**Original article published in September 2018. Updated and re-published in November 2020.
In late July 2018, Google officially moved over to its new and improved AdWords interface. The interface had been available for months, being touted as “faster” than the previous interface. While I question the speed improvement, there are certainly several new features that the new interface offers.
*2020 Update: Google AdWords is now simply Google Ads. Extensions matter just as much in 2020-21 as they did back in 2018, but things have changed a bit, as discussed below.
One of the notable updates was the overhaul of the Extensions. If you’re unfamiliar with Extensions, they come in different formats, but each is designed to provide additional information to the prospective patient to encourage a click. As you can see in the graphic below, your ads can highlight your address, list your services, list popular links on your website, and list calls outs.
- Reviews: Google has phased out the Reviews extension. This extension would show approved patient reviews, pulled from sources like Google or Real Self (but not Yelp). I still see this extension showing in live results, but since it’s no longer an option in the new interface I expect these to disappear.
*2020 Update: Google still doesn’t have this Reviews extension available, but you can leverage reviews with Google’s Seller Ratings ads extensions.
- Promotions: This is a new extension that allows you to list a discount, percentage or monetary, for any service. If you’re promoting a procedure and your call to action is a discount then you can utilize the promotions extension to highlight this deal. You no longer have to rely solely on ad text, and the one big advantage over noting discounts in the ad text is that with the extension you can set start and stop dates. With ad text, you have to set a reminder in your calendar and then go in and manually edit or pause the ad.
- Message: If you have a phone number set up to receive text messages then this is another great tool to use in your ads. Patients who prefer texting can you can set this extension to show the number to text for specific hours during the week.
*2020 Update: No longer available
- Price: This is similar to the Promotions extension, except that it’s designed to display multiple prices for different products or services without highlighting any discount. This extension seems more appropriate for businesses with lower-priced items, such as an auto shop that wants to highlight pricing for oil changes, tire rotations, and smog checks. However, if your practice competes on price then this might be an extension to consider. Keep in mind that you can use qualifiers such as “up to” or “from” so that your extension breast “Breast augmentation from $3,500,” for example.
You still have the classic Sitelinks, Callouts, Structured Snippets, Location, and Call extensions available, as I noted above. If your practice utilizes an app that you’re hoping to drive users to then you might consider the App extension as well.
*2020 Update: Google has dropped the Message extension but added a new “Lead form extension” which, as of Nov 2020, is in beta. We have not yet utilized this extension because we want to be in control of the path to conversion. In other words, to generate a more quality lead we want to walk them through the information and cases to educate them, then allow them to request a consultation.
I’m not suggestion this extension is not of value, it just doesn’t fit with our approach to lead generation for aesthetic practices.
Google also has app extensions, which is not particulalry relevant for more than 99% of aesthetic practices.
The same goes for affiliate locations extension, which is geared toward car dealerships and general retailers with multiple locations. If your aesthetic practice has multiple locations, you’re better off creating unique campaigns to target each location independently, as opposed to using this extension.
What Else is New?
In addition to more extensions, Google has rolled out longer ad titles and descriptions! These Expanded Text Ads (ETAs) now include 3 headlines and 2 descriptions. The old ads will remain in place, but you now have the ability to showcase larger text ads, which Google’s testing found to generate 15% more clicks than other ad formats. More on this update to come!
*2020 Update: Google now has RSAs (responsive search ads). These allow you to enter in numerous headlines and descriptions and Google will mix and match how they display them to find the combination that works best.
While I’m typically very cautious about giving Google control, I’ve tested these – in conjunction with the traditional search ads – and the results have been solid thus far. I would definitely consider testing this out.
Speaking of caution, be very careful of Google’s automated bid strategies as even well intentioned chnages, such as moving to a “maximize conversion” bid strategy, could cause your average CPC to skyrocket!
Google has also recently rolled out Discovery ad campaigns, which is exciting. More on that to come!
Take the Next Step
Well-written ads with strong calls to action are a great start, but adding as many extensions as you can will help to enhance your ads and generate more clicks. If you’d like to learn more about extensions or utilizing Google AdWords then drop TRBO a note here or call us at 877-673-7096 x2.
