In the last few months there have been some very significant overhauls to the AdWords system, from the removal of right-hand side ads in late February and now on to a complete revolution in ad copy formats for Search ads! Despite the fairly novel nature of this feature to most advertisers and agencies, Google are never ones to launch products without some testing and there have been some clear benefits to warrant such a dramatic change.
If you haven’t read up on it yet or if you don’t quite know enough, don’t worry. In this blog post we’ll take a look at some of the highlights of this brand new feature.
What are Expanded Text Ads?
Expanded text ads are designed specifically for a mobile-led Search market to ensure effective and appealing use of available ad space. Essentially, expanded text ads feature 2 headlines (yes, two!), both permitting 30 characters each. This is followed by one 80-character long description line, resulting in an overall increase in ad space of nearly 50% versus standard text ads.
A more visual comparison exemplifies this much more clearly:
The feature is now available to all advertisers and it’s very important to note that you will no longer be able to create or edit standard text ads after 26th October 2016. There have been no changes to the ad copy rules to match this.
What will Expanded Text Ads do?
With the improved ad space, the natural knock-on effect is for a much better Click-Through-Rate (CTR), with many beta advertisers reporting up to a 92% increase! Indeed, a major issue for many agencies and advertisers previously has been lack of space to show off your brand, and expanded text ads have certainly catered to the frustrations we’ve all experienced in having an amazing 36 character headline (the PPC definition of injustice).
Expanded text ads will also enable a better synergy for cross-device advertising, ensuring you can use the same ad copy for all devices without having to make specific versions for mobile.
How do you set up Expanded Text Ads?
Google have now rolled out the feature to all AdWords accounts to enable you to implement expanded text ads in the interface itself, as well as in AdWords Editor and other tools such as DoubleClick. Fans of Excel will be pleased that there is a bulk upload functionality to save you copying every text ad one by one.
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Are you interested in running PPC campaigns or looking for ways to improve your existing AdWords account? If so, why not let the award-winning PPC experts at Fluid Digital help? Our team of digital specialists offer PPC audits and account management to businesses of all shapes and sizes. To find out more, get in touch with our team. Simply call 0161 762 4920 or complete a contact form and we’ll get back to you.
