Google’s sunset for their Expanded Text Ads is finally here. Paid advertisers knew it was coming long ago, but the day has finally arrived! Google will officially halt the launch of new ETAs starting June 30th. This means that advertisers have only a few days to prepare. We at Power Digital Marketing are here to explain what this update means to you and your customers, what we recommend you do with your campaigns, and what results we have seen since leveraging this new default ad, Responsive Search Ads.
What does this sunset mean for advertisers
You can no longer create new ETAs after June 30, 2022. We recommend you make any necessary updates to your existing ETA ads (creative refresh, anyone?) While you can, try to improve those evergreen ads. Next, focus your attention on RSAs that are looking ahead.
Google Analytics is accelerating down the road of automation toward a world where machine learning will be the driving force. Over the years, we’ve seen this in various changes to search engine marketing, from “smart bid strategies” to variants of keyword match types to RSAs and Performance Max. We must evolve with the engine! We at Power have been embracing these changes and testing the newer versions of Google Ads.
We’ve seen positive results and appreciate the RSA’s benefits.
Easy management
RSAs are a way to let Google handle the ad copy. Google can operate off thousands of data signals and only gets smarter with time. This allows us to trust Google to serve the right ad at the right time to the correct user.
Instant creative testing
You can use a tool such as Optmyzr to see how each headline performs over a specific time frame. This will help you identify which copy you should keep and which you should discard. It also enables you to remember CTAs and UVPs that have performed well, which can be expanded to other campaigns.
How to Structure Your Campaigns with ETAs and RSAs
Power’s Paid Media has historically followed the structure below to ensure that RSAs adequately cover ETAs. In the past, Power’s Paid Media team has followed a standard practice of running 2-3 ETAs in each group. Through testing, we have often found success with 2 RSAs, both with and without pinned ad copies.
We think running 2-3 ETAs for each ad group is worthwhile while focusing on RSAs as the sun sets. It’s essential to update your ETAs now to ensure the text is relevant, as you won’t be able to to edit them after June 30.
What we’ve seen so far with this change
If you have run ETAs and RSAs in the past, RSAs likely generated more impressions and revenue. Power manages some Google Ads accounts where RSAs accounted for 80% of all images, and 64% of paid search revenue.
We manage an eCommerce apparel brand thathas traditionally run ETAs aandRSAs. Recently, we have switched to only running RSAs. We saw consistent click-through rates (CTRs), but the most significant increase was in the conversion rate. CVR increased by +215% when they switched to an RSA-only strategy.
RSAs have become the most popular ad option. This is a move towards a future that’s more automated. We can customize the ads for each ad group, but Google still has the opportunity to display the most relevant ad copy.
We’re happy with the changes, and we hope you will be too. There is still time to get everything in order, so don’t worry if things haven’t been implemented how you’d like. Let us know if you have any questions about best practices! We are always willing to help our PPC geeks with their strategy.