How to Use Expanded Text Ads

The digital marketing world has grown accustom to the 25-35-35 character limit set by Google for text ads. However, that’s all changing as Google Adwords has rolled out one of the biggest changes to text ads since they launched fifteen years ago.

The new expanded text ads are designed to maximise your presence and performance on mobile with a 30-30-80 framework consisting of:

• Two headlines (30 characters of text)
• One summarised description (80 characters)

The upgrade will help work ads across various devices and Google reports that tests have shown an increase “in click-through rates of up to 20 percent compared to current text ads” for some advertisers. Therefore, it is encouraged to A/B test the expanded text ads against the current text ads to get to grips with it before the 25-35-35 format become obsolete.

So how do we strategically make the most of 45 extra characters?

• Google advises the we should spend time testing the ‘content and quality’ of our ad headlines because they offer the best opportunity to improve click through rates.
• Be creative! Don’t fall into the trap of adding additional text for the sake of it. Rethink your text ads and explore the option of inserting both the keyword and offer in titles.
• Google encourages using the headlines to answer your target market’s question because statistically these ads tend to receive better engagement.
• It is easier than before to include certain call to actions in the headline such as “Sign Up to Our Event” or “Download Our Survey Results”. Allowing more room in the description.

These changes have been implemented by Google to help users easily get access to products, services and information so it is important to continually assess the advertising message as a whole and remember, the headline policy still exists.

If you have experience working with Google AdWords and you’re looking for a new challenge, then apply for our Digital Marketing Executive role. Closing deadline: 19th August 2016