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Imagine your ads with that something extra that sets your ads apart from others in SERP results, creates better credibility and is the reason that potential customers take an interest in what you have to offer?

Well, the answer has been around for quite a while, and you may not realize it, but your ads maybe including them already.

Automated ad extensions show extra information about your business in your ads. As opposed to manual ad extensions, automated ad extensions are included in your ads as long as you meet certain criteria. Google shows them when it believes it could improve your ad’s performance.

Automated extensions include Consumer Ratings, Previous Visits, Seller ratings, Dynamic Sitelinks, Dynamic Structured Snippets, and Social Extensions. Differentiated by manual extensions, which consist of App Extensions, Call Extensions, Location Extensions, Review Extensions, Sitelinks, and Callout Extensions.

What sets them apart and gives automated ad extensions a higher advantage, is the fact that you do not have to set them up, in fact, you can’t even see them in the Ad Extensions drop-down menu.

Consumer Ratings

Whether you have the best prices on the market, you offer quick and friendly services, or your product quality surpasses those of your competitors, of course, it would be wise to show it. With consumer’s ratings, it is possible to show a rating from 1-10 based on Google Consumer Surveys.

Benefits

• Increase the likelihood of a consumer to purchase or acquire services by promoting trust in what your business provides.

• A high rating creates a sense of confidence in your services/products.

• Clicks are free for the rating button for the extension, but clicks on your ad are at a regular cost per click.

• Feedback acquired is from reliable sources.

How They Work

• They are based on Google consumer surveys and show top ratings about various features of your business.

• Ratings differ per industry averages; therefore, categories should not be compared to different businesses.

How They Are Shown

• You are rated on a 1 to 10 scale for a given category.

• The top rating will show.

Restrictions

• Ratings are only in English and are specific to the country surveyed.

• They are only available in the US, UK, and Canada.

• They are shown only if you have acceptable scores.

What to do if they are not showing?

• Make sure you have at least 100 surveys.

• Submit a Consumer Rating request.

A good takeaway from consumer ratings is the valuable feedback you receive from surveys. You gain insight into which particular areas your business may need improvement. In the process, you accomplish goals such as acquiring higher leads and sales, building a better reputation for your business online, and also, improving your consumer rating scores.

Previous Visits

Remind your previous customers that they have visited your site before and increase the likelihood of repeat business.

Benefits

By creating awareness of the consumers’ previous visits to your business, chances of recurring business are high, as they may recall having a great experience with your services or products.

How They Work

They populate automatically from logged-in Google users.

How They Are Shown

You will be able to see how many times you’ve visited a particular website and when your last visit was.

Seller Ratings

Have you ever experienced great service and excellent product quality or received an amazing deal for your purchase online and wished you could let the world know? Seller ratings about your business can make all the difference when revealed to future audiences.

Benefits

• Show the overall quality of your products/services.

• Your ads will look more attractive.

• Enhance buyer intent.

How They Work

A star rating represents the consumers’ overall experience with your business based on numerous sources such as Google Trusted Stores or  Google consumer surveys reviews from your store domain, third-party sources, and more.

How They Are Shown

Ratings are on a 5-star scale.

Restrictions

• Only available in the US, UK, Germany, France, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and The Netherlands.

• They won’t show if your average star rating is less than 3.5.

What to do if they are not showing?

• Make sure that you have had at least 30 reviews during the last 12 months.

• Sign up for some of these third-party sources: Viewpoints, Trust Pilot, Stella Service to increase your reviews.

• See if you qualify: google.com/shopping/seller?q=yoururl.com. Switch ‘yoururl.com’ for your URL.

Social Extensions

In school, being the popular one always brought good benefits, so why not let your business be popular in online advertising? Open the doors for potential consumers to read reviews and follow your business through Google+.

Benefits

• Show off the number of followers you have on Google+.

• You won’t be charged for a click on your +1 button, you will be charged for clicks on your ads only.

• Social evidence of brand awareness.

How They Are Shown

The website name and number of followers will be displayed.

Restrictions

• Only works with Google.

• They can’t be shown on The Display Network.

• Make sure you follow Google’s standard advertising policies and the social interaction incentives policies.

What to do if they are not showing?

• Does your business have a Google Page? sign up for free.

• Making sure your Google+ has a verified URL.

• You have 100+ followers and come up with regular posts.

• Does the domain match for the website and Google+?

Dynamic Sitelinks

Dynamic Sitelinks work by showing generated links below your ad text. These links lead to a landing page that Google deems relevant based on recent search activities.

Benefits

• You don’t have to spend time setting up Dynamic Sitelinks.

• Sitelinks that display popular pages on your website are shown automatically.

How They Are Shown

They are displayed as a line of text that links to a part of your website and show under your ad.

Restrictions

• If you have already set up your Sitelinks manually, then your Dynamic Sitelinks will not show.

• You will be charged for the clicks on the headline of your ad and other extensions.

Dynamic Structured Snippets

Dynamic Structured Snippets are AdWords latest addition to automated extensions. They work by displaying specific information about your industry, product, or service on your site.

Benefits

• You don’t need to do anything to set this up. Google will show the extension whenever your ad is eligible and your landing page has a matching category for a search.

• Increase your ad’s relevance and CTR by attracting customers that value that extra piece of information.

• There are no costs associated with this extension, you will be charged for a click on your ad.

• They can be shown with other extensions.

How They Are Shown

They show along with your add and display information that can be found in the content of your site.

Restrictions

• They are available globally but only in English.

• As of now, they are only available for the Retail, Hotel, and Flight industry.

Automated Extensions Report

This handy report shows your performance and statistics about the extensions on your campaigns. You can access it by:

1. Selecting a campaign with automated extensions
2. Click the Ad extensions tab.
3. Choose View: Automated extensions from the drop-down menu.

Enhance Your Ads If They Aren’t Already With Automated Extensions in AdWords

If you are looking for ways to impact your campaign performance and want to think out of the box of your regular optimization strategies, I would definitely consider finding ways to improve automated ad extensions.

Improve customer service, acquire insight from reviews, perhaps improve a product’s price, or the features included in your service, with the help of any of these extensions. All of these actions may contribute to improving your ratings with these automated extensions, hence increasing qualified traffic, CTR%, and conversions, which are all beneficial towards your business’s online advertising success.