Now more than ever, people search online to find things nearby. In fact, Google search interest in "near me" has doubled since last year,1 with 80% coming from mobile.2 In these moments, consumers have heightened expectations for immediacy and relevance — 4 out of 5 say they want search ads to be customized to their city, zip code or immediate surroundings.3 That’s why we continue to develop richer local ad formats that deliver more relevant information based on what someone searches for.
“Where’s the nearest location?”
Last year we enhanced location extensions to show up to three different locations for a business in a single ad unit. This improvement offers consumers the flexibility to choose which of your locations is most convenient for them.
“What businesses are near me?”
Starting today, we’ll show three or four different businesses for location-related searches like “nearby auto repair.” Each ad unit will feature click-to-call and directions right at people’s fingertips. This new format organizes the information that your on-the-go customers need so they can easily compare options and take action, like calling your business or visiting your store.
If you have location extensions enabled in your account, you’ll be eligible to show these new mobile ad formats.
The wonderful world of extensions
With a world of information at their fingertips, consumers want what they want, right when they want it, so it’s essential that ads are fine-tuned to be relevant to people's contexts. In addition to location extensions, there are many types of extensions in AdWords that can make your ads more useful and engaging — and they deliver, on average, a 10% increase in click-through-rate.4 Showing more than one extension on an ad tends to see even higher engagement than that.
Search ads can trigger up to four extensions at the same time. This means your ad can show when and where a product is available at a nearby store, or show an app extension for someone on her mobile device. Here are some tips for best ways to use extensions for your business:
The specific extensions that are displayed in each auction are a function of previous performance, user context and available space on the page, among other factors Enable whatever makes sense for your customers and the AdWords system will decide the best combination of those options to maximize the value you get from your extensions.
Ad extensions done right
For Accor Hotels, a strong combination of extensions led to a 14% increase in incremental conversions. Accor Hotels’ use of the right extensions for their business helped them meet their goals of driving online and offline conversions, giving customers the information they were seeking, and reinforcing customer trust.
This ad for Novotel, Accor’s four-star International midscale brand for business & leisure travelers, checks off all of the right boxes. Sitelinks drive online conversions, a location extension (with a phone number) allows for an offline customer interaction, while customer ratings and social extensions reinforce customer trust.
For more details about the new format of location extensions, head over to the Help Center. And for more ad extensions Best Practices, check out our full collection on the Help Center.
Posted by Ayush Agarwal, Product Manager, AdWords
1 Google Trends, Data pulled March 30, 2015.
2 Google Data, Q4 2014.
3 Google/Ipsos MediaCT/Purchased, Research: Understanding Consumers’ Local Search Behavior, May 2014.
4 Google Internal Data, results vary by client, business type and extension type (among other factors) and Google cannot guarantee this or any uplift.
“Where’s the nearest location?”
Last year we enhanced location extensions to show up to three different locations for a business in a single ad unit. This improvement offers consumers the flexibility to choose which of your locations is most convenient for them.
“What businesses are near me?”
Starting today, we’ll show three or four different businesses for location-related searches like “nearby auto repair.” Each ad unit will feature click-to-call and directions right at people’s fingertips. This new format organizes the information that your on-the-go customers need so they can easily compare options and take action, like calling your business or visiting your store.
The wonderful world of extensions
With a world of information at their fingertips, consumers want what they want, right when they want it, so it’s essential that ads are fine-tuned to be relevant to people's contexts. In addition to location extensions, there are many types of extensions in AdWords that can make your ads more useful and engaging — and they deliver, on average, a 10% increase in click-through-rate.4 Showing more than one extension on an ad tends to see even higher engagement than that.
Search ads can trigger up to four extensions at the same time. This means your ad can show when and where a product is available at a nearby store, or show an app extension for someone on her mobile device. Here are some tips for best ways to use extensions for your business:
- Sitelinks Try to enable at least six sitelinks for both desktop and mobile users. Briefer sitelinks are generally the most effective, so try to keep them short and crisp.
- Callouts Like sitelinks, you’ll want to keep these short. They’re best used with specific and concrete information, like sizes or rates.
- Reviews As long as you’re quoting or paraphrasing from a reputable third-party source, you can apply one review to your entire account. These are possibly the fastest extensions to put into place.
The specific extensions that are displayed in each auction are a function of previous performance, user context and available space on the page, among other factors Enable whatever makes sense for your customers and the AdWords system will decide the best combination of those options to maximize the value you get from your extensions.
Ad extensions done right
For Accor Hotels, a strong combination of extensions led to a 14% increase in incremental conversions. Accor Hotels’ use of the right extensions for their business helped them meet their goals of driving online and offline conversions, giving customers the information they were seeking, and reinforcing customer trust.
For more details about the new format of location extensions, head over to the Help Center. And for more ad extensions Best Practices, check out our full collection on the Help Center.
Posted by Ayush Agarwal, Product Manager, AdWords
1 Google Trends, Data pulled March 30, 2015.
2 Google Data, Q4 2014.
3 Google/Ipsos MediaCT/Purchased, Research: Understanding Consumers’ Local Search Behavior, May 2014.
4 Google Internal Data, results vary by client, business type and extension type (among other factors) and Google cannot guarantee this or any uplift.