4 Things You Need to Know About Online Advertising

Online advertising is one area of digital marketing that is always undergoing changes. To ensure your ads remain relevant and your campaigns are the best they can be, you need to stay up to date with the latest news. It is only the start of the month and already many things have been happening in the online advertising world.

1. Expanded Text Ads Could Become Longer

Currently, Expanded Text Ads in AdWords offer 80 characters for a description. If this is too little, you now have the option to include an additional description, also of 80 characters, effectively doubling the text of your ad.

According to a spokesperson for Google, this feature is still in test form. The idea is to see if the longer text will improve the experience for users and advertisers. So far, click-through rates are slightly lower for extra-long ads compared to regular expanded text ads. However, they could still be worthwhile trying for yourself to measure the impact on your unique target audience.

2. You Need to Rewrite Your Ads

What is the likelihood that your first attempt at ad copy is optimal for your paid search campaigns? If you want to maximize ROI, you need to constantly test and rewrite your ad copy.

This process can be unsatisfying. You have already created your ads and probably feel that you have a finished product. It is more interesting to redesign new ads from scratch. However, adapting your ads can make a huge difference — this will ensure you show the right copy to your target audience, receive more clicks from people who matter, and increase your conversions.

A/B testing allows you to focus on every aspect of your ads, from the CTAs and title cases to special characters and the landing pages ads lead to. By changing every part of the design, you can develop ads that grab users’ attention.

Most importantly of all, you need to consider the ad copy. Step away from your ads for a moment and take some time to reconsider your audience. Your ad copy should touch users on an emotional level but also help them feel they are making a rational decision by choosing to purchase your product. If your ads are failing to do this, you need to go back to the drawing board.

3. The Default View-Through Conversion Window Will Shrink

Google counts a view-through conversion (VTC) on AdWords whenever a user converts after viewing a display or video ad without clicking the ad or interacting with any other ads. Currently, the default VTC window is 30 days, but it is about to shrink. On March 29, it will drop to just one day. This will impact both new conversion actions and existing ones.

The reduction in the VTC window is logical to most advertisers. Most consumers are unlikely to make a purchase more than one day after viewing an ad.

Bear in mind, this will have no impact on your Conversions data in AdWords, as VTCs are only included in the VTC column. You can still customize window settings for other conversion actions under the Tools tab.

4. Price Extensions Is Live on All Devices

Price Extensions show prices for products and services within AdWords text ads. When Google released the feature last July, it only worked on mobile devices. Now, it has expanded to ads on desktop. Price Extensions on desktop use the same format they have had on mobile since November — swipeable cards rather than the old horizontal lists.