Hey there, Benjamin from Loves Data here! Welcome back! Today, we're talking about changes coming
to expanded text ads in Google Ads. Google has announced that from the end of June 2022,
you will no longer be able to create expanded text ads in your campaigns.
You will only be able to create responsive search ads. Okay, so June 2022 feel like a long way off,
but it's good to be prepared. In this video, I'm going to cover five things. I'm going to show
you the differences between these two types of ads. How you can create expanded text ads before
Google's deadline. How you can create a responsive search ad that is similar to an expanded text ad.
How to review the performance of your ads. And things you should test.
Expanded text ads let you write an ad exactly how it will appear to people as they're searching on
Google. They are made up of three headlines and two description lines. Which appear in
the order they're written. Responsive search ads are different. They let you write up to 15
headlines and four descriptions. These are then automatically combined when people are searching,
so different people can see different versions of your ad. They're all about automation,
so they also make use of Google's machine learning. Let's head to my demo account
to take a look at the differences between expanded text ads and responsive search ads...
Here we can see I have three ads in this ad group. There is a responsive search ad... And two
expanded text ads... It's a little bit hard to see the difference between them here, so I'm going to
click on the edit icon for one of the expanded text ads... And I'm going to select 'Edit'...
We can see that the expanded text ad includes a final URL, along with three headlines,
a display path and two description lines... And on the right, we can see a preview of the ad.
The headlines and description lines appear in the order we've entered them. Okay,
so now let's close this ad... And let's click the edit icon for the responsive search ad...
Scrolling down... We can see there are 15 headlines...
And at the very bottom, there are four description lines... So Google Ads will automatically combine
headlines and descriptions to create the ad someone sees when they're searching for the
keywords you're bidding on. If we look at the preview on the right, we can see one potential
combination of these elements... And clicking the arrows lets us preview other combinations...
Responsive search ads are made up of multiple elements that Google Ads will combine for us.
So responsive search ads can show headlines and descriptions in any order or combination.
While expanded text ads are always shown as you've written them in your account. You can still create
expanded text ads in Google Ads. And you will be able to create them up until the end of June 2022.
After Google's deadline, your expanded text ads will continue to run and you will be able to
pause and unpause them, but you won't be able to create new ones. So let's head back to my Google
Ads account and I'm going to show you how you can create expanded text ads until the deadline...
Let's close the responsive search ad... And click the plus sign to create a new ad...
And let's choose 'Responsive Search Ad'... At the top, we can then click the link that says
'Use Expanded Text Ads Instead'... Google shows us a message telling us we won't be able to create
new expanded text ads starting at the end of June 2022. Let's click 'Use Expanded Text Ads'...
And now you can create a new expanded text ad... You'll need to enter a final URL, headlines,
optional display path, and descriptions for your ad. When you're happy you can save your ad.
Since these expanded text ads will stop being available, I also want to show you how you can
create a responsive search ad to mimic a text ad. Let's head back to my account to take a look...
Let's click 'Cancel' for our expanded text ad...
And then click 'Yes'... Now let's click the plus sign... And choose 'Responsive Search Ad' again...
To create a responsive search ad that mimics a text ad we need to use the 'Pinning' option.
This lets us 'pin' (or save) headlines and descriptions to particular positions in our
ad. So take a moment to write three headlines... And remove any other headlines from the ad...
Now let's hover over the first headline... And on the right, you will see a small pin icon...
Let's click this... And for our first headline, let's choose the option to
only show it in the first position... We can now see there is a small blue pin icon
with the number one for our first headline. Now we can repeat this for our second headline...
This time choosing the second position... And we can do this again for our third headline...
And selecting the third position... Now when we preview the different combinations,
you will see that the headlines are always presented in the same order. However,
the descriptions are changing. So now we need to write two descriptions...
And remove the other two descriptions from the ad... We can then pin the first
description in the first position... And the second description in the second position...
Now the preview doesn't let us view the combinations, since there is only one version
of our ad. We've now mimicked a text ad with our responsive search ad. When you're happy click
'Save'... And we can now see our new ad... Google recommends having at least one responsive search
ad in each of your ad groups. I also recommend that you test at least one text ad against your
responsive search ad. You can do this by creating an expanded text ad as we covered previously
or by mimicking a text ad as we just saw. You can then compare their performance... I recommend
starting with metrics like click-through rate, conversions, and conversion rate. If you don't see
these metrics, then you can add them by selecting 'Columns'... And then 'Modify Columns'... You
can then browse through the different metrics and dimensions you can add... Or search at the top...
Since I already have conversions added, I'm going to close this... For the date range selected,
we can see that the responsive search ad at the top and the expanded text ad in the middle
have the highest click-through rates. We can then review conversions and conversion rate...
We might then decide to remove the ad at the bottoms, since it doesn't have a strong
click-through rate compared to the other two ads, and it hasn't lead to many conversions.
Since we just created a new ad, we can wait and then check back to see
how it's performing in a week or so. If you remove the under-performing ad
and don't have a new one yet, then take the time to create a new ad. You can review the way your
responsive search ad has been displayed to help inform the next ad you write.
To view the combinations, select 'View Asset Details' for any of your responsive search ads...
You can then click the 'Combinations' tab to see the number of impressions for each combination
of headlines and descriptions. Unfortunately, the reporting is really limited, but hopefully,
Google will add additional data in the future. Ideally, we would be able to see metrics like
clicks, click-through rate and conversion metrics in this report. Since we can't see those details,
I recommend looking at the top combinations and then using these as the basis of an ad text. For
example, you could mimic a text ad for your top combination using the method we covered
previously. When it comes to testing, I recommend having two or three ads in each of your ad groups.
Try testing a responsive search ad (where you write all 15 headlines and four descriptions)
with one or two text ads. Start by testing different messages and calls to action
before experimenting with smaller changes like punctuation and capitalization. Google recommends
combining responsive search ads with broad match keywords and an automated bidding strategy. This
might work for some accounts, but my feeling is that there are going to be smaller accounts where
this won't work well. So I recommend experimenting before applying this technique across all of your
campaigns and ad groups. In terms of testing ads, you can create new ad variations. To do this,
navigate to 'Ads'... Then click the plus sign... And choose 'Ad Variation'... This lets you test
changes to your responsive search ads, including headlines, descriptions, URLs and more...
And you also have the option of creating campaign experiments to test even more
changes to your campaigns... Google's announcement and recommendations for responsive search ads are
all focused on automation, so we should expect to see even more streamlined campaign management in
the future. Remember that you have plenty of time to prepare for the change to expanded text ads,
so take this as an opportunity to experiment with the different ad formats.
Start by reviewing the ads you currently have in your ad groups
and if you're not testing the different formats, now is a great time to start.
Are you running expanded text ads? Have you tried pinning elements in a responsive search ad? I
would love to know. Let me know in the comments below. To learn more about Google Ads, please take
a moment to watch my other videos and check out my courses. And if you found this video helpful,
then please like it so I know to make more videos like this one. I'll see you in the next video!