PPC - Pay Per Click Management

If you are aware of what is currently happening in the online advertising world, you must have heard that Google made an announcement in September 2021, that it would be terminating the expanded text ads in June 2022.

If you are an online advertiser, you should leverage on the few months that it would still be available and prepare ahead.

In this article, we would provide you with 5 important things you must do before expanded text ads go away.

So, let’s dive in real quick!

1. Try out ETA message combinations and develop staged ETAs that you can utilize later

Trying out ETA message combinations is something you should do now if you have always wanted to run a particular ad copy test. Let ad messaging be the first thing you should do and also put ETAs in place so you can view all the performance metrics and also monitor the combinations, descriptions, and headlines that are better.

Another thing you should know is that, by June 30th, 2022, you won’t be able to develop new or edit expanded text ads but former expanded text ads will not stop running, although you can decide to either turn them on or off.

So, it would be great if you upload ads now that you want to test in the future. You can choose to pause them for now but keep them waiting for the future test.

2. Get Responsive Search Ads (RSA) activated immediately

According to Google, you should get a minimum of one responsive search ad activated in each ad group of your account. After expanded text ads go away, RSA would become the new norm in Google Ads accounts, so you should get accustomed to using it now, instead of waiting till June 2022 when expanded text ads go get terminated.

3. Create RSA benchmarks

If you have noticed, most times, RSAs get more click-through rates than ETAs. But conversion performance differs largely. While certain accounts perform better with RSAs, others don’t.

You should start getting RSAs activated in all the ad groups of every search campaign in your accounts immediately so that you begin to create RSA benchmarks for every account.

4. Pinning should be done strategically

RSA has a feature where you can choose to pin some descriptions and headlines. Usually, ads have two headlines and one description at least, but Google can increase them to three headlines and two descriptions, but they cannot go beyond that. Note the following as regards this feature:

Don’t forget to utilize pinning to enable a  CTA in each ad. You don’t have to make each description or headline to carry a call to action but each ad should have a call to action.

Feel free to pin a lot of components on the same spot. You can pin some of your headline variants that are quite similar. This is a perfect way of handling calls-to-action headlines.

Also, ensure you pin all your ad components to placement but if you can’t, do well to leave certain descriptions or headlines open so that Google can automatically develop an ad copy for you.

5. Comprehend RSA reporting restrictions

RSA reporting restrictions are quite different from that of ETA.  Take your time to understand RSA reporting restrictions properly.

Conclusion

Prepare ahead for the termination of the Expanded Text Ads (ETA) whether you are like the idea or not. Utilize the time you have left wisely so that your account is in a great position. Also, use the time you have left to iterate, learn, and test so that you can have an edge over your competitors when the termination happens.