What you need to know about Google’s New Expanded Text Ad format

Sep 20th, 2018

Following the introduction of responsive search ads in beta, Google announced that expanded text ads are also undergoing important changes. Extra headline, longer descriptions and main advantages – the PPC team at Click Consult have got it all covered for you!


What are expanded text ads?

The new expanded text ads were introduced at the end of August and have one more headline and one more description line than the standard expanded text ads. As a result, the new ad format will give you the opportunity to show up to three headlines and up to two descriptions. The headlines will be of the same length as before (30 characters per headline), while the length of the descriptions will increase from 80 to 90 characters each. Overall, the new expanded text ads can have a maximum length of 300 characters.

What are the main advantages of using the expanded text ads?

Firstly, the additional third headline and second description offer advertisers more space to show their message, therefore helping towards improving the ad’s visibility.

Secondly, more space means more opportunities to make the ad’s message more relevant, allowing you to differentiate yourself from competitors, and include more information about your business, products and/or services. What does this mean? An improved chance of increasing your click through rate and Ad Rank. However, since the third headline and second description might not always show up on smaller screens, we recommend you test different versions and include business specific information, but not essential information that might not be shown in the end.

New expanded text ads versus responsive search ads

Since the new expanded text ads and responsive search ads have similar structure, and the same ad components and character limits, one might wonder what the main differences are and which type would suit one’s advertising goals better.

Responsive Search Ads will give you the opportunity to write up to fifteen different headlines and up to four descriptions, and Google Ads will then test different headline and description combinations in order to provide the most relevant ad to customers. This ad format will therefore be suited for advertisers who are looking for a large amount of flexibility. Using Responsive Search Ads also ensures that your ads will show up in more relevant searches.

If you are looking for more control over the message you want to send across to your audiences, the new expanded text ads may be the right choice for you. Because the text and the exact order are ultimately chosen by the advertiser and not by Google’s advanced machine learning algorithms, the new expanded text ads will give you the perfect opportunity to make use of the additional character space, while being in control of how your ads show up on the results page.

What next?

As the new expanded text ads are a very new ad format, the PPC team at Click Consult suggest that you make full use of this new opportunity, but regularly monitor the performance and status of your new ads in order to make the most out of them!


Speak to an expert at Click Consult to find out more about our PPC services (including in-house support). Call us on 0845 205 0292, email [email protected] or use our contact form.

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