Since the start of the pandemic in 2020, online shopping has boomed. As people are forced inside with lockdowns, increased screen time has become somewhat of a new norm. Nearly a year and a half later, and an uncertain future with the virus, customers are as money conscious as ever. This is key information when it comes to online advertising and promotion extension Google ads.
What is the Promotion Extension in Google Ads?
The promotion extension in Google Ads allows you to highlight additional information to searchers like discounts, sales and, of course, promotions. The information helps to persuade them to click into your website and is fully customisable to suit your needs.
Studies have found that some of the best performing Google text Ads had words including “free” and “save” which goes to show that people are already thinking about cost before they have decided on their final purchase.
To investigate this further, we are going to break down some of the numbers and show how promotions influence your performance. Two RQmedia clients have been analysed to compare performance of their expanded text ads with and without promotions during the same time period.
- Client A is a popular retail company that constantly runs promotions. These numbers have been analysed over a month.
- Client B is a designer retail brand that ran a two day promotion over a weekend.
The Rundown:
Click Through Rate
Click through rate (CTR) shows the percentage of people who click on your ad after they have seen it. It can be a key indicator on how well your ad is performing. A higher click through rate is a key contributor to optimising your ads quality score.
With enticing promotions and an easy, clickable ad, customers are more likely to click and convert.
A high click through rate is a good indicator that your customers find your ad helpful and relevant!
| Client A CTR | Client B CTR |
| 58% with promos 14% without promos | 10% with promos 4% without promos |
Both client A and B have a decent increase in their CTR from their ads without promotions. Without promotions, it is quite low, which goes to show that customers are looking for those promotions.
Ultimately, you’re increasing the CTR by creating compelling and relevant ads, which now leads us on to cost per click.
Cost Per Click
Cost per click (CPC) is the price you pay for each click in your campaigns. The higher the traffic and clicks on your ads, the lower the cost for each click.
| Client A CPC | Client B CPC |
| $0.06 with promos $0.15 without promos | $0.36 with promos $0.55 without promos |
With significantly higher amounts of traffic, the cost per click is a lot smaller for ads with promotions for both clients.
Conversion Rate
Conversion rate (CVR) shows how often, on average, an ad interaction leads to a conversion. It is calculated by dividing conversions by the number of interactions with your ad.
| Client A CVR | Client B CVR |
| 3.57% with promos 2.21% without promos | 0.31% with promos 0% without promos |
Both clients have an increase in their CVR percentage for their expanded text ads with promotions.
Conversions
Here is the final piece of the puzzle. Now remember, client A’s ads were analysed over the course of a month and client B was running a promotion over a weekend.
| Client A‘s Conversions | Client B‘s Conversions |
| 2063 with promos 130 without promos | 11 with promos 0 without promos |
Client B didn’t have any conversions from ads without promos and client A had a significant number of conversions from their promotions compared to ads without promotions.
Key Findings:
More people clicking on your ads from enticing promotions creates a snowball effect starting at the CTR as the most important, which trickles down to positively affect all aspects of your campaign. When Google sees that people are clicking on your ads it tells them that it’s useful to other users. You get a higher ad rank and lower costs!
All in all, these were just some of the obvious stand outs when analysing different customers, but as you can see, ads with promotional content do a lot better. This can bring in a lot more revenue, with client A’s being almost 16 times greater than their ads without promotions. After all, who doesn’t love a good bargain?
