Google Ads: The Move From Expanded Ads To Responsive Text Ads

Google defined the rebranding of its advertising circuit: Google Ads was born, a single platform that even today brings together all the online advertising services of the Mountain View giant, from the “historical” Search ads to the latest Google Play in-app ads, including Display campaigns, Shopping campaigns, YouTube video ads, Google Maps locations, responsive ads and more.

Google Ads: The Extension Of The Ads On The Search Network

As part of this evolution, in 2018, Google tested the launch of a new format dedicated to ads on the Search network, much more extensive than in the past: in a nutshell, the advertiser can count on a significantly increased number of usable characters within your ad (you go from 130 characters to 300).

The reasons for this experiment are manifold: on the one hand, the desire to make advertisements more similar to organic results. On the other, the clear intention of pushing natural results (even) further down the SERP, the display of which is already now less immediate than in the past (especially from mobile).

From the advertiser’s point of view, on the other hand, the main advantage consists of a considerable increase in the advertising space dedicated to it: extended ads occupy a greater area of ​​the SERP, giving significantly increased visibility to the promotion of one’s products or services. However, this possibility, in this first test phase, had not been granted to everyone: Google had selected a small number of Premier Partners certified agencies to be entrusted with the management of the new ad format: SiComunicaWeb was one of the first agencies chosen by Google to offer this great opportunity to its customer base.

The Move To Responsive Text Ads

Since their introduction in beta in January 2017, therefore, Google Ads expanded text ads have been able to increase paid ads’ performance significantly, making them increasingly similar to organic results. Search-to-click interaction rate ( %CTR) has significantly increased compared to standard text ads, and similarly, the average conversion rate recorded by Google Ads campaigns has also increased.

Despite these improvements, Google Ads expanded text ads have had a short life: from 30 June 2022, it will no longer be possible to create new ads with this format or edit the creatives.

Expanded text ads will be permanently replaced by new responsive text ads from the search network, very similar to the previous ones, but which differ in the number of parameters that can be used, which allows you to take full advantage of Google’s machine learning.

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How Responsive Text Ads Work

When creating the new Google Ads responsive text ads on the Google Ads search network, it is possible to indicate different titles and descriptions, up to a maximum of 15 titles and four description lines, which Google’s artificial intelligence then combines and puts together based on users ‘ search intent. This way, users are shown the most relevant to depending on what they typed into the search bar and their interests. However, the number of characters that can be used within the texts does not change, which always remains:

1. 30 characters, including spaces for each title;
2. 90 surfaces, including areas for each description;
3. Fifteen characters for each paragraph.

Additionally, every time a new ad is created, Google provides guidance on improving its effectiveness by rating it from poor to excellent. The factors that go into making a responsive text ad more effective are: 

1. the variety;
2. the quality; 
3. the use of the right keywords;
4. the number of titles;
5. the number of descriptions.

Google will also continue to show the usual preview, thanks to which it will be possible to observe how the system could mix the information entered in the SERP.

Expanded Text Ads

1. Titles: maximum 3
2. Descriptions: maximum 2
3. Paths (Path): full 2
4. Url Final: maximum one per ad group

Responsive Text Ads

1. Title: maximum 15
2. Descriptions: maximum 4
3. Paths (Path): top 2
4. Url Final: maximum one per ad group

The use of this new type of ad will allow the system to show more and more personalized results for the kind of user searching to: 

1. Further, it increases the interaction rate (also thanks to the use of Google Ads extensions );
2. Reduce the number of tests required to date to identify the most performing creative with a view to optimization by advertisers.