Official: Google to roll out Expanded Text Ads for all devices
Perhaps the final vestige of pre-mobile AdWords, 25-35-35 character text ads will soon sunset.
As we reported earlier this month, Google has been testing longer text ads in search results across devices. On Tuesday, the company announced Expanded Text Ads will be available to advertisers later this year.
With the removal of right-side ads, Google now has the flexibility to give text ads more characters in a way that will look uniform across devices. Expanded text ads will be eligible to run across all devices and will be optimized for smartphones.
“These upgrades help your ads work harder across screens, especially for the on-the-go mobile consumer that wants to know exactly what you offer before tapping into your website,” said Google’s Senior Vice President, Ads and Commerce, Sridhar Ramaswamy, in a blog post announcing this and other news from Google Performance Summit on Tuesday.
More characters
The new ad format will have two longer headlines of up to 30 characters each and a longer description line of up to 80 characters.
The display URL can include up to two directory paths that advertisers can use to describe the landing page content. The paths do not have to match the landing page URL.
Here’s the rundown of what’s changing:
Begin planning now
This deviation from the 25-35-35 character format that has perhaps been the only constant throughout AdWords’ 15-year history will be a big change for advertisers.
“We encourage you to start planning for this upgrade before it rolls out later this year,” said Ramaswamy in the blog post.
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