Can you benefit from Google's new Expanded Text Ads Update?

Further to February’s announcement by Google that they were removing ads from the right hand rail, the internet giant has now announced plans to roll out a new format for text ads. Given the title of Expanded Text Ads, this new format allows for longer headlines without truncating any of the description copy, allowing advertisers to make use of all that freed up real estate on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP).

Until now, only ads served in the top 3 positions were able to display longer headlines when the first line ended with a punctuation mark, however, due to the right hand ads no longer being there, they can now roll this out across the board for any ad in any position on any device – wow!

The main feature of this test is that the new ad format will give advertisers the double headline, whilst still allowing them to retain the 70 character limit for their description text, meaning the total character count will now be up to 80.

This means that in addition to the already impressive suite of ad extensions available, there will be even more opportunity for advertisers to entice users to click with text relating to offers, discounts and instant information.

Take a look at the new display below:

Ad Testing & Measurement

We are sure that PPC Managers all over the world will now be planning to test this new ad format with the aim of maximising their PPC performance using this new ad format, which in turn could increase the number of calls into the business. One key factor with testing is the measurement of that testing:

• Have you increased traffic to the business?
• Have you increased leads/calls to the business?
• Have you improved your Return on Investment?

Display URL’s

The more observant amongst you will have noticed there will also be changes to the format of Display URL’s as part of this closed beta. You will now be able to append Display URL’s with two paths to the domain name, meaning advertisers can make these even more specific to the search term. The example given shows these paths to be /NewYorkCity and /Budget.

The AdWords interface will be updated so extra fields can account for this additional copy.

With these changes to the Paid Search landscape afoot, if your PPC activity is aimed at driving phone calls, then contact Infinity today to find out how we can help you understand the online touch points with your brand and those which lead to phone calls in to your business.