You can say a lot of things about Google. You can praise them for setting the standard all search engines seek to meet. You can damn them for being the closest thing to a monopoly we’ve seen on the internet. But one thing you can’t do is chastise them for being boring.

Have you seen what comes up when you search for something? There’s not just organic results, but ads, suggestions, news stories, product listings, maps, and social buttons as well which all work to enhance your information gathering experience.

Google built tools in AdWords that serve the same purpose: to enhance your ads and give users a more in-depth marketing experience. These tools are called ad extensions and if you’re not using them, you may be costing yourself valuable customers.

There are five types of ad extensions: Location, Call, Product, Sitelinks, and Social. Each serves a unique purpose in giving users additional information about your product or business in addition to what’s written in the ad itself. This post will briefly go over each one so even a beginner will know how to utilize them for their own account.

Location Extensions

Purpose: To show a user the location of your business on a map.

Best For: Retail stores, restaurants, or any facility where one has to physically come to your place of business in order to be considered a conversion.

What Do They Look Like?

How Do I Set These Up? All extensions are located in the “Ad Extensions” tab in your AdWords interface. In the “View” drop box, select “Location Extensions.”

There are two ways to set up a location extension. The first way is to claim your business in Google Places with the same e-mail address you registered your AdWords account to. Once it’s claimed, you can simply click “+ New Extension” and select the business you claimed in Google Places. The AdWords system will recognize that and show your location extension for ads in the campaign you specify.

If you do not have a Google Places account, you can manually enter in your business’ address and information. Click “+ Manually entered Addresses” and then “+ New Extension” under it. Select a campaign you want to apply this extension to, enter in your business’ address, select an icon (they’re pre-loaded into the AdWords system), and upload an image of your logo/physical location if you wish to do so. Hit “Save” and your location extension should be ready to go (once it’s reviewed by AdWords, of course).

NOTE: Once saved, ad extensions of any kind can be selected to run in multiple campaigns without having to re-enter the information.

Call Extensions

Purpose: To display your business phone number on users’ eligible mobile devices as a link which they can simply click to call instead manually entering it in.

Best For: Businesses which can capture a conversion over the phone (buy a product, make a reservation, etc.).

What Do They Look Like?

How Do I Set These Up? In the “View” drop box, select “Call Extensions.” Click “+ New Extension,” select your campaign, and enter in your business’ phone number. Hit “Save” and you’re done.

Product Extensions

Purpose: To show users a picture and basic information of a product you’re trying to sell.

Best For: Physical items that users can buy online.

What Do They Look Like?

How Do I Set These Up? These extensions require you to have an account on Google Base or Google Merchant Center with an active product feed uploaded. Make sure the e-mail you use to register either one of these accounts is the same one for your AdWords account. For more on product feeds, visit Google’s Merchant Blog.

Once a feed is uploaded and running properly, go to the Ad Extensions tab in AdWords. In the “View” drop box, select “Product Extensions” and click “+ New Extension.” Once you select your campaign, you should see your product feed information appear. You now have two options.

Option 1: Hit “Save” and the AdWords system will automatically select the product it thinks best corresponds to a user’s query to show as a product extension.

Option 2: You can manually filter which grouping or label of products you want to show for a specific campaign and then hit “Save.”

Sitelinks Extensions

Purpose: To offer users a list of pages on your site useful in assisting/leading to a conversion besides the landing page.

Best For: Almost any business with sufficient useful content could find ways to take advantage of Sitelinks.

What Do They Look Like?

How Do I Set These Up? Select “Sitelinks Extensions” in the “View” drop box and click “+ New Extension.” Choose your campaign and enter in the link text you want users to see with a corresponding destination URL. Make sure you enter in pages in order of highest priority to lowest as the AdWords system will not always show every extension you enter. Submit up to 12 links and hit “Save.”

Social Extensions

Purpose: To allow users to see if any of their connections on Google+ has recommended your website by hitting the “+1” option.

Best For: Any business with a Google+ page.

What Do They Look Like?

How Do I Set These Up? First, you need to make sure your business’ Google+ page is active and properly linked with your website. Once confirmed, select the “Social Extensions” option in the “View” drop box and hit “+ New Extension.” Select your campaign, enter the URL for your Google+ page, and click “Save.” If your Google+ page is properly linked up, you extension should be verified and eligible to generate impressions. For more on connecting your website and your Google+ page, read this fantastic post from my fellow Portent-ite, Doug.