Five Ways to Improve Your AdWords Expanded Text Ads

Much has already been said about Expanded Text Ads (ETA) which began rolling out July 26 and will be complete by October 26. Expanded Text Ads are really different from “classic” AdWords text ads we’ve known for 15 years. Instead of one 25-character headline, you now have two headlines with 30 characters. Instead of two 35-character description lines, you now have one 80-character description line. Here are five ways to improve your AdWords Expanded Text Ads now.

1. Focus on Headlines, Especially Headline #1

Headline #1 is the most important element of Expanded Text Ads to grab your user’s attentions. Another reason is you don’t have total control over how Google will show the second headline. Both headlines could appear on the same line, but the second headline might appear after a line break, or the Google could even truncate your second headline depending upon the user’s device, and their screen size.

2. Battle Test Your New Copy

Some of your current ads may have been performing excellent and have come after going through the A/B testing over the time. Eliminating these old ads at once should not be something we advise. Instead, introduce and test your new ads to see how they perform. You need to transition away from your old ads in a smart, controlled way. 

3. Break up With Dynamic Keyword Insertion

Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI) still works with Expanded Text Ads, but using it in your headline and description is the old way of doing things. Instead, we suggest you to identify your most popular keywords and plug them into the path fields, to ensure they’re truly catered toward your searchers’ needs. You can still tie a keyword in URL.

4. Use Emotional Triggers

A great ad headline will help improve your click-through rate (CTR). Increasing your CTR will raise your Quality Score, which also leads to higher conversion rates, higher impression share, and lower CPCs.

These nine emotional triggers have been proven to improve your ad headline to make people click on them:

Laughter

Amusement

Curiosity

Awe

Anger

Fear

Joy

Empathy

Sadness  

Think like a journalist or a headline writer for a publication use some elements to spice up your Expanded Text Ad headline.

5. Write Ads That Work for All Devices

Expanded Text Ads have no device preference. Users will see the same message, whether they’re on desktop, mobile, or tablet. So, ignore about those mobile-preferred ads which we talked about in the past. When writing your ads, just think about the context of the user. Make sure your offer and call-to-action are relevant.