Both Google and Bing are beginning to allow expanded paid placement ads across their Google Ads and Bing Ads platforms respectfully. A little over two years ago Google led the charge by increasing the number of characters that were allowed in ads. This led to a 2 headline and 1 description format that most everyone is familiar with when they use these search engines.
Fast forward to present, and now Google has announced expansion of the ads to 3 headlines and 2 descriptions. Bing, not to be left behind, has recently added the same abilities in their platform. See what this now can look like below.
Clutter?
So you might be wondering, with these bigger ads, won’t searching on Google/Bing become a muddled experience with huge blocks of text ads all over? Well, the answer isn’t entirely known, but probably not. Google will not always show all 3 headlines and both descriptions on devices that cannot fit them, such as smaller smartphones. Also, they are not killing off the older formatted ads, those are here to stay, so it is likely that they will cycle in the 3 headline ads in moderation when their search algorithm feels it is warranted.
How does this affect my business?
Finally, lets discuss the positives of this move. Ultimately having the ability to create more headlines and more description space will be great for advertisers. The more space that we are afforded, the better job we can do at describing what makes your product/service great and hopefully drive more clicks. Furthermore, the larger adds tend to perform better, “Google found these larger ads received 15% more clicks than other ad formats” (Irvine, 2018).
Time will tell how these new formatted ads perform over the older formats. Here at Web-Kare, we’ll be testing out the new formats along with the older ones to find out which format works best for our clients.
Sources:
Irvine, M. (2018, August 22). Google Expands Your Search Ads AGAIN! What You Need to Know. Retrieved November 29, 2018, from https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2018/08/22/new-expanded-text-ads