Assets are content pieces that make up your ad with useful business information—giving people more reasons to choose your business. Assets include the headlines, descriptions, links to specific parts of your website, call buttons, location information, and more that come together to make up the eventual ad format that is shown to a user.

This article covers what each asset type does and how to pick the right assets for you.

How they work

To maximize the performance of your responsive search ads, Google Ads selects which additional assets to show in response to each individual search on Google. For that reason, it’s a good idea to use all the assets relevant to your business goals.

By adding more content to your ad, assets like sitelinks and images give your ad greater visibility and prominence on the search results page. That means you tend to get more value from your ad. Assets often increase your total number of clicks, and can give people additional, interactive ways of reaching you as with maps or calls.

Many asset types require a bit of setup those are manual. Some assets are added automatically when Google Ads predicts they’ll improve your performance those are automated and do not need any set up. Learn more About account level automated assets.

Cost

There's no cost to add additional assets to your campaign. Clicks on any asset in the final ad on the headline, sitelink, image, and more will be charged as usual. (The exception is clicks on seller ratings, which are not charged.) So you’re charged a click when someone calls you from a call icon on your final or when someone downloads your app by clicking on the app rendered on your final ad. Google Ads charges no more than two clicks per impression for each ad and its assets.

Headlines and descriptions

Headlines and descriptions are required assets that should be compelling, focused on user benefits, and unique. The more headlines and descriptions you enter, the more opportunities Google Ads has to serve ads that more closely match potential customer search queries, which can improve your ad performance.

After you enter headlines and descriptions, Google Ads assembles the text into multiple ad combinations in a way that avoids redundancy. You can provide up to 15 headlines and 4 descriptions for a single responsive search ad.

In any given ad, a minimum of one headline and one description will be selected to show in different combinations and orders. Part of your ad text may automatically appear in bold when it matches or closely matches a user's search query. Over time, Google Ads will test the most promising ad combinations and learn which combinations are the most relevant for different queries.

How to select additional assets to use

Keep these best practices in mind as you choose and set up your assets:

• Use every asset relevant to your business assets are free to add and they’ll only show if they’re predicted to improve your ad's performance.
• Consider adding 4 or more asset types. For example, you could add sitelinks, callouts, images, and one additional asset of your choice.
• If it makes sense for your business, create assets at higher account levels (for example, at the account or campaign level, when available).
• Read-only asset types are not displayed and counted but may still serve.

How to remove assets

Assets add information about your business to your ads and typically boost your ads' performance. If you want to remove assets, though, follow the instructions below.

1. In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .
2. Click the Assets drop down in the section menu.
3. Click Assets.
4. Select Association from the “Table view” drop-down menu.
5. Check the box to the left of the assets and click Edit in the blue bar.
6. Select Remove from the drop-down menu.

Removing an asset from one campaign won’t remove the asset from other campaigns.

How to turn off account level automated assets

To turn off account level automated assets, follow these steps:

1. In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .
2. Click the Assets drop down in the section menu.
3. Click Assets.
4. Select Association from the “Table view” drop-down menu.
5. Click the three-dot menu on the right, then select Account level automated assets.
6. Click the three-dot menu on the right again, then select Advanced options.
7. Select Turn off specific automated assets, then choose which asset to turn off.
8. Select your reason for turning off the asset and add additional comments.
9. Click Turn off.

Information specific only to assets that aren’t headlines or descriptions

The information below only applies to assets that aren’t headlines or descriptions.

How to schedule your assets

For supported assets, you can schedule your assets to only show during specific times of the day or during a specific time frame. For example, you can schedule call assets so they only show during the hours your business is able to take calls.

Assets can be approved or disapproved just like ads and keywords. Disapproved assets do not show and need to be edited and submitted for re-review.

Even if it’s approved, adding an asset won’t guarantee that it will show with your ad all the time. Assets show with your ad when:

• The asset (or combination of assets) is predicted to improve your ad's performance.
• Your ad’s position and Ad Rank is high enough for assets to show.

Related links

• About account level automated assets
• About the ad level asset report for responsive search ads
• About image assets