Google announced the rollout of a new feature on AdWords, the callout extensions, on September 3. The search engine said that advertisers will have full access to the feature in the next few weeks. From the looks of it, callouts are likely to be an integral part of every AdWords campaign in the future.
Going through the specifics
In its announcement, Google posted this sample photo to illustrate what a callout looks like:
As shown above, the idea of a callout is to highlight certain information about a website’s range of products and services. Every website can display two to four callouts of up to 25 characters each at any given time. All information on callouts can be edited through the Ad extensions tab.
Are callouts the next sitelinks?
At a glance, some marketers might think that the callouts function just like sitelinks. In a sense, yes. After all, both ad extensions aim to drive more traffic through increased click-through rates. Put simply, callouts are like sitelinks, but not quite. There are still certain differences that set callouts apart from the typical sitelink.
First of all, callouts do not have actual links. The new feature is simply a collection of text phrases that appear on the SERPs to inform a site’s audience about certain special offers or deals. Ergo, unlike in the case of sitelinks, a callout doesn’t necessitate the creation of a separate landing page for the said offer.
Callouts also function like sitelinks in the sense that advertisers can set these up at the ad group or campaign level minus the need to edit data. Advertisers, however, can set up callouts at the account level.
The real advantage of the new feature is its level of customizability. Advertisers can tailor this ad extension specifically for mobile devices. Moreover, it is possible to schedule the appearance of a particular callout, down to the specific time of day and day of the week.
Maximizing the power of AdWords
Google says that the new ad extension empowers and improves AdWords for both consumers and advertisers. For the consumers’ side, it becomes easier to acquire information about a particular website, thus improving purchase decisions.
As for the case of advertisers, the new feature streamlines the whole effort of marketing through AdWords and provides better flexibility in terms of advertising options. Advertisers also benefit from the comprehensive reports Google generates for callouts. The reports make it easy to compare summaries and statistics versus other ad groups and campaigns.
The callout also has the power to influence a website’s Ad Rank. As per Google’s guidelines, all formats and extensions play a part in the overall Ad Rank.
From this point forward, one thing is certain: advertisers have a new ad extension to depend on. With this new feature about to steal the spotlight, it’s about time to reevaluate ad copies to achieve better results from AdWords campaigns.
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