In July of last year Google Announced that they would be launching a brand new Ad Extension beta program for Google Text ads in the form of Image Extensions. At the May 2021 Google Marketing Livestream it was announced that all advertisers globally would now have access to this feature.
An Image extension shows alongside your text ads, sitting beside your Title, Description and Target URL on a SERPs page. They aim to give your ads greater visibility to help improve overall performance. Like other recent updates, such as Gallery Ads, Image extensions are exclusive to Mobile devices and will only show on the absolute top position ad.
This extension can be used to perfectly showcase your products or services without users having to go onto your website.
We recommend adding this extension to all your ads where applicable, as soon as possible.
Why the change?
Google knows the way people think. They know that customers/ searchers have become accustomed to online advertising merging visual elements with text and information. Google has responded to this change in online advertising by developing more visual SERPs, such adding Favicons to organic listing and more.
Setting Up Image Extensions
Just like all other Google Ads extensions, this new Image extension is super easy to use. Images can be applied at the campaign or Ad group level. There are a few easy ways to set them up:
- Input a website URL and scan the website for images
- Select images that were recently used across tour Google ads account (if you have used display ads or image extension before)
- Upload images directly from your computer
Google recommends that you upload both square and landscape images to maximize the potential of your ads. Afterall as with all the extensions, Google will pick and choose from the extensions you give it using its AI to determine what to use for the best performance. So the more options you give it, the better.
A few studies have already shown that while Image extensions are not shown as often as other extensions, on average they have 33% increase in CTR compared to sitelinks and Callout extensions.
So Google’s new Image extentions are a brilliant way to add a little interest to any dull text ad. Be sure to add them to any of your text ads and monitor their performance.
