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Google Ads assets are the extra pieces of information — sitelinks, phone numbers, prices, images and short text snippets — that expand your search ad beyond its headline and description. Adding them costs nothing extra per click, yet they directly influence your Ad Rank and the amount of screen space your ad occupies on the results page. If you are running Google Ads in South Africa and your ads are not using at least four or five asset types, you are handing that visibility to competitors who are.
Most South African advertisers add a callout or two and move on. The better approach is deliberate: each asset type serves a specific purpose, and Google's own data shows measurable performance differences between accounts that configure their search ad assets — South Africa campaigns included — with intention and those that treat setup as a box to tick. This guide covers every asset type you should consider, what the data says about each, and how to match the right mix to your specific business type — whether you run an ecommerce store, a professional-services firm, or a local business with a physical premises.
You may know these as google ads extensions — the legacy name Google used until 2022, when the terminology shifted to assets. The functionality is the same; the rebranding reflects how Google now treats them as core components of an ad rather than optional add-ons. The distinction matters because google ads assets are now baked into the Ad Rank calculation and account structure in a way that optional extensions never were.
Quick Answer
Google Ads assets (formerly called extensions) are additional content blocks — sitelinks, callouts, images, call buttons, prices and more — that attach to your search ads at no extra cost per click. They expand your ad's footprint on the search results page, improve click-through rate, and factor into Google's Ad Rank calculation. Google recommends adding every asset type that is relevant to your business. For South African campaigns, the highest-priority assets are sitelinks, callouts, call assets (replacing the now-defunct call-only ad format), image assets, and — for local businesses — location assets.
On This Page
Eight Asset Types Every SA Campaign Needs
Matching Your Mix to Your Business Type
Automated Assets — What to Accept
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Request a Free Asset AuditHow Google Ads Assets Affect Your Ad Rank
Ad Rank determines whether your ad shows, and where on the page it appears. Google calculates it using six factors: your bid, the quality of your ad and landing page, Ad Rank thresholds, the competitiveness of the auction, the context of the person's search, and — critically — the expected impact of assets and other ad formats. Assets are not a cosmetic layer on top of your ad; they are a scoring input that affects your eligibility for top positions.
The implication for your budget is significant. According to Google Ads Help, the incremental cost of adding more assets is often lower than the cost of moving up a position through bidding alone. An account that wins the same placement with assets rather than a higher bid is, by definition, paying less per click for equivalent visibility.
Position matters in another way: ads in higher positions get the first opportunity to show additional assets. Ads in lower positions generally display fewer. This creates a compounding effect — assets help you win better positions, and better positions let more assets show. Getting the setup right early in a campaign creates a performance flywheel that underbidding can never replicate.
How Google decides which assets show: Google does not display every asset on every impression. It evaluates the context of each auction — device, query, user location, time of day — and selects the combination of assets predicted to perform best. The system charges no more than two clicks per impression regardless of how many assets are shown. Per Google's own guidance, providing a variety of asset types gives the system the options it needs to select the best combination at each auction.
Eight Asset Types Every South African Search Campaign Should Use
Not every asset type applies to every business, but these eight cover the vast majority of South African search campaigns. The performance figures below come from Google's own internal data — not third-party estimates. Configuring your google ads assets in this order — starting with sitelinks and callouts, then adding the type-specific options — gives Google the variety it needs to select the best combination at each auction.
| Asset Type | What It Does | Documented Uplift | Best Fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sitelinks | Additional links below the main ad pointing to specific pages (services, pricing, contact, about) | Up to 3.5% more conversions at similar CPA when increased to 6 per campaign (Google Internal Data, May 2025) | All campaign types |
| Callouts | Short non-clickable text snippets highlighting value propositions — "Free Quote", "Same-Day Delivery", "No Call-Out Fee" | Larger ad with more detail; increases ad space and relevance signals | All campaign types; especially service businesses |
| Structured Snippets | A predefined header (e.g., Services, Products, Destinations) with a list of values beneath it | Expands ad footprint; improves relevance match for product/service queries | Ecommerce, multi-service businesses |
| Image Assets | A visual alongside the text ad — especially impactful on mobile | 6% average CTR increase when image assets show (Google Internal Data, April 2023) | Product retailers, hospitality, real estate |
| Call Assets | Displays your phone number; mobile users can tap to call directly from the ad | Removes friction between search intent and contact; replaces call-only ads (see below) | Service businesses, local businesses, B2B with phone-first sales |
| Location Assets | Shows your business address, hours, and a Maps link within the ad | Reduces zero-result store visits; increases qualified foot traffic for physical premises | Retail stores, restaurants, clinics, showrooms |
| Price Assets | Displays product or service categories alongside starting prices | Pre-qualifies clicks; users who click already know the price range, improving lead quality | Legal, accounting, digital marketing, software subscriptions |
| Business Name & Logo | Shows your brand name and logo alongside the ad text | 8% more conversions at similar CPA (Google, per Google Ads Help) | All brands building recognition; especially competitive categories |
Two additional types are worth knowing. Promotion assets let you surface a specific offer — a percentage discount, a monetary amount off, or a promotion code — tied to occasions like Black Friday, a new product launch, or a seasonal sale. Lead form assets embed a contact-capture form directly inside the ad, letting users submit their details without visiting your site. Both have specific use cases covered in the matching section below.
Key Takeaway: Sitelinks First, Then Fill In
Sitelinks have the broadest impact of any single asset type and apply to virtually every campaign. For Google Ads sitelinks South Africa search campaigns should target six per campaign — Google's internal data from May 2025 shows up to 3.5% more conversions at similar cost-per-acquisition at that threshold. Once sitelinks are in place, add callouts and structured snippets, then layer in the asset types specific to your business model.
Matching Your Asset Mix to Your South African Business Type
The right asset mix depends on what you sell, how your customers prefer to buy, and whether you have a physical location. One benchmark worth noting before you build the table: Google's internal data from August 2025 shows that advertisers who improve Ad Strength from "Poor" to "Excellent" across their RSAs and sitelinks see 15% more conversions on average — which means the completeness of your setup, not just having assets present, determines the uplift. The table below maps the three most common SA business archetypes to their highest-priority google ads image assets and other asset types.
| Business Type | Priority Assets | Why | Skip For Now |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ecommerce store | Sitelinks (category pages), structured snippets (product lines), image assets, promotion assets (Black Friday, sale periods), price assets | Shoppers compare options before clicking; more visual and informational surface area raises click quality | Lead form assets, location assets (unless you also have physical retail) |
| Professional services / B2B (legal, accounting, IT, insurance) | Sitelinks (service pages, case study or results page, contact), callouts ("Free Consultation", "No Obligation Quote"), price assets (starting from R…), call assets | High-consideration purchase; callouts signal credibility and lower the first-contact barrier; call assets support phone-first sales cultures common in SA B2B | Promotion assets, app assets |
| Local brick-and-mortar (clinic, restaurant, showroom, gym) | Location assets, call assets, sitelinks (opening hours page, directions, booking), callouts ("Walk-Ins Welcome", "Open Saturdays") | Many searchers are moments away from a visit; surfacing address, hours and a tap-to-call button in the ad removes the only remaining friction | Price assets, lead form assets (unless online booking is offered) |
Promotion assets deserve a specific note for SA retailers. South Africa's Black Friday weekend, mid-year sales and festive season each drive concentrated search volume. Promotion assets let you surface a discount or offer code directly in the ad without building a dedicated landing page. Set them up in advance of sale dates and schedule the start and end times so they run automatically.
Lead form assets are powerful for service businesses that want to lower the barrier to a first enquiry — but they come with a data-handling obligation. Under POPIA, collecting personal information (name, email, phone number) through a lead form requires a lawful basis, with consent being one option alongside others such as legitimate interests or contractual necessity. Ensure your lead form's privacy notice and your data-handling practices meet the requirements before activating this asset type.
Automated Assets — What to Accept, What to Override
Google generates several google ads campaign assets automatically on your behalf — including dynamic sitelinks, dynamic callouts, and seller ratings — using information from your website and account history. Automated assets extend your coverage without additional setup and can show alongside manually created assets when Google predicts they will improve performance.
The practical question for SA advertisers is when to trust them and when to override. As a working principle: accept automated assets for account-level information Google can accurately pull from your site (business name, general service descriptions). Override them when accuracy is critical — if your pricing, service areas, or availability require exact wording, a manually written asset is always safer than a machine-generated approximation that could misrepresent what you offer.
You can review automated assets in your Google Ads account under Assets → Automated Assets and turn off any type at the campaign or account level. Check this once per quarter; Google periodically adds new automated asset types, and an asset you did not set up may have been running for weeks before you notice it. A complete set of manually configured google ads assets, reviewed quarterly, is always more reliable than a mix of hand-built and machine-generated copy that no one has read since setup.
Key Takeaway: Audit Automated Assets Quarterly
Automated assets can introduce inaccurate descriptions of your business without triggering any alert. A quarterly review of your automated asset report — checking impression share, clicks and actual copy — takes fifteen minutes and prevents misleading ads from running unchecked.
Call-Only Ads Are Being Phased Out — What SA Advertisers Should Do Now
If your Google Ads account runs call-only ads, this change affects you directly. All options to create new call-only ads were removed in February 2026. All existing call-only ads will stop receiving impressions in February 2027. The call-type ad formats South Africa advertisers have relied on for phone-first lead generation are being replaced by call assets attached to responsive search ads — which offer more headline flexibility and the same tap-to-dial functionality.
The replacement is a responsive search ad (RSA) with a call asset attached. The RSA format offers more headline flexibility than a call-only ad ever did, and the call asset preserves the tap-to-call functionality that made call-only ads useful in the first place. The migration is straightforward:
- Add your business phone number as a call asset at the campaign level.
- Create a responsive search ad with at least three headlines that describe your primary service and a clear call to action.
- Pause (do not delete) the call-only ads once the RSA is approved and generating impressions.
- After a two-week comparison period, if the RSA is performing comparably or better, delete the call-only ad.
Phone-first lead generation remains the norm in many South African B2B sectors — legal, financial services, construction, logistics. The call asset within an RSA is functionally equivalent for this purpose, and you gain the ability to rotate multiple headline variations and add sitelinks, which call-only ads never allowed.
Recommended setup: An RSA with six sitelinks, a call asset, two callouts ("Free Consultation", "Response Within 24 Hours"), and a structured snippet listing your practice areas. This setup covers every intent signal the searcher might have — call, browse, compare — with a single ad unit, and earns the multi-asset Ad Rank premium that a call-only ad never could.
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Get a Transition AssessmentWhy South African Businesses Choose Growth Pulse Media
Growth Pulse Media was built by someone who ran Google Ads before managing campaigns for others. Dirk van Greuning scaled a South African ecommerce business from the ground up — paying the invoices, optimising the asset mix, and learning which signals actually move the needle for a local audience — before founding the agency. That operator background shapes how we structure accounts: assets are configured from day one, not added as an afterthought when results disappoint.
We keep a limited client load deliberately, which means every campaign gets senior attention rather than being managed at arm's length by a junior account handler. Our work is entirely in-house — no white-labelling, no offshore handoffs. If you want someone who will audit your Google Ads management at the asset level, compare your performance against South African market benchmarks, and implement changes the same week rather than the same quarter, that is the service we offer.
We are a registered Shopify Partner and Omnisend Certified Partner, which means our paid acquisition work connects directly to the platforms where our ecommerce clients run their stores and automation sequences. For service businesses, our paid search work typically runs alongside SEO and content strategy, so the assets we configure for a search campaign align with the landing pages we are also building to convert that traffic.
Who This Guide Is Not For
You want to set-and-forget. Google Ads assets are not a one-time configuration. Google periodically adds new automated asset types, asset performance varies by season, and promotion assets need to be created and retired around specific dates. If ongoing review is not part of your plan, assets will drift from accurate to inaccurate over time.
Your landing pages are not specific. Sitelinks that link to a generic homepage provide little value. The performance benefit of assets depends on the quality of the pages they point to — a sitelink titled "Our Services" that sends users to a page with three lines of copy does not pre-qualify clicks; it adds a confusing detour. Fix the pages first.
You are running a single-product campaign with no supporting content. If your entire site is one product page, most asset types — sitelinks, structured snippets, price assets — have nowhere meaningful to point. Assets amplify a well-structured account; they cannot substitute for account structure or site content.
Your conversion tracking is not set up. Ad account practitioners consistently report that Google's asset selection and optimisation become far less reliable when conversion tracking is missing or broken — the system lacks the signal it needs to choose which assets to show for which queries. An account without clean conversion data sends a weaker optimisation signal at every auction. If you are uncertain whether your tracking is accurate, that problem outranks everything else. See the related guide on Google Ads conversion tracking in South Africa.
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Get a Free Google Ads AuditFrequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between Google Ads assets and extensions?
Assets and extensions refer to the same features. Google used the term "ad extensions" until 2022, then rebranded to "assets" to reflect the fact that these elements are now treated as core components of an ad unit rather than optional add-ons. If you see the word "extensions" in older guides or agency reports, they are describing the same sitelinks, callouts, call buttons and other features covered in this guide. The underlying functionality has not changed; the terminology has.
Do Google Ads assets cost extra?
Adding assets to your account and campaigns is free. You pay only when someone clicks — and Google will not charge you more than two clicks per ad impression regardless of how many assets are displayed. In practice, assets improve your ad's position-to-cost ratio: Google's own guidance states that the incremental cost of adding assets is often lower than the cost of achieving the same visibility through a higher bid alone.
How many sitelinks should I add to a Google Ads campaign?
Google recommends adding at least six sitelinks per campaign. Its internal data from May 2025 shows that advertisers who increase to six sitelinks per campaign see up to 3.5% more conversions at a similar cost per conversion. Each sitelink should point to a genuinely distinct, specific page — a service page, a pricing page, a contact page — not variations of the same homepage. Google will select which sitelinks to show on any given impression based on predicted relevance.
Can Google Ads assets help with Quality Score?
According to Google's Ad Rank documentation, assets are one of six factors in the Ad Rank calculation — specifically the "expected impact of assets and other ad formats." Because Ad Rank and Quality Score share underlying efficiency signals, a well-configured asset setup that improves Ad Rank can contribute to overall campaign performance. Quality Score itself is calculated at the keyword level based on expected click-through rate, ad relevance and landing page experience, making assets an indirect rather than a direct Quality Score input. For a deeper dive into Quality Score levers, see the Google Ads Quality Score guide for South Africa.
Are image assets available for all Google Ads accounts in South Africa?
Image assets for Search campaigns require the account to have been active for at least 60 days, maintain good policy compliance, run active campaigns, and have generated Search ad spend in the previous 30 days. Most established SA accounts meet these requirements automatically. If image assets are not appearing as an option in your account, check account age and policy status first. When they do show, Google's internal research from April 2023 found a 6% average CTR increase when image assets appeared alongside Search ads.
Run Smarter Google Ads Campaigns in South Africa
Growth Pulse Media configures and manages Google Ads for South African businesses that want senior-level attention, clean account structure, and assets set up the right way from day one. We work with Google Shopping, Search, Performance Max and remarketing campaigns — all in-house, all executed by the people who built the strategy.
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