Google Ads offers several extensions for your ads to enhance their performance or encourage a specific action. Call Extensions allow your ads to include a phone number or a button to call directly, making it easier for users to contact your business via phone call.
There is no element of copy to a call extension, only the phone number.
You are only likely to need one call extension at whatever level you apply the extension. But across different campaigns/ad groups you may need different numbers for different areas of your business or for tracking different aspects of an account with unique tracking numbers.
As always with ad extensions, call extensions are more likely to be displayed if the ads are in higher positions, but call extensions seem to be an extension that is favoured by Google and often shown when applied.
Why Use Them
Call extensions help to increase the size of your ads and make them more eye-catching, but also giving the user another means of interacting with your business. This is great for your business but also a plus mark for your potential customers by giving them another option.
Ad extensions also contribute to your standing in the auction, helping you to either improve your average position or reduce your CPC, or both. What’s more, ad extensions are free to implement – you only need to pay for a click as normal; and in the case of a written number, if this is manually entered by the user rather than clicked/tapped then it would be entirely free.
Where To Add Them
Within the Google Ads interface, in the Ads & extensions tab, then the extensions section. Clicking the ‘+’ you then get the option to add a call extension.
From here it is simply a case of selecting the appropriate country and entering the phone number.
There are a couple of other points worth noting, if you are wanting to apply the extension to a few campaigns or ad groups you can associate an existing extension rather than creating a new one for each – done by selecting ‘use existing’ rather than ‘create new’, once you have entered the add call extension menu. There is also an advanced options section which allows for scheduling, so you can ensure that call extensions are only displayed when your call centre is open.
It is also possible to create call extensions in Editor from within the shared library, by navigating to the ‘shared call extensions’ tab and then using the ‘add shared call extension’ button. From this point, the options are the same as in the online interface; though it is more difficult to implement the ad scheduling from here. It can be useful to create the extension in the online interface and then implement it in the campaigns and ad groups that are required.
Tracking
A key consideration regarding call extensions is the ability to effectively track the call performance. There are many 3rd party tools and providers of call tracking, some of which are very powerful at syncing with the Google Marketing Platform software. The higher end, enterprise solutions can enable advertisers to track call performance at a granular level (for example – keyword reporting). This allows advertisers to attribute performance more accurately and obtain more value from their marketing.
To summarise, the call extension is a really handy add-on for your ads to make them more eye-catching and to give the user another option of action. These seem to be favoured by Google in-terms of SERP ranking and can help improve your average ranking and CPC.
If you'd like some more information or would like to discuss a current / future Paid Search project please don't hesitate to get in contact: [email protected]
Look out for our next Google Ads extension blog coming soon!
Sources:
Google Ads Help - https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2453991?hl=en-GB
Bing Ads Help - https://help.bingads.microsoft.com/#apex/3/en/56813/0
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| Author | Chris Stevens |
| Channel | SEM |