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AdWords Promotion Extensions: Boost Your Campaigns

AdWords’ new interface came with several new features, one of which is the new promotion extension. This is a great tool to highlight any promotion or discount an advertiser offers on services and products. If you have any sales or promotions, you should start using them today.

AdWords’ new interface came with several new features, one of which is the new promotion extension. This is a great tool to highlight any promotion or discount an advertiser offers on services and products. If you have any sales or promotions, you should start using them today. This blog will give you a break down on everything you need to know before you get started and use promotion extensions as part of your AdWords strategy.

What Exactly Are Promotion Extensions?

Promotion extensions are clickable ad extensions that appear below your ad text. They can be set up on account, campaign or ad group level, can have a start/end date scheduled, and can be customized (you can find out more about that below).
Here is an example of what promotion extensions look like:

What Are the Benefits of Using Promotion Extensions?

Here are a few benefits of using promotion extensions, in case you are not convinced yet:
  • Higher click-through-rate (CTR): Using ad extensions in general increases CTR by about 10%-15% according to Google. In addition, a recent case study showed that ads using promotion extensions had a CTR at nearly 10%, while using sitelink or price extensions for the same ad led to a CTR of around 6%-8%.
  • Easy maintenance: When setting up promotion extensions, you can select from a list of pre-defined popular occasions such as Back-to-School day or Easter, eliminating the need to create new ad copy.
  • Flexible scheduling: You can specify dates, days of week or times of the day when your promotion extensions should show.
  • Mobile preferences: You can choose if you want to show your promotion extension on mobile devices.
  • Measure performance: Like all other ad extensions, you can measure performance and conversion metrics.

How to Set Up Promotion Extensions in AdWords

First, make sure you are using the new AdWords interface, as this feature is not available in the old one. If you have been living under a rock and are not sure what we are talking about, check out our blog post What You Should Know about the New Google AdWords Interface.
Once you are in your AdWords account, navigate to the Extensions tab, and select Promotion Extensions from the drop-down menu.
You will see the tab below prompt up.
Let’s run through all the options you have here.
1. Occasion: Here you can choose from 12 different occasions to run the extension during those holidays (e.g. Valentine’s Day, Easter).
Alternatively, you can leave the field as “None” to serve your promotion extension throughout the whole year. You can find a complete list of each occasions’ available dates on Google AdWords support page.
2. Currency: Next you can choose from a substantial list of currencies, that was being expanded substantially in the last several months (e.g. USD, EUR, CHF).
3. Promotion type: Here you have 4 categories to choose from: Monetary discount (e.g. CHF 20 off), percent discount (X% off), up to monetary discount (e.g. up to CHF 20 off) and up to percent discount (up to 50% off).
4. Promo requirement: You have two options here, or you can choose “None” if there aren’t any requirements: “On orders over” (your text will, for example, read “CHF 20 off on orders over CHF 150”) or “Promo code” if you have a special promo code that visitors must use (15-character limit).
5. Item: Here you have a field to specify which service or item are being discounted.
6. Final URL: Enter the final URL people reach after clicking on your promotion extension.
7. Promotion dates (optional): You can use this field to let people know the duration of your promotion by selecting the start and end dates.
If you click on “Advanced options” below that, you can choose the schedule (what days, time of the day and device preference). Keep in mind that if you schedule an end date here, your extension will not show past the promotion end date you have set up.
So how do your promotion extensions perform? Don’t hesitate to contact me personally if you have any questions or require assistance setting them up.

 

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