Google releases Responsive Search Ads guide

Google has released a Responsive Search Ads guide to help marketers improve their campaign performance.

The new RSA guide includes Google’s advice and information on how:

• To write ads for maximum conversions.
• RSAs use Google AI to generate ad copy.
• To evaluate a campaign’s effectiveness.

Why we care. You may find this guide to be a helpful resource, especially if you’re newer to working with RSAs. It may give you a better understanding of how RSAs work and how to optimize for maximum performance and potentially increase conversions and ROI.

A comprehensive guide. Google’s new document contains seven sections:

• The challenge with delivering the right ads.
• Why responsive search ads
• How responsive search ads select combinations to generate Search ads
• Ad Strength: a feedback mechanism for creative content
• Tools to help create high quality assets
• Evaluate the effectiveness of responsive search ads
• AI-ready account structure: Smart Bidding, broad match, & responsive search ads

Google also provided the following five key takeaways to get the most out of RSAs:

1. The more assets the better. Provide as many headlines and descriptions as you can so that our system can test more combinations and deliver more relevant ads. Tools like asset suggestions, recommendations, and automatically created assets are effective ways of creating relevant, high quality assets.
2. Use Ad Strength to evaluate how well your responsive search ads are set up. Ad Strength provides you with forward looking feedback to help you understand where you can make improvements before your ads are served. Strive to have at least one responsive search ad with Good or Excellent Ad Strength per ad group.
3. Measure the right metrics when evaluating the performance of your responsive search ads. Keep your focus on improving business outcomes for your ads and remember that conversions are more important than clicks.
4. Asset performance ratings and ad variations can help you understand how to improve responsive search ads after they’ve garnered enough data. Focus on high impact areas to make the most of your time.
5. Use responsive search ads with Smart Bidding and broad match. When used together, these AI-powered solutions can help you show the right ad to the right person at the right price.

What has Google said? A Google spokesperson said:

• “Our goal is to simplify the work it takes to create high-quality ads that achieve your business objectives at scale.”
• “To do this, we’re hard at work applying the newest AI-powered innovations across asset generation, customizing assets for relevance, and both simplifying and improving tools for managing ads.”

Deep dive. Read Google’s Responsive Search Ads guide (PDF) for more information.