Google’s goal has always been to serve up the most relevant and useful results to searchers. To this end, Google recently announced a significant update to its Ad Rank calculation — the inclusion of expected impact from ad extensions and formats.
Previously, ad rank was calculated using a marketer’s max cost-per click (CPC) bid and quality score. As of October 22nd, Google now considers your ad extensions in the equation — effectively giving marketers that enable ad extensions an edge to those that do not and likely, a better ad position.
So how does Google determine the “expected impact” from these extensions? The impact is measured by relevance, click-through rate, and prominence of the extensions or formats on the search results page. Diving a little deeper, you’ll see that Google notes that if two ads have the same bid and quality score, the ad with more positive expected impact from extensions will appear higher than the other.
In real-world context this means if a searcher is looking for a nearby florist on his or her mobile device, Google would determine that an ad with location or call extensions enabled would have a greater expected impact than one without those extensions.
Marketers who are not utilizing ad extensions should consider enabling them in order to maintain or improve paid search performance. Although it may seem like an extra step on your part as a marketer to enable these extensions, it has been found that they increase CTR and overall paid search performance. In fact, Google found that 70% of mobile searchers call a business directly from search results, just one example importance and effectiveness.
So what ad extensions are available to you? In the spirit of the season, Skai released an ad extensions infographic with a Thanksgiving twist. Just as turkey is the main event at Thanksgiving, the headline and description text are the main focuses in a text ad, but the side dishes — or ad extensions — can completely transform your experience.
As illustrated in the infographic, marketers can utilize sitelinks, call extensions, location extensions, review extensions, social annotations, app extensions, and seller ratings to enhance their text ads. Each extension provides its own benefit and, given the context of each search, can stimulate increased engagement. Whether it’s providing a business phone number, displaying reviews, or promoting an app, these extensions make your ad more enticing and, in turn, elevate paid search performance.
Now it is more important than ever to expand your paid search efforts and opt-in to ad extensions to capture relevant searches. To learn more about the available ad extensions and their benefits, check out Skai’s latest infographic, Be Thankful For Ad Extensions.
Don’t forget to try your luck at our Thanksgiving search trivia (located at the bottom of the infographic) for your chance to win a special prize! Join in on the fun and tweet your answers to @Kenshoo using the hashtag #KenshooSearchTrivia by Tuesday, November 26th.
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