Top 7 Tips to Guide You through Expanded Text Ads

Expanded text ads are descending on us- are you ready?

Google has now bestowed on us the opportunity to include twice as much text (yes, you read that right), and so we’re all back to the drawing board to find ways to maximise our new text ad formats. Don’t get left behind on this one- luckily for you, we’ve already been doing our homework, and we were always those kids at school who let everyone copy our notes. Here are our top seven tips and pointers to guide your new campaigns with expanded text ads.

1) The Rundown on Expanded Text Ads

While currently your text ads are a pretty small territory to fight for, pretty soon your reign will increase- maximising your presence on mobile search results and boosting your performance. These ads are going to be shown right across all devices, and will automatically wrap to fit the devices display. That’s your tablets, your phones, your desktops- every screen you pop up on, will now have double the space for you to woo the crowds. Google testing began in Q2 of 2016, and clearly the results are going to be phenomenal. Think bigger headlines, and longer, catchier descriptions. This is the most significant evolution of Adwords so far, with the updates centring around the market for mobile devices and how to amplify the results. Up until now there has been a slow movement towards a streamlined experience across devices, but less than half of all Google searches are on a desktop now. Out with the old and in with the new.

2) How Much Bigger Are They

We’ve mentioned twice as big, but what does that actually mean? Well where you could once include 25-35-35 characters, now you can include up to 140 Characters- that’s more room to showcase your stuff, use emotional engagement to gather interest, or anything you think you can succinctly share within these new limits.

Where your 25-character headline once held mast, now you can dive in with two 30-character headlines.

Descriptions once were measly two 35-character descriptions- how have we survived? Soon, with our whopping 80-character description, there’s more space to create engaging content to encourage users.

3) How It Will Affect Your CTR

More text is a new lease on visibility and interaction, so it’s no surprise that even early reports are finding CTR increases by as much as 20 percent. As the changes are rolled out, we’ll be watching reports closely for upcoming data and inevitable boosts to CTR.

4) Spotting the Difference

With the flourish of a pen (or tapping of keys), your ads will become more evocative without overstating the mark to users. For example, look at the simple but powerful differences displayed above.

5) The Effect On Display URL’s

Adwords will now be extracting information from the final URL to create the domain, then will be offering up to 15 characters to provide two pathways to advertisers, further enhancing URL’s.

6) How Long Are We Waiting?

I’m sure you’re on the edge of your seat, but you might as well get comfortable there. Google is keeping a tight lid on when these changes will eventuate, which means now is the perfect time to begin preparing.

 7) How to Prepare for Expanded Text Ads

Trying to get by without understanding or developing your Quality Score? Think again. This is already the most critical metric in your Adwords account, and it’s reaching fever pitch. Businesses and online presences which occupy the top spots will be the ones with the RitZ Hotel of SERP real estate, and mobile device displays could mean that lagging by a few positions leaves you in the dust. Your text optimisation is going to need a thorough review too- make sure your text ads are rewritten and ready for this change in format, to maintain relevancy and to get on top of these upcoming developments. Read more