Which ad extensions should you choose for your Google Ads campaign?

Beyond choosing your keywords or writing your ads, Google Ads gives you the opportunity to enhance them by adding content in the form of "extensions". These are pre-proposed options — it is up to you to decide which ones will be best suited to your activity, your objectives, and what you want to display.

Extensions have the particular advantage of making your ads more prominent in search engines. By adding them, you allow your listing — which appears among the top results — to take up more space and therefore be more visible.

The information they display can also be decisive in prompting internet users to click. If that information is relevant, precise, and matches the visitor's intent, you are on to a winner! Extensions also help filter out unqualified visitors.

Google Ads offers a set of 11 extensions. Here they are:

Sitelink extensions

This is probably the extension that will earn you the most space in the search engine. You can add up to 6 sitelinks, displayed on 1 to 2 lines (in carousel format on mobile). The main advantage of this extension is that it allows visitors to click directly on the section of your website that concerns them or addresses their specific need.

These links provide direct access to certain pages of your site, meaning the internet user does not have to search on their own — at the risk of becoming discouraged and abandoning their journey. Easy to modify via Google Ads and offering more detail, this is an excellent alternative for better visibility and greater relevance of your ads.

Callout extensions

This is your chance to highlight the uniqueness of your organisation, your offers, and everything you have to offer. In the form of a line of short texts, you can add up to 10 callouts — though 4 or 5 is preferable to keep them punchy.

Acting as a genuine marketing asset or point of differentiation from your competitors, it would be a shame not to take advantage of this easy-to-implement extension. Open 7 days a week, free quotes, 24-hour delivery, 20 years of experience… these are the kinds of distinguishing features to highlight in this section.

Structured snippet extensions

The structured snippet extension allows you to offer a categorisation of your products or services. Here again, the idea is to provide as much information and detail as possible. To help you do this, Google Ads already proposes headers you can use to describe yourself:

Courses – Insurance coverage – Destinations – Shows – Amenities – Brands – Models – Degree programmes – Neighbourhoods – Hotel selections – Services – Styles

If you manage a clothing boutique, you might opt for the "Styles" header and define your collection accordingly ("Bohemian", "Chic", "Wedding", etc.). It is important to add at least 4 values per header.

Image extensions

Relatively little used, the image extension is nonetheless one of the most impactful from a visual standpoint. It allows you to illustrate your ad, to display your product or service, which makes it far more comprehensible and persuasive.

Be careful, however, about the relevance of your images. They must align perfectly with the content of your ads and landing pages, so as not to create confusion or disappointment. They will also likely take priority over the textual content of your ad, so make the right choice in terms of composition and select a high-quality image.

Lead form extensions

Like a CTA (call to action), the lead form extension is the best way to collect information about your potential customers via your Google Ads campaign. With this option, you will be able to gather not only names but also phone numbers or email addresses from those who fill in the fields.

Setting it up is relatively straightforward, even if it might seem complicated at first. You need to prepare a compelling sentence that encourages clicks, create a form (your identity, the information you wish to receive, privacy policy), and write a short explanatory message that will appear when the internet user clicks on your extension.

Call extensions

Absolutely essential! You do not even need to think about the content of this extension, because it will simply be your phone number. Practical and quick for internet users, the call extension should be set up for all your campaigns.

A phone call can, incidentally, be counted as a click if selected as a conversion element.

Price extensions

Pricing is among the content most searched for on your website — it can be a decisive factor in the purchase decision. By displaying the price of certain key products directly in your ad, you allow the visitor to immediately gauge the price range you offer.

But the importance of the price extension is even greater when you are running a promotional period. Displaying your competitive prices in this way is an excellent means of generating more conversions and making an impact on the search network.

Promotion extensions

This extension is similar to the previous one in that it also mentions the cost of your products and services, but it works differently. By activating the promotion extension, a new line and a small tag-shaped icon will appear in your ad. In most cases, this will be followed by the percentage discount and the selection to which it applies.

Widely used during sales periods, the promotion extension proves to have considerable persuasive power.

Location extensions

This extension is available if your activity has premises the public can visit. If you are a self-employed person working from home, for example, it will be of no use to you. And for good reason — to be able to use it, you must first have created a Google My Business page, which allows you to appear on Google Maps and boost your local SEO.

Your offices or physical shop address will then appear, making it easy for interested parties to find you and helping you develop your customer base within your catchment area.

App extensions

As you may have guessed, the app extension is only applicable if… you have an application. A little boost for its deployment, this extension allows visitors to access your application directly. The link put in place will automatically redirect to an App Store or Google Play download page where the internet user can find all the relevant information and download the app to their mobile or tablet.

Seller ratings

This extension is generated automatically by Google Ads once you have set it up. Google uses reliable sources to display these ratings on your ads. They reassure visitors in their choice to use your services and entrust their problem to you.

For ratings to appear, you must have received a minimum of 100 reviews with an average score of 3.5/10, or Google or its partners must have evaluated your merchant site. Note that if you unfortunately have very poor ratings, they will not be displayed (no point rubbing salt in the wound), and that a rating that applies to a brand in one country does not necessarily apply to the same brand in a neighbouring country.

As you will have seen, Google Ads gives you up to 11 extension opportunities to optimise your ads and campaigns. We recommend setting up at least 4 to ensure greater visibility. While not all of them apply to every type of business, you can always make use of the more "generic" ones.