Important Information about Expanded Text Ads in Google AdWords

Recently Google announced the upcoming introduction of AdWords Expanded Text Ads. This will be quite a significant change in the way that AdWords works, so in this article, we wanted to explain to you some important information that you will need to know about the new ad format.

Firstly, what is Expanded Text Ads?

As the name suggests, Expanded Text Ads offer you more text than current text ads. In fact, Expanded Text Ads offer you 2x a number of texts than their predecessors with 140 characters available to you in your ad copy space. Also included are a new bigger headline and a longer description.

Other updates also include;

• Longer line for description – Whereas current ads include two 35 character description lines, the Expanded Text Ads will have a consolidated 80 character script line.

• Expanded Headlines – Current headlines face a restriction at 25 characters. Expanded Text Ads will offer two 30 character headlines.

• Automatically Extracted URL – Current ads use a manually entered display URL, whereby any mismatch between display, final and landing page URLs will result in your ad being disapproved. With Expanded Text Ads, the domain will be automatically extracted from the final URL. You will also be able to customise the URL path.

• Appear on all devices – Expanded Text Ads will appear on all devices across mobile and desktop. Ads will also automatically wrap based on the device size.

Google’s mobile-first approach to searches

With over half of Google searches now taking place on mobile devices, Google has focused on a mobile-first approach with Expanded Ad Texts. This new angle is designed to help marketers boost their success in a mobile landscape.

Extended Text Ads will provide marketers with a larger ad space for you to promote information on your products and services. It also gives you more room to create compelling headlines that will attract the attention of users across all devices. This will especially benefit mobile users who want to know exactly what you have to offer before clicking through to your website.

What about Ad performance?

Expanded Text Ads offer you more words and characters in your ads, this means that you have more room to manoeuvre in terms of creative ad copy. This also presents you with opportunities for greater and visibility, which in turn allows you to attract a user’s attention and give them more information about what your company has to offer. In turn, this could potentially lead to greater click-through rate on your ads.

While nothing is completely certain, one potential drawback is the space available for multiple ads. Due to the expanded space available, ads at the top of the SERP will take up most of the valuable space available. Anything that sits below position 2 or 3 may well become irrelevant. Though this may be the case, all isn’t at a loss. It just means that is now more vital than ever to ensure that your ad copy is written to maximise on the new format and to keep working on getting your Quality Score improved to aim for the top spots.

When will Google roll out the Expanded Text Ads?

As usual with Google, things are quite hushed at the moment, but as always you can expect that Expanded Text Ads will roll out unexpectedly sometime in the not so distant future.

UPDATE: Google rolled out Expanded Text Ads on January 31st, 2017. You can read more about Expanded Text Ads by clicking here.