Location Extensions: Keep Your Ads Visible by Updating Your Google Account
In case you haven’t realized the significance of it yet, location extensions are an important element of any Google ad—a feature not all advertisers are taking advantage of.
Need a refresher? While in use, the physical address of a company will be attached alongside its Google ad, provided the ad is in a top position. When used optimally, the ad will stand out among its competitors and take up valuable real estate on the search page.
In the world of pay-per-click, more eyes is the prize.
Enter August 18th…
On August 18th, Google will change up its method on how location extensions are managed. It will no longer be possible to manually enter the business address of each campaign. Instead, Google will be using the information from the account’s associated Google My Business listing (formerly known as Google Places).
Since a car dealership ad relies on a clear and visible location, it’s absolutely essential that this editing transition happens as smoothly as possible.
Let me repeat that: It is absolutely essential that you set up your business adress info into your Google My Business profile listing, immediately!
So what specifically needs to be done?
First ensure your Google My Business account is linked to the correct Google AdWords account. The steps are simple:
1. Go to the Ad Extensions tab
2. Expand Addresses from Google My Business
3. Select the correct My Business account and click the Save button.
Take note: If your AdWords login is different from the one used to create your My Business account, you will need to request and receive admin rights for the My Business account that created the Google+ page.
Now what, Adrian?
Once you’ve set up “Adresses from Google My Business,” the choice is yours to wait for Google to migrate the location extensions or to do it yourself using tools such as Wordstream’s PPC Advisor.
There are three clear advantages to this change:
Un: Customers can easily find your business whether they’re using Google Search, Google+, or Google Maps (regardless of their device).
Deux: Customers can easily contact you from a click-to-call mobile extension, Google Maps, or searching your hours of operation.
Trois: If you edit your location later on, both the Google+ page and the location extensions will update at the same time.
Hey, I need more info!
Whenever you need a refresher on the latest AdWords best practices, don’t hesitate to contact our pay-per-click team here at Strathcom Media. Or, if you want to find out more about location extensions, take a peek at Google’s Inside AdWords blog.
