Google Ads Extensions for Lead Generation: Make Your Ads Dominate

You’ve written compelling ad copy. Now let’s talk about how to make your ads bigger, more visible, and more clickable than your competitors—without paying a penny more.

Extensions are generally underutilized, so making the most of them can really have your ad stand apart. It’s a larger space on the search results page, it takes more real estate, and it’s more compelling because you can demonstrate more things than the ad copy alone.

Extensions are free additions to your ads—phone numbers, links to other pages, reviews, images, business location, pricing. They don’t cost extra, but they dramatically improve performance.

Most businesses either don’t use extensions at all or use them poorly. That’s a massive opportunity for you. Extensions can increase click-through rates by 30-50% compared to ads without extensions. That means more traffic from the same budget and the same ad position.

This article covers every extension type available, when to use each, and how to set them up for maximum impact.

Why Extensions Matter

Extensions do three critical things that improve your advertising performance.

First, they take up more screen space. An ad without extensions is 2-3 lines of text. An ad with extensions can be 6-10 lines of text, images, and clickable elements. That’s massive. You push competitors down the page and dominate the visual space.

Second, they give users more ways to engage. Instead of just clicking your main headline, they can click your phone number to call, click a sitelink to go to your services page, click your location to get directions. More clickable elements = more clicks.

Third, they improve your Quality Score. Google rewards ads that provide better user experiences. Extensions make your ads more useful, which Google measures through higher click-through rates. Higher Quality Score means lower cost per click and better ad positions.

Here’s an easy shortcut to getting a better ad rank than competitors: utilize extensions properly. Your competitor might be bidding $10 per click with a Quality Score of 6. You might be bidding $8 per click with a Quality Score of 8 (because your extensions drive higher CTR). You’ll outrank them and pay less.

In my furniture business, adding extensions increased our click-through rate by 35-40%. Same ads, same bids, same keywords—just added extensions. That’s 35-40% more traffic for the same budget. It’s one of the highest-ROI optimizations you can make.

The Essential Extensions

Let’s go through each extension type, what it does, and how to use it effectively.

Sitelink Extensions

Sitelink extensions are additional links that appear below your main ad. They let you send people to multiple pages on your website, not just one landing page.

Examples of good sitelinks:

Services (link to services page)
About Us (company info, credentials)
Reviews (testimonials or review page)
Contact (contact form or phone page)
Locations (if multi-location)
Free Quote (lead capture page)

Best practices: Use at least 4 sitelinks, ideally 8-10. Google shows 2-6 sitelinks depending on device and ad position. More options give Google more flexibility to show what’s most relevant.

Important: Don’t just send people to pages that are not influential in the buying decision. I see businesses use sitelinks to their blog, news section, or career pages. Those don’t help someone decide to hire you. Use impactful decision-making pages instead—services, reviews, about us, contact, pricing (if applicable).

Mobile vs. desktop: On desktop, sitelinks can show up to 6 links in two rows. On mobile, they typically show 2-4 links in a vertical list. Make sure your most important sitelinks are first because those are most likely to show.

Call Extensions

Call extensions show your phone number in your ad and enable mobile click-to-call. Someone on a phone can tap your number and call immediately without visiting your website.

For lead-generation businesses, especially emergency services, call extensions are critical. Someone searching “emergency plumber” on their phone doesn’t want to fill out a form—they want to call right now.

Important consideration: Call extensions will generally be a good thing, but you need to evaluate if there’s a lot of spam on them. Sometimes you want to take them off.

Here’s what I’ve seen with clients: call extensions sometimes generate more spam calls than calls from your website. Robocalls, solicitors, people asking questions who aren’t qualified—these waste your time and can hurt your call tracking metrics if you’re paying for call tracking.

Test with and without call extensions to see which converts better for your business. Run calls through extensions for a month, measure call quality. Then turn off call extensions for a month, see if website calls are higher quality. Some businesses find that click-to-website converts better because people who take the extra step of navigating your site are more serious buyers.

When to show phone numbers: Use extension scheduling to show call extensions only during business hours. If you can’t answer calls at 2 AM, don’t pay for clicks on your phone number at 2 AM.

Location Extensions

Location extensions are tied to your Google Business Profile (which we set up in Chapter 2). They show your business address, distance from the searcher, and a map marker. On mobile, people can tap to get directions.

This is critical for local lead-generation businesses. It signals you’re a legitimate local business, not some national call center. It builds trust and makes it easy for people to find you.

If you have multiple locations, location extensions can show the nearest location to the searcher automatically.

Callout Extensions

Callout extensions are short, non-clickable phrases (25 characters max) that highlight your differentiators and key selling points.

Examples:

“Licensed & Insured”
“24/7 Emergency Service”
“Free Estimates”
“Same Day Service”
“No Hidden Fees”
“100% Satisfaction Guarantee”
“Family Owned Since 1998”

Best practices: Stack 4-6 callouts minimum, ideally 8-10. Google shows multiple callouts together, so more options give better coverage. Highlight differentiators competitors don’t have. If everyone says “licensed and insured,” that won’t differentiate you—use something unique to your business.

Structured Snippets

Structured snippets use predefined categories that Google provides. You select a category (like “Services” or “Types”) and list items under that category.

Examples:

Services: Installation, Repair, Maintenance, Emergency
Types: Residential, Commercial, Industrial
Brands: Carrier, Trane, Lennox (if you’re an HVAC company selling these brands)

These give people a quick overview of what you offer without them having to click through to your website. It’s informational and builds trust.

Price Extensions

Price extensions show pricing ranges for your services directly in the ad.

Format: Service name + price or price range

Example:

AC Tune-Up: Starting at $99
Emergency Repair: From $150
Full Installation: $3,000+

When to show pricing: If price is a competitive advantage or if you offer transparent pricing that builds trust, show it. If you’re premium-priced and price isn’t your selling point, hide it.

Important caveat: I generally don’t recommend price extensions unless you’re going to stay very on top of updating your prices as you change things on your website. If your website says $99 service call but your price extension shows $75 (because you forgot to update it), that creates distrust and potential legal issues. Only use price extensions if you commit to keeping them current.

Review Extensions

Review extensions display third-party reviews or awards directly in your ad.

Requirements:

Must be from a reputable third-party source (not your own website)
Include the publication name and year
Example: “Best HVAC Company 2024 – HomeAdvisor” or “Top Rated Service – Angie’s List”

This builds instant credibility. People trust third-party validation more than your own claims.

Image Extensions

Image extensions are easy wins to stand out because they show your ad with a little thumbnail image next to it. In a sea of text-only ads, that visual element grabs attention immediately.

What to use:

Your work (before/after photos, completed projects)
Your team (people hire people, show your face)
Your location (your office, showroom, or trucks)
Your branding (clean logo shot)

Image quality matters. Use high-quality, relevant images. Blurry photos or stock images hurt more than help.

Logo considerations: Your logo must be readable at small sizes. If your logo has tiny text, it won’t work as a thumbnail. Test how it looks at small sizes and choose a version that’s clear and recognizable.

Business name alignment: Make sure your business name in the ad extensions matches your brand. Google sometimes pulls information automatically, and it might not be what you want. Double-check that your business name displays correctly.

Image extensions can improve CTR by 20-40%. That’s significant for something that takes 5 minutes to set up.

Setup Best Practices

Now that you know which extensions to use, let’s talk about how to set them up efficiently.

Account-level extensions apply to all campaigns automatically. Use this for universal extensions like callouts (“Licensed & Insured”), structured snippets (your services), and location extensions (your address).

Campaign-level extensions override account-level extensions for specific campaigns. Use these when you need campaign-specific messaging. For example, your “Emergency Services” campaign might have different sitelinks (Emergency Contact, 24/7 Service) than your “Scheduled Maintenance” campaign (Schedule Appointment, Service Plans).

Extension scheduling lets you show extensions only during certain times. Schedule call extensions to show only during business hours. Schedule sitelinks to “Contact Us” only when someone can actually respond.

Mobile-specific extensions vs. desktop: Some extensions perform better on certain devices. Call extensions are more valuable on mobile (click-to-call). Sitelinks work well on both but display differently.

Testing different variations: Create multiple versions of sitelinks, callouts, and images. Google will test them and show the best performers more often, similar to how RSA headlines work.

Update seasonally or for promotions. If you’re running a holiday promotion, add a sitelink to your promo page. Update callouts to reflect seasonal offers. Keep extensions current.

Common Extension Mistakes

Not using any extensions is the biggest mistake. You’re leaving money on the table—free money, since extensions don’t cost extra. Every ad should have extensions.

Generic sitelinks that go nowhere useful. Sitelinks to your homepage, news page, or blog waste the opportunity. Use pages that help people decide to hire you.

Callouts that say nothing meaningful. “Quality Service,” “Professional,” “Experienced”—everyone says this. Use specific, differentiating callouts.

Not updating extensions. Outdated promotions (“Summer Sale 2023” showing in 2025), wrong business hours, old phone numbers—these hurt credibility.

Poor image quality or irrelevant images. Blurry photos, generic stock images, or images that don’t relate to your service confuse people and lower CTR.

Wrong business name or logo in extensions. Here’s something critical: Not looking at your logo and your business name carefully enough. If you allow this up to Google, sometimes they can pull the wrong information. Google might pull an old logo, a different business name variation, or information from outdated listings. Pay attention and manually verify everything is correct.

Not monitoring which extensions perform. Set up extensions and forget about them? Bad idea. Review performance monthly and replace underperformers.

Too few extensions. Using only 2 sitelinks and 1 callout isn’t enough. Stack them—8-10 sitelinks, 6-10 callouts, multiple images. Give Google options.

Extension scheduling wrong. Showing your phone number when you’re closed means paying for calls no one answers. That’s wasted money and frustrated customers.

Extension Performance Monitoring

Set up extensions once, but maintain them regularly.

Check the Asset Performance report in Google Ads under “Ads & Extensions.” This shows which extensions are showing, how often, and which are driving clicks.

See which extension types drive the most engagement. Maybe sitelinks to “Free Quote” get 40% of all sitelink clicks—that’s valuable data. Double down on what works.

Replace underperforming extensions quarterly. If an image extension has been showing for 3 months with low engagement, try a different image.

Monthly review process: Check if extensions are still accurate, update for seasonal changes, review performance data, replace low performers.

Extensions Are Free—Use Them All

Extensions are completely free. They don’t cost you anything extra. But they can increase your click-through rate by 30-50%, which means more traffic from the same budget.

Set them up once, maintain them quarterly, and you’ll have a massive advantage over competitors who ignore them.

Most businesses use 2-3 extensions. If you use all 8-10 relevant extension types, you’ll dominate the search results page. Your ad will be bigger, more visible, and more compelling than everyone else’s.

Next, we’ll cover mobile optimization—how to capture the 70%+ of traffic that comes from mobile devices with mobile-specific strategies for ads, landing pages, and conversions.