AI Search, Being Found On Bing, Being Found on Google, Bing Ads, Google Ads, Google Nonprofit Ad Grant, marketing best practices, online advertising, paid search, pull marketing, Search Engine Optimization, search terms, SEM

Should I Use A Call Ad Extension In My Google Ads?

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Earlier this year, our Boston SEO Company wrote a number of blog posts to help our readers understand the paid-search side of search engine optimization (SEO). Two key organizations who offer opportunities to run ads that will appear at, or near the top of search results for the search terms (known as keywords) and geographies you provide them with when setting up your account, include Google Ads and Microsoft Bing Ads.

We highlighted Google Ads in our headline above because, despite the recent anti-trust lawsuit against Google, and more than 30 AI Search engines vying to be the top search-engine as use of AI search engines grows, Google’s search engine is still used by more than 90% of search-engine users. Regardless, the opinion we share below about whether or not to use a call ad extension (also known as a call ad asset) in your ads pertains to both Google and Bing Ads.

What Is A Call Extension Or Call Asset?

A call extension or call asset is a hyperlinked phone # (housed behind a phone icon labeled “call us” that the advertising platform serves up) that you can include along with your main ad body content when employing paid search advertising (also know as SEM, or search engine marketing). Any time someone clicks on this hyperlinked phone #/phone icon (see print screen below) the organization with whom you’ve placed your advertising will charge you for that click, the same way you pay a certain cost-per-click when someone clicks on the main body content of your ad or a different type of ad asset, such as a sitelink.

Reasons Not To Include Call Assets In Paid Search Advertising

Getting back to the answer to the question in the title of our blog post, the answer is “no, you shouldn’t include a call/phone extension/asset in your paid-search advertising.” We’ve run countless Google Ads campaigns for clients and our own business, and are now running Bing Ads for our own and client organizations. Based on our own experience and what we’ve heard/learned from other marketing professionals, our reasons for this are simple, and outlined below.

Call Assets/Call Extensions Waste Advertisers’ And Ad Clickers’ Time, Plus Advertisers’ Money Because:

  • Bots may click on call assets/extensions and each click on your hyperlinked phone #/phone icon that represents your call asset/extension will cost you money. As we explained above, the same way that search advertising platforms charge you each time someone clicks on the main ad body content of your ad or other ad extensions like site links, paid search advertising platforms will charge you for clicks on hyperlinked phone #’s.
  • In addition to the actual fee you pay to an advertising platform for clicks on phone # assets, you’ll also be paying for the time of your organization’s team member who answers the phone and interacts with someone who isn’t the right fit for what your organization offers, and of course, if they aren’t the right fit, the ad clicker will have also wasted their time. Even if your organization is a nonprofit one and not paying for your advertising clicks because of having a Google Nonprofit Ad Grant in place, you still don’t want to waste your team’s time or that of an ad clicker.
  • Searchers, i.e., individuals who have your ad served up to them, are usually in a big hurry. Search advertising platforms often serve up your ads to individuals who aren’t the right fit for your product, service, and solution, despite your ad body copy and keywords indicating who would be the right fit. Searchers often don’t take the time to read ad body content, and they may simply click on your call extension without visiting your website to see if your products, services, and solutions are the right for them. We’ve seen this happen over and over again.

Here’s an example that supports our above thinking. As you’ll see from the below print screen, we typed “designers near me” into Google. These ads (identified by the word “sponsored”) appeared. But, the search terms we entered into Google are very vague. Are we looking for a home designer, an interior designer, a graphic designer, etc.? If we clicked on the “Call Us” phone icon (call asset/extension which is hyperlinked to a phone #) without reading the ads and were looking for a graphic designer vs. a home designer or home renovator, we’d be wasting the advertisers’ money and time and our own time.

In sum, while it might seem ideal to make it easy for searchers to call you right away when they have an ad served up to them, you are better off from a financial standpoint, and good will standpoint (therefore, avoiding clickers getting frustrated with your organization) if you force them to 1) read the ad and 2) visit your website to learn more before they call you.

Check Out These Other Recent, Helpful Blog Posts For More Google Ads Wisdom From Our Boston SEO Company

Google Search Ads Not Converting? It May Not Be Your Ads Nor Landing Page That’s The Problem
Is Your Advertising Landing Page Too Self-Serving, And Ultimately, Hurting Your Organization?
How Much Should I Spend On Google Ads?
SEO VS. SEM

Need Help Optimizing Your Google Ads Or Bing Ads Or Getting Your Paid-Search Advertising Spend Down?

Reach out today to schedule a complimentary paid search advertising discussion about how our team of SEO experts can help you with the above.

Acceptance of Circumstances, AI Search, Being Found On Bing, Being Found on Google, Discussion Forums, good will creation, Google My Business Profile, keeping up with trends, online presence, organic SEO, Quora, Reddit, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, staying current

Dance To What Is – Part III

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The timing just felt right for another “dance to what is” blog post (we’ve linked to part I and part II of this series at the bottom of this post) because, now more than ever, marketing professionals have to be comfortable “dancing to what is.”

Why do I say that? Because last time I checked there were about 30 different AI search engines vying for adoption by searchers who welcome being able to get summaries of content that comes from a variety of websites, and particularly summaries/overviews that answer the specific question they, as searchers, entered in a search engine. In addition, these searchers want content to be accessible all in one spot/the same place that is helpful and understandable, i.e., content that can easily be absorbed by the searcher and that allows the searcher to take action, if necessary.

We’ve talked about the above in a number of blog posts, so we aren’t going to recreate the wheel. You can learn more about AI search engines, and the future of search in these previous posts, but continue to scroll down past them to learn more about Reddit and Quora and why you should consider developing a plan to incorporate them, or other discussion forums, in your organization’s marketing strategy:

How To Plan & Prepare Now For Google SGE Impact: Be Ready & Willing To Rock The Boat!
What Content Served Up In Google Generative AI Has In Common: 8 Practices To Implement Now
To Continue To Succeed At SEO, “You’re Going To Need A Quality Shoe”
How To Thrive, Not Just Survive, In the AI Search Jungle

Don’t Ignore The Role That Discussion Forums Like Quora and Reddit Play Related To Ranking Well In Search Engines For Relevant Terms

One thing that I and fellow marketing consultants are noticing related to AI Search is this. Google is starting to serve up more and more Reddit, Quora and other discussion-forum threads/conversations/discussions in search-engine results and serve them up higher in results. Why? Because Reddit and Quora and similar online discussion boards are community platforms/forums that already serve the purpose that AI search engines want to serve — providing answers to a extremely large and diverse number of questions that users of their tool have.

Hey, if there’s already a post on Reddit, Quora, or some other community-discussion platform addressing the question a searcher has and the post has a number of helpful answers associated with it, why not serve that thread/discussion up in search results? It’s a no-brainer for search engines, at least for ones who want to be successful in playing the role that AI search engines are supposed to be playing — answering searchers’ questions. Of course, with AI search, there’s always the concern that what’s being shared up in the form of answers to questions on Reddit, Quora, or similar platforms is not accurate or current, and often, it may just be a matter of someone sharing their opinion without a lot of research or data behind the opinion to support the opinion. But, these are the times we live in and the challenges that come with limitless ways for anybody, anywhere able to share information or thoughts on anything.

So, Where Does Dancing To What Is Come Into Play Related to Reddit, Quora or Other Similar Platforms?

Whether or not the answers to posts are accurate, current, backed by data, etc., Google and other AI search engines are likely to continue to serve Reddit, Quora, and other discussion-community-site conversations in search-engine results. In fact, we expect that the number of listings spit back in search-engine results that are related to a Quora, Reddit, or another platform discussion thread to continue to grow.

The other day I was investigating what organizations came up in search-engine results related to a question along the lines of “What’s The Best Place To Have Brunch In The Greater Boston Area?”

You’ll see below, that the listings that Google served up in response to the above question, included the following:

Fairly high-up in the above-mentioned search-results listings (Google responding to my brunch question) — just under several Google My Business Profiles/Google Search & Maps listings, and the two “organic” website listings — Google served up “Discussions and Forums” and included links to Tripadvisor and Reddit discussion-forum conversations.

Dancing To Discussion-Forum Conversations

So, as we alluded to above, you can’t beat ’em, so why not join ’em? So, how do you capitalize on discussion forums to support your organization and the services you offer?

  • Dance to the new search-engine environment we all live and work in now, and start your own post or question related to the products and services your organization offers. It shouldn’t be too salesy or too self-serving and you should really only be providing a link to your organization’s website along with your post if the information that the link takes one to is particularly beneficial or helpful and highly related to the question at-hand, and therefore, allows the reader to understand what next steps they can take related to their question.
  • In addition to, or in lieu of starting a new question/discussion/thread where you start the conversation by posting a question or sharing information, you could simply respond to posts of others that are related to the services you offer. Again, you don’t want to be too salesy or too self-promoting, but there are ways you can weigh in and offer advice without doing so. For example, I’ve answered countless questions related to SEO in the past on Quora. Doing so may cause someone to look me and my business up and reach out to me for help, and certainly if someone is asking for names of the best provider of xyz products in xyz town/city, and you believe your organization offers the best product or service, you can weigh in in a tasteful way.

Note: you can be Banned from discussion forums for too much self-promotion, particularly sharing links to your website that aren’t appropriate, or simply sharing them too frequently, so take it slowly and carefully consider when and how frequently you share links back to your organization’s website.

Example Of Post On Quora That Supports An Organization Being Found On Search Engines

As part of composing this blog post, I posted the question below on Quora today, so that I could provide an example of a non-salesy post that could still be effective in establishing your organization as an expert on a particular topic and/or cause someone to check out your profile and reach out to you.

My Quora Post:

My Quora Profile That Could Cause Someone To Look Me Up And Reach Out:

Reach Out For Help Capitalizing On Quora, Reddit and Other Discussion Forums

We think you get the picture, but our team of Boston SEO experts is always here to help regardless of where in the U.S. your organization is located or where you offer your products or services. So, please reach out to our Boston SEO services team, to schedule a complimentary discussion of your marketing challenges and opportunities!

Check Out Our Other Blog Posts About Dancing To What Is!

Dance To What Is – Part I

Dance To What Is – Part II