YouTube Ads is part of the overall Google Ads network and has become one of the most important stop for serious marketers and advertisers.

Video, being a visual medium has always attracted attention. Being able to replicate a TV type ad at a fraction of the cost online, is something too good to ignore for advertisers. In fact there are many users who prefer watching YouTube videos than view traditional television. The potential reach of YouTube video ads has gone up considerably over the years and rival any other network, whether cable TV or social media.

The best part about YouTube Ads is the ability to easily connect with your target audience. With several options available, you can ensure your advertisement reaches your desired demographic with interest in your type of product or service.

What Are YouTube Ad Extensions?

YouTube Ad Extensions have been under beta testing by Google for a long time. Just like standard Google Ads extensions, YouTube Ad extensions allow additional information to be added along with your video ad. The additional information can be interactive with users clicking on them for further communication with your business.

Your YouTube Ad Extensions can display your business address, Google Map locations, Affiliate store locations or simply a call-to-action button. You can re-direct users to a sales page direct from your video ads.

The potential of a YouTube Ad Extension is quite extensive and savvy marketers have started using them to drive sales, lead generation and interaction with their businesses.

A special kind of extension, Sitelink extensions, has been under beta testing as well. Google claims that research done with 30 US advertisers shows that this extension increases the conversions from their ad by 23% and clicks with 50%. This extension is now in full use in YouTube ads.

In order to get started with these extensions, use your Google Ads account, and you’ll find the extensions tab there.

Setting Up YouTube Ad Extensions

YouTube ads now has two established extensions in place: Location extensions and Affiliate location extension.

Location extensions

If your store is listed in your Google My Business account and if it has a physical address, then you can include that information in your ad. This will help the customer to get your physical address with more ease.

In case you are managing your Google My Business account, then the first step is to expand from Resources and go to YouTube Extensions. From there, you need to find the Location tab and click New location extension. After that, follow the instructions available there.

Affiliate location extensions

For those that do not have their own physical stores and sell with affiliates, you should choose this option. This will again help your potential customers to find stores where you sell your products.

To set up, again, go to the YouTube Extensions tab, now choose the Affiliate location tab, then New affiliate location extension.

The options for you to choose are general retailers or auto dealers. Choose the most appropriate alternative, and add the affiliate. Afterward, click Save.

You also have an opportunity to add campaign filters to both your location and affiliate location extensions.

Call-To-Action Extensions in YouTube Ads

In addition to this, YouTube recently introduced some new extensions, one of which is the call-to-action extension.

This one is available only for TrueView in-stream video ads, but it has already proved to have a tremendous positive impact on the results of YouTube video ads.

The process of setting up this feature is pretty straightforward. In the stage of making the ad, when you already have the video of the ad, you’ll need to fill in the Final and Display URLs, and below you’ll see the Call-To-Action part.

Remember to be mindful of what you write in this section because you’re limited to only 15 character text and a ten character button to your video ad. (including spaces)

Keep the message short but filled with words that would make people want to click on it. This might be hard when you’re that much limited with word count, but it is certainly not impossible.

Try and test several times to find out what works best for you and your campaign.

Sitelink Extensions

As already mentioned in this article, another relatively new extension in YouTube ads are Sitelink Extensions.

According to Google, it increases conversions by 40%. Overall, it is known to increase the efficiency of video ads significantly because it gives the opportunity to include several links in your ad simultaneously.

From the customer’s perspective, when they start watching a video ad, after a few seconds, the section of the ad widens up and offers up to 5 external links for the ad. It is worth mentioning that this extension is now available only for the mobile version.

You can set this up in the Extension tab of your ads account. There you’ll find Add Sitelink Extension function, after which you can follow the instructions that are provided which are quite straightforward.

Conclusion

With the implementation of YouTube Ad Extensions, Google has made an already compelling proposition even better.

No longer are your users expected to search and find your business after viewing an ad. Now they can interact with your business directly from the video itself. Information can be displayed below the video as well for further interaction or links can be placed within the video itself.

Overall, it is worth the time and effort to go through YouTube Ad Extensions and make them a part of your video ad campaign.