Overview of the Google Ads Structured Snippets Extension for B2B Advertisers

Andrea Cruz Lopez
August 12, 2020

Structured snippets are a Google Ads extension that allows advertisers to highlight additional and relevant details about their business from a list of predefined categories.

Where structured snippets really shine is by giving you the ability to utilize specific text to differentiate your ad message from the rest of the results. By listing the key elements, brands, or products you can highlight the core of what your key audience is looking for.

It’s exceptionally powerful to remind and urge your audience that not only do you hold the product category they are looking for, but you also list a series of very specific brands and products for them to compare. This reinforces the idea that your ad is relevant and is more likely to create a click.

Two Structured snippet headers can appear on desktop, while on mobile and tablet devices will only show one header.

Benefits of Structured Snippets

Like other ad extensions, there are some common benefits:

Your ad will take up more space and you’ll be able to utilize additional characters in your ad text.
You’ll have an extra layer of control over your messaging.
As a B2B advertiser, you’ll have another tool at your disposal to limit your exposure and likelihood of click-through from someone who is not your target audience.

That being said, what really sets structured snippets apart is the help it provides users in quickly understanding your catalog of products or services before they click on an ad.

There are no disadvantages of using structured snippets, they are free and can be updated at any time.

Which Categories Make Sense for B2B?

There are currently 13 possible header options to choose from. Available options include amenities, brands, courses, degree programs, destinations, featured hotels, insurance coverage, models, neighborhoods, service catalog, shows, styles, and types.

A quick run-through of the list will allow you to immediately disqualify many of these as not being appropriate for most B2B advertisers but let’s take a deeper look at each potential category.

Amenities, Destinations, Shows, Featured Hotels

This group of categories is served in the travel, leisure, and service industries. These can be highly descriptive but probably not the types of headers you’d readily use in the B2B space.

Brands, Styles, Types

These snippets can really shine for the right B2B advertiser. eCommerce sites especially can find the benefit in taking the opportunity to list specific brands, models, unit numbers, or specific products.

The types of information you would place into each category may overlap, so you’ll need to decide which is the most appropriate header to choose:

Style is best used for retail and leans more on the B2C side.
Brand can be used to list specific sought-after brands or models that you carry.
Type is a catch-all that can be modeled to fit in numerous different circumstances.

Courses, Degree Programs

These are reserved for use in the education space, but there are instances where sales training, technical certifications, or other human resources certificates can come into play.

Insurance Coverage

This category is utilized strictly by the insurance industry. It can be used to weed out personal use by listing more business-focused policy types like commercial auto, worker’s compensation, or data breach insurance.

Neighborhoods

This can possibly be used by pairing local or regional search with professional services, but it’s generally not something you would run into often.

Service Catalog

Think of this as a professional services catch-all the same way the Types category is a product catch-all.

Structured Snippet Examples

Here are some examples that B2B marketers can use depending on their industry:

Structured Snippet Examples for Cybersecurity

This example showcases how a cybersecurity company can list all its services or the core offerings contained inside a main capability or pillar page.

Services: Incident Response, Data Security, Security Intelligence, Identity Management

Structured Snippet Examples for Healthcare

In this example, we are assuming the company sells Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) to other business, in this scenario, you can use the brand, types, or styles headers:

Brand: 3M, Ansell, Honeywell, Red Wings
Types: Respirators, Gloves, Hard Hats, Hazmat Suit
Styles: Cotton, Leather, Latex, Kevlar, Vibration-Resistant

Structured Snippet Examples for Marketing Technology

For MarTech (Marketing Technology) companies, the most common header to be used is “types” as you can describe the types of solution your software provides:

Types: Chatbots, Social Media Management, Workflow Automation, End-to-End Analytics

Using Structured Snippets

Here are 3 easy to follow steps to get started with structured snippets:

Once you select your category, you have the option to manually input your snippets. You can create multiple different combinations of headers and values within the main header but, since you don’t manually control which snippets show up, it’s best to limit the number of headers you use.

When you generate your snippets you can choose if they are optimized for mobile or desktop.

You can schedule days and times you want your snippets to be active.

Structured Snippets Requirements

This ad extension is subject to the standard Google Ads policies, but here are some requirements, that when ignored can often trigger disapprovals:

Structured snippets have a 25-character limit including spaces per snippet text.
You need to add at least 4 snippet texts under each header.
Don’t use unnecessary punctuation or symbols, this includes exclamation marks.
Don’t use the same snippet text multiple times under the same header.
Promotional values, such as “free shipping” or “sale” are forbidden.
If you are using the “model” header, make sure to add actual models instead of their brand names. This same concept applies to the “brand” header.

Difference Between Callouts & Structured Snippet Extensions

Structured snippets were created behind the idea of showcasing your product or service catalog. On the other hand, callouts are used to provide short but powerful extensions that allow you to make a statement about your product or service.

We recommend adding both to all Google Ads accounts, best of all, they don’t require extra cost nor technical knowledge. You just need to be creative.

Final Thoughts

As you get more and more ad extensions at your disposal, it’s important for you to decide which ones hold the most merit. As a B2B marketer, it’s crucial to develop methods that help you stand out from the crowd, as well as to weed out any B2C traffic.

Structured snippets effectively do both. By developing well-targeted and specific snippets that are relevant to your industry and utilize the proper category, you can ensure that a flow of well-targeted B2B users sees and interacts with your ads. This, in turn, will lead to more conversions, and ultimately, better return on investment.

Do you like using structured snippets? Tell me all about them via Twitter.