Responsive Search Ads Are Here to Stay – Are You Ready for the Update?

It's been a while since Google announced that starting from the 30th of June 2022, you'll no longer be able to create or edit expanded text ads and only use Responsive search ads.

You might be asking yourself the differences between a standard ad (expanded text ad) and a responsive ad or, perhaps, what notifications are? I've missed this!

Don't worry!

This article will go through the basics of responsive text ads.

I'll look at what they are, how they are different from standard text ads, and why it's good to start using them now rather than wait until 29th June!

So first things first.

What are Google responsive search ads?

Google's definition is:  

Responsive search ads (RSA's) allow you to create an ad that adapts to show more text and relevant messages to your customers.

Enter multiple headlines and descriptions when creating a responsive search ad. Over time, Google Ads automatically tests different combinations and learns which combinations perform best.

Responsive search ads may improve your campaign's performance by adapting your ad's content to match potential customers' search terms more closely.

How are they different from standard text ads?

As you will see above, you get the option to add multiple headlines and descriptions to your ad – up to 15 headlines, to be exact! Whereas in a standard text ad, you only get up to 3 headlines.

And descriptions? You get up to 4 of those babies in an expanded text ad instead of up to 2 within the standard text ad.

There's a limit of three enabled responsive search ads per ad group. I do not think there is a limit to how many standard text ads you can have in an ad group (up until the 30th June)

When building your RSA you get an ad strength indicator.

Google recommends having one responsive search ad per ad group with at least 'Good' or 'Excellent' ad strength.

So, why it's good to start using them now?

There are two good reasons you should start using them now (especially alongside your standard text ads?)

Lack of ad combination visibility

At the moment, Google only allows you to see a selction of the ad combination it shows and which combination got the most impressions (correct at time of writing this).

While impressions are helpful, they do not provide you with the whole picture. Google if you happen to be reading this please, please (pretty please) give us more information here 🙂

Finding a good ad copy strategy

You need to be careful that you do not dilute the ad copy message with lots of the same messaging within the headline.

And at the same time, work towards building up the ad strength that Google assigns each responsive search ad.

Final thoughts - It is time to start welcoming change?

Absolutely…

I am happy to admit that I was not a massive fan of Expanded text ads initially, but it was becoming clear that these ad types are the way Google wants to go. And we know in most cases, what Google wants, Google gets!

So, my advice would be to start embracing these ad types to discover how you can start making them work for your advertising goals. If you need any help on an ad hoc basis, why not check out my PPC Consultancy service.

Still hungry for some further reading?

Writing good ad copy that gets people clicking can be challenging. So, if you need a little boost in this area, why not check out my blog, How to Boost Your Writing Skills to Improve Ad Copy, where I provide some ad writing tips to help you learn how to write powerful ad copy and boost your business.