Google Ads Extensions Part 1.

The well-known ad extensions in Google Ads campaigns have recently been replaced by „components.” If we wanted to review our ad extensions for ourselves, we would click on the „ads and extensions” tab and click „extensions” in the expanded option. Nothing simpler. Nowadays, we only have the „ads and components” tab, which, when expanded, shows us the „resources” sub-page. Her,e we have a table view in three selectable options 

• links (i.e., former ad extensions)
• resources (the content of our ads – headlines, descriptions, etc.) 
• links (older version) 

Well, let’s start at the very beginning.

What are and where do we find ad extensions (components)?

If we were to specify exactly what the current components are, they would be both ad extensions and the ad content itself. Components include headlines, ad text, links to specific parts of the site, call-to-action buttons, location information, and other elements that together form the final ad format displayed to the user.

We have many component formats, each of which I will discuss separately later. But what purpose does adding components serve? What does it give us?

The mandatory components in an ad are the headline and text/description. We could stop there, but if we want our ads to be more likely to be displayed to users due to their better quality rating, it’s a good idea to add additional components. 

Components, such as a link to a subpage or an image, enrich our ads with additional content, which increases their visibility on the search results page. This means that the ads ultimately have more value. By adding components, we can provide more content to the ad recipients, including what we could not put in the ad content due to the limited number of characters, etc. Components can increase ad clicks and provide users with additional information and ways to reach our company. 

Many types of components require manual configuration. Fortunately, some are configured automatically when the system determines that it can improve the effectiveness of ads. These components do not require you to configure any settings manually.

Will you pay to add components?

No, we do not incur additional fees for adding components. We incur costs when a user clicks on a component in a ready-made ad, in which case fees are charged in the usual way (the exception is clicks on vendor ratings, which are not charged). When a user calls using the call icon or downloads an app, they will be charged as for a regular click. Google Ads charges for up to 2 clicks per display of each ad and its components

We only spend the minimum amount necessary to reach the ad ranking threshold and beat the ad rate of the next advertiser in the ranking (if any).

Advertisements ranked higher on a page in the search results – tend to have a higher actual CPC due to more competition, which will drive up the CPC, but also partly through higher ad ranking thresholds. The same is true when an ad has a higher number of components – their actual CPC may ultimately be higher due to the increased visibility of the ads. It’s worth looking at the bigger picture. The increased cost of adding components to ads usually turns out to be lower than the cost of moving the ad to a higher position on the search results page. Adding components means we can get more clicks (higher ad position equals more clicks) than modulating our page position with budget alone. 

Types of ad extensions (links/components)

Location

Location components—By adding these extensions, potential customers can easily find your business. The extension will show your company’s address and a map with its location or distance from it. It can also include a phone number or a call button.

The location components can be displayed in different formats on mobile devices and computers, on search and advertising networks, and on YouTube and Google Maps.

Location-Related Components—If, let’s say, our company does not own stores but is a specific manufacturer that sells products in them, let’s use location-related components instead of location components. All we need to do is add a new location-associated component on the Resources page at the account level and indicate the store chains that sell our products. Google will take care of further configuration.

Connection components

We cannot add a phone number to the ad content, as the ad will be rejected. The only way to include a phone number in the ad is to use call-making components. This allows us to add our number to the ad. It is clicked on so the user can go directly to make a call.  

We can set this extension to display our phone number only during our company’s opening hours. 

The cost of clicking on a number is the same as the cost of a regular click, but we can set it at the account level to make a click on a phone number count as a conversion. Then, the campaign can be optimized just for this action.

The cost of a click on a number counts as a conversion.

Like all other extensions, call extensions do not appear on some ad displays. Once an ad auction is started, the algorithm determines whether or not a callout component will be displayed based on historical performance and other factors. Call-making components only display a certain proportion of all ad impressions, which is perfectly normal. However, we can modify the rates so that ads with connection display more often.

Components with link-to-subpage

By adding links to subpages, we can add additional links to our ads. It can be, for example, a link to a subpage with information about a promotion or a redirection to a tab containing contact information.

Links to subpages work in search network campaigns and YouTube video campaigns.

The text of a subpage link can be up to 25 characters long. Adding descriptions will make the ad more readable for the user. Descriptions do not affect the number of links displayed in the ad.

Take advantage of the dynamic subpage links options—they give the system more options for displaying components in ads. If we do not want an automatically created component displayed in ads, we can block or remove it.

Lock or delete the component if we do not want it displayed in ads.

A helpful option is editing sub-page links without losing data and effectiveness statistics. We can also schedule the start and end of the display of a specific sub-page link.

The sub-page links can also be scheduled for display.

When and how are sub-page links displayed? 

In order for the search network ad to display sub-page links, we need to add at least 2 in the desktop version and at least one in the mobile version. The number of sub-page links that can display depends on where users see the ad. On a computer, it is a maximum of 6, and on a phone, a maximum of 8 (in a single-line or carousel layout).

For video campaigns, sub-page links appear under the corresponding ads, which appear before, during or after another YouTube video. Links to subpages appear only under ads on mobile devices.

For links to subpages to appear under ads, we must add at least 2 such links.

The video ad displays a maximum of 4 sub-page links, which users can view while watching the ad.

Components with explanation

Explanation is the text added at the end of a search network ad. One explanation can contain a maximum of 25 characters. In addition to the ad text, 10 explanations can be displayed. Their number depends on the spacing between characters, the browser in which the ad is displayed, and the device used. The order of the explanations, their length, and their effectiveness affect how many of them appear and whether they are displayed at all. Explanations on a computer are separated by dots and placed on a single line, while on mobile phones/mobile devices and tablets, they wrap to form a paragraph. We can also specify dates, days of the week or times of the day when we want to display the explanations.

Components with information extension

Information extensions display below the text ad as a header (selected from a list provided by Google Ads) and a list (excerpted by us – max 25 characters/value). 

This is the list of available headlines:

• Facilities
• Brands
• Courses
• Courses of study
• Destinations
• Recommended hotels
• Insurance
• Models
• Surroundings
• Services
• Programs
• Styles
• Types

It is important that the selected header and the extracted values match because a mismatch will most likely result in the extension being rejected.

If the site’s information extension appears in an ad on a computer, a maximum of 2 headlines can appear at once, and if on a tablet or other mobile device – only one. It is also worth considering this when constructing the content of ads. 

Components with prices

Components with prices displayed below text ads on computers and mobile devices, providing additional space for detailed information about a company’s offerings. They take the form of up to 8 tabs, which users can display to see other options and prices from the offer we uploaded. From the price menu, users can go directly to a product on the site linked to a particular tile.

When creating a component with prices, we have many values to choose from. Choose the type of component with prices from the values below:

• Brands
• Events
• Locations
• Locations
• Product categories
• Product types
• Service categories
• Types of services
• Services

We also have a choice of different currencies and price qualifier, i.e. „from”, „to” and „on average” or an option without qualifier. In addition, directly in the extension, we can choose the product unit:

• per hour
• per day
• per night
• per week
• monthly
• annually

There are only 25 characters available in the headline and the same number in the description, so you need to plan it wisely. This is a very valuable extension especially useful when we don’t have an e-commerce system implemented on our site, but still sell products. It can somewhat replace for us a product campaign, to a small extent, but always something ?.

Components with links to the application

Components with app links allows you to include an extension in your ad that will take the user directly to the app store to download our app. This extension is only visible on mobile devices. We can redirect the user to the Google Play and App Store. Here, it is also possible to set a schedule for the extension. This component is a good complement to app promotion campaigns, through which we will get additional installations by advertising on the search network.

Summary

This is not the end of discussing ad extensions. In the next part, we will discuss components such as: contact form, image file, company name (beta version), company logo (beta version), promotion extension, dynamic image or we will elaborate more on components created automatically.