Google AdWords Expanded Text Ads & Device Bid Adjustments Are Now Live
Google announced on the AdWords blog that they have now rolled out expanded text ads that they had been testing in April.
Earlier this year, they removed right-hand side ads to improve the search experience and make it consistent across mobile, desktop and tablet. This shift paved the way for the largest update to ad creative since Google introduced AdWords more than 15 years ago.
Expanded text ads are optimized for the screen sizes of the most popular smartphones. Consisting of two headlines, each with 30 characters, and one 80-character description line, which is about 50% more ad space for advertisers. Here is the before and after shot:
Before After
Why the change? Research has shown that longer ad headlines are more useful to mobile users because they provide additional information about your business before the user even clicks your ad. What do you think? Would additional text make you more inclined to click on an ad?
Google is encouraging advertisers to begin using expanded text ads as soon as possible. As of October 26, 2016, advertisers will no longer be able to create or upload standard text ads. Google has published a best practices guide to walk through tips and tricks to use when creating and optimizing expanded text ads. Note: if you have a product that is concerned with strict legal or regulatory ad requirements, Google is recommending that you create a headline with 33 characters or fewer to ensure all of your text ad shows. There are issues with ETA headlines that are truncated.
They are also rolling out device bid adjustments that can be unique on each device type. This will allow you to manage a consolidated campaign that reaches consumers on various devices while giving you more control to execute individual bid adjustments by device type. You can find out more in Google’s best practices document. This is not available for all accounts. The full rollout will occur over the next few months according to Google tweets this week. Automated smart bidding will also be available to “set more informed bids” by factoring in contextual details like location, time of day, and audience.
