Picking up where we left of last week, sometimes it can take a little digging to get the AdWords Reports you’re really interested in. It’s not that you’re not handling the account well, it’s just that the pace of change within AdWords is so fast – over 500 updates to AdWords in 2012 – that it’s easy to overlook or miss a new feature or tool. This is perhaps the case with Ad Extensions, which have come a long way in a short space of time and continue to be added to on a regular basis. AdWords Reports detailing activity influenced by Ad Extensions can be a great way to understand your market better and also to test new ideas.
We’ll take a look at the top 3 Ad Extensions, the ones that everyone can use without any additional effort; Location, Call and Sitelinks. Each of these can influence a viewers decisions whether or not to visit your site or make contact, they can also be used to A/B test particular areas of your site which in turn can lead to better strategy and improvements to your website.
Extensing Your Reach
- Location Extensions – There are few businesses that don’t have a physical location, even if that’s just a unit on an industrial estate, and there are very few reasons not to show an address. For some businesses that only sell online and so don’t want to encourage footfall the argument goes that there’s no point to showing an audience your location, especially if it’s just a unit on an industrial estate. Not so! Tests have shown that an address can act as a way of reassuring a viewer that your business is credible and above board. It can also indicate that deliveries will be made from the UK rather than abroad, another major factor that comes into play when people are ordering online. For local businesses it’s vital to show a Location Extension. If you’re just down the road from a person looking for your service or products and all your competitors are 100 miles away, if you’re not showing your address next to your ad how is anyone to know? Having an address appear next to your ad also means your ad takes up more space on the page. Occupying more ‘real estate’ means there’s less space for your competitors.
- Call Extensions – Whether you choose to use Google’s own call tracking system, which shows a Google generated number and re-directs it to your number, or you adopt a third party system you really should use call tracking. The only reason to not use it is if you don’t have a phone, and if you don’t have a phone, I’d hazard a guess that business is not great, get one. If you go one stage further you can show a different phone number for each campaign or even each adgroup. More importantly you’ll now get really important information on how those numbers next to your ads affect, not just calls, but CTRs and costs. It’s often the case that an ad with a call extension has a greater CTR than one without and also has a lower CPC. This goes for most Ad Extensions.
- Sitelink Extensions – Sitelink Extensions were available before the Enhanced update, but when the update was rolled out, not only did the reporting improve but the actual extension itself, if used fully it’s possible to show three lines of text with each link rather than just one. Sitelinks are a great way of testing what message appeals more to your customers. You can use helpful sitelinks – contact us etc. – link to products pages or your latest offers and promotions. As with Call Extensions these are available at adgroup level, giving you even more scope to test and tailor the message. I’ve never seen a case where Sitelinks haven’t improved a campaign, and often the campaign has improved significantly with CTR going from 1% to as much as 25% in some cases. Pulling down these AdWords Reports will give you a strong idea what appeals to your audience; does one particular offer get more clicks? Does a particular range have a bigger CTR?
Each of these Ad Extension reports offers an insight into the behaviour of the audience you are trying to build a relationship with and should be looked at on a regular basis, updating when necessary.
If you’d like to discuss AdWords Ad Extension reports further, or are interested in learning more about how Paid Search can help your business call one of our qualified PPC Account Managers on 0800 046 4079 or send us your questions via the website.
