Expanded Text Ads: rewriting your AdWords account in 2016

The right side is gone. Since February 2016 desktop results show up to four text ads above the organic results and three below, with none in the right column, except for Shopping ads and the Knowledge Panel. Desktop now looks like mobile. The visible consequences in most accounts: fewer total impressions on desktop, higher average CPCs for positions three and four, and a sharper gap between being in the top block and not being there. Many advertisers have seen CPC increases of 10 to 25 percent on competitive terms since the spring.

Expanded Text Ads. The new format replaces the old 25-35-35 structure with two 30-character headlines, one 80-character description line and a display URL built from your final URL's domain plus two optional 15-character path fields. That is roughly 47 percent more room. It was designed for mobile screens, where ads now get the majority of clicks in most consumer categories.

Device bid adjustments. Announced alongside, so you can now set separate bid adjustments for mobile, desktop and tablet, which means the "enhanced campaigns" compromise of 2013 is finally over. This is relevant because the new copy and the new bids should be reviewed together.

Put the three together and the message is simple: fewer ad slots, bigger ads, more control. Accounts that rewrite well will take share from those that let it ride.

Treat this as a project with a deadline, not a background task. For an account with 200 ad groups, a competent rewrite takes 20 to 40 hours; most of that is deciding what to say in headline two.

1. Export everything. Pull all active ads with impressions, clicks, CTR and conversion rate for the last 90 days. Sort by spend. Start at the top.
2. Identify the current winner per ad group. That is your control. Keep it running.
3. Write headline one from the keyword. The thing the person typed, in the words they typed it. Nothing clever.
4. Use headline two for the reason to click. A specific benefit, offer, number or differentiator: "Free Shipping Over $50", "Licensed Since 1994", "Same-Day Quotes". This is the field that decides whether the format wins for you.
5. Make the description earn the 80 characters. Proof, details and a call to action. Avoid repeating headline two.
6. Fill both path fields. "/Running-Shoes/Womens" tells the user where they are going. Paths do not have to be real directories.
7. Check the landing page. If headline two promises an offer, the page must show it above the fold. Expanded copy exposes weak pages.
8. Upload in bulk with AdWords Editor, which now supports the new format, and label every new ad "ETA-Aug16" or similar so you can report on the batch.
9. Set rotation to "rotate indefinitely" or "rotate evenly" during the test window.
10. Review ad extensions. Sitelinks, callouts and structured snippets still show with expanded ads, but copy that repeats a callout is wasted space. Rewrite the extensions after the ads.

• Specifics beat adjectives. "Installed in 48 Hours" beats "Fast, Reliable Service" in nearly every test we have run.
• Headline two is not a slogan. It is the second half of the pitch.
• Keep the dash in mind. The two headlines render separated by a hyphen on one line on desktop and may wrap on mobile. Read them aloud together.
• Do not stuff the keyword into every field. Once in headline one, maybe once in the path. Google already bolds matched terms.
• One idea per description. 80 characters is still short.
• Write for mobile first. Check the mobile preview before saving.
• Respect the policies. Excessive capitalization, exclamation marks in headlines and symbols are still disapproved, and the review queue is slow during the migration.

Google's beta reported CTR lifts of up to 20 percent, and some agencies have claimed more. Across typical US accounts the early results are more mixed: brand terms and tightly themed ad groups often see 15 to 25 percent higher CTR, broad generic terms see 0 to 10 percent, and a minority of ad groups see the old ad keep winning. Conversion rate is usually flat; you are buying more clicks at a similar quality, not better clicks.

Give each test enough data. A reasonable rule is at least a few hundred impressions and 30 or so clicks per ad before calling it, longer for low-volume groups. Judge on conversions per impression where you have enough of them, and on CTR where you do not. Pause the loser, write a new challenger, repeat.

Watch the auction, too. With right-side ads gone, average position matters less than impression share in the top block. The "top vs. other" segment in reports is the one to track this fall.

• Padding to the limit. Longer is not the point; relevant is. Ads that fill every character with repetition test worse than tight ones.
• Leaving standard ads as the only ad in an ad group past October 26, which locks the group out of iteration.
• Pausing all standard ads on day one without a test, then losing the groups where the old copy was better.
• Forgetting the display URL change. The domain is pulled from the final URL, so vanity display URLs on a different domain no longer work.
• Ignoring device bid adjustments. The copy project and the bid project should be one review.
• Landing pages that do not match the new promise. The ad got better; the page did not; Quality Score catches up with you.

We treat a format change as a chance to rebuild the account around the business, not just to translate old copy into new fields.

Discover. Audit the account by spend, map ad groups to products and margins, and read the search terms report to learn the words customers actually use. Check landing pages alongside, because performance marketing and web are one problem.

Plan. A rewrite schedule by priority, copy frameworks per product line that reflect the brand's positioning, a test design with rotation settings and decision rules, and a device bid review.

Build. Write and upload in bulk with labels, update extensions, fix or build landing pages where the promise changed, and set up reporting that compares the labeled batch to the control.

Improve. Two to four week review cycles through the fall, pausing losers, writing challengers, and reallocating budget toward the ad groups where the top block is now affordable.

A representative engagement is our performance marketing work, where an account built up over several years was rewritten product line by product line, with headline two tied to each line's real differentiator and landing pages revised to match. The gains came less from the longer format than from the discipline of restating what each ad group was for and testing against a proper control.