Google recently annouced a new type of ad extension called of all things a “Callout” extension. The intent is simple enough to understand by looking at the example they gave in the base article at the Inside AdWords Blog.
In researching this extension we cannot find any reason not to use this feature. We know that any time that you grow the size of the ad your click through rate (CTR) benefits and certainly the types of items that you would include as callouts are proven performers when it comes to CTR and conversion rate.
The specifications call for up to 4 callouts with a length of 25, however common sense tells us that really is not going to happen. Based on the format above we know this line is maxed out at about 70 total characters and the dash used as a delimiter is at least 3 long. So if your callouts are longer, then the max is probably 3 which is probably an incentive to keep it shorter.
While there is no data to support this yet we suspect that like all parts of AdWords, relevancy is going to play in this process so using more than 3 callouts is probably a good idea. In early testing it is clear that when it is loaded with more than 3 that it will go to the extensions it thinks are going to be the strongest. In our first test we included known power words like ‘Free’ and they got the strongest service level. We are a long way from being able to prove this but the stronger call to action words are likely to get better service. Bottom line right now is we are recommending that you use 8-10 callouts and cull that down to 6-8 as you find your strongest performers.
The other issue here is that you cannot control when callouts will appear in your ad because as Google so eloquently put it these are co-triggered extensions. They may or may not be there just like other extensions. It is unlikely that we will see these in the side positions so you have to consider this when writing your ad copy. The ideal callouts are also common in the body of the current ad copy so some consideration of the complexity of duplicate content in top positions or missing call to action item on the side. From our reading of the policy you should not have duplicate content between the ad copy and the callout extensions however if you remove the callout item from the ad it is very likely you will end up with a weaker ad.
The recommendation here is to implement callouts as quickly as possible and think about the potential impact on your other ad copy.