The Learning Center

If you’re familiar with how to run a Google Adwords campaign, then you should already be familiar with ad extensions. For those that are unfamiliar, I’ll give a brief explanation of what they are. If you are a new Adwords advertiser and you’re just setting up your first campaign, you will come across an option in the settings that allows you to add extensions to your ads. These extensions are pretty simple. For example let’s say you want your phone number to appear with your ad, that’s an extension. The same goes for your address, product offers, social media, etc. So now we have a new extension and one that could be a very powerful indeed. We have customer review extensions!

How it Works

In June, Google started beta testing this new feature. The extension allows advertisers to place third party reviews, rankings and awards that come from specific sources. The way the system is supposed to work is that you submit a “new review”  through your Google Adwords account. Then you have to specify whether the quote is exact or paraphrased. You’ll need to provide the quote and the source of the quote with the url as well. The quote and the source needs to be no more than 67 characters in length. Then save it to your account. The review will take a few days to get approved. Once it is approved you can then go to the ad extensions tab, pick the extension, pick the review and add it to whichever campaign you want.

Oh the Possibilities!

Consider the implications if you run Adwords ads. We know reviews are powerful. One stat I recently read said that online reviews can increase sales for a business at least 7%. Having such reviews show up as part of the ad will definitely increase click through rates. Which can in turn decrease the cost per click because the ads will perform better.

A Window of Opportunity

Another advantage to consider is that, for most changes that Adwords rolls out, the average advertiser is usually slow to take advantage. So early adopters could potentially be well rewarded. Current advertisers have to take the time to submit the reviews and wait for the reviews to become available as an extension. For many advertisers the reviews may not even be available if they haven’t taken the time to try and collect them.

Google has made many changes to their Adwords program over the years. Some are good and some aren’t, but Google Adwords review extensions are a great idea that’s going to help a lot of large and small businesses increase their sales.

If you need help using Google Adwords for your business or you want help expanding your online presence call our office at 615-890-3600 or email us. Consultations are always free and we would be happy to talk with you.