When Google’s expanded text ads (ETAs) came out, we saw how Google delayed the sunset for creating legacy ads from late October 2016 to the end of January 2017. But if ETAs are supposed to perform better than standard text ads, why bother delaying the original ad format?
There was a recent conversation that went down between Frederick Vallaeys and a Google product manager, and the reasoning was explained pretty well. We’ve learned at this point that quality matters. When expanded text ads have been well-optimized, they can easily outperform legacy ads. But, something that we tend to forget – standard ads have had years of optimization, and in some situations, a brand new ETA may not outperform them immediately.
The reason behind the delay was to help give people more time to experiment with their expanded text ads. This extra time is important, as people will people will have the time to test and iterate ads, while giving holiday optimizations their proper due.
At Optmyzr, they were curious about what characteristics great-performing ETAs have in common, so they took a look through 700 accounts, 1.2 million ads and over a billion impressions. Frederick Vallaeys presented their fimdings at the MarketingFestival even that took place in the Czech Republic last week, and wanted to share them with everybody who wasn’t able to make it to the event.
Check out his findings by following the link below!
Search Engine Land: 5 ingredients for writing the perfect expanded text ad