Expanded Text Ads
Expanded text ads from Google Adwords are currently in beta testing. This is the case for a couple months now. According to Google, the Expanded Text Ads is available to all Adwords accounts towards the end of the year. Subsequently, this is an overview of a few clients fortunate enough to participate in the test.
What Are Expanded Text Ads?
Expanded text ads allow Adwords advertisers more characters in the headline a longer description line. Currently, the headline for Adwords is one 25-character headline. The new upgrade, the headline is two 30-character headlines. Additionally, the current description line is two 35-character lines. Whereas the new description line is one consolidated 80-character description line. Furthermore, the relevant display URL is currently manually entered. However, the new display URL, the domain is automatically extracted from your final URL.
New Text Ad Expansions And Performance
One fact remains, it is still too early to state if the new ad expansion is good or bad. Some accounts with the new test have a 15% impression share while others are displaying the new ads as much as 95% of the impressions. Additionally, the performance (CTR) for some accounts has increased while others have decreased. A case study is in the works, however a couple of things to keep in mind:
- Increased text ads does not correlate to a higher CTR (yet).
- Increased text ads does not correlate to a higher Conversion Rate.
- Label the standard and expanded text ads will help with analysis.
- Ad content is still incredibly important. Take time to do it correctly.
Final Thoughts
The new text ad feature provided by Google offers a competitive advantage to clearly explain your product or service. The additional real estate pushing competitors SEO efforts further down the page. The additional lines in mobile ads seems to provide a clear advantage, however, the ad copy is still more important than the number of words.
