Two ads appear for the same search. One is three lines of text. The other has the same three lines plus a phone button, links to four service pages, a row of short facts and the clinic’s address with a distance. Most people pick the second one before reading a word of either.
Those extra pieces are Google Ads assets, which Google used to call extensions. This post goes through the main types, which ones are worth setting up first for a small business, how sitelinks, callouts and call assets work in practice, and how to keep all of them accurate when your hours, numbers or services change.
What assets are and why they matter
An asset is any extra piece of information that can appear with your ad: a phone number, an address, links, short phrases, images and more. You add them once at the account, campaign or ad group level, and Google decides each time whether to show them and which ones.
They do two jobs. For the searcher, they answer questions before the click, such as where you are, whether you offer a specific service, and how to call. For you, they make the ad take up more space and give Google’s auction more to work with, since the expected effect of assets is one of the factors in deciding where ads appear.
Because Google chooses when to show them, no asset appears every time. Adding them is still worthwhile. An asset you never added can never appear.
The main Google Ads assets at a glance
| Asset | What it shows | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|
| Sitelinks | Extra links to specific pages on your site | Almost every business with more than one useful page |
| Callouts | Short non-clickable phrases | Almost every business |
| Structured snippets | A heading such as Services or Types, followed by a list | Businesses with a range of services or products |
| Call | A phone number or call button | Businesses that want calls and can answer them |
| Location | Your address, distance and map link | Businesses with premises customers visit |
| Image | A picture beside the text ad | Visual products and services |
| Price | A set of services or products with prices | Businesses with fixed, published prices |
| Promotion | A specific offer or sale | Genuine, dated offers |
| Business name and logo | Your name and logo on the ad | Most businesses, once verified |
Sitelinks, callouts and call assets first
If you only set up three asset types, these three cover most of what a small local business needs.
Sitelinks
Each sitelink is a short link text with an optional pair of description lines, pointing to a page on your website. Good sitelinks lead to pages a searcher might genuinely want next: a specific service, your contact page, fees or packages if you publish them, reviews, or a booking page.
Avoid sitelinks that all point to the home page with different words, or to pages that say very little. Each one should take the person somewhere useful. Add several, since Google picks which to show depending on the search and the device.
Callouts
Callouts are short phrases that add facts without links. “Home Visits Available”, “Women Doctors on Staff”, “Weekend Appointments”, “Written Estimate First”. They work best when they are specific and true. Phrases like “Great Service” add nothing a reader believes.
Call assets
A call asset adds your number to the ad, and on phones it usually appears as a tap-to-call button. You can schedule it so it only shows during the hours someone answers. Google may ask you to verify that you own the number before it shows.
If calls are your main goal, our post on getting phone calls from Google Ads covers call reporting and how call-focused setups differ from simply adding a number.
Location assets and your Business Profile
Location assets pull your address from your Google Business Profile. To use them, the profile must exist, be verified, and be linked to your Google Ads account. Once linked, your ads can show your address, distance from the searcher, and a link to directions, and they can appear in Google Maps results too.
If the profile is incomplete or has the wrong address, the ad shows that wrong address. So check the profile before linking it. If you do not have one yet, our guide to setting up a Google Business Profile walks through the process. Service-area businesses that hide their address on the profile will not get the same address display, which is expected.
The supporting assets
Structured snippets
You choose a heading from Google’s fixed list, such as Services, Types, Brands or Courses, then add values beneath it. A tuition centre might use Courses with a list of subjects. An electrician might use Services with wiring, inverter installation and fan repair. They tell people the range at a glance.
Image assets
Images can make a text ad stand out, especially on mobile. Use real photos of your work, premises or products, not stock images that look like everyone else’s. Google may also generate images from your website if you allow it, so review those before they appear.
Price and promotion assets
Price assets list items with prices. Only use them if your prices are fixed and match your website, because a mismatch is both a policy risk and a trust problem. Promotion assets suit real, time-bound offers, such as a festival discount, and can be scheduled to start and end on set dates.
Business name and logo
These show your brand name and logo on the ad. Google usually requires advertiser verification first, and the name should match your actual business.
Automatically created assets
Google can create some assets for you from your website and ads, such as dynamic sitelinks, callouts and images. These can fill gaps, but they can also pick up old offers, outdated hours or pages you would never choose to promote.
Look in the account’s asset settings for the option controlling automatically created assets, and decide on purpose. Many small businesses prefer to switch off the ones they cannot easily review, and add their own versions instead.
Keeping assets accurate
Assets are easy to set and forget, which is how ads end up showing last year’s offer or a number that rings an empty desk. A short check whenever something changes keeps them honest:
- Changed hours or holidays: update the call asset schedule.
- Changed phone number: update the call asset and the website at the same time.
- Moved premises: update the Business Profile first, then check the location asset.
- New or dropped service: add or remove sitelinks and snippets.
- Offer ended: confirm the promotion asset ended too.
- Website pages renamed or removed: check every sitelink still loads.
Every few months, open the asset report and look at which assets are being shown and how they perform. Remove ones that rarely appear or point to weak pages. Our small business guide to Google Ads covers where assets fit among the other first-campaign settings, and our post on writing the ad text itself pairs well with this one.
Frequently asked questions
Why are my sitelinks not showing on my ads?
Google decides each time whether to show assets, based on the search, the device, the ad’s position and how useful it expects them to be. Ads in lower positions show fewer assets. Check the asset status for disapprovals, make sure several sitelinks exist, and look at the asset report to see how often they appear.
Do I pay extra when someone clicks a sitelink or call button?
There is no separate fee for having assets. A click on a sitelink, or a tap on a call button, is charged like a normal click on the ad. Assets do not change what a click costs. They change how many people choose to click and which page they land on.
Should I add assets at account level or campaign level?
Account level suits assets that apply everywhere, such as your phone number or general callouts. Campaign or ad group level suits assets that belong to one service, such as sitelinks to that service’s pages. Assets at a lower level take priority over higher ones, so you can set general defaults and override them where needed.
Assets are a small piece of setup that make every ad more useful, and keeping them accurate is part of running an account honestly. If you would like them set up and checked as part of a managed account, see our Google Ads management service. For the broader picture of channels, our page on digital marketing for small businesses covers the rest.
Next in this series: Google Ads Location Targeting: Presence vs Interest
