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The ability to create new and edit existing extended text ads will end with June 30, 2022 The moment is therefore fast approaching. How to prepare for the disappearance of Expanded Text Ads from the Google Ads platform? What should you know before June 30 arrives if you are currently using this ad format? Below you will find the most important information that will allow you to go through the twilight of expanded text ads without stress.
What are Expanded Text Ads?
Expanded Text Ads, or simply expanded text ads, have not managed to exceed six years with their lifespan, and they are already disappearing from view. We were introduced to them in a test phase in the second quarter of 2016, and they settled in for good in July of the same year. Initially, the introduction of the ability to create extended text ads pleased many developers. This is because it made it possible to insert into ads almost twice as long texts as before, thus opening the door for advertisers to write about the quality of the products and services they offer. Many ad creators also valued the full control that Expanded Text Ads gave them. This included the fact that when creating them, we have certainty about how the ads will look and what exactly the user will see and read about our product. This is because what we wrote in the ad editing mode is 1:1 what the ad will look like in the search engine. Now, however, Google is withdrawing this possibility. Many people are asking themselves why this is actually happening.
Why is Google Ads dropping the ability to provide expanded text ads?
The simplest answer is – “to make more room for the rising star that is ETAs’ younger sister – Responsive Search Ads“. According to experts, they are more effective in delivering the right information to audiences through ads, and besides, the popularity of responsive search ads (RSAs) has definitely increased over the past years. For almost four years, since the inception of flexible search network ads, we had the option of using both text ad formats in our Google Ads accounts. However, this approach has come to an end, and expanded text ads are coming off the stage almost for good.
What will happen to expanded text ads in Google Ads accounts?
It is worth bearing in mind that with the end of June this year Expanded Text Ads will not disappear from Google Ads accounts. We will only be prevented from creating new ads of this type and from editing the content contained in those that have existed so far. However, it will still be possible to both pause and enable, as well as voluntarily remove them on our own.
Therefore, it’s worth making sure that the accounts we use have extended text ads created that we know we’ll want to use after we’re blocked from submitting them to editing. Even if they are not active on June 30, it’s worth refraining from deleting them, or creating ones we think we might want to use in the future. After all, as has already been mentioned, we will be able to turn them on when we need them.
What if we don’t want to use RSAs?
Many advertisers appreciate extended text ads due to the fact that these give them full control over the text of the ad, so switching to using only Responsive Search Ads makes them feel like Google wants to take that control away from them. However, there is a way to create ads that seemingly work the way ETAs have worked so far. After all, if we really want the text ads to look exactly the way we dreamed, we can always take advantage of the ability to pin the headlines and text of the ads in Responsive Search Ads so that they display in just one possible configuration. How to do it?
We start by selecting and entering 3 headlines for the ad resources, and then, using the pin icon to the right of our suggestions, we set them to position one, two and three, respectively.
We do the same for the ad texts – we pin them successively on the first and second positions using the pin icon to the right of the texts. In this way, the pinning will reduce the rotation of headlines and ad texts and there will be only one variant that will be displayed to the ad recipients – just like in the case of extended text ads.
There is no other way to do this.
When choosing this strategy, we need to keep in mind that due to our limitation of the variants of the search engine display ads, Google Ads will most likely give us information about the predicted low effectiveness of an ad constructed in this way. Without introducing more headlines and text, and unpicking some of them, getting around this message is unlikely to be possible.
How to prepare for twilight ETAs?
In addition to the aforementioned preparation of extended text ads, which may come in handy for us in the future, we should configure and test RSA ads in ad groups where we have only used extended text ads so far. The best practices we should implement at this point are:
- Implement at least 1 flexible search ad in each ad group.
- Create unique headlines. It is important to include the keywords that we use in the ad group and to ensure that they are diverse, thereby providing the Google Ads platform with the opportunity to test and select the ones that work best for us.
- Check the effectiveness of advertising and, if possible, increase it For this purpose, recommendations from Google will be useful, which will appear above our ad in edit mode.
- Testing! It’s worth checking on an ongoing basis which of the implemented ads bring the best results, and which would be worth improving. If any of the headlines or text that we implemented in the extended text ads performed brilliantly – it is worth learning from and being inspired by them when creating flexible search ads.
If we have been using ETAs for the most part so far, and switching fully (or overwhelmingly) to RSAs still sounds like a harbinger of disaster, it’s worth considering some of the positive things this action can bring us.
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Benefits-of-using-flexible-advertising-in-search
Reaching users
Automating ads is proving to be our ally when it comes to reaching new users. This is due to the fact that as much as 15% of search terms each day are new searches, which means they are ones we have a hard time addressing when planning a search engine campaign fully manually. Google works to provide users with the best possible search results and to ensure that advertisers can present their products and services to the most relevant and therefore valuable users. To this end, Google automatically generates flexible search ads. In this way, users end up with ads that are better tailored to their preferences and are more likely to click.
Save time
By creating a dozen headlines and several ad texts from which Google can create numerous variations of ads tailored to the user we save a lot of time! This is because we don’t have to create many separate ads to test given headlines and ad texts – everything that we would have previously spread out over several variations of extended text ads, we can include in one flexible search ad. We can easily modify less performing texts and take examples of those that generate the best results, all within a single data set.
Save money
The previously mentioned advantage led us directly here – after all, time is money! However, in addition to the extra minutes that the use of RSAs provides us with, we also save real money that is not “thrown down the drain” along with misplaced ad displays caused by an error when using manual ads.These, no matter how experienced Google Ads users we might be, almost always happen and cause sometimes single zlotys and sometimes larger sums to disappear from our sight, generating no benefits and sometimes even harming us.
In a word – greater efficiency!
A concrete example of the positive impact of RSAs on real ad performance is the CTR they generate. Flexible search ads typically achieve higher click-through rates (CTR) than enhanced text ads, a result of being displayed in more searches while being more relevant to viewers and attracting clicks.
Summary
June 30 will not be the definitive end of Expanded Text Ads, as we will still be able to turn them off, on and off as needed. Only the ability to edit them will disappear, but if this news is inconvenient for us, we will always be able to use the pins in Responsive Search Ads to create an ETA-like ad. However, it’s worth keeping in mind the advantages that come with using automated ads in Google Ads, such as just Responsive Search Ads. Google Ads has been moving toward automating ads and campaigns created on the platform by advertisers for some time now – removing the ability to create expanded text ads is simply another step toward making the platform as automated as possible. And while it may take away some of our sense of control, it’s worth trusting the machine learning and other technologies Google uses to provide both advertisers and search users with the best possible experience. They exist, after all, primarily to help us get the best possible results from the ads we create.
