Google Ads (AdWords) introduces longer headlines for selected adverts

Google has recently made changes to the way in which sponsored listings (or Google Ads (AdWords) adverts) are displaying their headlines in the search results. This has been done by merging the original headline with the first line of the advert’s description copy, giving a longer and more prominent text link, separated with a hyphen.

Google has done this because it has found that the top placement ads with the longer headlines get a higher clickthrough rate when displayed in the top positions above the main “organic” search results. Highlighting more information in the advert also improves the user experience, according to Google.

In order for the headline and the first line of the descriptive text to be merged, the first line of text needs to be a distinct sentence and end with correct punctuation, as well as being highly relevant to the content in the headline. The merged headlines will only appear in the adverts in the top 1-3 of the listings when they appear at the top of the page and AdWords advertisers can now see how their ads might appear when editing the content in their AdWords account.

There has been some sceptiscm amongst AdWords users who claim that these new ads with longer headlines may make it less easy to distinguish the sponsored listings from the organic results that appear below them, so it will result in yet more revenue for Google as they’ll get the revenue from those clicks. It’s also likely that the increased competition between advertisers for these new format ads appearing in the top positions may increase the level of bidding for those positions and so will in turn increase Google’s revenue in this way.

Google will no doubt benefit from this change, but so should advertisers if it helps to increase visits to their website from relevant, interested searchers. It’s certainly worth testing this option if you’re running an AdWords campaign, and compare how your advert content is displayed against other advertisers for each search term.

If you’d like more information about how this new format of longer headlines for ads selected by Google can improve the marketing of your business, please contact us now.

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