Ad Extensions Will Now Affect Ad Rank in AdWords

Your use of ad extensions will now be factored in by Google AdWords in determining your ad rank and if your ad will show with what attributes and where on the page. This is big news from Google and not to be disregarded. If you have not embraced using ad extensions in your AdWords account, now’s the time to take a very careful look to see if you should.

Read the full release from Google on this topic in this blog post from Google done in the last two weeks.

Google says: Our system for ordering ads on search results pages uses a calculation called Ad Rank. Previously, Ad Rank was calculated using your max CPC bid and your Quality Score. With this update, Ad Rank will also take into account a third component: the expected impact from your ad extensions and formats. In addition, we’ve increased the importance of Ad Rank in determining whether your ad is eligible to be displayed with extensions and formats.

This means that if you are not using location extensions as your online store does not have a store front and a competitor does have a store front and a user may be searching with a smartphone for your products, he will most likely see your competitor’s ad with a map and direction link on how to get to his store.

Google is now actively determining which ads will show with what extensions based on location, device, and search query. It is all about relevance for the searcher with Google now racking and stacking ads by price, ad quality, and pertinent extension use.