Over the past few years, many advertisers have experimented with Google’s expanded text ads, or ETAs. If you are not familiar with these ads, they are exactly what the name suggests: Ads that appear in Google search results but provide advertisers with more expansive options for including text. Specifically, ETAs allow advertisers to create up to three headlines (with up to 30 characters each) and two descriptions (up to 90 characters each). Additionally, these ads can include a display URL.

Whether you are a fan, a detractor, or completely uninitiated with expanded text ads, you should know that, pretty soon, they will be a thing of the past. According to a recent Google announcement, ETAs are being phased out. Advertisers will not be able to create new ETAs or edit existing ones, beginning in June 2022.

Sylvanus Bent, who serves as the Product Manager for Google Ads, explains what’s next: “Your existing expanded text ads will continue to serve alongside responsive search ads, and you’ll still see reports on their performance going forward. Additionally, you’ll be able to pause and resume your expanded text ads or remove them if needed. You’ll also still be able to create and edit call ads and Dynamic Search Ads.” You can read the full announcement from Google Support.

Why the Change?

It’s natural to wonder why Google would phase out this long-running feature, potentially disrupting a number of existing ad strategies. The answer has everything to do with the company’s continued push toward automation.

In the announcement heralding the end of ETAs, Google notes that about 15 percent of all daily searches are brand new search queries… things that people have never searched for before. To keep pace with these new searches, and to ensure that search engine users continue to see relevant results and advertisements, Google is leaning more and more heavily on automation.

To that end, Google is pushing for more and more advertisers to use responsive search ads (RSAs). In fact, Google encourages advertisers to start shifting their strategy away from ETAs and toward RSAs sooner rather than later.

Shifting Toward RSAs

So what are RSAs? These represent Google’s largest and most flexible advertising format. RSAs allow the advertiser to provide multiple headlines and descriptions, which the Google algorithms then mix and match based on search queries. (Notably, Google allows you to have up to 15 headlines and four descriptions, which means a wider range of permutations than what you’d get from ETAs.)

The goal of RSAs is to ensure that each search engine user sees the most relevant ad content, something that ultimately benefits the advertiser, as well. RSAs accomplish all of this through a heavy reliance on machine learning and AI, which makes them a more forward-thinking and nimbler alternative to ETAs, at least in theory.

RSAs have been around since 2018, and it’s clear that they represent the future of Google Ads. For advertisers who need to transition from ETAs to RSAs, here is what Google recommends:

• Repurpose the content from any high-performing ETAs, with a renewed focus on Ad strength.
• Make sure you pin headlines/descriptions to specific positions in your RSAs.
• Evaluate campaign success on the basis of incremental impressions, clicks, and conversions.

Google’s engineers say that there should be ample time for advertisers to make the necessary adjustments, and to prepare for a post-ETA ad landscape.

Further Recommendations from enCOMPASS

At enCOMPASS, our general guidance to advertisers would be to start testing ETA components in RSAs, figuring out what works and what doesn’t before ETAs are ultimately sunsetted. Note that, when you switch from ETAs to RSAs, your conversion rates might be lower but they might also be more cost-effective. Be sure to analyze the data carefully and track results over a decent span of time; thankfully, Google has provided us all a few months to make the necessary adjustments. We believe that RSAs can be very effective ways for advertisers to connect with target search users, and that they can ultimately represent an improvement over ETAs.

If you’re one of our clients, we want you to know that we’re on top of this, and that we have you covered. At enCOMPASS, we are always monitoring the latest developments at Google and adjusting our strategies accordingly. We’ve suspected that the writing was on the wall for expanded text ads, and we’ve made the necessary steps to pivot. Our clients won’t be adversely affected by this change.

Questions About the Future of Ads?

At enCOMPASS, we’re committed to staying on top of the latest Google developments so that our clients are never caught off-guard. And, we’re always happy to talk. If you have any further questions about the changing Google Ads landscape, feel free to contact us at any time.