Expanded Text Ads

The first time we heard about Expanded Text Ads was in 2016. At the time, Google doubled the size of their traditional text ads for search advertising. Even back then, marketers’ excitement for the new ad copy space was dramatic.

But when some campaigns implemented Expanded Text Ads and saw click-through-rates jump as much as 20%, that enthusiasm seemed pretty appropriate.

By giving advertisers more real estate to increase and improve their ad copy, Google is helping advertisers make their ads more relevant to the actual search queries of their target audience.

This leads to users finding more helpful answers to the questions/needs they type into Google. Which means more clicks on your ads, which means more money for Google.

Everybody’s happy.

The ad copy expansion empowers PPC managers to insert more relevant product/service information to help inform users. It also creates opportunities to emphasise special deals or refine your CTAs (Call to Actions) to increase the CTRs (Click Through Rates) of their individual ads.

Expanded Text Ads are 2x bigger than current text ads. The new ads are designed to maximize your presence and performance on mobile search results with a bigger headline and an extra long description. (And with a mobile-first mindset, whatever works on mobile is going to get applied to desktop too.)

Expanded Text ads will show across all devices – desktop and mobile – and will wrap automatically based on device size.

Google began testing Expanded Text ads in Q2 of 2016.

Expanded text ads are similar to the text ads that you’re used to, but with a few key differences.

• Expanded text ads have three headline fields. The first two headline fields are required, while the third is optional. The extra headline field allows you to include additional text in your ads. You can use up to 30 characters per headline. The headlines will appear next to each other, separated by a vertical pipe (“|”). Depending on the size of your potential customer’s screen, they may wrap to a second line. The third headline can appear more often on wide mobile devices.

• Expanded text ads also have two 90-character description fields, giving you more control over your ad’s messaging.

• The domain of your display URL is based on your final URL domain. Google Ads will use the domain from your final URL and show it as your ad’s display URL. For example, if your final URL is www.example.com/outdoor/hiking/shoes, your ad’s display URL will show as www.example.com.

• The display URL can include two optional “Path” fields. You can combine your display URL with up to two new, optional ”Path” fields. These fields are added to the display URL after your website’s domain, so you can add text that will help people who see your ad get a better sense of where they’ll be taken when they click it. The text that you put in the path fields doesn’t necessarily have to be part of your website’s URL, but it should be related to the content on your landing page. So if your final URL is www.example.com/outdoor/hiking/shoes, you might want your path text to be “Hiking” and “Shoes”, making your ad’s display URL www.example.com/Hiking/Shoes.

• Expanded text ads are mobile-optimised. A preview of your ad in both desktop and mobile format is generated for you as you’re creating your expanded text ad.

Expanded text ads are available on both the Google Search Network and the Google Display Network. Ad extensions (both automatic and manual) are fully compatible with expanded text ads, too. Learn more about Expanded Text Ads, get in touch with us to explore all the available options