As expanded text ads are now available generally to the public, as well as the October 26 cut-off for being able to upload traditional ads into AdWords looming, the ad preview in the AdWords web interface has been updated by Google. Not only that, the update seems to provide a better indication of whether a headline might get truncated.
The roll out of the new preview was spotted by Steven Johns at Door4 in the UK Friday morning.
Google Testing New Create an Ad Preview and Sample Ad Feature? #ppcchat #ppc @WordStream @sengineland @GinnyMarvin pic.twitter.com/MuZlM3lD9F
— Steven Johns (@stevenjohns21) September 9, 2016
With the new preview tool, it has separate views for desktop and mobile, as well as a separate section to view sample ads.
The new preview will not only help advertisers transition to expanded text ads, the update will also likely respond to concerns about some ads being truncated. The old version wouldn’t always indicate if or when the second headline would be truncated. With the newest version, it seems to be more attuned to this issue. As an example, check out the image below. In it, you’ll see the preview tool indicating the second headline will potentially be cut off on desktop.
As you can see in the image, the headlines see a lot of high pixel characters. In this case, it makes it more likely to be cut off. Google, as usual, is advising that most advertisers take advantage of all the characters available. They say that truncation is not a common thing. For marketers in highly regulated sectors that need to ensure full copy is viewable, Google suggests limiting the combined character count of the headlines to 33 characters.
If you aren’t testing expanded texts ads already, here’s a look at some early results and suggestions for getting started.