Google to Phase Out Expanded Text Ads

ETA’s or Expanded Text Ads will be phased out by June 2022, this is the latest move that Google is making to push automation through their ad products.

A new announcement by Google explains that advertisers will no longer be able to edit or create new and existing ETA’s in Google Ads. The existing ETA’s will continue to operate alongside responsive search ads and you will still be able to see reports on their performance. You will also be able to pause and resume your expanded text ads as well as remove them.

Why is Google making this change?

The way we search online is evolving rapidly with 15% of daily search queries being entirely new. Consumer trends are changing and it’s important that we can connect with online businesses through relevant advertisements.

To keep up with evolving online trends it is concluded that RSA’s (Responsive Search Ads) are best fit to combine the creativity of the advertiser with the power of machine learning to help you push the most relevant ads forward to the relevant target audience.
RSA’s don’t give advertisers the control that ETA’s offer. The phasing out of ETA’s means that advertisers are now losing direct control over their ad accounts and are having to pave the way for a new relationship with Google Ads, working alongside the Google Ad machine learning and AI.

How can you prepare for this change?

To prepare for the up-and-coming changes, it’s highly recommended that you have at least one responsive search ad in every ad group in your search campaigns by the end of June 2022. You can repurpose your expanded text ads content for your responsive search ads in the following ways:

• Pin your headlines or descriptions to specific positions in your RSA’s
• Repurpose high-performing content from your ETA’s and focus on ad strength
• Evaluate the success of your ads based on clicks, impressions, and conversions

Frederick Vallaeys, Cofounder of Optmyzr for Search Engine Land commented on the following:

“If you’re in an industry where your ad must contain certain pieces of text in very specific locations, pin away! But if it’s not required, we found that attempting to control the machine by telling it what text to pin to certain ad positions was usually detrimental to results.”

For more information on Google Ads, get in touch to speak with one of our paid marketing strategists.