About app extensions

30/11/2019

App extensions allow you to link to your mobile or tablet app from your text ads. People click either on your ad headline to go to your site, or on the link to your app. App extensions are a great way to provide access to your website and your app from a single ad.

This article explains how app extensions work, and some of the reasons why they're helpful.

Before you begin

If your primary goal is to drive app downloads, app promotion ads (which link to apps exclusively) might be the better option.

How it works

App extensions showcase your mobile or tablet app by showing a link to your app below your ad. Clicking this link leads you to your app’s description in the app store (Google Play or the Apple App Store). Clicking on your ad’s headline will still lead to your website.

Key benefits of app extensions

Flexibility: You can add app extensions to accounts, campaigns, and ad groups.
Detailed reporting: See how many clicks you receive on each part of your ad when an app extension appeared, such as clicks to your ad's headline compared to clicks on the app extension. Break these statistics down by campaign, ad group, or ad.
“Smart” detection of app store and device: If you create an extension for each app store, we'll show the store link that corresponds to the customer's device. So someone on an iOS device will see your Apple App Store link. We'll also show the app extension link that corresponds to a customer's device type, so if your app only runs on tablets, we won't display that app extension link to a customer using a mobile phone.
In-place editing: Edit your app extension without resetting its performance statistics.

Keep in mind that only one app extension can be displayed per text ad (unlike sitelinks, with which you can add multiple links to different pages of your site).You can still create multiple app extensions, one for each app or each app store.

Account levels

You can add app extensions at the account, campaign, ad group, or ad level. If you create app extensions at different levels (account, campaign, or ad group), the most specific will be used. So when you add an app extension to an ad group, that extension shows instead of your campaign- or account-level app extensions. Likewise, campaign-level extensions override account-level extensions.

What app extensions cost

App extensions are free to add, and you're only charged for clicks. Clicks on an app extension of an ad cost the same as clicks on the headline of that ad. In other words, you'll be charged the same amount no matter which link is clicked on the same ad.