You’ve set up your Search campaigns, you’ve got your headlines and your descriptions, and your final URL. So your ad is done, right? Not necessarily!
Assets (formerly known as Extensions) are an optional but powerful addition to your Google Search campaigns.
This article will explore two types of assets that every business can use: Callouts and Structured Snippets.
What are “Assets” in Google Ads?
Before we dig into Callouts and Structured Snippets, it’s helpful to understand the bigger picture.
In Google Ads, “Assets” are optional pieces of information you can add to your ads. Think of them as bonus content that can make your ads bigger and more informative, giving people more reasons to click.
There are more than a dozen Assets to choose from. You can generally apply them at the account, campaign, or ad group level, depending on how specific you want them to be.
What are Callouts in Google Ads?
Callouts are short, punchy phrases that highlight key selling points or unique aspects of your business. They’re similar to a headline, but instead of showing up as a blue clickable link at the top of your Search ad, they show up in plain black text after your description(s).
Callouts can have up to 25 characters each (12 characters in double-width languages like Chinese or Japanese), and Google might show up to 10 of them at a time.
I like to use callouts for information that doesn’t quite fit into my headlines or descriptions, or for key details that I want to emphasize. For example, “Free Shipping”, “Open 24/7”, “Family-Owned Business”, etc.
What are Structured Snippets in Google Ads?
Structured snippets give you the opportunity to add a categorized list of items to your ad. In this way, they’re more like a description than a headline. Like callouts, they can appear in plain black text after your description(s) in your Search ad.
To create a Structured Snippet, you first need to choose a header from Google’s predetermined list. In English, those headers are:
- Amenities
- Brands
- Courses
- Degree programs
- Destinations
- Featured hotels
- Insurance coverage
- Models
- Service catalog
- Shows
- Styles
- Types
If you’re not sure what header to use, “Types” is the most versatile and can apply to almost any business. For example:
- A shoe store could use “Types” to list “Sneakers, Boots, Sandals, Heels.”
- A plumbing service could list “Types” as “Drain Cleaning, Leak Repair, Water Heater Installation.”
Once you have your header, then you can add between 3 to 10 items to your list. Each item can have up to 25 characters.
How do you know if your Callouts and Structured Snippets are working?
The goal of adding Assets is to increase the click-through rate on your ads. You can view performance metrics for your various Assets, including Callouts and Structured Snippets, by going to Assets > Assets (seriously) and checking up on the performance metrics for each asset.
Remember, Callouts and Structured Snippets are not required to show, and they are not clickable themselves. They simply make your ad bigger by adding more text.
Reporting will show you have many impressions your ads received when these assets showed, how many clicks you received when these assets showed, etc. You will generally see a higher click-through rate from these assets than your ad group or campaign average.
If you want a more detailed breakdown of clicks on various parts of your ad, you can segment your asset report by “Click Type.” This is especially helpful when evaluating clickable Asset performance, like Sitelinks or Promotions or Price.
5 key things to know about Callouts and Structured Snippets
Now that you know what these Assets are, let’s cover some crucial and perhaps counter-intuitive details.
- Hierarchy matters, specificity rules: If you apply Callouts or Structured Snippets at the ad group level, they will override any that are set at the campaign or account level. Similarly, if you apply them at the campaign level, they’ll override any account-level assets. This means you can be as broad or as specific as your campaign and ad group structure requires.
- Structured snippets need at least three values: If you create a Structured Snippet, you must include a minimum of three items in your list of values. Otherwise, it isn’t really a list!
- Watch out for dynamic assets: Even if you don’t manually create Callouts or Structured Snippets, it’s possible that Google is automatically creating them for you through “Dynamic Structured Snippets” and “Dynamic Callouts.” Google pulls information directly from your website to generate these. To check if this is happening in your account, go to your Assets tab and look at the Source column. If it says Automatically Created, those are dynamic assets. If it says Advertiser, you created them yourself. To turn off dynamic assets, you’ll need to go into your “Account level Automated Asset Settings.
- Search Network only: Callouts and Structured Snippets are compatible with the Google Search Network only.
- No guarantees: Just because you add Callouts and/or Structured Snippets to your Google Ads, it doesn’t mean they’ll always appear with your ad. Google decides which assets to show based on various factors, including ad rank, relevance, and available space. Your headlines and descriptions in your Responsive Search Ads are still the most important elements of your ad.
Should you use Callouts and Structured Snippets in Google Ads?
I strongly recommend that you add Callouts and Structured Snippets to your Google Search campaigns.
Why? Because there’s really no downside!
The larger and more informative your ads are, the more likely you are to get a click. This creates a positive ripple effect: Higher click-through rate, better Quality Score, lower CPCs, and more efficient results.
This article is part of our ongoing bi-weekly Search Engine Land series, Everything you need to know about Google Ads in less than 3 minutes. Every other Wednesday, Jyll highlights a different Google Ads feature, and what you need to know to get the best results from it – all in a quick 3-minute read.