Can AdWords Callout Extensions Save Your Sanity?

 

A colleague of mine, working on a new build AdWords account a few days ago, became increasingly frustrated at the 35 character limit imposed on the two lines of body text in his ads, to the point where he had to down tools and stretch his legs! Anyone handling PPC campaigns will be familiar with this scenario; why is it that 90% of the time to get your USP and call to action into two lines of text takes 36 characters? Well that could all be about to change. Help may be at hand in the form of a new Ad Extension, the aptly titled Callout Extensions.

 

Advertiser always want to make the most of their USPs, the things that make them stand out from the crowd. This can be Free or Next Day Delivery, BOGOF offers, Discount Codes, Exclusive Products…there are many, but fitting those into one ad along with details about an actual product or service can often be a squeeze to say the least. How many AdWords Account Mangers reading this have received an email asking to create an ad that includes Next Day Delivery, 2 Year Warranty, Free Gift and an offer end date? I’m sure I’m not the only one. Callout Extensions look as though they could offer some help in this area.

Unlike Sitelink Extensions, which offer clickable links to several more internal pages on your website, Callout Extensions simply display a line of text that displays your USP, not a clickable link. Each Callout Extension line of text can be up to 25 characters and, just like Sitelink Extensions you can make them mobile specific and you can schedule them to run at a particular time of the day or week.

What this means is that for things like Free Delivery, Price Match or 24 Hour Call Out you do not have to use up precious characters in the main ad copy anymore, giving you the opportunity to create more compelling and product/service-centric ads.

You can create a minimum of two and maximum of four Callout Extensions at campaign or adgroup level and, like other ad extensions, when and how they appear will depend on factors including text length and performance. If you’re going to use them I’d suggest testing them on ads you know perform well in top page positions to begin with. There’s no cost to implement them and any clicks accrued are charged as a normal ad click, you’ll also be able to see specific data on how well your ads performed with Callout Extensions included next to them.

As with all new features it’ll take some testing to fully understand the benefits, and for some businesses it’ll be more successful than others, but the early signs are that it’s a positive move, and anything that makes an AdWords Managers time more productive these days has to be a good thing.

Get in touch and let us know what you think of the latest addition to the AdWords suite of Ad Extensions! You might also like our other PPC related Blog posts here!!

 

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