Less than two weeks ago, Google released a much awaited Adwords feature – Expanded Text Ads. It has been expected for a very long time. These Expanded Text Ads offers some really exciting changes to the length and parameters of ad creative.
Why Google has introduced Expanded Text Ads ?
Google keeps on updating regularly to improve the user experience. Frequently new tools are developed and the old ones are retired. Introduction of Expanded Text Ads is a major change in 2016 and it is a great news for all the Adwords Campaign Managers. This innovation is introduced to improve the mobile-optimized browsing and make sure that the text automatically fits to the size of any given screen.
Features of Expanded Text Ads
Expanded Text Ads are the next generation of standard text ads. The features of expanded text ads are
1. Two Headline – Expanded Text Ads has two headline fields. The two headlines are separated by a dash. When it appears on mobile, the combined headline fields wrap to a second line.
2. Extra characters – The two headlines can contain 30 characters
3. Expanded Description – There is a single description line where you can write upto 80 characters. Truncation have been minimized in order to make ad more predictable
4. URL Customization – The URL is calculated from the landing page and path fields. Whereas Final URL and tracking URL behaviour remains the same.
The table below explains clearly about the key differences and advantages of expanded text ads
| Ad Components | Standard Text Ads | Expanded Text Ads |
| Prominent Headline | One 25 character headline | Two 30 character headline |
| Description Line | Two 35 character description line | One 80 character description line |
| Display URL | Manually entered display URL and any mismatch between final and landing page URL will make the ad disapproved | Automatically extracts URL from final URL. URL path can also be customized |
Given below is a picture demonstrating the difference between standard text ads and expanded text ads
Expanded Text Ads – a Great news for non-English markets
Adwords have already included some special features for other foreign languages. And Adwords specialists working on foreign language find it difficult to build foreign campaigns as they had to deal with very short ad copy. Italian language for example is more verbose and the actual words often longer. Such language ads always require an extra four or five characters to convey a meaningful message in a more appropriate grammar.
Now with the introduction of Expanded Text Ads, Adwords specialist can extend the ads and they don’t have the need to have the most prominent position in the ad’s layout.
Why it matters a lot for your Adwords Campaign ?
Expanded Text Ads if properly understood can benefit you and your customers to a great extent. Expanded text ads gives 45 more characters for use. So you no longer have to do word order gymnastics to make the longer words fit to the first description line
Expanded Text Ads virtually double your potential word power, allowing you to write two 30 character headlines, an 80 character description and a streamlining of the displayed URL. This feature of Expanded Text Ads will make the ads more readable and no more artificial sentences without making any sense. PPC marketers are more excited about this feature because it could generate more returns as more words naturally draws more attention and increases the opportunity for more clicks.
Hope for More Creativity in PPC Campaigns
Before this, Adwords offered only a little chance for creativity and there were strict boundaries for Adwords specialists. This lead to similar ads from different advertisers. Now with Expanded Text Ads Adwords Specialists has the opportunity to be creative, write better ads and stand unique from other advertisers.
How can you get the most out of expanded text ads?
The extra characters gives an excellent opportunity for the PPC managers to give great ads. One should also take efforts to make sure that high quality scores are maintained. High quality score can be obtained only if genuine value is provided to readers. Every sentence you write must be directed towards attracting customers and it should highlight the important points of your product or service. Your ad should be a true reflection of what people can expect when they reach your landing page.
Thus, Expanded Text Ads Feature is a positive and much welcomed which can have a great impact on the way we build and optimize our Adwords Campaigns.
