Did you know Google is eliminating their AdWords Review extensions completely beginning in February? Yep!
Everyone loves the third-party review extensions, especially Search Marketing Agencies like us. All businesses, anyone who browses the internet–EVERYONE! Those extensions help people decide at a glance whether or not to waste their time clicking on any given ad. So why in the world would Google do away with them? Who knows. But let’s just hope they have something better in mind although they haven’t mentioned anything as yet.
Google’s Official Statement Regarding Review Extensions
Here is the official announcement from Google about their third-party Review extensions:
“Review extensions will no longer show with ads starting January 2018.
In February 2018, review extensions will be deleted along with their performance data. To save this data, download an extensions report by going to Extensions on the Ads & extensions page in AdWords. If you’d like to continue showing more information with your ads, we recommend using sitelinks, callouts, and structured snippets extensions.”
This means if you want to save the historical data from your review extensions, you will need to take action now to preserve it. All you have to do is follow the instructions Google has provided.
Why This Might Not Be a Bad Change
As you know, it has been difficult to get just about any Review extension approved regardless of the quality. That’s why many people chose not to use them. So now that they are eliminating this feature, it won’t necessarily be a bad change, especially if they roll out something better, more effective, and something that’s a bit easier to get approved. After all, it’s Google we’re talking about here! They come out with new features and options all the time, so hopefully, they will roll out something similar, but better, soon!
What Will This Change Do To My AdWords Campaign?
Basically, nothing will change except you will lose your Review extensions and there’s nothing as of right now to replace that feature. However, there are still a variety of ways to enhance your search ads, some of which were mentioned in Google’s announcement of the Review extension removal.
What Can I Use in Place of the Third-Party Review Extensions?
Google suggested using sitelink and callout extensions, as well as structured snippets as a way of showing more information with your ads. But what else could be used in place of third-party review extensions?
Here are several other Google and Bing features you could use as a replacement for your third-party extensions. These are not similar in any way; however, they will give you other options you can use to boost your brand’s exposure and add to your customer’s convenience factor.
- Showcase Shopping Ads (Google)
- “Purchases on Google” Ads (Google)
How To Display Social Proof Without a Review Extension
Even after the review extensions have gone away, you can still include small bits of social proof within your ads by writing short blips of positive reviews within the ad copy. Although you won’t have much room for such verbiage, something is better than nothing. Just remember, Google does have restrictions on what you say in your ads and will suspend them if they feel you are using any type of extreme exaggeration of the truth. So be very careful how you word these.
