With expanded search ads now on the way out, it may be time for you to look to responsive search ads for all your advertising needs. However, to get the most out of your RSAs, it's essential to follow best practices that ensure your ads are engaging, relevant, and effective. But what if you haven’t used them before? Fear not, because this blog will tell you all the best tips for your responsive search ad creation.
Are Responsive Search Ads Good To Use?
We welcome the addition of Responsive Search Ads (RSAs) into Google Ads accounts. By allowing you to provide multiple headlines and descriptions, RSAs enable Google to automatically test various combinations and determine which ones perform best. The dynamic and flexible ad format we find helps to improve campaign performance. This positive sentiment towards the ad type is shared by Ginny Marvin, Editor at Search Engine Land:
"Responsive Search Ads leverage machine learning to test multiple headlines and descriptions, optimising for the best-performing combinations. This means ads are more likely to match users' search queries, enhancing relevance and engagement." (source)
So, to help you make the most of your new ads, here’s a comprehensive guide to best practices for creating and managing Responsive Search Ads:
Tip #1: Add one responsive search ad per ad group at minimum
One of the first tips we have for adopting best practices for Responsive Search Ads is to ensure all ad groups are now using Responsive Search Ads. This is because, in terms of the recommended amount of responsive search ads, Google has always recommended adding at least one responsive search ad per ad group. When doing this you must also make sure that your ad has got either a good or excellent ad strength to improve performance and also the likelihood of the ad being shown.
Furthermore, it is best for you to create ad groups that are specific to either your products or services so that you are able to create hyper-relevant content for your ads. The main reason for this is that it will enable Google’s system to optimise your ads performance resulting in more clicks for your business.
Tip #2: Create unique headlines & descriptions
To enhance your ad performance and meet your marketing goals, it’s vital to follow best practices such as creating unique headlines and descriptions.
The biggest bonus of responsive search ads lies within it having multiple ad combinations & keywords that will ensure your ads will match up to what your customers are searching for. How will this benefit your business? It will help increase your search relevance as well as reaching more customers.
When you create your responsive search ad you will be able to add fifteen headlines as well as four descriptions. Your responsive search ad will show up to three headlines as well as two descriptions at a time. Here are five tips when it comes to unique headlines and descriptions:
Make sure that you write at least 8-10 headlines in your ad. The main reason for this is it will allow more ad combinations.
Ensure that you have at least two unique descriptions for your ads. You should make sure that they focus on describing what your product or service can help your customers with and ensure that there is a call to action at the end of the description.
Try out headlines that have different lengths, you don’t have to max out characters within every headline as Google tests out both long and short headlines
Whilst it is always good to have keywords within your headlines always ensure that is not the only thing you are adding to the headlines. The main reason for this is that if you only add a certain amount of keywords to your headlines Google’s system will generate more ad combinations.
Circling back to point number four. You will always want to ensure that you include your popular keywords within your ad headlines to be able to increase the ad's relevance.
Tip #3: Reuse content from your expanded text ads
Now, when we say reuse content from your expanded text ads we refer to good-performing content. For example, if a certain call to action provided a better conversion rate then most other ads utilise that same call to action within your responsive search ads. This will not only mean your responsive search ads should gain a better conversion rate but also it will help you to get more ad combinations with keywords that have proven successful previously.
Tip #4: Utilise the pin headline & description option (but sparingly!)
By default, your responsive search ads will show your headlines and descriptions in whatever order Google sees fit but there is an option that you can utilise - the pin headline option. This effectively allows you to dictate to Google that you want this headline or description to be the priority when selecting ad combinations. However, you should use this option sparingly, if you pin too many headlines and descriptions this will reduce the effectiveness of using a responsive search ad.
Tip #5: Ensure you have good or excellent ad strength
Maximising ad performance and achieving your marketing goals relies heavily on implementing effective best practices such as ensuring your Ads have "good" or "excellent" ad strength. When you are creating your responsive search ad, you will see an indicator that is labelled as ad strength what this does is help you in improving the quality and effectiveness of your ad performance. The main reason you should do this is when you improve the ad strength from poor to excellent, it will result in a 9% increase in clicks and conversion rate.
To conclude you should try to at least get a good rating by adding popular keywords for headlines or descriptions.
Bonus Tip: Don't Forget Keyword Insertion
Integrating DKI into RSAs takes this a step further, enhancing the personalisation and effectiveness of your ads. By dynamically inserting keywords, RSAs become even more relevant to users' search queries, which can improve ad performance and CTR.
Time to implement best practices
To conclude, responsive search ads will continue the progression that Google are currently on in terms of automation & machine learning. You can utilise responsive search ads to improve the performance of your PPC search campaigns if they are part of your B2C marketing or B2B marketing activities - whether they be paid channels, organic channels or social media. Our PPC experts who are based in Leeds can help to promote your business via Google’s responsive search ads. Contact us today to find out more about what our PPC team can offer you today.
By Callum Stringfellow - On 05/10/22 |
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