In February 2016 Google removed right side ads from the desktop SERP to create a more unified cross-device search experience. Just as the dust has began to settle from this massive change within the industry, Google have announced another significant change to cater for the mobile-first world – expanded text ads.
Soon, In what is being described as the biggest change from AdWords in its ever changing 15 year history, the character length of text ads is going to be increased. The introduction of the expanded text ads will again see paid ads take a larger share of the SERP.
With the change to expanded text ads, ad headlines are going to be increased from one 25 character line to two 30 character lines and the existing two 35 character description line format will be replaced with one 80 character description line. It will give advertisers approximately 47% more space and an even greater opportunity to strike that perfect balance between content, USPs and relevancy in their ad copy to drive response and conversion.
How the expanded text ads will look vs the existing format.
It is a change that promises to have a significant impact on the world’s experience using Google search and it presents new opportunities for both advertisers and searchers alike.
With the expanded text ads that advertisers will be using to highlight their products and services, searchers will be able to make more informed decisions on Google to enhance their own search experience.
Initial testing has shown that the expanded text ads, as expected have led to considerable uplifts in AdWords click through rate – by as much as 25 percent. Google have also suggested that this change will result in more qualified traffic and a stronger conversion rate for AdWords advertisers with searchers making more information driven decisions.
In addition to the expanded text ads, Google is also changing the way we create and manage display URLs. Manually creating and adding display URLs will be removed with the introduction of the expanded Text Ads. Soon AdWords will automatically extract the domain from the final URL. Advertisers can then add in one to two sub folders to enhance the display URL.
How advertisers will see the new ad format in AdWords.
The changes were initially designed to maximize ad presence and performance on mobile search, however this is now planned to be rolled out across all devices.
While this has not officially been launched for all advertisers yet, Google are starting to allow small numbers of priority advertisers access to the expanded text ads BETA feature. The initial understanding is that by September the 25-35-35 ads in AdWords will be a thing of the past and expanded text ads will have been fully rolled out.
Clickoo are one of the few advertisers selected by Google to be the first to implement this feature and we are already planning how to utilise it for our clients. Want to know more about how we can take advantage the new expanded text ads for your PPC activity? Contact Clickoo today.
