On the 31st January, Google AdWords will no longer allow the old style standard text adverts and will now only accept expanded text ads. Expanded ads were initially released in 2016 with Standard text ads having a depreciation deadline of October 26th 2016. Google extended this deadline to allow advertisers’ time to test creatives and push these out across their accounts.

What is an Expanded Text Ad

Expanded text ads feature two headlines, a single long description line, and are optimised for the screen sizes of the most popular smartphones. Traditionally, a Google AdWords search advertisement contained a single headline of 25 characters, 2 descriptive lines of 35 characters and included a display URL. An Expanded text ad differentiates from this advert by allowing an extended headline of 30 characters and one long description of up to 80 characters.

Expanded Text Ad Performance

Although the new adverts have an additional amount of text, they are not guaranteed to increase ad performance. We have tested a number of adverts over the past couple of months and have found CTR (Click Through Rate) to be the metric most effected, in some cases doubling the Click Through Rate of an advert.

It is yet to be noted whether this will continue when all advertisers switch or if this was a result of fast roll out on our accounts, but it is certainly a positive note from our initial testing.

For more information on the changes, or if we can help you with any aspect of your digital marketing including an AdWords health check – Please get in touch with the team at mtc today.