When Google launched Enhanced Campaigns at the beginning of February, any digital marketer worth their iPad sat up and took notice. This change will have long-ranging effects on paid search campaigns in ways both big and small. In this third installment of our Enhanced Campaigns coverage we’ll take a look at how to optimize your ad extensions, a small but important change in the new system. If you find this information helpful, be sure to look at our last posts on bid adjustments and a top-level analysis of what this major change could mean for marketers.
Site Links
Site links have traditionally been rolled up when it comes to performance metrics. In the new Enhanced Campaigns interface we will be able to not only view metrics for each link, but we can also set up site links at the ad group level and do scheduling on the site link so that certain links run only at certain times. Note that a check box is included for various ad extensions, like call extensions or site link extensions, which specify that you only want your extension to run on mobile or desktop. This way, advertisers can continue to customize the ads, landing pages, ad text (etc.) that are optimized for mobile and desktop search, respectively.
Call Extensions
Like site links, call extensions can also be set up at the ad group level now, as well as having a scheduling option. There is also a great new option to help with reporting where you can select to only report on calls that last [x] seconds in duration. Note that there is still a click-to-call only feature, so if you do not have a mobile-friendly site this may be a viable option. Also be aware that Google will disapprove a phone number within the ad text: you can only use call extensions.
Here’s a detailed view of how pricing on call extensions works, including where you’ll find the data for each type of call:
| Devices on which a customer sees your ad | Action taken by the customer | Resulting charges | Where to view call data |
| Laptops, desktop computers, or tablets | Customer manually dials the Google forwarding phone number from a phone | Legacy campaigns: Flat fee of $1.00, £1.00, €1.00 per completed call Enhanced campaigns: No charge |
Call details columns on the Campaign and Ad Group tabs |
| Laptops, desktop computers or tablets | Customer clicks your ad | Standard ad click | N/A |
| High-end mobile devices | Customer clicks the Google forwarding phone number or “Call” button, launching the phone’s dialer | Standard ad click | Call details columns on the Campaign and Ad Group tabs |
| High-end mobile devices | Customer clicks your ad | Standard ad click | N/A |
NEW Offer Ads
This was previously in Beta however it is now openly available for all advertisers to use. Offer extension is also available at the ad group level.
How do offer extensions work? When customers click your offer, they’ll see an offer landing page that Google’s automated systems assemble. The landing page will include the following: your offer headline, the details of your offer, and an image of your business logo. The bar code or discount code that you create is shown only when the customer prints or redeems your offer. Customers can print your offer if they’re viewing it on a desktop computer. Or, customers can save it for later use if they’re viewing it on a mobile phone. On either device, customers can save it to their Google Offers accounts.
Location, Social and Dynamic Search Ads
These extensions all remain the same as previous setups other than mobile preference options.
App Download
Like site links, app download extensions can also be set up at the ad group level, as well as having a scheduling option. Please note that there is a “new” app download conversion tracking event that you can do in the conversion tracking section in AdWords interface. It will automatically track app downloads for you from Android devices without any code implementation. How does this work when tablets are rolled into desktop? Obviously we would only want to show click-to-download ads on a device that could actually download the app. We would tell Google through the extensions which app we want to promote and then Google will make sure to only show it on the devices that can download it.
