All about expanded text ads

It is important to note that the support for Google’s brand new Expanded Text Ads (ETAs)
dropped universally in the Ad Words interface. This was the much awaited surprise that all the
marketers have been expecting since the announcement made by Google Ad Words’ which
stated that a more robust ad format was being designed and will be launched soon which will
change the way the things are advertised by the marketers for their organizations and it is also
seen to be the biggest change to the Ad Words model since its inception 16 years ago. Expanded
Text Ads (ETAs) until mid September couldn’t be expected to come out of their old version i.e.
their beta, so this big surprise took all the marketers surprised as most of the advertisers were no
prepared completely.

Expanded Text Ads came into the picture replacing traditional version of standard ads, in the
year 2016. Now the question arises what are Expanded Text Ads? What effect do they have on
Ad Words? To unravel such perplexities, let’s dig deep into the concept of ETA.

1. What are Expanded Text Ads?

Text ads have completely changed the way of advertising and they can also be said to be the next
generation of advertisements as stated by Google as well. Expanded Text Ads allows the
advertisers to provide more information for display on their ads. This is beneficial for the
business organizations in terms of message which is shown in order to give a description about
the product to the customers. The expanded text ads help both the users and the business
organizations as user can have more amount of information at his disposal, without necessarily
clicking on the ads and it helps the business organizations by helping the business in providing
more information to the business organizations. Here are some of the features of Expanded Text
Ads which will help us understanding the same in a better manner:

 Two headlines, up to 30 character each.

 Single (Expanded) description field, up to 80 characters
 Display URL sharing the same domain as final URL
 Two optional path fields in the display URL with up to 15 characters each
This is what can be said to be the format of the Expanded Text Ads. It is apparent that some of
its features such as display URL using the same domain as final URL and extension of character
count are indeed helpful in curbing the regular concerns of messaging thus helping both the users
and the business organizations as well.

2. Why Expanded Text Ads?

Increase in usage of mobile phones is what that could have been said to have propelled the idea
of Expanded Text Ads. It can also be seen that majority of the world’s population carry smart
phones and what’s better time than this to begin extending our reach using mobile as a medium?
It aims to engage mobile users in expanded texts which enable greater visibility and information
quality, given the extension of character limit.

What needs to be understood is that what is the logic behind this change? Essentially, as stated
above as well Google has realized the same thing and thereby has redesigned Ad Words ads to
create a consistent experience on both desktop and mobile. To add to the same currently,
advertisers are allowed one 25-character headline and two 35-character description lines.
Expanded Text Ads allow advertisers to create two 30-character headlines and one 80-character
description line. In addition, Ad Words will now pull the domain from the final URL and give
advertisers the option to include up to two 15-character paths that will be a part of their display
URL. Not surprisingly, these ads will display the same on desktop and mobile. However, the text
will automatically wrap to fit the size of a searcher’s device.

3. What are the advantages of the Expanded Text Ads?

 With the extension of character limit, it is evident that Ads will be more specific and
detailed.
 No need to worry about display URL matching the final URL domain as final URL
domain is going to the display URL.
 With the larger visibility and more information, Ads are bound to grab the attention of
potential customers.
  Optimization can be done more effectively as there is an increase in character count.
 You can witness considerable increase in CTR because of the increased length of the ad
which enables more information for display.

4. What are the advantages of the Expanded Text Ads?

There are several reasons why increasing the copy count may not significantly affect click
through rates. Some of them are as followed:

 Though increase in characters is said to an advantage, it often results in heavy

competition for the top spot as there can be no more than one top spot. What needs to be
understood here is that Yes, though the ads of the organization are more likely to be seen,
but they are also more likely to be irritating for the users as well.

 Ad size is probably less important when advertising and the expanded text size provides
the option of increasing the text size as well but we also need to understand that making
paid search ads bigger seems cool, until the organizations realize that everyone else’s ads
will be bigger, too. It can be said that bigger ads will make it harder to scroll past the ad,
but that’s more an ad position argument than it is a size argument. As a result of this
change, higher ranking ads may get slightly higher click through rates, but if size really
mattered to click through rate,

 According to some experts, this might be an inconvenience for the businesses that are not
dominant in their chosen occupational group as existing pioneers might dominate the
SERP by occupying larger space.
 A chance of decrease in CTR is also apparent. This is because Ads on higher position
take up much amount of space pushing other ads significantly down resulting in loss fall
of CTR.
 Some experts say that it obscures the distinguishing line between paid and organic results
as the extension of title and description characters making it ambiguous and almost equal
to organic results.

Preparing for Expanded Text Ads

As with any change, advertisers who are prepared to take advantage of this new opportunity will
be able to outperform the competition. To really seize the marketing world, here are some of the
steps that can be taken by the business organizations to get prepared for the ETAs:

 Look at your current ad copy- Which ads are running as Extended Headline Ads in
top positions? Are they working well? The business organizations must find their
winners and use them to predict which headlines and ad copy will produce the best
results.
 Be aggressive- The old 25-35-35 ads will be going away in October. If the business
organizations are aggressive about figuring out what works now, then they can be
ahead of the curve when Google makes this new ad format mandatory.
 Don’t expect too much- This is ensured that everyone will be changing. But what us
important to realize is that the winners in this situation will be the companies who
adapt to the change first. If any of the organizations are able to adopter early then that
organization can increase the click through rate, but it should be realized that it will
settle down over time as all the competition starts to figure things out the same, so it
is important to adapt quickly.