You open the asset report to check one thing and find a sitelink you never wrote. It points to a page you would never pay to send traffic to. Nobody on the team added it. Google did. That is the part of Google Ads extensions most guides skip: some of the extensions on your ads were written by you, and some were generated for you.
From October 12, 2026, the generated side grows again. Google will start reading offers from advertiser websites and showing them as promotions in eligible Search and Performance Max campaigns, without anyone writing the copy. If your site still has last month's sale on it, your ads may promise it.
This guide covers the extensions worth adding by hand, the automated ones Google adds on its own, which of those we keep and which we turn off, and a short monthly check that keeps the whole thing under control.
What Google Ads extensions are, and why Google calls them assets now
Google Ads extensions are extra pieces of information that can appear with a text ad: links to specific pages, short selling points, a phone number, an address, prices, an image or an offer. In September 2022 Google renamed ad extensions to assets. Existing extensions moved over automatically. Most marketers still search for "extensions", so we use both words here. They mean the same thing.
Three facts explain how extensions behave:
- arrow_forwardAdding them is free. You pay for clicks as usual. Google charges no more than two clicks per impression for an ad and its assets combined.
- arrow_forwardThey are never guaranteed to show. An asset appears only when Google predicts it will improve the ad's performance and your Ad Rank is high enough. Ads in lower positions show fewer assets.
- arrow_forwardThey affect Ad Rank. The expected impact of your assets is one of the inputs Google uses to rank ads, next to bid, ad quality and landing page experience. That makes them part of your quality work, not decoration.
Bigger ads take more space on the results page and give searchers more reasons to click. That is why extensions are one of the quickest levers for a better click through rate. It is also why Google wants every ad to carry as many of them as possible, whether you wrote them or not.
The ad extensions worth adding manually
Manual extensions are the ones you control: you choose the text, the link and where they apply. Google lists more than ten types. These are the ones that matter for most Search campaigns, with our view on each.
| Extension | What it does | Our take |
|---|---|---|
| Sitelink | Links to specific pages under the ad | Always add. At least four per campaign, written for that campaign. |
| Callout | Short selling points that are not clickable | Always add. Cheap to write, easy to test. |
| Structured snippet | A header such as Services or Brands with a list of values | Add when you sell a range. Weak for single product offers. |
| Image | A square or landscape image next to the ad | Add your own, or Google may pick one from your site. |
| Call | A phone number or call button | Only if someone answers the phone, and only during opening hours. |
| Location | Address and distance from a linked Business Profile | Essential for local businesses. Note that it also unlocks automated promotions. |
| Price | Products or services with prices | Useful when price is a reason to choose you. Keep it current. |
| Promotion | A sale or discount with dates and conditions | Write these yourself, with start and end dates. |
| Lead form | A form inside the ad | Test carefully. Volume is easy, lead quality is not. |
Sitelink extensions
Sitelink extensions do the most work, so they deserve the most care. Write them at campaign level, not only at account level, so a campaign about pricing software does not show a sitelink to your careers page. Each sitelink should answer a question the searcher is likely to have next: pricing, a demo, a comparison, a specific product range. Add the two description lines. Without them the sitelinks often render as a thin row of links.
Callout extensions
Callout extensions are where specific beats clever. "Free returns within 30 days" works. "Best service" does not. Write six to eight, keep them under 25 characters, and make sure none of them repeat what your headlines already say. The same rules that apply to writing Google Ads copy apply here.
Structured snippets
Structured snippets use a fixed header from Google's list, such as Types, Services, Brands or Destinations, followed by your values. They help searchers check the range before they click. Pick the header that matches the campaign and list at least four values that each exist on the landing page.
Promotion extensions
Promotion extensions show an offer with a tag such as a percentage or amount off. They support start and end dates, which is the main reason to write them yourself. A manual promotion with an end date switches off on time. As you will see below, a manual promotion also blocks Google's automated version.
Automated assets: the extensions Google adds on its own
Next to your own extensions, Google can create account level automated assets. They are generated from your website, your Business Profile and other sources, and they are on by default. Google's help page lists nine types:
Text and links
Dynamic sitelinks, dynamic callouts and dynamic structured snippets, written from the content of your site.
Brand and visuals
Dynamic business information (name and logo) and dynamic image assets taken from your landing pages.
Trust and location
Seller ratings, automated location assets and site visits, a plain line about how many people visited.
Offers
Automated promotions, deals Google finds on your website and adds to your ads. This is the newest one.
Google says these assets show only when they are predicted to improve performance, and that dynamic sitelinks can show alongside or instead of the sitelinks you wrote. That last part is the one to remember. A generated sitelink can replace a manual one you spent time on.
There is a second layer. At campaign level, Search campaigns can also use automatically created assets: extra headlines and descriptions generated from your landing pages and existing ads. In AI Max the same idea comes back as text customization. Those settings live in the campaign, not in the account level menu, so they need their own check.
The October 12 change: automated promotions
Automated promotions were spotted in accounts in early September 2026. In the first week of October, some advertisers received an email that the feature would be applied to their campaigns from October 12, 2026. PPC Land and Search Engine Roundtable covered the notice. Here is what is known so far:
- infoWhich campaigns. Search and Performance Max campaigns with location assets that do not already have a manual promotion asset.
- infoWhat it does. Google scans your landing pages for offers, such as a percentage off or a "buy one, get one" deal, and adds them to your ads as promotions.
- infoHow fresh. Google says detected promotions are verified again within 24 hours. It has not explained how it handles an offer that ended in the meantime.
- infoWhat you see. Only promotions that actually served appear in reporting. You cannot review the queue of offers Google found before they show.
- infoHow to opt out. One switch at account level. There is no campaign level control. Adding your own promotion asset to a campaign also makes it ineligible.
Our view: for most advertisers this one should be off until they have a reason to turn it on. Websites are full of offers that are not meant for everyone. A discount that only applies to one region, a code for newsletter subscribers, a sale banner that stayed up a week too long. An offer in an ad is a promise to the person who clicks. If Google writes it from a page you forgot to update, the customer service problem is still yours.
An honest note
Google has not published a full announcement, a rollout list per country or the criteria it uses to pick a "high quality" promotion. The details above come from the advertiser notice and early coverage. If you run promotions often and keep your site tidy, automated promotions may work fine for you. Test it on purpose, not by default.
Which automated assets to keep, and which to turn off
Not every automated asset is a problem. Some only add information Google already has and you would not write better yourself. The question for each one is simple: can it say something you would not approve?
| Automated asset | Default advice | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Seller ratings | Keep | Based on real reviews. Hard to replace manually. |
| Automated location | Keep if you have locations | Pulls from your Business Profile, so it is as accurate as that profile. |
| Site visits | Keep | Not clickable and low risk. |
| Dynamic business information | Keep, but verify | Better to upload your own business name and logo so Google does not guess. |
| Dynamic structured snippets | Review | Usually harmless, but can list ranges you no longer focus on. |
| Dynamic callouts | Review | Can pick up claims from old pages or footers. |
| Dynamic images | Review, or upload your own | Crops from your site rarely look like a chosen ad image. |
| Dynamic sitelinks | Turn off for lead gen and B2B | Can send paid clicks to pages outside your funnel, and can replace your own sitelinks. |
| Automated promotions | Turn off by default | An offer is a commitment. You should write it, date it and end it. |
In our experience, dynamic sitelinks are the automated asset that most often points somewhere a marketer would not choose: a blog post, a careers page, a page about an event that already happened. For an ecommerce shop with a clean category structure they can be useful. For a SaaS or lead gen account with one clear conversion path, they mostly add exits.
A simple rule we use: if you have written a good manual version of an asset type, turn off the automated version of that type. If you have not, either write one or accept that Google will fill the space.
How to turn off automated assets in Google Ads
Account level automated assets are switched off per type, for the whole account. The path, based on Google's help documentation:
Open Assets
In the Google Ads menu, go to Campaigns, then Assets.
Find the automated assets view
On the Associations tab, click the three dot menu and choose Account level automated assets.
Open the advanced settings
Click the three dot menu again and select Advanced settings. You will see a switch per asset type, including Automated promotions.
Switch off and save
Turn off the types you do not want, pick a reason when Google asks for one, and save.
Two related settings are worth checking in the same session. First, the campaign level setting for automatically created headlines and descriptions in each Search campaign. Second, auto applied recommendations, which can add assets and change bids without asking. We cover those in our guide to Google Ads recommendations.
One more thing. Several agencies report that automated asset settings were switched back on, or that new generated sitelinks appeared after they had turned the feature off. Treat these switches as something you check, not something you set once.
A 20 minute monthly extensions audit
You do not need a big project to keep extensions clean. A short check once a month is enough, and it fits neatly into a wider Google Ads account audit.
- checkCheck the switches. Open the advanced settings of account level automated assets and confirm they are still as you left them.
- checkFilter the asset report by source. Look at everything Google created in the last 30 days. Read the text and click the links.
- checkCompare offers with reality. Every promotion that served should match an offer that is live today, for everyone who can see the ad.
- checkLook for gaps in your manual set. Each active Search campaign should have its own sitelinks, callouts and at least one structured snippet.
- checkCheck dates. Remove promotions and prices that have ended. Set end dates on anything seasonal before Black Friday.
- checkJudge on conversions, not clicks. An extension that lifts click through rate but sends people to the wrong page makes the account look better and work worse.
The hard part is not the audit. It is noticing that something changed before it costs money. Google rarely announces these rollouts loudly. The October 12 change reached most advertisers through an email a week before it went live.
That is the kind of admin aubado is built to take off your plate. The Algorithm Monitor tells you when ad platforms change something that can affect your campaigns, and the Google Ads Optimization Specialist shows in one daily check whether your results are on track. You spend a few minutes on the overview and keep the rest of the morning for the work that needs you. If that sounds useful, join the waitlist.
Frequently Asked Questions
Less time in settings. More time on the craft.
aubado keeps an eye on your channels and on platform changes, so a daily check takes minutes. Then close the tab and do your real work.
Related Resources
Share this article