Last month, Google announced plans to overhaul Adwords. The most important change for advertisers and agencies is most probably the expansion of text ads – they will increase in size by a whopping 47%. That’s a whole lot of additional ad space!

At Bing Digital, we’re really excited about the possibilities Expanded text ads present. In this post, we will run through the new features and help you get to grips with the steps you will need to take to ensure you’re ready to roll when expanded ad take over later this year.

What’s different about expanded text ads?

Get ready for a mobile search ad revolution! The new ad format has been designed for optimal performance on mobile devices. Here’s a rundown of the key differences between standard and expanded text ads:

Two headlines: Expanded text ads will feature much more prominent headlines – two of them in fact. In testing, Google found that this change led to a 25% increase in click through rates. This side by side comparison of the standard text ad and the expanded text ad perfectly illustrates the power and potential of the double headline:

More characters: Headlines are currently limited to 25 characters, but this will soon be increase to two, 30 character headlines.

Expanded description: The new ads will have significantly more ad copy space. Description are currently limited to two, 35-character lines. Google plan to consolidate these two lines into one 80-character description line.

URL customisation: With expanded text ads, you will no longer have to enter your display URL manually when creating a new ad. AdWords will now automatically use the domain of your ad’s final URL. You’ll also have the option to combine it with two new path fields (up to 15 characters each). This update will help give the people who see the ads a clearer idea of where the ad will take them.

When will expanded text ads roll out?

According to Google, from October the 26th 2016, AdWords will no longer support the creation or editing of standard text ads. From this date, users will only be able to create and edit expanded text ads. However, existing standard ads will continue to be displayed after this date. It is unclear when standard ads will cease to appear on our smartphones but one thing is clear – their days are numbered.

Using expanded text ads in AdWords

The AdWords team recently released a short, three-minute explanation video to explain the benefits of expanded text ads, the key differences between standard and expanded text ads, and includes tips covering how make your new ads as effective as possible. It’s well worth watching, especially if you want to hit the ground running in October.

If you haven’t got time to watch the video, here’s a summary of Google’s top tips for creating effective expanded text ads:

Remember AdWords best practices – they still apply.
Use at least one of your keywords in the ad text to ensure your ads are still highly relevant to those who see them.
Continue to capitalise the first letter of each word in your ad to help it stand out.
Rethink your ad text to ensure you’re taking advantage of the additional space expanded text ads give you.

Get more from your PPC campaigns

If you want to make the most of your next pay per click campaign using AdWords, get in touch with the digital specialists at Bing Digital. Complete the contact form below or give our team a call on 0208 82421954.

Image Credit: Google

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