Google, known for constantly working towards upgrading its services has taken the initiative of embracing expanded text ads (ETAs) to help Adwords users incorporate more content to their advertisements compared to standard text ads. ETAs are supported by all AdWords tools.
A study recently conducted on 700 advertisers by Optmyzer revealed that Expanded Text Ads outperformed standard text ads. Here are some factors that prove why expanded ads are a better option compared to standard text ads.
- Larger Visibility:ETAs appear 47 percent more than Standard text ads when users search on Google.
- More Text, More Information: Instead of one headline field, ETAs will feature two headline fields. Now you do not have to be confined to only 25 characters per headline field as ETAs will enable you to add up to 2 headlines field of 30 characters each. Moreover, instead of having two 35-characters description lines, ETAs will feature one 80-character description line which will provide your online audiences with more information. Thus, now you can present your ad differently and also include additional information. In addition, in display URL that uses your final URL’s domain, you get two optional ”Path” fields (up to 15 characters each)
- ETAs perform better than standard text ads: According to the study conducted by Optmyzer median CTR of an ETA is 28% better than that of a standard text ad.
- Don’t stuff headlines with keywords: Dynamic Keyword Insertion does not yield fruitful results in ETAs. Instead of stuffing headlines with keywords, utilize the expanded character limit by creating a persuasive and rational statement using all the characters and space available in the description field.
- Optimize the headlines: Explore the various ways of presenting your headlines on both mobile and desktop format. Use the second headline to say something new instead of repeating the same message. You should also keep in mind that your first headline should include more significant information than your second headline. Though ETAs offer you with the liberty of working with more characters, you should be careful in choosing the words you include in your ads. The components that you desire to include in your advertisements should be picked cautiously as they play a key role in making your ads stand out.
3. Description: Since a longer description seems to be more advantageous, ensure you share as much information as possible with the 80 characters.
4. Compare Your Pricing before Preparing an Ad Copy: The key factor that motivates people to shop online is ‘price; therefore, it is imperative to plan a pricing strategy after comparing your pricing to that of your online or offline competitors. Based on this, you should prepare an ad copy for targeting the shoppers.
5. Upgrade your ad extensions: The role of ad extensions is to present additional information so as to enhance visibility besides adding value to your advertisements. With ETAs that allow you to add more information to the ads, you can utilize the opportunity to upgrade your extensions to ensure that there is no repetitive content.
6. Use Ad Customizer: If you want to create mobile-preferred ETAs, you can use Ad Customizer to allot different pieces of text to different advertisements by device type.
7. Use words that indicate a variety of items: Shoppers prefer to select from a wide array of products. Thus, you should carefully pick relevant words such as “huge selection”, “in stock now”, and so on along with standard keywords such as “apparels”, “accessories”, or “stilettos”.
8. Brand reputation: It is important to show that you have been into a specific business for a while. This can be done with the help of seller ratings, review extensions, and using wordings such as “since 1990”, or “in business since last 50 years.”
9. Mention Loyalty Programs in Your Ads: They play a key role in luring shoppers; thus, you should talk about your loyalty program in your ads.
Besides the above-mentioned factors, there are several aspects of a website and its pages that you should take into account. For example—
- Keep your site updated and intuitive so that it is easy to navigate.
- According to Google, the speed of your mobile site may impact your mobile rankings; thus, make sure that your mobile site has a decent speed and page load time so that your online audiences can surf the mobile pages of your site easily.
- Social media recommendations go a long way in promoting your brand. Thus, make sure to build up a strong fan base and accumulate recommendation on social media.
If your ETAs are not performing well, it is advisable to stick to standard text ads for now. However, you should take all possible measures to embrace ETAs as Google will stop supporting standard text ads from January 31, 2017.
