As we all know, Google is known to always be actively testing and rolling out new functionalities. Recently they have announced their latest features, image extension, currently available to selected advertisers. This new Adwords image extension allows advertisers to display a small image next to ad-copies to further catch the browser’s attention on search engine pages.

Effectiveness of Google Adwords Image Extension?

Google has been actively shifting SERP features, adding favicons to organic listing, latest Adwords image extensions and other image related designs to further enhance search queries experience. However, it is important to note that these additional image extensions are not part of google display network.

Considering that the rollout of the Google image extensions is still very fresh, there is yet any data to show whether will be effective for advertisers. However, they say that an image speaks a thousand words and with the image extension complementing existing Adwords campaigns, we believe it will help boost mobile and web click-through-rates (CTR) and drive potential searchers to convert.

How to use Adwords Image Extensions?

As the function is still in its beta stage, you could request to take part in the testing stage or just wait for Google to officially release it. Theoretically, these functionalities are still being tested out with more robust list of guidelines and requirements for images expected to rollout once Image extensions are released to the Adwords community.

Images by: wordstream

Images by: wordstream

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How to create Adwords image extensions?

1.  Begin with “All Campaigns” in your top left-hand corner of your Adwords account.
2.  Select the Ads and Extensions tab on the left-hand panel
3.  Toggle to Extensions and select the blue plus button to add an extension
4.  Select Image Extension option (Beta)
5.  This will bring up a pop-up screen and follow through to add Adwords image extension  into your applicable campaigns and adgroups.
6.  Click on the blue plus button in the Images box and under upload tab, choose the file(s) you want to display next to your ad.

What Are The Image Requirements?

To fulfil Google’s adwords image extension requirement, images need to be at least 300 x 300 pixels, with the recommended size of 1200 × 1200 not exceeding 5120KB in size. These are dimensions for new google image extensions. You may look into other dimensions on Google display network in our informative Anatomy of Google Display Ads blog.

Tips on Image Extension beta testing:

• Always create separate adgroups for image ads to easily manage and fine tune your keywords, ad-copy, images to work perfectly with one another.
• Ensure your bidding strategy is garnering you top SERP spots as adwords extension can only be applied to the top spots.
• Do not focus too much on tracking image clicks. Google does not provide separate analytics on which part of the ad a user clicked.
• Identify your highest-value verticals and focus image experiments there! Not every ads or products require an image extension this will ensure that image extensions are benefiting you and your searchers.

We’ve compiled a ready infographic ready for you on starting your journey with google adwords image extension: Contact us for our Google Image Extension Infographic