Google testing new Promotion Extension in text ads

A new Google AdWords ad extension has been spotted in the wild. Moz’s Dr. Pete notice a new promotion extension being tested in a text ad.

Wow – one line of actual ad text, four lines of (different) extensions… pic.twitter.com/FTqpBbFDW9

— Dr. Pete Meyers (@dr_pete) November 14, 2016

There’s a lot going on in that ad, making it easy to miss the new extension. Here’s a breakdown of the extensions and annotations in this ad:

Click to enlarge.

First are Consumer Ratings Annotations, next up is the new Promo Extension that’s being tested, followed by Sitelink Extensions, and finally, a Location Extension.

The promotion extension (official name TBA) features an offer followed by some descriptive copy (Here Williams-Sonoma is using a promo code, but I’m guessing a code does not always have to be included).

Merchant Promotions that feature the same tag icon shown in the promotion extension here have been available for Google Shopping ads since 2012. The promotion extension spotted above is from a retailer, but extending promotion extensions to text ads means advertisers from other verticals would be eligible to use them. It also means advertisers can change out a single ad extension rather than update ad copy. Notice in the example above, Williams-Sonoma is also still promoting its Fall sale in a Sitelink along with the sitewide offer in the promotion extension.

Presumably, this is being tested on all devices, though I have not seen it in the wild yet. Strike that, a few hours after first publishing this, I spotted a promotion extension on a mobile ad for “talbots outlet”

H/T Serptests.com