As many have seen by now, Google Ads has recently offered expanded real estate for their ad formats. Search marketers now have the ability for an additional third lead 30-character headline and an additional 90-character description box.
Ad Set Up
Mobile Ad Display
Desktop Ad Display
Per Google Ads, these new expanded ad variations won’t run every time your ad is triggered for an impression meaning that Headline 3 “may not always show”. The same randomness of served impressions is the case with the 2nd description box. Currently, I am not aware of any reporting that will show ad click-through rate and conversion performance on when the expanded ad was displayed versus not. This is unfortunate, as it is critical to know how these serve rates are impacting performance.
So, what does this mean?
This is also another SERP real estate grab by Google in order to continue to monetize eye share in key areas of search listings. Like or not, it’s Google’s platform and you’ll want to play within it because your competitors certainly will be. Headlines grab searchers attention and now there is a third set of 30 characters to get that click. In mobile, this headline is going to also grab more vertical real estate and drive down organic listings.
As advertisers, we can now pack in more offerings, benefits and features about the product or service we are trying to get a click for. We *should* see increase click-through rates with this expanded real estate, especially with the additional 3rd headline. Use this headline to incorporate more keyword saturation or for a call to action or monetary offer if applicable.
The 2nd description box provides more room to pack in product features, selling benefits, key dates, etc.
Testing
As I mentioned above, there is not any reporting currently to see when your expanded ads were served, but this does open up new testing opportunities. A simple obvious test right now as this is being rolled out is to see how your 2 headline, 1 description box traditional ads are performing against the new ad formats. With the new 3 headline, 2 description formats You can also set up A/B testing now in a variety of headlines and secondary description boxes.
The challenge of ad copywriting playing within character limits with Google Ads just got easier. We just gained 120 characters, including a new eye-popping headline bar, so use it to your advantage.
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