People expect information right at their fingertips, whether it’s locating the nearest burger joint or booking a flight. And they’re searching for all this information on small screens -- sometimes as narrow as 4 inches. This means that mobile ads must make every character count.
Today, we are announcing an improvement to the way ads look on smartphones to make it easier and faster for consumers to find things they are searching for, while on the go. Starting on October 15, 2014, your
ad extensions may show instead of the second line of ad text (
description line 2) on your mobile search ads. Description line 2 may or may not show, depending on how well it’s expected to perform. These improvements are designed to show more relevant and useful information to your customers. Many advertisers have already optimized their ad text in a way that’s updated for
longer headlines in keeping with our
ads best practices, so no action is required in many cases.
Highlighting the information that matters most to your mobile customers
By showing ad extensions in this more prominent location, consumers will have easier access to information about your business, like your location and product offerings. Advertisers will see improved ad performance because you’ll be able to:
- Highlight featured products and services in a more pronounced way using callouts
- Provide useful and timely local information with location extensions
- Take customers to relevant pages on your site, like to the sale or promotion page, with sitelinks
What this looks like
Let’s take a look at an example business, Flowers Forever, to see how this update will work. Before the update, people who searched for “flowers” on Google.com saw the ad on the left which shows the business’ website URL, two lines of general information and a link to place orders.
After the update, potential customers may see a Google Maps marker that shows the location of the flower shop, in addition to the website URL, ad creative and online order form -- all within one ad.
By eliminating the second line of ad text, we give businesses another point of engagement with customers in their ads -- in this case, it’s the additional location extension. With just a single click on their smartphones, consumers can now directly engage with Flowers Forever in three ways: they can visit the mobile website, place an order, or get directions to visit the store.
Getting the most out of your mobile ads
While no specific action is required for these improvements, it’s always a good idea to keep these mobile ads best practices in mind:
- Ensure that your most important information is in the first line of ad text (description line 1) to address customer needs right away. Remember to keep this text within the 35 character limit.
- Enable all relevant extensions to help consumers find information faster and increase clickthrough rates (CTR).
- Use mobile preferred creatives to help consumers quickly and easily take action while on the go. You’ll also get better results when your ads are more relevant to mobile searchers.
We’re constantly adapting our products to better meet consumer needs and help businesses connect with customers. While we believe that these new updates will provide improved performance for your mobile ads, you may opt out of this offering when it becomes available in October via a form on this
Help Center article.
Posted by Senthil Hariramasamy, Product Manager, AdWords
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