Price extensions — a carousel-format AdWords ad extension which displays prices for different goods and services — are now coming out of beta.
The new extension will only show on mobiles and tablets, and only when a qualifying ad is shown in first position. Price Extensions require a minimum of three products or services (with associated pricing) — the maximum number is, as yet, to be published.
Advertisers can select a price range (“starting from…” or “up to…”) rather than use a fixed price.
Here’s an example Price Extension, provided by Mark Irvine at WordStream (a beta participant):
Headers and Descriptions are limited to 25 characters each, and headers are clickable to a final URL on the advertiser site.
At time of writing, prices can only be in one of six currencies (NZ Dollars, USD, AUD, CAD, EUR and GBP).
Our sources at Google say that, while the official launch date is still to be confirmed, Price Extensions are likely to be available for our advertisers starting July 20.
Why should you care?
It’s notable that Price Extensions won’t appear on desktop ads, and on mobiles and tablets will only be shown for ads in top spot.
Google wants to help get mobile and tablet users quickly to the products and services they are looking for, and the carousel format for this new ad extension should do just that.
Beta tester WordStream reports a four-fold increase on ad clickthrough rates (CTR) when Price Extensions are shown. Should other advertisers see similar results, that increase in CTR is also likely to have favorable impact on Quality Score and Cost Per Click (CPC) prices.
Where prices fluctuate and using a range would be inappropriate, making sure that the prices used are current may present some challenges. But we expect to add the new extension to most client accounts.
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Jeremy is a Partner and Senior Consultant at SureFire. Jeremy has been working in search since 1996, when he joined the Australian search engine, LookSmart. After relocating to San Francisco, he was instrumental in the development of the company’s paid search ad platform. At analytics company Coremetrics (now owned by IBM) he established an in-house search agency managing campaigns for Coremetrics clients such as Macy’s, Bass Pro and Lands End. At Acxiom he managed members of the pioneering SEO firm Marketleap and worked with clients such as Capital One, American General Finance and Kaiser Health. Joining SureFire in 2009, he is the head of Paid Search Advertising and oversees the delivery of AdWords and other PPC campaigns. He also helps clients make sense of their website data.
