Text ads are an essential part of Google search campaigns. Over the past years, Google has offered a number of different text ads formats for brands to choose from. However, with this breakthrough algorithm feature, Google is planning to make a single and default text ad format called Responsive Search Ads for relevant search results. In the coming future, Responsive Search Ads are likely to be the new default text ads option that can be created and edited in the standard search campaigns. 

As a matter of fact, advertisers can still use expanded text ads for time being until Responsive search ads completely take over the text ad format campaigns. This automatic text ad campaign will first test and learn several different combinations then put the best combination together for your ad headlines and descriptions. In this article, we have covered vital information about responsive search ads that will help you build efficient SEO strategies.

What are responsive search ads (RSA)?

In simple language, it is an advertisement that has got many versions. It has its own mind to interpret any situation for different audiences in order to make the advertisement more effective in every situation. Responsive search ads are an innovative form of advertising which allows marketers to come up with multiple descriptions and headlines for their ads. You can create fifteen titles and four descriptions at once. The multiple combinations of headlines and descriptions help to choose which ones are the most effective.

Back in 2018 Google rolled out Responsive Search Ads as a new text ad format that uses machine learning to deliver unique headlines to grab attention which results in increased traffic in your web pages. Machine learning is one of the finest tools to help you achieve higher click rates with improved conversion rates in your business websites.

Let me make you understand through some math around it. As responsive ads provide you with the liberty to add four titles and fifteen descriptions.  The permutations of four and fifteen are 32,670. It will show you 32,760 different versions of the same ad in several instances. At last, the search engine will find the most effective title and description combination to promote your business with the very ad.

 With Responsive search ads, it has become a lot easier to manage text-based ads. Each piece of the ad is viewed as an“asset”. These assets are matched by Google to find the best combination for your campaign. This way Responsive Search Ads take away a majority partition of your work to bring dynamic changes based on user search queries. Furthermore, this tool also allows you to bring performance-driven changes to your organization by spending more time framing innovative strategies for your business. 

Pros & Cons of RSA

With the help of the Responsive Search Ads feature, Google takes the front seat to manage and design significant changes or adjustments required to be made in your headline and description based on the search query. Therefore you will not have to spend a significant amount of time testing and verifying your ads. Machine learning technology optimizes your text ad campaign on behalf of you to create relevant and reliable content. 

However, with so many benefits in hand RSA also comes with some disadvantages. You don’t generally get access to fully control what will show on the text ads and one missing piece of information can change the whole meaning of your search ads. In addition, it usually takes more time to build out as you need to pin your headlines and descriptions to a certain position.  If not, then they are likely to get shuffled to different positions. They also require more time set up so that each headline makes sense on its own, irrespective of what combination is used to the content.   

What are Expanded text ads? 

An expanded text ad allows you to create three headlines, two descriptions, and a display URL. This feature helps you to share additional information with the searchers. It results in a click from a member of your target audience.

In expanded ads, you can use three 30 character headlines and two 90-character descriptions. Most of the companies use two 15 character path fields in the display URL for their benefit.

You can have a greater sense of control over your ad content with Expanded text ads compared to the Responsive search ads. Expanded text ads give you an opportunity to choose headlines and descriptions for your campaigns that will be displayed for a  keyword. This tool also allows you to choose combinations for your ad content that you believe have more relevance. However, this tool might not be an ideal option for industries that are not interested in doing things manually or have limited time to spend on text ad formats. 

Expanded text ad features were designed to boost and maximize brands presence. The best benefit is it enhances the performance of mobile search results in order to obtain more clicks and leads on your website. With the growth in SEO Sydney trends, this text ads tool has become outdated in the market. Thus expanded text ads are to be dropped soon by Google in the coming year When compared to Responsive search ads, expanded text ads offer less flexibility and content space on ad descriptions. 

Should you use Expanded text ads or RSA? 

Which test ad to use mainly depends on the needs of your business. Both expanded text ads and responsive search ads offer solutions to provide relevance in your campaign. If you wish to opt for an ad campaign that offers the same headline for all ads, irrespective of the product and services mentioned in each ad, then you must lean more towards expanded text ads. On the other hand, if you wish to run an all-inclusive ad campaign, managed by Google, then Responsive Search Ads can be the ultimate choice for your business. 

As mentioned above, with expanded text ads you get access to full control over things that are to be added or not in your ad headlines and description, whereas with responsive search ads you don’t get a great sense of control as everything is managed by a machine learning tool. Regardless of which tool you use Google ensures to provide you with regular feedback to help you improve the quality of your ad campaign. 

What are the new changes for advertisers? 

As for now, Google plans to continue supporting Expanded Text Ads so that advertisers can still create ads without any hindrance. The only change advertisers will come across is the default feature to create ads. They might have to search a lot for expanded text ads tools, whereas responsive search ads will be the default ad creating tool on Google. This way the update will not bring huge impacts on the way ads is served. 

 If you are still unsure which ad tool will be best for your business, it is recommended to first test your ads with both options to determine which tool works best for your business.