In 2016, Google shook the digital marketing world by announcing Expanded Text Ads (ETA), a new form of paid search advertisement, double the size of the longstanding Standard Text Ad. ETAs offered brands more space to describe their products and stand out from the competition – advertisers, for the most part, loved them.
Last month, just two years after releasing ETAs, Google announced the launch of an updated format. Advertisers can now create three 30-character headlines instead of two and two 90-character descriptions instead of one 80-character one. Together, that’s 300 available characters, nearly double what was available with the old ETAs. The added real estate is a major opportunity for talented search marketers.
Your full, 300-characters ads won’t display on every screen, however. Smartphone users will continue to see two headlines and one description, so fitting all essential information into that space will be key. The third headline and second description are opportunities to get creative, expand on your value proposition, and stand out from the rest of the ads on the search engine results page (SERP).
Of course, if you’re perfectly happy with your Standard Text Ads or existing ETAs, Google won’t stop displaying them, but you may have trouble attracting clicks when they appear beside larger, more descriptive ads. And, as always, expect Google to give preference to the newest face on the digital marketing scene. Standard Text Ads and traditional ETAs are both still thriving, but they won’t be around forever.
As a Google Premier Partner digital marketing agency with access to valuable insights on Google’s preferred practices, GrowthEngine Media ensures that your search engine marketing ads accomplish their intended goals. We’re currently working on adding the new ETA’s to all our clients campaigns – if you have questions or concerns about Google’s newest form of text ads, don’t hesitate to reach out for more information.
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