To help advertisers capture leads from their text ad campaigns, Google is beta testing a new ad extension. This new lead form extension will enable searchers to request information from Google search ads.
How does the new extension work?
To create the lead form extension you simply need to:
- Click ‘Add lead form extension’.
- Click ‘Add to campaign’ from the drop-down then select the campaigns you want to add the extension to.
- Choose the compelling call-to-action that fits your campaigns and enter extension text, which will display under your call-to-action with the ad.
To create the lead form you need to:
- Write a headline, a business name and a description, ensuring that you don’t exceed the character counts.
- Pick the information that you wish to collect from searchers, from name, email, phone number and postal code.
- Add a background image.
- Add a link to your privacy policy.
- You have the option to customise the submission completion page with a description and a call-to-action of either ‘visit website’ or ‘download’.
What happens to the lead data?
Once a potential lead has entered their details into the form, a webhook will deliver the lead data gathered from the lead forms directly to your customer data management or CRM system. Designed for searchers visiting ads from their mobile phones, the integrated webhooks will hopefully improve the process of transferring lead data to sales systems, and increase the number of leads generated from search ads.
How successful will this new lead extension be?
This is the third time Google has tested extensions to capture lead data from search ads, so time will tell whether it is successful this time. Previous attempts include the contact form extension tested in 2010, when searchers filled out a contact form, including a contact phone number, in the search ad and advertisers received any new leads via email. Advertisers then contacted the leads by phone call. This was followed by cost-per-lead ads a year later, which involved users submitting their phone number or email in the ad to request advertisers to contact them with further information.
Do you have any comments or thoughts on using the new lead extension within your PPC campaigns? If so, leave them below and we will get back to you.