It’s the End of Expanded Text Ads. What’s Next?

On June 30, 2022, Google Ads officially sunset Expanded Text Ads in favor of Responsive Search Ads. This represents a major shift to allowing Google more discretion over what ad copy to serve to your targeted audience.

So how should advertisers move forward and what should they know in this new age of less control?

Goodbye ETAs 🥲

Keep Running ETAs While You Can

It’s important to emphasize that ETAs will still run – you just can’t create new or edit existing ETAs.

Until performance gives you a reason to pause them, ETAs are still worth running. Once you feel that enough data has been collected, you can then analyze performance of your ETA headlines and descriptions to inform messaging for new RSAs.

For example: let’s say you started testing new Expanded Text Ads in May.

• In August, you conduct an ad copy analysis to identify top-performing headlines and descriptions.
• In September, you create RSAs using the best description and top three headlines from your ETAs as a foundation.
• In October, you fill out the other RSA assets based on the keywords targeted in each ad group, new messaging themes to test, calls-to-action, etc.

Keep in mind that ETAs will likely drive fewer impressions than Responsive Search Ads, as Google heavily favors serving RSAs.

Stick to 2 Variations per Ad Group

Google historically recommended 3-5 ads per ad group, but how does that change with ETAs going away?

According to recent studies by Frederick Vallaeys and Optmyzr, two RSAs per ad group is the sweet spot.

• While running one RSA per ad group allows you to test more ad copy than a traditional ETA, there still might not be space for all of the headlines/descriptions you want to try.
• Keep in mind that RSAs don’t represent a single ad. Instead, Google views them as an “ad testing environment” that can serve over 40,000 combinations, which makes it difficult for the algorithm to identify top performers if more than 3 are active.

To differentiate between RSA variations and allow for additional testing, segment them by messaging themes. For example:

• Responsive Search Ad A
  • Headlines and descriptions focused on driving conversions or highlighting promotions/deals
  • CTAs – Contact Us Today, Get Started for Free
• Responsive Search Ad B
  • Headlines and descriptions focused on common paint points or specific use cases
  • CTA – Learn More

• RSA #1 has all headlines and descriptions unpinned
• RSA #2 has headlines and/or descriptions pinned to specific locations

Analyzing Performance Will Change

One of the biggest complaints about Responsive Search Ads (and personally my biggest issue with this switch), is the lack of data for specific headlines and descriptions.

Yes, we can see clicks, conversions, clickthrough rate, etc. for the ad as a whole. But if you want to know which RSA headline between “Call Us Today” or “Speak to an Expert” performed better, there is currently no way to get that same level of insight.

Hopefully Google will eventually provide this data, but until then we will have to rely on some workarounds and assumptions:

• Option 1: look at impressions, which is the only asset-specific data you have access to.
  • The assumption here is that if a headline/description has high impressions, that means Google may view it as a top performer because it’s served more often.
• Option 2: review the Combinations report, which shows the combination of headlines and descriptions served together. The combos are listed in order of most impressions to least.
  • The assumption here is that if you see the same messaging appear in a lot of different ad combinations (ex: “Call Us Today” shows more frequently than “Speak to an Expert”), it may be because Google views it as a top-performer and serves it more frequently.

Analyzing performance between different messaging themes can also be done using the Experiments > Ad Variations tool in Google Ads. This tells you when there are statistically significant results as well.

You Still Have Control

You can still basically create Expanded Text Ads by pinning headlines and descriptions in your Responsive Search Ads.

Google prefers all assets be unpinned so they can match to as many searches as possible, but as long as you understand that and are comfortable with getting fewer impressions than an unpinned RSA, you have control over how your ads are displayed.

Two examples of how to do this:

• You have a client in the banking industry, and every ad needs to include “FDIC Insured”
  • Enter three headlines and two descriptions into the RSA, mentioning “FDIC Insured” where necessary
  • Pin all of them in the positions you’d like them to appear
  • Save the ad; it will now run it as a mock-ETA
• You’re running a Brand campaign and want to make sure that your ad shows in a specific order every time
  • Enter your brand name, any other branded variations, and pin them all to position 1
  • Enter messaging around pain points, use cases, general information, etc. and pin them all to position 2
  • Enter Calls to Action and pin them all to position 3
  • Save the ad; moving forward it will only serve branded terms in H1, information in H2, and CTAs in H3

Example of Mock ETA

Example of Headline Theme Pinning

Summary

This change isn’t ideal for advertisers, but it’s the next iteration of Google’s shift to automation and we don’t have a choice but to adapt. There are still a number of ways for us to stay in control, optimize our ads, and deliver great results with the methods outlined above.