Why do ad extensions matter?

1. Implement at least one responsive search ad with 'Good' or 'Excellent' Ad Strength per ad group. Advertisers who improve Ad Strength for their responsive search ads from 'Poor' to 'Excellent' see 9% more clicks and conversions on average.1
2. Implement assets such as sitelinks and images. These types of assets make your ads more engaging and allow you to show helpful information about your business. More eligible assets give your ads more opportunity to meet users’ specific needs.

Successful marketers need to deliver the right messaging for the right moment. Better creative messages improve ad relevance and drive more qualified clicks from your Search ads.

In this Search ads guide for Google Ads, you’ll learn how to create compelling responsive search ads as people search on Google.com.

Google Ads Tutorials: Responsive search ads best practices

1. Write compelling, genuine ad copy

• Craft messaging that focuses on user benefits.

Why: Users respond to ads that speak to their needs.

• Tie your headline and description line’s messaging to your keywords.

Why: Users tend to engage with ads that appear most relevant to their search.

By including its best performing keywords in its responsive search ads, Canadian airline Swoop increased revenue by 71% and conversions by 61%.

• Avoid generic language in your ads. Use specific calls to action.

Why: Generic calls to action often show decreased engagement with ads.

• Check Ad Strength for insights into how users may react to your ads.

Why: This metric is a valuable way to ensure you’re delivering the right messages to the right users.

Online travel agency MyFlightSearch focused on creating responsive search ads with ‘Good’ and ‘Excellent’ Ad Strength, helping the brand increase conversions by 14%, and improving its cost per booking by 15%. 

• Review campaign level asset reporting.

Why: This report helps you understand which of your assets resonate most with your customers.

Check detailed guidance about writing compelling, genuine ad copy.

2. Create messaging that reflects your brand and the products and services you offer

• Create ad text that appeals to users across devices.

Why: A compelling call to action on one device tends to be compelling on other devices as well.

Why: Your headlines are the first thing people see and will play a big factor in how well your ads perform.

• Try headlines of varying lengths.

Why: Longer headlines increase the clickable space of your Search ads, but you might find that shorter headlines perform better for people already searching for your brand.

• Consider using Dynamic Search Ads to save even more time

Why: Based on content from your site, Dynamic Search Ads automatically generate headlines for you and show your ads to people searching for your products.

Check detailed guidance about creating messaging that reflects your brand.

3. Set up your ads for success

• Add as many unique headlines and descriptions as you can.

Why: Providing unique headlines and descriptions allows the system to assemble more ad combinations.

• Use keyword insertion and ad customizers if you have a lot of ads to maintain.

Why: You can tailor your creative messages to a user’s search while reducing your management overhead.

• Pair responsive search ads with Smart Bidding and broad match keywords.

Why: Show the right message to as many relevant people as possible while automatically setting the right bid for each query.

Using the combination of broad match, Smart Bidding, and responsive search ads, UK-based tails.com increased sign-ups in Germany from its generic Search campaigns by 182%, while increasing clicks by 258%.

Watch their story:

Check detailed guidance about setting your ads up for success.

4. Use as many asset types as possible

• Enable all asset types that make sense for your business. 

Why: There are a variety of asset types that can make ads more useful and engaging to users, while helping you meet your marketing objectives. For example, advertisers can see a 20% increase in clickthrough rate on average when 4 sitelinks show with their Search ads.2

By adding image assets to responsive search ads and using audience data and Target ROAS Smart Bidding as part of its strategy, HUGO BOSS achieved a 2.5x return on ad spend and 5% improvement in clickthrough rate when compared to overall mobile traffic.

• Make your assets as high quality as possible.

Why: Assets are automatically chosen based on several factors, including previous performance, user context, and available space.

Check detailed guidance about using as many asset types as possible.

5. Test and optimize creative messages

• Use ad variations to test and iterate creative messages.

Why: You can learn about your users’ preferences and improve your performance by honing ad text, especially your headlines.

• Evaluate the success of your ads based on incremental impressions, clicks, and conversions your ad groups and campaigns receive.

Why: Responsive search ads help you qualify for more auctions, so ad-level performance and metrics like clickthrough rate and conversion rate may not paint a full picture of your performance.

Check detailed guidance about testing and optimizing creatives.

As you create your campaign, you may receive notifications based on your setting selections. These notifications may alert you of issues that can result in decreased performance or that may be significant enough to prevent you from publishing your campaign.

The campaign construction navigation menu that appears as you construct your campaign provides a holistic view of your construction progress and will call attention to notifications that you may want to address. Move between steps in the navigation menu to easily review and resolve potential issues with your targeting, bidding, budget, or other campaign settings. Learn more about features that help you create a successful campaign

1. Google internal data, Global, 7/18/2020 - 8/1/2020
2. Google internal data, Global, 10/24/2021 - 11/24/2021

Paid search ad extensions are any additional link, text, or rating that is served with your standard headline 1, headline 2, and description. Paid search ad extensions allow marketers to show extra information within ads, giving consumers more relevant content about a business and services. Ad extensions come in many formats – each with their own purpose:

App extensions: A link to download an app

• Call extensions: A clickable phone number on mobile, also displayed on desktop/tablet
• Location Extensions:  Business address, phone number, and a map marker with an ad text
• Review extensions: Third-party reviews appear in the form of stars
• Sitelink extensions: The most common ad extension. Additional links below ads; typically 2-4 appear in the top two search results
• Callout extensions: Set your business apart from others. Callouts are additional text used to feature benefits or sales
• Structured Snippet Extensions: Predefined headers to feature products or service categories offered like styles, courses, amenities and more
• Price Extensions: Updated February 2017 to serve on desktop – features set or starting prices for product tiers or services
• Click-To-Message Extensions: An easy way to connect with customers from a paid search ad

Below is a timeline of these extensions from the past 8+ years:

Why Ad Extensions Matter

While there are many formats for ad extensions, sitelinks are the most common and widely used. Google states that click-through rates increase by 30% or more for ads with sitelinks compared to those without. All ad extensions ultimately help advertisers attract more clicks, making them a valuable element to your PPC strategy.

Additionally, ad extensions are an important consideration that Google uses to consider ad rank. Google uses the expected impact from ad extensions when determining ad rank along with bid amount and quality score. Therefore, implementing optimized ad extensions will improve ad rank and help your ad reach the top positions. Make sure you’re paying attention to your ad extensions: remove those with low click-through rates and continue to test new versions, including available betas.

Bing also uses the same type of ad extension features that benefit ad performance. Generally speaking, Bing will roll out any new Google ad extensions within a couple of months so that advertisers can use the same extensions in both platforms.

Ad Extension Betas

Before any ad extension goes live, Google will first launch a beta to test the results. A beta can run up to a year before becoming available to everyone, if it even makes it to that point. Betas allow advertisers try new ad extensions that could improve performance and give a competitive advantage.

One of the latest beta ad extensions that has been popping up on mobile devices is called a visual sitelink. Visual sitelinks feature an image carousel, all clickable. In the example below, the images actually appear above the text, unlike typical ad extensions which are below. These are not entirely new as Google tried these before, in 2013, but called them image extensions. While they didn’t survive in 2013, it looks like they’re here to stay this time around.

What This Means for Marketers

In summary, ad extensions continue to evolve while improving search performance. So, a few key takeaways:

1. Make sure you’re using all relevant ad extensions for your business. They will make your ads more visible to potential customers.
2. Don’t forget Bing! Carry over your AdWords extensions into Bing as well.
3. Optimize ad extensions by removing any ad extensions that are not improving ad click-through rates.
4. Lastly, participating in the latest beta releases may just give you a competitive advantage – ask your NH team if there are any relevant betas you’re not yet taking advantage of.

Information + Photo Source: AdWords: Source One and Source Two