For paid search advertisers, there is one mantra we quietly repeat to ourselves every day, “25-35-35”. An almost instant way to tell if someone has ever worked as a PPC analyst, it refers to the 25-character headline and 35-character description line limits for text ads on Adwords. Soon however, Google will be changing the format of text ads, making a few PPC specialist’s 25-35-35 tattoos a bit more regrettable.
In an attempt to give search advertiser’s more space to work with and to push to a more mobile friendly format, text ads in Adwords will now follow a 30-30-80 format. That is, two 30-character headlines, and an 80-character description line. This change increases the character limit by 47% while offering easier access to extended headlines and more opportunity for compelling exposition of value.
This change is part of the larger trend by Google to unify the user experience on search between desktop, mobile and tablet. Earlier this year Google removed text ads from the sidebar of the search results which made room for larger ads.
For search advertisers, this shift opens many doors for copy generation. Currently, to get a double length headline, the first description line has to be a complete sentence, ending with hard-stop punctuation. Many advertisers utilize this technique, sacrificing a description line and a character from the new headline in the process. Now with a guaranteed longer headline and full description text, advertisers will be able to create a wider variety of copy for testing, including more complex or unique offers.
Expanded Text Ads are scheduled for roll-out later this year. We’ve already started writing new copy so we’re ready to test the new format the moment it goes live. Make sure you’re ready too!
See Google’s blog post on the subject here: https://adwords.googleblog.com/2016/05/ads-and-analytics-innovations-for-a-mobile-first-world.html
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