About a week ago, Google officially put the kibosh on uploading new or editing existing text ads in Google Ads. Google launched expanded text ads last summer, and as of January 31st, 2017, you can now only create and edit ads that use the expanded format. You can still pause and enable your old standard ads, but Google strongly recommends that you transition these to the new format – and we do, too! This isn’t something to sleep on – Google is calling this the biggest change to Google Ads creative since the platform initially launched 15 years ago. So, what do you need to know about the changes? Let’s take a look!

Bigger is Better

The new format takes up twice as much space as current ads, offering a larger space for your headline and a much longer description. Expanded text ads offer two 30 character headlines, and the description text can now be 80 characters. That’s about 50% more space for you to flex your creative copy muscles. Want to break it down even further? This is an 140% increase in space for headlines, and a 14% increase for your description text. That’s a lot more room to flesh out an idea, showcase the advantages of working with your company, explain current promotions, you name it. This is really good news for Google Ads users.

Mobile-First Forever

Expanded text ads are designed to maximize your ads’ performance on mobile devices, although all the new features will still display on desktop and tablet devices, too. Better, larger ads means they’ll be more visible, especially on your phone. Some early reports are showing that the new expanded ads increased click through rates for most people – with lots of folks seeing their CTR improve 20-40%.

Those aren’t minor improvements, so if you still haven’t updated your ads, it’s time to make a change.

Crafting a Killer Expanded Text Ad

Ready to get in gear and make some updates? Great! Here’s what to keep in mind when creating your new ads.

Use Your Headlines Wisely
You have two of them now, but the first one should still contain your most important message. While you have more space below, the headline is still king and will have the most influence on people interacting with your ads. Use the second headline for another call out, a value add, or brand recognition – but keep your most important copy up top.

Use the Ad Preview Tool
Your new ads will be formatted slightly differently across different devices. In some cases, your second headline might even get truncated. This is important to keep in mind when putting together your ad copy. Once you have things in place, make sure to preview your new ad to see how it looks on desktop, tablet, and mobile devices.

Update Your Old Ad Extensions
You have more room to get more copy into your ads now which is great – but don’t just rehash things you had in your ad extensions before. If your ad copy and ad extensions contain similar copy, Google probably won’t show the extensions. So after you put together your new expanded ad, go back and check your extensions and update them where appropriate. Take advantage of everything you can to increase your clicks and conversions!

Let’s Review

Google put together a short and sweet video about what’s new with expanded ads. Check it out for a quick recap!

About The Author

Dave LaBrie is an Internal Marketing Specialist at NetSearch Digital. When he’s not researching ways to improve businesses’ marketing efforts, he’s drinking Mountain Dew and pwning noobs online.