Write new expanded text ads now rather than stretching old ones. Lead with what people searched for, use the second headline for one reason to choose you, and run them beside your best old ad.

Open to every account from today

Expanded text ads, announced in May, are available in every AdWords account from today. Any advertiser can now create them alongside the familiar standard ads.

Each new ad gets a pair of 30-character headlines, a single 80-character description, and a display address built from your own domain.

Standard text ads keep running. Google has said they can still be created and edited until October 26, after which only the expanded format can be added.

That gives a small account three months to write, test and settle on new ads. It is enough, if the work starts now.

What changes today, and what does not

The third is the one with a date attached. Until then, a proven standard ad can keep running, and still be corrected if a detail changes, while the new ones build a record of their own.

Old ads cannot be converted

An expanded ad is always a new ad. AdWords does not change a standard ad's format in place, so whatever the old ad achieved stays with the old ad.

Little is lost by that. Editing any ad already creates a new one, with the old figures left behind on the old version, so there was never a history to carry across.

The real choice is between writing new ads properly and copying old lines into new boxes. A description line trimmed to fit a headline still reads like the supporting line it was written as.

What to say with the extra space

The first headline should echo what people searched for: the service and, for a local business, the place.

On a narrow phone screen the second headline can drop to a line of its own, so the first has to make sense alone.

The second headline is for one reason to choose you, or the next step. Pick one: a free site visit, a response time, a guarantee or a specialty. Two reasons crammed together read as neither.

The description carries the detail: what is included, where you work, what to do next. The path fields are display text, so they can name the service and the area even where no page has that exact address.

Run them beside the old ads

Do not pause the standard ads on the day you add the new ones. They have a record; the new ads have none.

Add two expanded ads to each ad group that matters, and keep the best standard ad running with them. Two new versions show which wording works, not just whether the format does.

Check the campaign's ad rotation setting. Left on optimise, AdWords may favour one ad within days; rotating evenly for a few weeks gives each version a fair share of searches.

Check how it looks on a phone

On a phone the new ads take up more of the screen than the old ones did.

That is the point of the format, but it means a weak headline is more visible too. The Ad Preview and Diagnosis tool in AdWords shows the ad as a phone user would see it, without adding impressions or clicks.

Read the headlines aloud as one sentence. A word that appears in both is a word that could have said something else.

A worked example

A hydroseeding company with two spray trucks seeds new lawns, slopes and cleared lots for builders and homeowners in the valley east of the city. Its account has one campaign with three ad groups: new lawns, slopes and commercial work.

Its best standard ad read: Hydroseeding Experts, then Fast, affordable new lawns, then Call today for a free quote. The owner's first idea was to paste those lines into the new fields.

Instead, the new lawns group got two fresh ads sharing a first headline, Hydroseeding for New Lawns, and one description naming the seed mixes for sun, shade and slopes and the towns served.

They differ only in the second headline. One says September Dates Now Open, the other Free Site Visit Within a Week, so any difference between them comes from that one line.

Both run beside the old ad on even rotation, with paths naming the service and the area.

The slopes group gets its own ads next week, once the owner has decided what a builder with a bare slope most needs to hear.

Leave everything else alone for now

Change the ads and nothing else for a few weeks. If keywords, bids and landing pages change at the same time, there is no telling which change made the difference.

Resist copying one good ad into every ad group as well. An ad that echoes the search works only where the searches match it.

The October deadline

After October 26, existing standard ads keep running but can no longer be changed. Any correction, such as a new price or a seasonal offer, will mean writing an expanded ad.

Put a date in the calendar for late September to compare the old and new ads in each group. That leaves a month to adjust before the standard ads are frozen.

Which is the practical argument for starting now: by October, the new ads should already be the ones you trust.

The counter-case

Expanded text ads replace only standard text ads. Call-only ads, Shopping ads and image ads are unchanged, so an account built mostly on those has little to rewrite this summer.

An account whose standard ads are working well has no reason to rush either. It has until October to replace them carefully, and nothing needs pausing today.

But from October every new text ad in the account will be an expanded one, so write the first ones now, while there is time to test them.

The first expanded ads

  1. List the ad groups that bring most of your enquiries.
  2. Write two expanded ads for each.
  3. Echo the search in the first headline.
  4. Give one reason in the second.
  5. Fill both path fields with service and place.
  6. Keep the best old ad running alongside.
  7. Compare them after a few weeks of clicks.

Step two is the one that makes the comparison worth having. With two new versions in each group, you learn which message works, not just that the new format does.

What the change involves, as first announced in May, is covered in longer text ads are coming to AdWords.

Frequently asked questions

What are expanded text ads?

The new AdWords text ad format: a pair of 30-character headlines, one 80-character description, a display address taken from your domain and two optional path fields.

Do standard text ads stop today?

No. They keep running, and Google has said they can be created and edited until October 26. After that, only expanded ads can be added or changed.

Can I convert my old ads?

No. An expanded ad is always created as a new ad, and editing any ad already starts a new one, so write new ads properly rather than copying old lines across.

What should the two headlines say?

The first should echo the search, such as the service and the place, and make sense alone on a phone. The second gives one reason to choose you or the next step.

Should I pause the old ads?

Not yet. Run two expanded ads beside your best standard ad in each important ad group, on even rotation, until each has enough clicks to compare.

What else should change at the same time?

Nothing for a few weeks. If keywords, bids and landing pages change too, you cannot tell which change made the difference.

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.

Still running only standard text ads?

Send us your account's main ad groups. We will draft expanded ads you can test before October.

Start a Conversation