Google announced new improvements to ad extensions for advertisers aimed at making management easier. Sitelink, callout, and structured snippet extensions are getting updates.
According to Google’s research, ad extensions provide users with an additional way to interact with ads, sometimes resulting in a 20% increase in click-thru rate (CTR) when four sitelinks are displayed in ads.
Let’s take a closer look at the recent changes.
Automated Extension Eligibility Checking
Ginny Marvin, Google Ads’ official Ads Liaison, announced that automated extensions will be eligible to appear alongside manually added extensions. This change will go into effect in mid-March.
The following ad extensions will be eligible to appear alongside manual extensions:
Structured snippets Sitelinks Callouts
The addition of automated extensions eligibility allows your ad to take up more space on the SERP. Previously, when manual extensions were created, the automated extensions above were not eligible to show.
What were the consequences of this? For instance, if you created two manual sitelink extensions for your ads, your ad would only be eligible to display those manual extensions. With this update, your ad will now be able to display both manual and automated extensions at the same time.
Keep in mind that your account must be set up for automated extensions in order to appear.
Read How to use Surfer SEO.
Extension Reporting Automation
Google is updating its reporting capabilities in addition to the automated extensions eligibility.
Individual reporting will now be available in Google Ads’ Extensions page.
You can pause or remove any automated extension at the individual level. This makes it easier to manage your campaigns.
You’ll also be able to tell which extensions were created manually and which were created automatically by Google.
Viewability of Manual Extensions
Google already allows you to create more granular extensions (account, campaign, or ad group). The more granular these extensions were created, the less likely it was that extensions created at a higher level would be ineligible to serve.
The higher-level eligibility will change with the new updates, which will be released in March.
If campaign or account-level extensions are expected to improve performance, they may appear in your ads. Google’s machine learning algorithm is responsible for the predicted performance improvement.
If you’ve created hyper-specific ad extensions at the ad group level, you should go over any campaign or account-level extensions that might be eligible to show in your ads. If any extensions are not relevant to those ad groups, you should reorganize them in a way that makes sense for your account.
Summary
The changes to automated extensions will make it easier to manage and see what automated extensions are being created.
Although the changes to manual extension visibility may result in a higher lift in performance, it is critical that you proactively review your extensions at the account or campaign level. If your campaigns have more granular extensions, you may have to do more manual work in the near future to ensure that all of your ad extensions are relevant to users.
Learn more from SEO and read Here’s What’s New in Google Search Ads 360.
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