• by Janet Driscoll Miller , November 29, 2011

Not long after Google enabled Google+ Pages for Business earlier this month, it also enabled a new Google AdWords ad extension type: social extensions. Like other types of ad extensions, social extensions provide a way for marketers to add additional information to their ads, making them larger and more visible, helping an individual one to stand out in a sea of ads on the page. Social extensions add Google+ social information to an ad, including information such as:

• How many +1s you have, tallied together.
• Specific friends/connections who have +1’ed your website, ad, or search result.

Social extensions are free and fairly simple to add to your advertisements.

Step 1: Set Up Your Google+ Business Page

If you haven’t already done so, you’ll need to set up your Google+ Business Page. To create a new page, log in to your personal Google+ profile, then visit the “Create a Page” area to create your new business page.

Step 2: Verify Your Site

Next, in order for Google to know that you are the correct person to make changes for this site, you must verify your Google+ Business Page and website connection. This is done through two simple steps:

1.  In the “About” section of your Google+ page, add a custom link pointing to your website.

2.  Next, link back to your Google+ page from your website by adding a snippet of code to add the Google+ badge. You can formulate the code snippet using the handy tool found here.

Step 3: Activate the Social Extensions

Once you’ve completed the first two steps, you’re ready to set up social extensions. In the Ad Extensions tab in Google AdWords, choose social extensions. You’ll need to paste your Google+ Business Page URL in the box provided and save. Now you’re all set!

Bonus: Add the Google +1 Button to Your Website Pages

Once your +1s are showing on your ads, you’ll want to have as high of a total there as possible. Think about +1s being similar to Facebook Likes or review stars -- the more you, have the better your chance for a positive impact on an ad reader vs. other ads with lower totals. Because social extensions use ALL of your +1s for your site tallied together, you’re well served to take advantage of this opportunity to garnish as many +1s as you can in total. Adding the +1 button to all of your website pages only increases the opportunity you have to gain as many +1s as possible.

To add the code to your website pages, visit this page, which allows you to customize the look of the button and provides you with the specific code you’ll need.