Ad Extensions: Why They Matter

In the past, we’ve written about ad extensions and how they improve ad rank, but why else do they matter and just how important are they?

From a high level, we know extensions improve ad quality and therefore performance. Why? According to Google, they “make ads more useful and engaging to users… [driving] additional clicks.” In our experience, they also help advertisers stand out from the competition.

Extensions can come in all shapes and sizes. Call extensions provide a phone number for users to contact the business, review extensions showcase kudos given by other entities, callout extensions highlight various offerings or value propositions, and the list goes on.

Regarding ad density, sitelinks take up a significant amount of real estate and allow room for great detail and customization, particularly in the landing page department, while also helping to boost performance. We’ve seen cases where dropping from four sitelinks to three causes a drastic CTR decrease.

Google recently raised the sitelink stakes by doubling the number eligible to show on mobile from four to eight and changing from a list display to a carousel format.

For us, it means we always want to have at least eight sitelinks applied to and approved in the account (it often takes hours for the copy to go through and pass the review process). It also means our sitelinks need to grab users’ attention quickly as they scroll through the carousel.

Whatever the vertical, ad extensions provide depth and enhance the relevancy of ads by showing pertinent details and quickly directing users to the information they’re looking for. While the way sitelinks in mobile searches has changed, their level of importance remains high.