Google AdWords Unveils Expanded Text Ads

2016 is proving to be quite the year for Google AdWords. In the final moments of May Google unveiled the new Expanded Text Ads format, which offers significantly more ad space for headlines and descriptions. This follows on from another significant change a few months back, which saw the side bar ads disappear from searches in favour of showing 3-4 ads at the top of the page.

So how are the new ads going to work? Let’s take a look…

Features Of Expanded Text Ads

Headline

Headlines have traditionally been a single line of 25-character length, which has often caused problems for those who have struggled to get longer keywords and terms in headlines!
The format will now allow for two headlines of 30-character length, to appear side by side in ad text. This allows for more room to allow for a clear headline plus a key benefit of your product, service or business as a whole. It allows you to say “yes user, THIS is what you’re looking for and THIS is why you should click” all within the headlines – which will work especially well on mobile devices.
That’s before we move on to the description lines.

Ad Description Line

The Description Line 1 and 2 format has been removed, opting instead for a single description line – as Bing Ads currently provides. The main difference is that where the previous description lines totalled 70 characters, the new approach now offers 80. The challenge will be to avoid “waffling” on in ads. With a lot more text available, you need to be sure to make every word count. Keep it clear and concise, and be sure to entice.

Display URL

There are two changes to the Display URL field in ads. Firstly, the website domain will automatically be populated throughout the final URL, meaning that you won’t have to factor in your website domain to the Display URLs – a welcome relief for those with longer website domains! Secondly, there will instead be two 15 character fields that can be populated at the end of the URL. This will work very well for those with depth to their products. For example:

Cheapholidays.co.uk/Spain/Barcelona
Sprintrunners.com/Running/Trainers
Silverdisc.co.uk/Marketing/PPC

How Expanded Text Ads Will Look

Now that you’ve built your new ads, here is how you can expect them to look in practice on desktop and mobile:

Expected Launch Date

There’s no set date, aside from “in the coming months” however speculation seems to suggest that the changes may come towards the end of the summer, with Google urging users to begin preparations now. So what should you do ahead of the launch?

Review your current ads, get a feel for what terminology works and where you feel that more space could improve them
Make a list of your key offerings – what makes your product/service better than your competitors? What makes YOU better than your competitors?
Make a note and character count them, use variations, see which fit well together and where you could fit them into ads

From here you can get an idea as to how you will build your expanded ads and how you can use every word to great effect.

Best Practices For Ad Text

Make the ads relevant to your keywords – If users are searching for holidays to Spain, it’s unlikely that they will respond to ads around holidays to Scotland
Stand out – There are 3-4 key ad positions for which advertisers do battle, therefore you should use any exclusive benefits and promotions to win the click
Use calls to action – It’s no use just appearing in search results, you want the users to click through to your website, and sometimes they need a little reminder to do so
Use the most relevant landing page possible – this will help to improve user experience and increase the chance of leads, sales and sign ups

Excited? You should be. Get in touch with our team at SilverDisc to find out how we can help your business to make an impact on Google, Bing and more!