Get Ready For Responsive Search Ads

• Ad Grants
• 22. 06. 2022

What changes?

If you are a part of the Google Ads environment you may have noticed that every so often, Google tries to innovate it, not only to keep up with the ever-rising customer expectations but also to provide a better user experience. As a result, starting June 30, 2022, Google will be sunsetting the expanded text ads – ETAs and replacing them with a different type of ad format. Responsive Search Ads – RSAs.

What does this mean for you?

• You won’t be able to create new or edit existing expanded text ads
• ETAs will continue to run & the reports on their performance will be accessible to you
• You’ll still be able to enable, pause or remove them

What is the difference between ETAs & RSAs?

RSAs are an innovative form of advertising built with machine learning in mind. While ETAs allowed marketers to create 3 headlines and 2 descriptions per ad, RSAs enable advertisers to create as many as 15 headlines and 4 descriptions leaving the number of characters unchanged.

Example of expanded text ad

As Google stated, ”Responsive Search Ads automatically identify the best combination of headlines and descriptions to deliver the right ad to the right person.” This combination may be based on the user, search, or other variables.

Example of responsive search ad

Responsive Search Ads benefits

1. Enhanced personalization thus better performance

According to more than 50% of marketers, who have been testing RSAs since they were originally introduced in 2018, along with the ETAs, they received up to 10% more clicks and conversions thanks to personalization in their ads.

2. Mobile Ads Optimization

RSAs help you design “more flexible ads that adapt to device widths, giving you more room to share your message with potential customers.“ As a result, your CTR (Click-through-rate) will eventually increase.

3. Easier campaign management

RSAs bring you the possibility to test a wide variety of headlines or descriptions without having way too many ads. Ad copy testing is automated and the system pushes the best performing ad variant the most.

Our recommendations

RSAs tend to outperform ETAs in most Ad Grants accounts we manage. They usually generate more impressions and higher click-through-rate, which helps Ad Grants accounts maintain compliance with program terms. We recommend keeping well-performing ETAs in and adding new RSAs primarily composed of successful headlines and description lines taken from ETAs.

When these new RSAs generate enough data, Google will give you suggestions on which text lines work well, what can be improved and which popular keywords should be added.

We recommend the following:

• Implement Google’s suggestions
• Use as many texts as possible
• Test various call-to-actions and landing pages
• Use all relevant ad extensions
• Use popular keywords in ad texts
• Follow all editorial guidelines to avoid ad disapproval
• Make sure each text makes sense on its own. Keep in mind that the order of the text elements can change. Texts can be pinned to a certain position.
• Use at least 1 RSA in every ad group. Google no longer requires 2 ads per ad group (one of the compliance requirements). 1 RSA per ad group is enough to achieve compliance.

Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions about new ad formats. We offer free Ad Grants consultation and account audits.