Enhance Your Ad with Extensions
This extra information, called ad extensions, will appear with your ad on Google.com, and in some cases across the Google Display Network. There’s no cost to add extensions to your campaign, but as always you’re charged for clicks on your ad, and the costs-per-click (CPCs) for ads above search results (where most extensions appear) may be higher than ads that appear beside search results. Also note that you may be charged for certain user interactions with ad extensions, such as submitting a form or viewing a video.
Most ad extensions are created at the campaign level. If you have an enhanced campaign, certain types of extensions are upgraded with additional features, including the ability to be created at the ad group level. Learn about creating and managing upgraded extensions in enhanced campaigns.
You can set extensions up while creating your campaign for the first time, or create new ones within an existing campaign. Setting up your campaign to use ad extensions includes the following:
- Selecting the best ad extension type for your business goal
- Knowing your pricing and network targeting options
- Setting up your extensions
- Sharing extensions
- Accessing ad extensions metrics
Selecting an ad extension type
Pick an extension based on what action you’d like people on the web to take when they see your ad, and what type of information you’d like to promote. In the example below, there are two ad extensions: a location extension (address of the business) and a call extension (phone number).
Example
Let’s say you own a bicycle repair shop in downtown Tokyo. Rie, a customer riding a bicycle a few blocks from your store, suddenly gets a flat tire, and needs help to fix her bicycle fast. When Rie searches for “bicycle repair” on her smartphone, she’ll see your ad with a location extension and phone number. Rie can click the phone number in your ad to call you right away for help, or click your address to find her way to your location in person using the navigation features on her phone.
Here are the ad extensions you can use to give customers more information about your business:
Location extensions: Help nearby consumers find or call your nearest storefront.
Call extensions: Connect users to your business directly by phone.
Social extensions: Link people’s Google+ endorsements for your business +Page to your AdWords campaign
Social extensions look the same as standard ads with +1 annotations on both the Google Search and Display Networks.
Product extensions: Include more product information in your ad
Seller ratings: Show your online business ratings in your ad.
Sitelink extensions: Promote more pages within your site beyond your main ad landing page.
Offer extensions: Promote in-store coupons with your online ads. Automatic offer extensions can promote deals mentioned in your ad text.
For some advertisers, you might see that your ad’s been enhanced with an automatic offer extension, a link that’s labeled “View this ad’s deal.” AdWords will automatically add this link to your ad, allowing you to promote a deal that’s mentioned in your ad text with a link to your landing page and giving customers another reason to click your ad.
When you create an ad, the AdWords system will scan the ad text to see if there are any terms associated with deals or special promotions. If your ad includes such terms, then AdWords will review your ad’s text and destination URL to make sure your advertised deal is available on your landing page and complies with Googles policies. If your deal is eligible to appear, the “View this ad’s deal” link below your ad text will be displayed. Keep in mind that the link will take customers to the same landing page that’s used in your ad’s destination URL or keyword’s destination URL.
Note
- Since AdWords uses the text and destination URL that you provide to show automatic offer extensions, you’re in control of whether automatic offer extensions are shown with your ad or whether they’re shown at all.
- Automatic offer extensions are limited to English-language ads only. For example, this means that if your ad is written in English and targets English-speaking customers in Japan, your ad is eligible to show automatic offer extensions.
When your ads might appear with automatic offer extensions
In addition to reviewing your ad text to determine that your ads are eligible to appear with automatic offer extensions, there are other criteria that you must meet for your ad to be eligible to appear with this feature. Here are the criteria:
- Your campaign must be opted into the Google Search Network
- Your campaign must target desktop computers
- Your ad must be eligible to appear in one of the positions above Google search results
If you want to opt out of automatic offer extensions, you can do this by using this form. If you change your mind, you can always opt back in using the same form.
Understanding your costs
You will be charged the same amount each time a customer clicks any link on your ad, regardless of whether the link clicked is the headline of your ad or the link promoting your deal. You can decide the maximum amount you’d like to pay for a click by setting a cost-per-click (CPC) bid. The amount won’t be affected by whether your ad does show or doesn’t show with automatic offer extensions.
How automatic offer extensions work with other ad extensions
If your ad is using an ad extension and your ad is also eligible to show automatic offer extensions, then AdWords will show that ad extension instead of automatic offer extensions. For example, if your giant stuffed bears ad is eligible to appear with your sitelink ad extension and it’s also eligible to appear with automatic offer extensions, then your sitelinks will be displayed with your ad.
Dynamic Search Ads: Match ads with searches based on your website, not keywords
Dynamic Search Ads look the same as standard ads.
Understanding your bidding and targeting options
You can add any or all of this extra information to your ads at no extra cost. Yes, free! AdWords only charges you for each click on your ad that leads to your site, even if those clicks are on product images, additional links, or other ad extensions click types.
- Clicks on the Google Search Network: Most ad extensions can only appear on the Google Search Network, so when you set up your campaign you’ll need to set a cost-per-click (CPC) bid.
- Impressions on the Google Display Network: Social extensions can appear on the Google Display Network as well as the Google Search Network, so when you set up your campaign you’ll have the option to set either a CPC bid or a cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM) bid.
You can choose to show your ads on the Google Search and Display Networks. Where and how your ad extensions appear on these networks depends on what extensions you create. You’ll have the option to pick one of the following network targeting options as you set up your campaign:
- On the Google Search Network: Most ad extensions can only appear on Google.com and some Google Search Network sites, such as Google Maps (for location extensions).
- On the Google Display Network: Social extensions can appear on both the Google Search and Display Networks.
Creating an ad extension
Here’s how to create the first extension in a campaign using the campaign creation page:
- Sign in to your AdWords account.
- On the Campaigns tab, click the New campaign button and select the type of campaign you’d like to create.
- You’ll be taken to the Settings tab of your new campaign.
- Under Ad extensions, check the box next to the ad extension type you’d like to add to your new campaign.
Note
Ad extensions are only available for certain campaign types that have “All features” enabled. You can switch your campaign type at any time. Keep in mind that doing so may hide or deactivate some features that affect ad serving.
If you’ve already created an ad extension in another campaign in your account, you can choose to use that existing extension (this is known as shared extensions). This saves you the time and effort of manually creating the same extension for a new campaign. While you can create any ad extension following the general steps in this article, each ad extension has its own unique setup, reporting, and best practices. Choose an extension type below to learn more:
Using a shared extension
When you create a new extension during campaign setup, or later when you add an extension to an existing campaign, you’ll be offered the option to skip some extra steps by using an existing extension. You can also share multiple types of extensions. For example, if you have call and product extensions in one campaign, you can share extensions for both types in a new campaign.
Editing shared extensions: When you edit a shared extension, the change will apply across all the campaigns that share the extensions. If you only want to change one extension for one of the shared campaigns, you should create a new and separate extension.
Deleting shared extensions: If you have at least one campaign remaining with the extension, deleting the extensions from other campaigns will simply mean that those campaigns will not be sharing extensions. If you have only one campaign with the extension and delete the extension, this change is permanent and your extension settings will not be saved.
Using filters for shared extensions: Filters are included as part of the extension.
Example
Let’s say you create a location extension for Campaign “Shoes Sale.” It uses Google Places Feed X with a filter on business name=HappyShoes. Next, you decide to share this extension with Campaign “Shoes Full Price.” The filter will also apply to “Shoes Full Price.”
If you change the filter for Campaign “Shoes Sale” to business name=SunnyShoes Campaign, “Shoes Full Price” will be updated to use the same filter.
Location extensions — sharing manual addresses: With location extensions, you can either attach a Google Places feed or manually enter addresses. These manual addresses are also shareable among campaigns. However, there’s currently no way to define a set of manual addresses and share this set among campaigns. You can share more than one manual address across a campaign, but you’ll need to do this one at a time for each manual address.