Andy Beohar says, “Expanded Text Ads (ETAs), announced in July of 2016, are considered by most industry observers to be the biggest change to Google Adwords in 16 years. Google’s new ETAs provide for an increase of 50 percent more ad space. Plus, ETAs pack in a few other exciting features as well. Numerous strategies and best practices have been developed over the years for the standard text ad format, but unfortunately, most of these don’t translate to expanded text ads. And, businesses are now having to scramble to update their ads before Google stops supporting the old format in January. The... [...]

Andy Taylor says, “At the recent SMX East conference in New York City, Google’s Jerry Dischler announced a number of paid search updates that should roll out in the near to immediate future. Among them, two in particular stand to expand the footprint of Remarketing Lists for Search Ads (RLSA). Here are the changes you need to know about, starting with the most impactful. RLSA membership duration expanded to 540 days Since beta testing all the way back in 2012, RLSA has been restricted to include only those users who visited an advertiser’s website within the past 180 days. This meant... [...]

Wesley Parker says, “New expanded text ads came out as part of Google’s latest changes in summer 2016 and will replace the old text format by January 31, 2017. The new ad format has given advertisers another 35 characters to display their offer in the headline and has increased the description from two lines of 35 characters to one line of 80 characters, giving advertisers more space to display their features, benefits and calls to action. But what does all of this mean for advertisers? 1. An increase in clickthrough rate From early tests WordStream has noticed that the clickthrough... [...]

Dave McIninch says, “Today, Google ends support for Converted Clicks in Google AdWords. Advertisers still using this metric in reports or for Target CPA bidding need to take a few steps to successfully migrate to the Conversions metrics instead. This article outlines how this change may affect you and what you need to do. What This Change Means Converted Clicks is a metric that came about in 2001 with the introduction of conversion tracking, and has lost much of its relevance since AdWords made updates to the Conversions column in 2015, at which point AdWords encouraged anyone still using... [...]

Dave McIninch says, “Today, Google ends support for Converted Clicks in Google AdWords. Advertisers still using this metric in reports or for Target CPA bidding need to take a few steps to successfully migrate to the Conversions metrics instead. This article outlines how this change may affect you and what you need to do. What This Change Means Converted Clicks is a metric that came about in 2001 with the introduction of conversion tracking, and has lost much of its relevance since AdWords made updates to the Conversions column in 2015, at which point AdWords encouraged anyone still using... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “Google introduced a new format for YouTube TrueView video ads on Wednesday: TrueView for action. Sridhar Ramaswamy, SVP of ads and commerce at Google, made the announcement at the DMEXCO conference in Germany on Wednesday. The new ad format follows other goal-driven TrueView formats — TrueView for app promotion and TrueView for shopping — designed to move video advertising on YouTube beyond general branding. Ramaswamy said Google will test TrueView for action ads throughout the year. A Google spokesperson says the reporting and user experience are being fine-tuned,... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, ” Google hasn’t made it official, but the company has been telling some customers that there is a new minimum for Seller Ratings extensions to display in AdWords ads. Businesses must accumulate at least 150 reviews in the past 12 months, up from just 30. Seller Ratings extensions show automatically in AdWords ads when certain criteria are met. The policy has not been updated online yet, but according to at least one agency, the change is already affecting customers in many markets, including the UK, US and EU“. Google now requires more reviews for Seller Ratings... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “Google has removed the policy of limiting AdSense ads to three ads per page. The move can largely be seen as a response to mobile, on which pages have turned into never-ending streams and a specific ads-per-page policy doesn’t make much sense. A Google spokesperson confirmed the update to Marketing Land: “We’re always fine tuning our policies to make sure they reflect the current environment. In one recent change, we stopped limiting the number of AdSense ads that could appear on a page and instead now look at the overall balance of content and ads on a page.... [...]

Andy Taylor says, “Since July 26, 2016, expanded text ads (ETAs) have been live in AdWords. This new ad format, which was launched with mobile users in mind, allows advertisers to create longer text ads with two headlines of up to 30 characters each and a single 80-character description line. Advertisers have been testing the new format alongside standard text ads, and dozens of analyses looking at click-through rate (CTR) for standard vs. expanded text ads have been published across the industry, with varying levels of detail. (Google’s July announcement also came with its own assortment... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “Google is testing a new overview in the Opportunities tab in AdWords that gives advertisers an “Account Health Score for Search.” The feature was spotted and first reported by the team at Receptional, a UK-based digital marketing agency. As Receptional points out, the idea is similar to that of WordStream’s AdWords Grader, showing an overall score and a more detailed assessment. Clicking on the View Campaigns button brings up campaign overview with Health Scores listed for each and links to recommendations“. Google tests showing an overall Health Score for... [...]