Google Ads extensions: which assets to set up and in what order

From "extensions" to "assets": what actually changed

Only the name changed. Google rebranded ad extensions to assets inside the Google Ads interface, announced on 15 September 2022 (Search Engine Land). The help page is now titled "About assets" and no longer uses the word extension at all. Google's definition: "Assets are content pieces that make up your ad with useful business information".

Most people still search for "extensions". You will see "assets" in the interface and "extensions" in older tutorials — same thing. New to the platform? Start with our Google Ads guide, inside the wider performance marketing guide.

Headlines and descriptions are assets too, but they belong to responsive search ads and ad copywriting, and architecture to account structure. This page owns the bolt-ons: links, callouts, snippets, calls, images, prices and forms.

Build at the highest level.

Every asset type, ranked by impact per minute of setup

Most articles list these alphabetically. Here they are in the order we work through them.

Why that order:

• Sitelinks are first because of a threshold. Google needs at least two sitelinks before any show, and can display up to six on desktop and eight on mobile. Four take ten minutes and buy the largest block of extra screen space a search ad can get.
• Callouts are second because they need no URLs. 25 characters each, up to 10 can show.
• Structured snippets are third because almost nobody fills them. One header, then your list — the cheapest differentiation here.
• Business name and logo are fourth because the penalty is visible. With no eligible asset, the ad shows a placeholder globe icon beside the display URL. A one-off upload, but it needs advertiser verification and search spend in the last 28 days.
• Call assets are fifth and rising. Google is retiring call-only ads — creation ends February 2026, full sunset February 2027, per Search Engine Land. Call assets on responsive search ads become the route for phone leads. Pair with call tracking.
• Images are sixth because they are gated. Google requires the account to be open at least 60 days, with a clean policy record, active text ads and search spend above zero in the last 30 days. Add four or more unique images including one square 1:1; cap is 20 per campaign.
• Promotion assets are seventh because they are seasonal, not structural. Google's occasion list covers the India calendar — Diwali (1 Sep to 1 Dec), Navratri (15 Sep to 31 Oct), Holi, Eid. Occasion assets must be created or edited within six months of their start date to stay eligible.
• Location, price and app are situational. Location needs a linked Business Profile; price assets take real time to build.

Lead forms are the most gated of the lot: Google requires conversion-focused bidding, a Google lead form conversion goal, an eligible vertical, a privacy policy link and a clean policy history — and they are only eligible to serve in some countries. Check the list before promising a client the format.

The setup order we use on a new account

This is our own sequence, used on every new Google Ads account we take on, in this order and usually inside the first hour.

1. Four to six sitelinks at account level, both description lines filled.
2. Six to eight callouts at account level — benefits and proof, never a repeat of a headline.
3. Two structured snippet sets at account level, using different headers.
4. Business name and logo at account level, once verification clears.
5. Call asset on any campaign where a phone call is a real outcome, scheduled to office hours.
6. Location assets, given a premises and a linked Business Profile.
7. Open the account-level automated assets settings and decide, type by type, what stays on.
8. Only then go campaign by campaign: images, promotions, and sitelinks specific enough to deserve their own set.

The slots we find empty most often on accounts we inherit, in rough order of frequency: structured snippets, the business logo at account level, sitelink description lines left blank while the links exist, promotion assets that expired two festive seasons ago, and price assets. The pattern is consistent: whoever built the account did sitelinks and callouts, then stopped.

What Google says about assets, Ad Rank and Quality Score

Ad Rank: yes, assets count. Google's Ad Rank page lists among its factors "the expected impact of assets and other ad formats", judged on "the relevance, click-through rates and the prominence of the assets or formats on the search results page". There is also a threshold: Google "requires a minimum Ad Rank (factoring in your assets) before showing additional assets with your ad", and "ads in higher positions get the first opportunity to show more assets". Full mechanism in our Ad Rank guide.

Quality Score: no. Its three components are expected click-through rate, ad relevance and landing page experience. Google's Quality Score page lists assets among things that "might not be captured by Quality Score", and says Quality Score "isn't an input in the ad auction". Filling assets will not move that column. Our Quality Score guide covers what does.

On results, we are quoting Google, not an independent study. Google's own claims: "Assets often increase your total number of clicks", and "you can often get more clicks for less money by using additional ad assets than by increasing your position". The same page warns that "ads with more assets also often have a higher actual CPC due to increased prominence". Treat all three as the platform's directional claims and watch your own click-through rate and conversion tracking.

Cost: adding assets is free. You pay for clicks and some interactions such as calls and app downloads. Clicks on seller ratings are not charged, and Google charges "no more than two clicks per impression".

Account, campaign or ad group: how the levels interact

The default is inheritance: an ad group uses its campaign's and account's assets unless you give it its own. What happens when both exist is not the same for every type.

• Promotion assets override. Google: "if you create promotion assets at different levels (account, campaign or ad group), the most specific will be used." Ad group beats campaign beats account.
• Sitelinks can combine. Higher-level sitelinks may serve alongside lower-level ones when Google predicts that helps. Only sitelinks in the same branch appear together, so one campaign's never show in another.
• No per-campaign exclusion toggle. To keep an account sitelink out of one campaign, Google says remove it at account level and add different sitelinks lower down.
• Not every type exists at every level. Images are campaign or ad group only. Lead forms attach to a campaign. Business information is account or campaign for Search, account only for Standard Shopping.

Our rule: build at the highest level where the statement is still true for everything below it. "Free delivery across India" belongs at account level; "EMI from ₹1,999" belongs on the one campaign where it is accurate.

Automated assets: leave them on or switch them off?

Two separate automations, constantly conflated.

Account-level automated assets are nine types Google adds without setup: dynamic sitelinks, structured snippets, callouts, business information and image assets, plus automated location assets, seller ratings, automated promotions and site visits. Google says they "will only appear when they're predicted to improve your text ad performance". Switch them off individually under Campaigns → Assets → Associations → three-dot menu → Account-level automated assets → Advanced settings.

Text customisation is different: formerly called automatically created assets, it generates extra headlines and descriptions and is now a campaign-level setting inside AI Max for Search. Google states that "starting in September 2026, campaigns using text customization, formerly known as automatically created assets, will automatically be upgraded to AI Max". If you switched this on in 2024 and forgot, go and read what it is writing.

How we handle it: leave dynamic sitelinks and callouts running while an account has none of its own, because something beats nothing. Turn dynamic business information off once your own name and logo are approved.

Where asset performance shows now

Go to Campaigns → Assets and choose the Association table view to see every asset in the account, by type.

For search ads, the detail sits in the ad level asset report: asset content and type, position pinning, impressions, clicks, cost, conversions and conversion value, plus asset ID and who added it.

One thing to unlearn: the old Learning / Low / Good / Best labels are gone. Google's wording — "The 'Performance label' column has been deprecated as full performance statistics for each asset are now available." If a tutorial tells you to hunt for "Low" assets and swap them, it predates the change. Ad Strength is separate and still there.

The trap is reading asset impressions as a quality verdict. An impression only means Google chose to show that asset on an ad that already cleared the Ad Rank threshold, so a good asset on a low-position ad looks dead. Check impression share before blaming the asset.

Five mistakes we see most often

1. Exactly two sitelinks — the bare minimum to show anything, which leaves Google no choice to make.
2. Sitelink descriptions left blank — two free lines of ad copy per link, skipped.
3. Callouts that echo the headlines, wasting a slot that could carry proof.
4. Everything built at campaign level and pasted into twelve campaigns, so one edit becomes twelve.
5. Judging assets without landing page context. A sitelink to a weak page converts badly however good the text is — a landing page problem, and the kind of thing a PPC audit separates out.

Fill the empty slots and your ads earn more room

Assets are the rare part of Google Ads that costs nothing to add. Every filled type is another combination Google can test, and more vertical space the competitor below you does not get.

Work the order above once at account level and you have done more than most accounts ever do. Then revisit quarterly — new pages mean new sitelinks, new offers mean new promotions, and the festive calendar resets every year.