Existing standard text ads keep running, but from today they cannot be edited or added. Replace anything out of date with expanded text ads, and keep the rest running until the new ones prove themselves.

What changes today

From today, AdWords no longer accepts new standard text ads, the short format with one headline and two description lines that most older accounts were built on.

Existing standard text ads keep running. They just cannot be edited any more, and every new ad has to be an expanded text ad, the larger format introduced last summer.

Nothing switches off tonight. An account that has run untouched for years will carry on tomorrow exactly as it did today.

Which is the catch. Whatever those old ads say, they will keep saying it, and the only way to change a word is to write a new ad.

What an expanded text ad has

The first item changes the writing most. Old ads squeezed everything into one short headline; a second headline leaves room for the place, a price or the next start date where searchers read first.

Ads that can no longer be corrected

In an account nobody has opened for a while, the standard text ads usually contain something that has gone stale.

A price that has since risen. A season or a year in the text. A promotion that ended. A phone number typed into the ad itself. A service the business no longer offers.

Until yesterday, each of those was a two-minute edit. From today, each needs a replacement ad.

That is less of a loss than it sounds. Even before today, editing an ad in AdWords created a new ad behind the scenes, with its statistics starting again, so writing a fresh one changes little.

Checking an account nobody has opened

Start by making sure you can still log in, with your own Google account, and that the billing details are current.

Then view the ads by type. AdWords can filter the ads tab to show standard text ads only, which tells you how much of the account is now frozen.

Read every one slowly. Note any figure, date, offer or phone number, and ask whether it is still true.

Click every final URL. Old ads often point at pages that have moved, that redirect to the home page, or that no longer exist.

Check the extensions too. Sitelinks to old pages and callouts for ended offers were never part of the ad text, and they can still be edited.

A worked example

A sailing school on the coast runs learn-to-sail courses from May to September, and registration for the season opens in February.

Its AdWords account was set up in 2013. The same six standard text ads have run every spring since, switched on in February and off in the autumn.

One ad still promised an early-booking price the school dropped two seasons ago. Another sent people to a 2014 course schedule page that now redirects to the home page.

Last week, with the deadline coming, the office manager read through the account before switching it on for the season.

Each ad group got two new expanded text ads, using the second headline for course length and start dates, and each pointing to the matching course page rather than the home page.

The two out-of-date ads were paused at once. The other four stay on beside the new ones until there are a few weeks of enquiries to compare.

A call extension went on as well, since the school's bookings often begin with a phone call.

Writing the replacements

Write two or three expanded text ads for each ad group, so there is something to compare.

Use the first headline for what the person searched for, with the place if it matters. Use the second for a concrete detail: a starting price, a start date, a same-day service.

The description is for the next step and a reason to take it. The path fields should echo the search, so the address beneath the headline looks like the page they want.

Leave out anything that will date quickly, unless someone has agreed to replace the ad when it does.

Where the ads send people

An expanded text ad is a promise about one page. Send it to the page that keeps the promise: the course, the service or the product the ad describes.

The home page is rarely that page. A searcher who asked for one thing and lands on a general welcome has to search again, this time on your site.

Check each landing page on a phone, since that is where many of these clicks happen, and make sure the phone number on it can be tapped.

Old and new side by side

Do not delete the old ads today. Paused ads keep their history, and that history is the baseline the new ones have to beat.

Pause any old ad that says something untrue straight away. Let the rest run beside the new ones for a few weeks.

Then compare them on calls and enquiries, not clicks. An ad that attracts clicks from people who never get in touch is not the better ad.

That comparison needs conversion tracking. If the account has none, setting it up matters more than any wording.

The counter-case

An account that moved to expanded text ads last year has nothing to do today.

And an old account whose standard text ads are still accurate, point at the right pages and perform well can leave them running. The deadline does not force anyone to replace a good ad.

It only means that the next time something changes, the change will be a new ad. Better to write it now, calmly, than on the morning the price goes up.

Before the season starts

  1. Confirm you can log in with your own account.
  2. Filter the ads to show standard text ads.
  3. Read every ad for prices, dates and offers.
  4. Click every final URL in the account.
  5. Write two expanded text ads per ad group.
  6. Pause old ads that say anything untrue.
  7. Compare old and new on enquiries, not clicks.

Step five is the one the deadline makes necessary. Until an ad group has an expanded text ad, it has no ad that can be changed, and every future correction starts from a blank page.

Where any ad should send people is the same question covered in running Instagram ads through your Facebook page.

Frequently asked questions

What changes in AdWords today?

AdWords stops accepting new standard text ads and edits to existing ones. Every new ad, and every change to an old one, now has to be an expanded text ad.

Do my old ads stop running?

No. Existing standard text ads keep running as they are. What has gone is the ability to edit them, so anything wrong in one stays wrong until it is replaced.

What is an expanded text ad?

The newer format, available since last summer: two headlines of up to 30 characters, one description of up to 80, and a display address built from your landing page's domain.

Should I delete the old ads now?

No. Write expanded text ads alongside them, pause any old ad that is out of date, and pause the rest only once the new ones have results to compare.

What should I check in an old account?

Every ad's prices, dates, offers and phone numbers, every landing page link, and every extension. Anything out of date in an old ad now needs a new ad to correct it.

How do I compare old and new ads?

On calls and enquiries rather than clicks, which means conversion tracking set up properly. Give the new ads a few weeks before deciding.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

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