Optimize Your AdWords Campaigns

Last time we talked about 5 ad extensions I think are the most universally useful. However, if these next 5 apply to your business, I highly recommend utilizing them. Not that they would ever spill their algorithm secrets, but based on personal experience, it does seem like Google gives a bit of a boost to ads utilizing as many of their features as possible from bidding strategies to newer ad types such as RSAs, and adwords extensions. So take a look at the extensions below and see if you can fit any of them in your campaigns.

Structured snippet extensions are a great way to show multiple products, services, or features in a category. There are 13 different category headers to choose from. Some of the most widely applicable ones are Amenities, Brands, Models, Service Catalog, Styles, and Types. But if you can use some of the more niche ones like Courses, Degree Programs, Shows, etc, by all means, implement them and get your ad quality up.

Like all the other AdWords extensions available, structured snippets give you a fair bit more real estate on the search engine results pages (SERPs) and allow you to potentially fit more relevant keywords into your ad copy which helps the algorithm and helps users understand your offerings better.

While promotion extensions are useful for enticing users via special deals, price extensions give your potential users more insight on your evergreen prices that users can even scroll through before clicking on your ad. This feature is helpful because if your product or service isn’t in the user’s price range, they can scroll past your ad without triggering a paid click costing you money on bad traffic.

If your business has a mobile app, I can’t think of a good reason not to use the app extension. Apps tend to contribute to customer loyalty and engagement and the app extension helps drive users to download your app. They’re relatively unintrusive, just being a small bit of text beneath the main ad copy like the other ad extensions, but give users a choice of where they’d like to engage with your business--website or app.

Lead form extensions are possibly the most restrictive extension types available requiring a total Google AdWords Ad spend of $50,000 USD. There are a few other minor requirements as well, but if you meet them and implement this extension, you have a powerful and convenient way to generate leads directly on the SERP rather than needing users to get to your site and possibly have to do additional navigating.

I would only recommend this extension if your business is very straightforward though. If it’s not readily apparent what your services are from your ad copy and business name, you’re likely to waste time and money on bad leads. One example I’ve seen while consulting is a B2B credit worthiness service, but many users were general consumers thinking the business was either offering credit cards or offered credit repair services. Before we optimized that campaign, a lot of time was wasted following up on unqualified leads as well as ad money on unqualified clicks.

If your business is in manufacturing or wholesaling, the affiliate location extension could be useful for you. While it’s common for retailers to do their own SEM on behalf of the products they sell, if you want to improve your brand’s recognition and chances for users to ultimately purchase your brand, it might benefit you to do some of your own SEM and utilize this affiliate location extension which lets you show your users the places they can transact for your product.

Hopefully one or two of these additional extensions apply to your AdWords campaign. Try to utilize all the available tools in your campaigns to improve quality scores and traffic quality, saving you valuable resources for your business.

If you’ve already implemented these top 5 AdWords extensions or if they don’t feel applicable to your business, next time we’ll talk about the other 5 extensions that are a bit less universal in use case, but when applicable, can add a nice bit of extra color to your ads.