As PPC marketers, we should be getting used to automation within the Google Ads platform. Already, Google can automate your audience targets, your bidding, your search ads, and even entire campaigns.
So there shouldn’t be any surprise reaction when you find out Google Ads has automated ad extensions.
Sometimes you may see that automated ad extensions perform fairly well. Other times, you may see that your manual extensions you already have set up can better control the message as well as where you want your users to go.
In this post, I want to show you where automated extensions live within the Google Ads platform, and then also how you can turn them off if you feel performance isn’t up to par.
Finding Automated Extensions in Google Ads
When you are in the Google Ads interface, it’s no surprise that your automated extensions are going to live under the ads and extensions section of Google ads.
Once we click on the automated extensions report, you will then see a list of all the automated extensions that were running within the account at some point.
Now in this example, we see a few expired extensions. Social extensions are not around anymore, but they were enabled at some point within this account.
The date range I used in the image above was All Time. If I adjusted the date range to just the past 30 days or something more recent, all the stats for expired extensions would be zeros. They are just in there to review historical data.
Just like many other views and reports in Google Ads, you can customize your columns to see the proper stats that you would like to see as well as the KPIs that will allow you to assess your performance.
Now you can compare how your automated extensions are performing with your manual extensions that you’re setting up yourself within your account. This step can be done at the account, campaign or ad group level.
Now if for whatever reason, you do not want your automated extensions to run (whether it is a performance issue, or whether you want to make sure you’re controlling your brand message) there is a way for you to turn off your automated ad extensions. And to do that it’s kind of tricky because it’s almost like Google is burying the setting for these extensions just so you can’t find it. But to turn off automated ad extensions, you have to go all the way to the right-hand side of the interface.
You will see the three dots that says “More” underneath it. Click on those dots, then click on Advanced Options.
Here you are taken to an information page where you are asked how you would like automated extensions to work within your account
By default in every account, Google is going to have it set to use all automated extensions that typically boost ads performance. That’s Google’s opinion for clarification. But if you want to turn it off automated ad extensions, you have to select the other option of “turn off specific automated extensions”, you will then have to choose which extensions you would like turned off. And if you want to, you can select an optional reason of why you are turning off the extensions.
Maybe you have seen worse performance. Certain industries are much more regulated than others, so compliance and control could be extremely important.
Maybe Google Ads isn’t cutting it from an ad copy perspective. The advertiser will then have the option to leave additional comments if they choose. Then you can select done to save your update.
Unfortunately, you cannot select all automated extensions at once. You have to go through this process one by one for each extension. It is kind of a pain to do this, but it still doesn’t take too long!
Have you tested automated extensions in your Google Ads account? What tips do you have? We’d love to hear your suggestions in the comments below!
