purchase intent. Use price extensions if you:

• Have variable pricing or tiered services
• Multiple service packages
• Lots of SKUs or options

Like structured snippet extensions, Google gives you a range of options to choose from for the type of product or service you’re selling. And if your price isn’t exact, no worries. You can add price qualifiers to the extensions.

10. App Extensions

App extensions feature a link to download your mobile app under your ads. These extensions are smart – if you have an app that is only available on iOS, the extension will only display on iOS devices. App extensions give ads a huge visual advantage over plain text ads. If app downloads are a goal of your campaign, then app extensions are a necessity

If you offer a mobile app, pop this Google ad extension on here. We mean, manually opening and searching an application on your phone is a pain. App extensions make your app more visible and make it easy for interested users to download directly from the text ad. One other great thing about app extensions is that it’s the only way to track app downloads based on your keywords. When you use an app extension, make sure you do these three things:

• Link your headline text to your website and the app extension to the app store.
• Add app extensions with branded and generic keywords.
• Include more keywords than just the ones trying to get app downloads.

11. Promotion Extensions

Promotion extensions add a visual price tag below your ad and offer specific details about your promotion. You can run them during specific holidays or year-round, the only limitation is that promotion extensions must include a monetary or percent-based discount. Of all Google Ads extensions, promotion extensions give search ads the highest boost in clickthrough rates, on average, and are a simple way to incorporate any promotions you may have into your search ads.

Promotion extensions also display your deals in an eye-catching way on mobile. Google is pretty flexible with how you run this extension. Choose to show the extensions on specific dates, days, or hours, or pick pre-populated event tags, like back-to-school or Black Friday. They’re easy to toggle on and off, and you won’t have to make a new ad to do so.

12. Lead Form Extensions (New)

Lead form extensions help you generate leads by letting people submit their information in a form directly in your ad. The newest Google Ads extension, lead form extensions eliminate the need for users to fill out a form on your landing page by allowing them to submit their contact information directly on the SERP. If the searcher is using their Google account, the relevant information can be pre-populated and can be submitted with a single click. This helps drive qualified leads into your marketing funnel and shortens the sales cycle.

13. Video Extensions

Video extensions allow you to show drive action below your video ad on the YouTube mobile app, providing the opportunity to extend your message beyond the primary video and keep viewers engaged. 

14. Image Extensions

Image extensions let you use relevant visuals to complement their text ads, helping drive performance. Not every advertiser is eligible for this type of extension and must meet certain requirements including a history of compliance, a Google Ads account in an eligible vertical, and active campaigns running.

How to set up and create Google Ads extensions

Now that you know more about the different types of Google Ads extensions and how they can work for you, let’s take a look at how to set them up. The first thing you need to do is determine your goals and which extensions will work to make them a reality. Do you want customers to contact you? Visit your website? Submit their contact info? Figure out what you want targets to do, and then select the extension that facilitates that. From there, it’s a simple process:

• Log into your Google Ads account.
• Select your campaign or ad group.
• Click the “Ads & extensions” tab, then “Extensions.”
• Select the extension(s) you want.
• Customize each type of extension.
• Click “Save.”

Conclusion

You should only use relevant extensions that enhance the message of your ad text. Using extensions that are irrelevant fillers can end up hurting your ads’ performance or getting irrelevant clicks. 

Use as many extensions as are relevant to your business and campaign goals. Since Google chooses which extensions to show based on which perform best, extensions are a simple way to test your message and gain valuable insight into customer behavior. Extensions should be utilized in each of your Google Ads campaigns to create high performing ads searchers want to click.