Changing with The Times
According to Google researchers, 90% of our exposure to media is through smartphones, tablets, PCs and televisions, and we are quickly becoming quite adept to using these devices together to achieve our goals. As this multi-screen behaviour is becoming more common every day, understanding and finding the proper applications to deal with it has become of paramount importance for businesses. In order to accommodate this behaviour, Google has recently introduced a new ad platform. This new ad platform is referred to as “Expanded Text Ads” (ETAs), whereas the one used until now is referred to as “Standard Text Ads”. Google has announced that we will not be able to create or edit standard ads from the 26th of October,2016, so whether we like it or not, all our new ads will be ETAs. Please, note that existing standard text ads will continue to be displayed after the 26th until Google announces a date when standard ads will no longer be run along with ETAs.
Expanded VS Standard Text Ads
The new expanded text ads have been optimized to display well on mobile devices such as the ubiquitous smartphone (see screenshot below). These new ads include two headlines, each featuring a 30-character limit, instead of the standard ads which only have one with a 25-character limit. The description is no longer 2 separate 35-character description lines, but instead a much easier to use single 80-character description line. What’s more, we are provided with two 15-character paths on the display URL which can be used to relate simple messages. In general, Google AdWords now claims that the expanded ads offer 50% more ad text. However, some individuals have reported that headlines can be truncated if they have many wide characters like Ms and Ws since Google actually displays pixel length rather than number of characters. Consequently, Google advises that we should be cautious about using the full 60 characters for the headlines and that we always use the ad preview tool to ensure we don’t have any truncation problems.
More is Better: Benefits of Expanded Text Ads
Research conducted by Google has shown that Expanded Text Ads had an average Click-Through Rate (CTR) increase of 20% over standard ads because they are much more mobile-device-friendly due to the double headline which provides more information about a business before potential customers decide to click on it. Of course, the more relevant information you provide on your ads the better your Quality Score will be and you will receive more qualified clicks. In addition, Google claims that it’s much easier to create a successful text ad now that the character limits have increased since more text will allow you to “write compelling, genuine ad copy” and provide potential consumers with a fuller picture of what you have to offer them. A testimonial by Robert Spears, who is the digital marketing director of Guitar Center (adds featured in the screenshot below) states that the CTR for his non-brand campaigns has more than doubled!
Making The Move from Standard to Expanded Text Ads
Google’s Best Practices makes several suggestions as to how we can make the transitions from standard ads to ETAs. Firstly, it recommends that, as with standard ads, we need to create from 3 to 5 ads per ad group in order to find the winning combination. Secondly, if we have extremely successful standard ads, which may outperform ETAs, then we can basically copy or adapt them into ETA-format. For example, we can use description line 1 from a standard ad as headline 2 in our ETA. Thirdly, we need to focus more on our headlines since, according to research, they are the most crucial component of any text ad. Lastly, we should leave our standard ads running until the ETAs outperform them. However, if ETAs don’t outperform standard ads, we need to determine what’s working for our standard ads and expand on that with the additional text available with ETAs.
On closing, I would also like to mention that those of us who write text ads will be relieved to hear that AdWords Editor and the AdWords API support ETAs, as well as third-party tools including DoubleClick Search, Kenshoo and Marin. For the full announcement, please visit the Google AdWords blog.
