Google Search ads are one of the most popular PPC options businesses are closing in a post-pandemic world. They allow you go get your message straight in front of the eyes of those actively searching for your product or service.
Google Ads is well known by marketers for being a constantly evolving platform (for the better) with new and improved changes being brought in on a regular basis to allow for an easier way to reach an audience.
In 2022, Google Ads will be introducing one of the biggest changes that we have seen in a few years. The fundamental ad type, expanded text ads, will be removed on 30 June 2022.
The Types of Google Search Ad
There are a selection of different search ads that can be created on accounts. The oldest expanded text ads have been around since the start of Google Ads, or AdWords as it was back then. The consist of up to three headlines of 30 characters maximum, and two descriptions of 90 characters maximum.
Expanded text ads allowed you to make sure that the copy you want in an ad always appeared along side the specific headlines and descriptions you want, in the order you want.
On the other hand, responsive search ads can consist of many more headlines and up to four descriptions. Each of these is known as an asset which Google mixes and matches to select the best combination of headlines and descriptions to best fit what a user has searched, and what Google expects to be the best performing for that search.
Responsive Search Ad Limitations
The results seen from these ads types are often a lot better than expanded text ads as there is greater opportunity for ad copy that resonates with the user to be shown.
They do however take a lot more time and though to set up. Much more ad copy must be written with thought in mind. It must be remembered that unlike an expanded text ad, the assets for responsive search ads can appear in any order so ad copy MUST make sense regardless of what order it appears in.
Sometimes companies write two ad headlines next to each other with the intention of them being shown one after the other to read as one lone phrase. Whilst this can work for expanded text ads, responsive search ads will not be the best option for this.
Google can allow advertisers to ‘pin’ headlines to a certain position in responsive search ads to force the order in which assets appear, however this is not recommended as it can lead to a decrease in performance as Google can’t test asset order to optimise the ad.
Should I be Worried About this Change?
Having expanded text ads be removed from the Google Ad platform should not be a big surprise for many advertisers. The creation of these ad types has slowly been vanishing from Google Ads over the past year leading to speculation that this change may have been not far over the horizon.
This is one of the many changes Google Ads is making to streamline account management and make campaign management much more simple. Broad match modifiers, a type of keyword, was also removed in recent months in favour of phrase match.
If you’re looking for a local Shropshire digital marketing agency to help get you started with Google Ads, get in touch with us today. Call 01743 817 596 or email studio@shropshiremedia.com today.