Expanded text ads or standard text ads would be automatically upgraded to responsive ads in AdWords Display campaigns. Although Google did not make an official announcement for this change still the below alert would be displayed on page on text ads.
It is a mandatory update with no scope of opting out of it, so it would be in better interest to change to responsive ads.
The major changes
The foremost and remarkable change you could find on the Display Network that is driven by Google is addition of Stock images. Actually, Google has been involved in pairing the images from Stock photos and G+ and update the text ads to responsive ads. So, if you come to know that the text ads have been upgraded and the related stock photos are not aligned well with your brand then you should contact AdWord support.
Issues associated with this update are:
- Well the stock image would be not completely out of relevancy but its size may vary from the actual requirement and does not fit the image ad format or first native ad format.
- Another issue would be subsided with the headline, where the native format includes only the short headlines instead of headline 1 and name of the business or company. If the ad does not have the business name then the ad copy will provide no proper benefit and may result in low CTR.
To avoid all this circumstances you should use it better to be proactive and upgrade the text ads on the Display Network ASAP. Well you can improve the native ad format by adding a long headline which will act as its description. The character limit of long headline is 90.
How to find the changes
These automated updates do not get recorded in the Change History report. You can use edit ad function in AdWords for each ad to find whether your text ads have been changed into responsive ad or not. Remember that it would be possible that only one ad has been changed while others in the same ad group may not have been altered. So you need to check each and every ad. You can update your ad by using the edit option and the new responsive ad will be edited by the edit option as shown below:
Currently, this is the only method to know about the changes that have been done in the interface. Responsive ad information such as long headline, short headline, images, and business names are not included in ad reports and the responsive ads are also not accessible via filter option in AdWords.
Responsive Ads performance and practices
To check each and every text ads to find whether Google has updated them or not is time consuming though the outcomes of the updates may be good for the advertisers. As comparison with regular text ads, responsive ads take more ad spaces as well as formats and this would be beneficial to enhance the impressions after switching to responsive ads.
Practices you should acquire:
- Utilize the available space for characters mainly in Long headlines to show native format intentional.
- Use logo and increase brand awareness.
- Use different images or copy to maintain CTR steady as impressions will be increased after updating of responsive ads.
Prepare yourself for changes
You should follow several steps to prepare yourself for automated changes and avoid stock photos to show on your text ads.
- Verify the expanded and standard text ads in campaigns for updates that have started in your account or not.
- If ads have been updated then add business name, long description, long headlines, etc, to responsive ads to eliminate the awkwardness in image as well as native formats.
- If you find that the stock photos attached with your ads are not relevant then you can edit them with any image.
However, if no changes have happened yet, then you should change these ads to responsive to avoid the hassle via automated changes.