Google announced an update to AdWords this week that’s going to be very useful to business owners and search marketers. If you operate a business with multiple locations, or manage AdWords campaigns for a client who does, you can now display up to three locations in Google AdWords mobile search ads.

Now if a potential customer is searching for your type of business with their mobile device, and there are multiple locations nearby, they can be presented up to three to choose from.

In the announcement, Google explains they have implemented this change based on user feedback. You’ve got to appreciate when a company listens to its paying customers.

We’ve heard from many advertisers that featuring more than one location in their ads would help customers choose the location that’s most relevant to them. Today we’re excited to share an improvement to location extensions based on your feedback…

This improvement offers consumers the flexibility to choose which location to visit, directly from your ad.

These location extensions will also display the street address and distance from the searcher’s current location. When they see an ad in the search results, they can tap on it to either call your business or get directions to it.

Best of all, the change is automatic, which means you won’t have to do anything new to your AdWords campaigns as long as you have location extensions enabled to show in your ads as a single location or in groups of two or three.

More About Location Extensions

If you’re not familiar with location extensions, let me give you a bit of background on them. If you run search marketing campaigns for local businesses, they are absolutely essential.

Location extensions show your business address, phone number, and a map marker with your ad text. They may also include a link with directions to your business when users are searching on a mobile device. Clicks on ads with location extensions won’t cost you anything extra, it’s still a standard cost-per-click.

Google says that, on average, ads with location extensions see a 10% boost in click through rate.

You can set up location extensions by linking your AdWords account to Google My Business, and then it will pull your address information from there automatically. So make sure your profile is completely filled out!

For more information about location extensions, and other useful AdWords features for local businesses, check out this Google help center article.