Google Ads Extensions (Assets) Guide 2026

Picture two ads sitting side by side in a Google search result. Both target the same keyword, both have decent headlines, and both link to a landing page that makes sense. One ad shows a headline, two lines of description, and a display URL. The other shows all of that plus four sitelinks, a phone number, a location marker with distance, and three callout phrases highlighting next-day delivery, 24/7 support, and a price-match guarantee. The second ad takes up nearly twice the screen real estate. It pushes competitors further down the page. And it collects a disproportionate share of clicks.

The difference between those two ads is google ads extensions, or “assets” as Google officially renamed them in 2022. Extensions are additional pieces of information that attach to your text ads, expanding what users see before they decide whether to click. They are not decorative. They directly influence click-through rate (CTR), cost per click (CPC), and the Ad Rank formula that determines whether your ad appears at all. Google’s own data suggests that adding multiple extension types to a campaign increases CTR by 10-20% on average. For competitive verticals like legal services in New York or insurance in London, that kind of lift can mean tens of thousands of pounds or dollars in value over a quarter.

Despite all this, a surprising number of advertisers either skip extensions entirely or set up one or two types and never revisit them. Some don’t realise how many extension types exist. Others assume extensions are cosmetic. And some simply forget to update them after initial setup, leaving last year’s Black Friday promotion running well into spring.

How Extensions Work and Why They Matter for Ad Rank

Extensions are supplementary information blocks attached to your search ads. A phone number, a street address, a set of links to inner pages, a promotional discount badge, a small product image. Google decides which extensions to display at the moment of each auction, based on three factors: your ad’s rank, the user’s search query, and the device they are using.

If your Ad Rank is not high enough, extensions will not show at all. You can set up every extension type perfectly and still see none of them appear if your bid and quality combination places you too low on the page. Google treats extensions as a reward for high-ranking ads, and simultaneously as a factor that lifts your ranking. The formula works like this:

Ad Rank = Max Bid x Quality Score x Expected Extension Impact

That third variable is the critical part most advertisers overlook. Adding relevant extensions does not just make your ad bigger. It actively improves your position in the auction. Two advertisers bidding the same amount on the same keyword, with identical Quality Scores, will be separated by extension quality. The one with better extensions wins the higher slot. And in many cases, the winner also pays less per click because a higher Ad Rank produces a lower actual CPC through Google’s second-price auction mechanics.

The financial impact is real. According to Google’s published benchmarks, sitelink extensions alone can boost CTR by 10-15%. When you layer on callouts, structured snippets, and image extensions together, the combined lift frequently exceeds 20%. For an e-commerce brand spending $15,000/month on search ads with an average CPC of $1.80, a 15% CTR improvement translates to roughly 1,250 additional clicks per month at no extra cost. That is $2,250 worth of traffic, for free.

Manual vs. Automated Extensions

Google Ads offers two categories of extensions. Manual extensions are the ones you create and control yourself. You write the sitelink text, you choose the phone number, you enter the callout phrases. Automated extensions are generated by Google using data from your website, your account history, and machine learning predictions about what might improve performance.

Automated extensions can occasionally surface useful information you hadn’t thought to include. More often, though, they pull in irrelevant pages or generic descriptions that dilute your message. Google might auto-generate a sitelink pointing to your privacy policy page, or create a callout from boilerplate footer text on your website. These automated additions can work against you if left unchecked.

The best approach: set up all manual extensions yourself, then regularly review the “Automatically applied extensions” report in your account. Keep the automated ones that perform well. Remove the ones that are irrelevant, misleading, or underperforming. You can disable specific automated extension types through the account settings without affecting your manual ones.

Sitelink Extensions

Sitelinks are the most widely used extension type and arguably the single most impactful one. They appear as 2-6 clickable links beneath your ad, each pointing to a different page on your website. On desktop, they display horizontally. On mobile, they stack vertically. Either way, they dramatically increase the visual footprint of your ad in search results.

Consider a law firm advertising in Manchester. The main ad headline reads “Employment Law Solicitors Manchester.” Below it, four sitelinks appear: “Unfair Dismissal Claims”, “Tribunal Representation”, “Settlement Agreements”, “Book a Consultation”. A user searching for help with a specific employment issue can jump directly to the most relevant page rather than navigating from a generic homepage. This shortcut improves user experience and, more importantly, it improves conversion rates because the user lands exactly where they need to be.

Setting Up Sitelinks Properly

Each sitelink requires three fields: the link text (25-character limit), two optional description lines (35 characters each, but strongly recommended), and the destination URL. Add at least 8 sitelinks to give Google enough options to choose from. The platform will select 2-6 to display for any given impression, rotating based on predicted performance.

Writing effective sitelink text is about specificity. “Click Here” or “Learn More” waste your 25 characters on words that communicate nothing. Instead, use concrete phrases that tell the user exactly what they will find: “Pricing Plans”, “Case Studies”, “Same-Day Delivery”, “Student Discounts”, “Contact Our Team”. Each sitelink should complement the main ad rather than repeat it. If your headline already says “Digital Marketing Agency London”, a sitelink reading “Our Marketing Services” adds very little. “SEO Audit Results”, “PPC Portfolio”, or “Client Testimonials” would all perform better because they expand on the headline rather than echoing it.

Sitelinks can be applied at account level, campaign level, or ad group level. Account-level sitelinks serve as defaults, appearing across all campaigns unless overridden by more specific ones. Campaign-level sitelinks let you tailor links to different product lines or services. Ad group-level sitelinks provide the most granular control, though they are rarely necessary outside of accounts with very diverse product catalogues within a single campaign. The hierarchy is simple: ad group overrides campaign, campaign overrides account.

One tactical detail worth knowing: sitelinks with description lines enabled tend to occupy more physical space in search results, but Google does not always show the descriptions. On mobile devices, descriptions are shown less frequently. Write your sitelinks so the link text alone communicates value, treating the descriptions as a bonus rather than a necessity.

Callout Extensions and Structured Snippets

These two extension types look similar in practice but serve different strategic purposes. They are the most commonly confused pair in the entire extensions system, so understanding the distinction matters.

Callout Extensions

Callouts are short, non-clickable text phrases that appear beneath your ad description. They highlight differentiators, benefits, or features of your business. “Free Returns”, “24/7 Live Chat”, “Price Match Guarantee”, “Award-Winning Support”, “No Long-Term Contracts”. Each callout is limited to 25 characters. Google will select 2-6 to display from your list, so add at least 4 and ideally 8 or more.

Because callouts are not clickable, their value is indirect. They influence the user’s perception of your business before they decide whether to click the main headline. Think of them as persuasive micro-messages. A user comparing three ads for web hosting might see one with callouts reading “99.9% Uptime SLA” and “UK-Based Support” and feel more confidence in that advertiser than in a competitor showing no callouts at all.

Callout text should focus on what makes you different from competitors. If every hosting company offers 24/7 support, saying “24/7 Support” in a callout is wasted space. But “UK Phone Support” or “Under 2-Min Response Time” provides genuine differentiation that could tip a decision.

Structured Snippets

Structured snippets are categorised lists. You pick a header from Google’s predefined options and then list values beneath it. For example, a digital marketing agency might choose “Service Catalogue” and list “SEO, Google Ads, Social Media, Email Marketing, Web Design”. A hotel in Edinburgh might use “Featured Hotels” with “Executive Suite, Family Room, Penthouse, Standard Double”.

Each value should be at least 3 characters, and you need a minimum of 4 values per header. Unlike callouts, structured snippets are explicitly category-based. This structured format helps Google understand what your business offers and match your extensions to relevant queries more accurately.

Using both callouts and structured snippets together is the right move for most campaigns. Callouts handle brand-level differentiators. Structured snippets handle product or service-level information. Together, they paint a more complete picture of your business without requiring additional clicks or page visits from the user.

Call Extensions

Call extensions attach a clickable phone number to your ad. On mobile devices, users can tap the number to initiate a call instantly. On desktop, the number is displayed but requires manual dialling. For service-based businesses, professional services firms, and any company where phone enquiries drive revenue, call extensions are essential.

Setting up a call extension is straightforward, but the scheduling feature is where thoughtful advertisers separate themselves from careless ones. If your office operates 9am to 6pm GMT, show the call extension only during those hours. A phone that rings out at 11pm doesn’t just waste the user’s time. It damages their perception of your business. Google lets you configure call extension scheduling at the campaign level under “Ad schedule”.

Call tracking is where things get interesting. Google can assign a forwarding number to your call extension, routing calls through Google’s system before connecting to your actual number. This allows you to track which campaign, which ad group, and which keyword generated each phone call. You can also see call duration, which is a useful proxy for call quality. Set a minimum call duration threshold for conversion tracking: 60 seconds is a common benchmark. Calls shorter than 30 seconds are typically wrong numbers, price shoppers, or people who immediately hang up.

In the UK market, call extensions perform particularly well for local service businesses, tradespeople, medical and dental practices, and solicitors. In the US, they are heavily used by home services companies (HVAC, plumbing, roofing), healthcare providers, and law firms. The common thread is businesses where the customer wants to speak to a person before committing, rather than completing a transaction online.

One important note on cost: clicks on call extensions are charged at the same rate as clicks on the headline. You are not paying extra for the call feature itself, but each tap on the phone number does count as a billable click.

Location and Business Profile Extensions

If you have a physical location that customers visit, location extensions put your address, a distance marker, and a “Directions” link directly in your ad. On mobile, tapping the address opens Google Maps with directions to your business. For retailers, restaurants, dental practices, gyms, salons, and any business with a shopfront, this extension type drives foot traffic in a way that other extensions simply cannot replicate.

Location extensions require your Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) to be linked to your Google Ads account. The linking process happens in your Ads account under “Linked accounts”. Your Business Profile must be verified and active, with accurate address, phone number, and operating hours. Inconsistencies between your Business Profile and your ad content can trigger policy violations and erode user trust.

Multi-Location Businesses

Businesses with multiple locations benefit from automatic proximity matching. Google shows the nearest location to the user performing the search. A coffee chain with branches in Shoreditch, Camden, and Islington does not need separate campaigns for each. Google will display the Shoreditch address to someone searching from Hackney and the Camden address to someone in Kentish Town. This happens automatically once all locations are linked through the Business Profile.

In late 2025, Google expanded the Business Profile extension to include the business name, logo, and operating hours directly within the ad unit. On desktop, the logo appears next to the display URL. This visual branding element gives established businesses with recognisable logos a significant edge over competitors whose brand identity is limited to text. If you have a distinctive logo, make sure your Business Profile includes a high-resolution version.

Price and Promotion Extensions

Price Extensions

Price extensions display a set of price cards beneath your ad, each showing a product or service name, a short description, the price, and a destination URL. You can add between 3 and 8 price cards. They appear as a horizontally scrollable row on mobile and as a grid on desktop.

The strategic value of price extensions goes beyond aesthetics. When a user sees pricing information before clicking, they self-qualify. Someone who clicks after seeing that your SEO audit costs $500/month has already accepted that price point. This pre-qualification reduces wasted clicks from users who would have bounced after seeing prices on your landing page. For advertisers paying $3-5 per click in competitive verticals, filtering out price-sensitive users before the click can save hundreds or thousands per month.

When setting prices, choose between “from” pricing and fixed pricing carefully. If your pricing varies based on specifications or scope, use “from” to set expectations without overpromising. A mismatch between the price shown in your extension and the price on your landing page violates Google’s advertising policies and can result in extension disapproval or, in severe cases, account suspension.

Promotion Extensions

Promotion extensions display a special offer badge on your ad, highlighting discounts, seasonal sales, or limited-time deals. You select an occasion , enter the discount percentage or monetary amount, and set start and end dates.

The urgency factor is the main psychological driver here. “25% off until April 14th” creates a time-bounded incentive that generic ad copy cannot match. Promotion extensions work exceptionally well for e-commerce, hospitality, and subscription services during peak shopping periods.

A word of caution: running promotion extensions continuously erodes their effectiveness. If every search result shows a “special offer” badge from your brand, the offer stops feeling special. Limit promotion extensions to genuine sales periods, typically 4-6 times per year. Between promotions, let your regular extensions do the work.

Image Extensions

Rolled out to general availability in 2023, image extensions add a small visual thumbnail alongside your text ad in search results. This is not the same as a display ad or a YouTube ad. Image extensions appear specifically within search results, next to standard text ads. The visual element breaks the monotony of text-only results and draws the eye.

Technical requirements: aspect ratios of 1:1 (square) and 1.91:1 (landscape), minimum resolution of 314×314 pixels, maximum file size of 5MB, PNG or JPG format. Google enforces restrictions on text overlays, logo prominence, blank space ratios, and image clarity. Submissions go through a review process that typically takes 1-2 business days.

What works best visually? If you sell physical products, use a clean product photo on a neutral background. If you offer services, show the outcome of your service rather than a stock photo of people in a meeting room. A roofing company showing a completed roof installation will outperform a generic handshake image every time. Avoid stock photography where possible. Google’s review team occasionally flags overly generic stock images, and even when approved, users have become adept at spotting stock photos and mentally discounting them.

CTR impact from image extensions typically falls in the 5-10% range. That may sound modest in isolation, but compound it with sitelinks, callouts, and structured snippets and the cumulative effect becomes substantial. In a search result where three competitors show text-only ads and yours includes an image, the visual contrast alone can be worth the setup effort.

Lead Form Extensions

Lead form extensions let users submit their contact information directly from the ad, without visiting your website first. Google pre-fills the form with data from the user’s Google account (name, email address, phone number), reducing friction to a single tap. For businesses focused on lead generation rather than direct e-commerce sales, this extension type shortens the path from search to enquiry dramatically.

Industries where lead forms perform well include B2B services, insurance, financial advisory, higher education, property, and professional services like accounting or legal. E-commerce businesses generally get less value from lead forms because their goal is a purchase, not a conversation.

There is a quality trade-off to be aware of. Leads generated through in-ad forms tend to be lower quality than leads submitted through your website’s own contact form. The reason is simple: when someone fills out a form on your site, they have already read your content, reviewed your pricing, and formed some level of intent. A lead form submission happens before any of that. The user may have submitted the form on impulse, or they may have misunderstood what you offer.

The remedy is speed. Contact lead form submissions within 5 minutes. Research consistently shows that conversion rates for leads contacted within 5 minutes are 4-5 times higher than those contacted after 30 minutes. The user is still on their phone, still in research mode, still open to a conversation. Wait an hour and they have moved on to something else entirely.

You can customise the form fields, add qualifying questions, and include a brief company description that appears above the form. Adding one or two qualifying questions (e.g., “What is your monthly advertising budget?” or “How many employees does your company have?”) helps filter out poor-fit leads before they reach your sales team, at the cost of slightly reducing total form submissions.

Extension Strategy: Choosing the Right Combination

Adding every extension type to every campaign is not the goal. The goal is matching extension types to your business model, your campaign objectives, and the behaviour of your target audience. A B2B software company and a local pizzeria both use Google Ads, but they need fundamentally different extension strategies.

Google’s official recommendation is to use at least 4 different extension types per campaign. In practice, pushing that to 6 or 7 yields better results. More extension types give Google more options to assemble the optimal combination for each individual impression. You are not cluttering your ad by adding more extensions. Google will only show the ones it predicts will perform best for that specific query, device, and user context.

The hierarchy system gives you flexibility. Set general-purpose extensions at the account level (e.g., your main phone number, your core sitelinks). Then create campaign-specific extensions that match each campaign’s theme. An e-commerce brand running separate campaigns for “men’s shoes” and “women’s shoes” should have different sitelinks for each, pointing to the relevant category pages, sub-categories, and bestseller lists. Account-level sitelinks pointing to “About Us” and “Contact” can serve as fallbacks across both campaigns.

Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

Extensions are straightforward to set up, which is precisely why so many advertisers get them wrong. The mistakes tend to be errors of omission or neglect rather than technical failures. Here are the ones we see most frequently across the accounts we manage.

Setting all extensions at account level and ignoring campaign-level customisation. Account-level extensions are generic by design. They apply to every campaign in your account, which means a “Men’s Winter Coats” campaign and a “Women’s Summer Dresses” campaign would share the same sitelinks. That mismatch confuses users and wastes your ad’s extension real estate on irrelevant links. Always create campaign-specific extensions that align with the campaign’s keyword themes and landing pages.

Repeating the headline in extension text. If your headline says “London Web Design Agency”, writing a sitelink that reads “Web Design Services” adds nothing new. Extensions exist to communicate supplementary information. “Portfolio”, “WordPress Development”, “E-commerce Sites”, “Request a Quote” all expand on the headline rather than mirroring it.

Ignoring mobile vs. desktop differences. Sitelinks stack vertically on mobile and display horizontally on desktop. Call extensions are highly effective on mobile (one tap to call) but far less effective on desktop. Image extensions may render differently across devices. Review your extension performance reports segmented by device. What works on desktop may underperform on mobile, and vice versa.

Leaving outdated extensions active. Last year’s “Christmas Sale – 30% Off” promotion extension running in March is not just ineffective. It actively damages credibility. Price extensions showing old pricing that no longer matches your website create a policy violation risk. Build a monthly review into your workflow: check all active extensions, pause anything outdated, and refresh underperforming copy.

Too few variations. Adding a single set of 4 sitelinks and 4 callouts limits Google’s ability to test and optimise. Provide 8 sitelinks, 8 callouts, 4 structured snippet headers with 6+ values each. Google’s machine learning needs a diverse pool of options to find winning combinations. More input options produce better output selections.

Not using call scheduling. Running call extensions 24/7 when your phones are only staffed 8am to 6pm means after-hours callers get voicemail or an unanswered ring. Each of those missed calls is a wasted click you paid for. Schedule call extensions to match your staffing hours exactly.

Measuring Extension Performance

Extensions do not operate in a vacuum. Their performance needs ongoing monitoring and iterative improvement, just like ad copy and keyword bids. Google Ads provides extension-level reporting under the “Assets” tab, showing impressions, clicks, CTR, and conversions for each individual extension.

What to Track by Extension Type

• Sitelinks: Click-through rate per sitelink. Any sitelink with a CTR significantly below the average should have its text or destination URL revised.
• Call extensions: Call count and average call duration. Calls under 15 seconds are generally junk. If your average call length is under 30 seconds, the issue may be targeting rather than the extension itself.
• Callouts: Callouts are not clickable, so direct CTR measurement is not possible. Compare overall ad CTR during periods when callouts are showing vs. not showing to gauge their indirect impact.
• Price extensions: CTR and post-click conversion rate. Users who click after seeing your price have pre-qualified themselves, so conversion rates from price extension clicks should be higher than average. If they are not, the disconnect may be between the extension price and the landing page experience.
• Lead forms: Submission count and cost per lead. Compare against your website form submissions. If lead form cost per lead is more than 2x your website form’s cost per lead, investigate lead quality before scaling up.

Google assigns a performance label to each extension: “Best”, “Good”, “Low”, or “Learning” (for newly added ones). Replace “Low” performers within 2-3 weeks. Study “Best” performers and create new variations inspired by what is working. This cycle of measurement, pruning, and creation should be part of your regular account management routine.

Testing and Rotation

Google automatically rotates extensions and favours higher performers over time. But passive reliance on Google’s automation is not a strategy. Actively test new extension copy every 4-6 weeks. Swap out underperforming sitelink text, try different callout phrases, experiment with new structured snippet headers. Fresh content tends to re-engage the algorithm and can lift performance that has plateaued.

A practical tip: download your extension report at campaign level, cross-reference it with your ad spend data, and identify which extension combinations produce the lowest CPC at the highest CTR. Apply those winning combinations to other campaigns. This data-driven approach consistently outperforms gut-feel decisions about which extensions to use.

What Changed in 2026

The Google Ads platform evolves continuously, and extensions have seen several notable shifts heading into 2026.

The “assets” terminology is now fully embedded. Google rebranded “extensions” to “assets” in 2022, and by 2026 the transition is complete across all documentation, interface elements, and support materials. The functional behaviour is identical. If you see older guides or blog posts referencing “extensions”, they are talking about the same features now labelled “assets” in the Google Ads interface.

AI-powered asset suggestions have become more aggressive. Google now proactively generates sitelinks, callouts, and image suggestions based on your website content and historical performance data. Some of these suggestions are genuinely useful. Others miss the mark entirely. The “Automatically created assets” report deserves a weekly check, chiefly for brands in sensitive industries where off-message automated content could create compliance or reputational issues.

Performance Max campaigns handle extensions differently from standard search campaigns. Extensions added to a PMax campaign can appear across all of Google’s channels: Search, Display, YouTube, Discover, Gmail, and Maps. This cross-channel exposure is powerful but also harder to control. An extension that performs well in search results might fall flat on YouTube or Discover. Since channel-level extension performance data is still limited in PMax reporting, a sensible approach is to test extensions in standard search campaigns first, identify what works, and then port those proven assets into your PMax campaigns.

Image extension visibility has expanded. In 2026, image extensions appear more frequently in search results on both mobile and desktop. Google has increased the number of visual slots available in search result pages, which means advertisers without image extensions face a growing disadvantage. If you have not set up image extensions yet, the gap between your ad’s visual impact and that of competitors who have will only widen as the year progresses.

Seller ratings, while technically a separate feature from manual extensions, have become more prominent in 2026 as well. Businesses with verified reviews on Google, Trustpilot, Reviews.io, or other approved platforms now see star ratings appearing alongside their extensions more consistently. The combination of seller ratings with manual extensions creates a highly credible, information-rich ad unit that commands attention.

Frequently Asked Questions