Google has been testing product ads for some time now. As of last week they have turned on this featured called Ad Extenstions. By turning this feature on you will attract more eyeballs to your ads and in effect raise your click-through rate. Google stated on their blog post which announced this new feature that some advertisers have seen a 10% increase in their CTR.
Here is how to turn on AdWords Ad Extensions, it must be done for every campaign separately:
Go to Campaign –> Settings; under Networks, devices, and extensions; click on edit under Ad Extensions and check the box that says: Connect to my Google Merchant Center account. This should automatically bring up your Google Base (Product Search) account, once it finds it, just click Save.
UPDATE: The process has changed slightly, instead of finding this under the Campaign Settings tab, you will need to go to the “Ad Extensions” tab and select “Product Extensions.”
Hey, love the site first off, you have very well written posts and I love the fact they they are actually related to the title. Unlike some other websites whose articles mainly promote a product, yours are insightful and educational. With regards to this post, I didn’t know that the products could be linked to adwords like this and have made the change you pointed out. If I see a significant increase in my CTR, i will let you know. keep up the good work!
Hi Joe,
Another way to use Google’s services to boost CTR is to use the Google Checkout logo in your AdWords and product Search Ads.
More info here:
http://j.mp/6sQzlJ
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Do you know how long it takes for this to happen? I’ve done everything mentioned above and now i’m just waiting for it to actually happen.
By the way…thanks for the great information!
I’ve found that it can show within a few hours. Keep in mind Google doesn’t always show the Ad Extensions. They have some sort of algorithm that decides when to display it.
Thanks for your reply, Michael. It’s been about 2 days now and still nothing. But like you said, Google just decides what it wants and when 🙂
When I updated the preferences in my Google Adwords, it took effect probably within 24-48 hours. I only saw them for a short time though, and I haven’t seen anyone elses products showing up either…
I tend to see them a lot by popular brand products:
http://www.google.com/search?q=kichler+lighting
I see it by the advertiser LightingUniverse.com
How strange…I still don’t see them, perhaps it’s a setting I have changed in my Google Account to not display them? All I see is Shopping results at the very bottom of the results page.
I just set this option for a new client account 4 hours ago. It is not showing yet. I’ll update this post when it does show.
…and about 4-5 days later the Ad Extensions started displaying.
I think it’s safe to estimate then that it can take up to 1 business week?
It would seem so. Chances are it goes through a manual review process.
thanks for the great info!
Thanks for the info!
The Google Adword extensions are pretty nifty!