Expanded text ads have been a great feature that Google released last year that saw CTR’s increase across the board. Many campaigns though are still running ‘standard’ ads and it’s important for advertisers to understand what will happen.
What is an Expanded Text Ad
Traditionally a Google AdWords search advertisement contained 4 elements
- Headline of 25 characters (blue)
- Description Line 1 and 2 of 35 characters (grey)
- A display URL (green)
An expanded text ad is different in the following ways
- There are two headline fields of 30 characters
- A single description field of 80 characters
- Two display URL paths of 15 characters
See the below image from Google’s support website.
What do I need to know as an advertiser
Google has no plans to stop serving your ‘standard’ text ads, but in an effort to transition all advertisers over to the ‘expanded’ format they will soon no longer allow the creation or editing of existing ‘standard’ ads.
While expanded text ads have been proven to outperform legacy ads it should still be a task undertaken with some caution, and done prior to the 31st of January to monitor the effects.
New advertisements added to an AdWords adgroup do not have a quality score built up yet, so it may be the right move to ad the new format ads in alongside legacy until it is proven they match or exceed the performance of existing ads.
Your Ads Can Always be tested and Improved
This is a great time for advertisers to roll out new copy to tired and long serving ads. Why not review your ad copy now. (Google actually recommend advertisers completely re-think their ad messaging to accommodate this new format).
To get this update handled professionally please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our AdWords specialists here.
Learn more about ‘Google AdWords Expanded Text Ads’ here:
https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2016/05/25/google-expanded-text-ads
https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/7048854?hl=en-AU
https://searchengineland.com/google-adwords-expanded-text-ads-live-254548