Google Ads Assets: Sitelinks, Callouts, Images, Lead Forms, Price and Promotions

by Francis Rozange | Apr 4, 2026 | Google Ads

Introduction: the cheapest CTR lift in Google Ads

Most paid search audits begin with the same finding. The headlines are decent, the keyword list is acceptable, the landing page does its job. And then the asset section is half-empty. Two sitelinks instead of six. No callouts. No structured snippets. No images. No promotion asset, even when the brand runs three sales a quarter. The auction reveals what the spreadsheet hides: the ad takes up two lines of pixels when competitors take six, and the click-through rate matches that footprint.

Assets, the elements Google used to call ad extensions until late 2022, are the cheapest CTR lift available in Google Ads. They are also the most under-implemented. Google Ads Help publishes the official guidance: use as many asset types as relevant, fill them with truthful and specific information, let the system pick which ones to show in real time. The official documentation is unambiguous, the impact is measurable, and most accounts still ignore it.

This guide walks the full asset library, type by type, with the rules that matter at policy review and the calibration choices that separate a starter setup from a mature account. It ends with a checklist for new accounts and an audit cadence for established ones.

Why assets matter: what Google’s own data says

Google has published the same headline numbers for years. Sitelinks alone can lift click-through rate by 10 to 20 percent when implemented well, with even higher gains on branded queries where competitors crowd the SERP. Callouts and structured snippets add incremental lift on top of sitelinks. Image assets, on Search campaigns where they qualify, raise CTR meaningfully on mobile. The exact numbers vary by vertical and account history, and Google itself frames them as ranges rather than guarantees, but the direction is consistent across Google Ads Help, WordStream, and the agency reports published by Tinuiti.

Beyond CTR, assets influence the auction itself. Ad Rank includes the expected impact of formats and assets as one of its components. Two competitors with identical bids and Quality Score will not finish in the same position if one runs four asset types and the other runs zero. The richer ad gets the better rank at the same effective cost per click, which compounds: better rank, more impressions, more learning data, better Smart Bidding, lower cost per conversion. The asset library is one of the few free levers in the platform.

The user side matters too. A search ad with sitelinks, callouts, and a structured snippet looks like a legitimate destination, not a placeholder. Trust shows up in CTR and again in conversion rate, because the user arrives on the landing page already pre-qualified by what they read in the SERP. Search Engine Land has covered this dynamic repeatedly: the asset is not just a click magnet, it is a filter that improves the quality of the click.

The 2022-2024 rename: from extensions to assets

In late 2022 Google renamed ad extensions to assets across the interface, the API, and the official documentation. The 2024 cycle finished the job: legacy reports, scripts, and third-party connectors caught up, and the term “extension” now only survives in a handful of UI corners and in older help articles still being migrated.

The rename was not cosmetic. It reflects a deeper architectural shift. Under the old model, an extension was an attachment to a campaign or an account. Under the asset model, the same content can also live inside an asset group (Performance Max), inside a responsive search ad, or at the account level as an automated asset. Google Ads Help describes the unified library: you create the content once, you pin it where it belongs, you let the system decide which combinations show.

For practitioners, the consequence is operational. Anything still called “extension” in your internal documentation, scripts, or naming conventions should be migrated. Reports surface “Assets” as a top-level table. The API uses the Asset and AssetSet resources. Confusion between the two terms causes onboarding friction and, occasionally, broken automation.

Sitelinks: anatomy, character limits, and deep linking

Sitelinks are the workhorse asset. They display below the main ad as additional clickable links that route users directly to specific pages. Google Ads Help on sitelink assets sets the rules: sitelink text up to 25 characters, two optional description lines up to 35 characters each, final URL different from the main ad’s final URL. You should provide between 4 and 6 sitelinks per ad group or campaign for the system to have enough variety to choose from. Google can show up to 6 on desktop and up to 8 on mobile when space allows, but in practice 2 to 4 is what most users see.

The strategic value of sitelinks lies in deep linking. The main ad pushes the user toward a primary landing page. Sitelinks let you offer four to six secondary destinations that match different sub-intents. A SaaS company running an ad on its product name can offer “Pricing”, “Free trial”, “Integrations”, “Customer stories”, “Security”, and “Changelog” as sitelinks. Each destination satisfies a different stage of the buyer’s journey. The user picks; you avoid forcing everyone through the same page.

Description lines are optional but valuable. A sitelink with two well-written description lines occupies more pixels and reads as more substantial than a bare link. Use the description lines to qualify the destination: “Pricing” becomes “Pricing – Plans from 19 USD per month, 14-day free trial, no card”. The character limit forces concision. Use it as a forcing function, not a constraint.

Sitelink final URLs must differ from the main ad’s final URL and from each other. WordStream and Search Engine Journal both flag the common rejection: agencies create six sitelinks all pointing to anchors on the homepage, Google rejects them as duplicates, the asset never serves. The rule is mechanical: six different pages, six different URLs.

Click distribution across sitelinks is heavily skewed. The first sitelink shown typically gets the majority of sitelink clicks, the second a smaller share, and the rest a long tail. This is not a reason to ship fewer sitelinks; it is a reason to ship more, because Google’s selection logic depends on context. The sitelink that wins on a comparison query is not the one that wins on a brand query.

Callouts: short benefit phrases done right

Callouts are non-clickable text snippets, up to 25 characters each, that display below the main ad copy and reinforce specific selling points. Google typically shows 2 to 6 callouts when space permits. They cannot be clicked, they cannot carry a URL, and they cannot duplicate text already in the headlines or descriptions without looking redundant.

The discipline of callouts is brevity. Each callout should be a benefit, a guarantee, or a specific differentiator: “Free 30-day returns”, “24/7 support”, “ISO 27001 certified”, “Same-day shipping”, “No setup fees”. The 25-character limit forces you to drop the connective tissue and keep only the proof. Long-form selling lives in headlines and descriptions; callouts are stamps.

Mix evergreen callouts with seasonal ones. Evergreen callouts (warranty, certifications, support hours) stay year-round. Seasonal callouts (holiday shipping cutoffs, limited-time bonuses) rotate. Schedule them with start and end dates rather than relying on manual cleanup. Google Ads Help documents the scheduling fields directly in the asset creation flow.

A common rejection reason on callouts is the use of clickbait phrasing or capitalization tricks. “BEST PRICES EVER!!!”, “100% guaranteed always”, and unverifiable superlatives get flagged. Stick to factual claims you can back up if Google audits the landing page.

Structured snippets: header categories that work

Structured snippets list specific aspects of your products or services under a fixed header. The header is chosen from a Google-defined list (Brands, Courses, Destinations, Featured hotels, Insurance coverage, Models, Neighborhoods, Service catalog, Shows, Styles, Types, Amenities, Degree programs, Show types). Under the header, you provide between 3 and 10 values, up to 25 characters each.

The wrong header kills the asset. A car dealer using “Brands” lists Ford, Toyota, Honda. The right call: “Models” if the campaign targets specific cars, “Types” if it targets segments (SUV, Sedan, Truck), “Amenities” if it pushes a specific dealership location with on-site service. Pick the header that genuinely matches the values, not the one that sounds best.

Structured snippets and callouts both display benefit-style information, but they answer different questions. Callouts answer “Why us?” with marketing claims. Structured snippets answer “What do you offer?” with a categorical list. Run both. The two assets coexist in the SERP and reinforce each other.

Call assets: tracking and conversion measurement

Call assets attach a phone number to the ad. On mobile devices, the call asset can render as a tap-to-call button that initiates the call directly from the SERP without sending the user to the website. On desktop, the number displays alongside the ad. The asset is essential for any business where phone is a real conversion channel: local services, B2B sales, healthcare, automotive, real estate.

The strategic decision is the phone number itself. Use the Google forwarding number rather than your business line. The forwarding number routes through Google’s infrastructure, which lets Google measure call duration, call start time, and (with proper setup) call conversions as a first-class conversion type. Without the forwarding number, the call exists but does not appear in the conversion data, which means Smart Bidding cannot optimize for it.

Call asset scheduling matters. Set the call asset to display only during business hours when someone can actually answer. A missed call from a paid click is a doubly bad outcome: you paid for the click and you frustrated the prospect. Google Ads Help on call assets documents the scheduling fields. Use them.

Call-only ads are a separate format that uses the same call asset infrastructure. On a call-only ad, the entire ad is the phone number; clicking initiates a call rather than navigating to the website. This format suits emergency services, locksmiths, plumbers, and similar verticals where users are looking for an immediate phone interaction. For most B2B and e-commerce, regular ads with call assets attached are the right choice.

Location assets: linking Google Business Profile

Location assets pull data from a linked Google Business Profile and display the business address, hours, and a map pin alongside the ad. They power the “Get directions” link on mobile. They also feed Google’s understanding of the local relevance of the ad, which influences serving on local-intent queries.

The setup is mechanical: link the Google Business Profile (or Business Profile Manager account) to the Google Ads account, select the locations you want to surface, configure any geographic filters. The asset then becomes available across eligible campaigns. Affiliate location assets exist for retailers whose products are sold through resellers; they pull from Google’s affiliate locations data instead of a personal Business Profile.

The most common failure mode is a Google Business Profile that has not been verified or that contains stale information. Hours that lapsed during a holiday period, an old address from a previous office, a phone number that no longer routes correctly. The asset surfaces whatever the Business Profile says. Audit the Profile before turning the asset on, and re-audit it quarterly.

Image assets: specs and performance

Image assets attach visuals to search ads and Performance Max asset groups. Google Ads Help on image assets documents the specs: square images at 1200 by 1200 pixels minimum (1:1 aspect ratio), landscape images at 1200 by 628 minimum (1.91:1), file sizes under 5 MB, formats JPEG, PNG, or static GIF. Up to 20 images per campaign.

The serving rules are stricter than the upload rules. Search image assets are eligible only on accounts that meet history and policy requirements: the account must have spent without serious policy violations for some months, and certain verticals (politics, healthcare claims, financial services in specific markets) are excluded. New accounts often discover the asset is uploaded but never serves, simply because the account has not yet earned eligibility.

The creative discipline for image assets matches the rest of paid social: no excessive text overlay, no logo stamps, no collage layouts, no blurry or low-resolution sources. The 20 percent text rule that historically applied to Facebook is a useful proxy. Lifestyle images of the product in use generally outperform pack-shots on white backgrounds, but vertical conventions vary. Test both, then keep what wins.

Performance Max asset groups treat images differently: they are not a supplementary asset but a core component of the ad unit, alongside text, video, and the URL. The same upload library can feed both Search and Performance Max, but the creative brief for each surface is different. A Search image asset complements text; a Performance Max image asset must stand alone on Display and YouTube placements.

Lead form assets: consent, CRM integration, pitfalls

Lead form assets attach a form directly to the ad. The user clicks, the form opens inside a Google overlay, the user submits, the lead lands in your system. The friction reduction is real: no landing page wait, no abandoned navigation, no mobile rendering issues. Google Ads Help on lead form assets describes the full setup.

The eligibility bar is high. The advertiser account must meet a spend and history threshold, must be in good policy standing, must have a published privacy policy URL, and must operate in a vertical that allows lead forms. Verticals around healthcare claims, financial products with regulated language, employment, and certain political categories are restricted. The privacy policy URL is not optional and must point to a real, accessible page.

Consent management is the single biggest pitfall. The lead form collects personal data and the user must consent to it being shared with you. The form’s call to action and headline must accurately represent what the user is signing up for. Pre-checked consent boxes, ambiguous language, and bait-and-switch flows trigger policy reviews and account suspensions. In jurisdictions with stricter privacy regimes (EU, UK, California), the form must align with local consent requirements, which means working with the legal team before launch.

CRM integration determines whether lead form assets actually generate revenue. Three options exist. Manual download via CSV from the Google Ads UI: workable for low volume but error-prone. Webhook integration: Google posts each lead to a URL you control in real time, which feeds Salesforce, HubSpot, or any custom CRM. Native CRM connectors via Zapier, LeadsBridge, or direct integration: easier to set up, sometimes lossy. Test the end-to-end flow before scaling spend; the most common failure is leads sitting in Google for days because no one set up retrieval.

Lead form completion is a conversion action. Set it up as a Google Ads conversion (with a value if you can estimate the lead’s worth) so Smart Bidding has the right signal. Without the conversion event, the algorithm optimizes for clicks instead of leads, and the cost per lead drifts upward.

Price assets: e-commerce and services use cases

Price assets display a list of products or services with prices directly in the ad. The asset shows 3 to 8 items, each with a header, an optional qualifier (“From”, “Up to”, “Average”), a price, a description (up to 25 characters), and a final URL. The header categories are predefined: Brands, Events, Locations, Neighborhoods, Product categories, Product tiers, Services, Service categories, Service tiers.

The asset suits two use cases. E-commerce with a small, well-defined catalog of headline products. Services with tiered pricing (standard, premium, enterprise) where price is a real differentiator. It does not suit large catalogs (use Shopping ads for that) or pricing that varies too dynamically to keep the asset accurate.

Price accuracy is enforced. The price shown in the asset must match the price on the landing page at the moment of the click. Mismatch is a policy violation and a user trust issue. Build a process to update price assets whenever the on-site price changes. For accounts with frequent price changes, use the Google Ads API or a feed-based script to keep them synchronized.

Currency and locale matter. Each price asset has a single currency. If you run across multiple markets, you need separate price assets per currency. The asset’s display in the SERP respects the user’s locale, but the source data is what you uploaded.

Promotion assets: date ranges and currencies

Promotion assets surface specific offers (percent off, monetary off, “up to” offers) attached to a promotion type (Christmas, Mother’s Day, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, generic, and others). The asset can include a promotion code, an “on orders over X” minimum, and start and end dates. Google Ads Help on promotion assets details the fields.

The discipline is the date range. The asset only serves between the start and end dates. Set them precisely, including the time zone, so the promotion does not bleed into the wrong day. Schedule the asset creation in advance: a Black Friday promotion asset built three weeks before the event has time to clear policy review, accumulate impressions during a soft launch, and ramp up cleanly. A promotion asset created at midnight on the day rarely serves at full strength.

Currency handling follows the same logic as price assets: one asset, one currency. Multi-market accounts run multiple promotion assets in parallel.

The most common rejection reason for promotion assets is misalignment between the asset and the landing page. The asset says “20 percent off sitewide”, the landing page applies the discount only to selected categories. Google’s policy enforcement and the user experience both punish that gap. Make the offer match the page exactly.

App assets: deep linking and platform targeting

App assets surface a download link or, if the app is already installed, a deep link into a specific app screen. The asset specifies the platform (iOS or Android), the app store ID, and an optional deep link URL with parameters that route the user to a specific in-app destination.

The asset is essential for any business with a mobile app at the center of the journey. Banks, transport, food delivery, fitness, dating, and most consumer apps benefit. The deep link is the operative piece: linking the user to the home screen of the app is rarely the right outcome. Linking them to the specific product, account section, or content they searched for is.

App tracking and attribution requires integration with a mobile measurement partner (Adjust, AppsFlyer, Singular, Branch, or Firebase Analytics). Without it, the conversion data is incomplete and Smart Bidding cannot optimize for the in-app event. The setup is non-trivial and involves both the marketing team and the mobile development team. Plan it as a project, not as a checkbox.

Pinning levels: account, campaign, ad group

Assets can live at three levels: account, campaign, or ad group. The level controls where the asset is eligible to serve and which assets compete with it.

Account-level assets serve across all eligible campaigns in the account. They are the baseline: brand-level callouts (“Family-owned since 1992”, “ISO 27001 certified”), generic sitelinks (“About us”, “Contact”), evergreen promotion or location assets. Set them once, let them propagate.

Campaign-level assets serve only on a specific campaign. They are the right level for offers, sub-brand messaging, or regional content that does not apply to the whole account. A campaign for women’s shoes uses sitelinks pointing to the women’s collection; a campaign for men’s shoes uses different sitelinks. Mixing them at the account level would force Google to choose between two unequally relevant pools.

Ad-group-level assets serve only on a specific ad group. They are the most surgical level and the rarest one to use. The right case is a tightly themed ad group where a specific sitelink, callout, or image dramatically outperforms the campaign-level alternative. The wrong case is over-segmentation that scatters the data across too many small pools.

The override rule is simple: ad-group-level assets override campaign-level, which override account-level. Google does not blend them; it picks the most specific level that has assets defined. This means a campaign-level sitelink set will completely replace the account-level sitelink set for that campaign, not merge with it. Architect accordingly.

Asset performance ratings: Best, Good, Low, Pending

Google reports asset performance with a simplified label: Best, Good, Low, Pending, or Learning. Google Ads Help on measuring ad asset performance explains the underlying logic: each asset is compared against the other assets in the same context (same campaign, same ad group, same asset type), based on its contribution to ad performance.

The labels are relative, not absolute. A “Low” asset is not necessarily a bad asset; it is an asset that contributed less than its peers in this specific group. Replacing a “Low” asset is sensible. Replacing a “Best” asset because it has been “Best” for too long is not. The label is also lagging: it requires enough impressions to stabilize, which is why new assets stay “Pending” or “Learning” for the first weeks.

The optimization workflow is direct. Identify “Low” assets in mature ad groups (those with statistical significance). Pause them. Replace them with new variants that test different angles. Wait two to four weeks. Re-evaluate. The goal is not to chase a perfect score; it is to keep the asset library refreshed and rotated, so the system has live alternatives to test against the current winners.

One trap: an asset rated “Best” in one ad group can be “Low” in another. The label is contextual. This is part of why ad-group-level pinning sometimes outperforms campaign-level: the same asset wins in some contexts and loses in others.

Common policy rejection reasons

Most asset rejections fall into five categories. Recognizing them upfront avoids the cycle of submitting, getting rejected, fixing, resubmitting.

Misleading content. Claims that cannot be substantiated, prices that do not match the landing page, promotions that exclude major categories without disclosure, “free” offers that require a paid subscription. Google reads the asset, the landing page, and sometimes the checkout flow. If they disagree, the asset is rejected.

Capitalization and punctuation. Excessive use of capital letters (“BEST DEALS”), repeated exclamation marks (“Sale!!!”), gimmicky symbols, and spam-style emphasis. Stick to standard sentence case and one exclamation mark maximum, only when it is genuinely warranted.

Trademark issues. Using a competitor’s brand name in callouts or sitelinks without authorization. Using a brand name in a way that suggests partnership or endorsement when none exists. Trademark enforcement varies by region and by the trademark owner’s submitted complaints, but the safer rule is to avoid third-party brand names in your own assets unless you are an authorized reseller and have the documentation.

Restricted content. Some verticals (gambling, alcohol, healthcare, financial services, employment) face additional asset restrictions. Specific asset types may be disallowed entirely; others require certification. Read the policy for your vertical before designing the asset library.

Broken or non-functional URLs. Sitelink, price, and promotion assets that point to URLs returning 404, 500, redirect loops, or unrelated pages. Test every URL on multiple devices before submitting. The crawler is unforgiving.

Setup checklist for new accounts

For a new Google Ads account or a recent restructure, the asset setup follows a predictable sequence.

Create the account-level base: 4 to 6 sitelinks, 6 to 10 callouts, one or two structured snippets with the right header.
Verify and link the Google Business Profile if location matters.
Add call assets with the Google forwarding number and business-hours scheduling.
Upload image assets that meet the spec, knowing they may not serve immediately on a young account.
Build campaign-level overrides for any campaign whose theme diverges from the account default (women’s vs men’s, B2B vs B2C, geography-specific).
If e-commerce or services with clear pricing tiers: add price assets per currency.
If running promotions: schedule the promotion assets with start and end dates set in advance.
If the funnel relies on phone or app: configure call asset conversions and app asset deep links with the mobile measurement partner.
If lead generation is a primary goal and the account qualifies: design the lead form asset with the legal team, set up the webhook to the CRM, configure the lead form submission as a conversion action.
Submit for review. Expect 1 to 3 business days for clearance, longer for restricted verticals.

Audit cadence for mature accounts

Mature accounts need scheduled audits, not reactive cleanup. The cadence below catches drift before it costs money.

Weekly. Glance at the asset performance table for “Low” labels in high-spend campaigns. Note candidates for replacement next month.

Monthly. Replace one to three “Low” assets per major campaign. Refresh promotion assets that expired or that need new date ranges. Verify that no policy disapprovals slipped through. Spot-check three to five sitelink URLs to catch broken destinations.

Quarterly. Audit the Google Business Profile linked to location assets. Audit price asset accuracy against the live site. Refresh image assets that have been serving more than six months. Review structured snippet headers against the current product mix.

Annually. Restructure the asset hierarchy if the account has grown. Migrate any remaining account-level assets that should now live at the campaign level (or vice versa). Decommission promotion types that no longer apply to the business. Rewrite the standard callout set to reflect new certifications, new guarantees, new differentiators.

Common mistakes

The most common asset mistakes repeat across audits regardless of vertical.

Half-empty asset libraries. Two sitelinks instead of six, no callouts, no structured snippets. The fix is the checklist above.

Duplicate content across asset types. The same phrase appears as a callout, a description line, and a structured snippet value. Google’s algorithm detects redundancy and penalizes it. Each asset type should carry distinct information.

Stale promotions. Promotion assets that ran during a sale and never got disabled, displaying a 50 percent discount that no longer applies. Either schedule the end date precisely or build a calendar reminder to remove it.

Mismatched URLs. Sitelinks that point to pages that have been deleted, restructured, or moved. The 301 redirect helps but does not always cover the case. Run a quarterly URL check.

Over-pinning at the ad group level. Every ad group has its own custom sitelink set, callout set, and structured snippet, fragmenting the data and starving the system of learning signal. Pin at the lowest level only when the data justifies it.

Ignoring the asset performance report. The “Low” label is a free signal that an asset is not pulling its weight. Acting on it costs nothing and improves the rotation pool.

Treating image assets as decoration. Generic stock photos that say “professional services”. The image asset works when it shows the actual product, the actual location, the actual people, in real conditions. The generic stock pull underperforms even when it serves.

Conclusion

Assets are the cheapest controllable lever in Google Ads. The setup work is finite. The maintenance cost is modest. The CTR and conversion gains compound over months. The accounts that ignore assets are leaving margin on the table; the accounts that treat assets as a first-class part of the campaign architecture get better Ad Rank, better Smart Bidding, and better unit economics.

The discipline is consistency. Build the full library. Pin at the right level. Rotate based on the performance report. Audit on a schedule. The platform rewards the work.