RSAs nearly always have a higher click-through rate than ETAs. (Notice I said “nearly always.” Don’t @ me with your exceptions.)
3. Be ready for declining ETA impressions
In September 2021, Google announced it will be sunsetting expanded text ads in June 2022. This is certainly a large change, but not a big surprise. Plus, Google has given us plenty of lead time.
One feature of responsive search ads is the option to pin certain headlines and descriptions in place. Note that ads will still always be two headlines and one description at a minimum, with the option for Google to extend them to three headlines and two descriptions, but ads will never be longer than that. Here are some important tips with regard to this functionality.
4. Activate responsive search ads now
Even before this change was announced, we were seeing declining impression counts on expanded text ads compared to responsive search ads in many accounts. My hunch is that trend will continue.
If you have a few headline variants that are fairly similar, you can pin them all to the same position. As a result, only that group of headlines will show in that position and not anywhere else. This is a great way to treat call to action headlines. You can create four different CTA headlines and pin them all in position two so that placement will always contain one of those four CTA headlines.
5. Establish RSA benchmarks
Get RSAs active in all ad groups of all search campaigns in all of your accounts now so you can start establishing benchmarks for each specific account. This will be very, very handy when you have to answer to your boss or client about changes in performance.
These are…pretty unhelpful if you ask me. But they do give some indicator on what Google is seeing performance-wise for each component.
Google’s standard suggestion is that you have at least one responsive search ad active in every ad group of your account.
The important thing about these scores is they DO NOT correlate directly to conversion performance. Just because a component is rated Best, it doesn’t mean it’s generating conversions. To find that out, you’ll need to pin some ad components in place and get more firm data.
We began testing a new ad format that is going to be the default moving forward. Rather than giving you generic benchmarks, we tested these in your account specifically and here is the range that we can expect moving forward.
6. Pin strategically
Responsive search ads only require three headlines and two descriptions to be added to a campaign and run. You can also pin elements wherever you like within your RSAs.
Use pinning to ensure a CTA in every ad
Although I think it’s important to take advantage of ETAs while we have them, I’m also realistic.
Pin multiple components to the same position
Lastly, you can see some ad combinations by clicking on the Combinations tab up at the top of the asset details page.
Make ETAs with the RSA framework
Conversion performance, on the other hand, varies widely. Some accounts do very well with responsive search ads and others can really struggle when it comes to getting customers over the final finish line.
Asset performance rating
At this point, I’m on board with them.
- Pending: No information on the asset yet.
- Learning: Not enough information on the asset yet.
- Low: One of the lowest performing of its type. May want to replace.
- Good: Performing well relative to other assets of its type. Keep and add more.
- Best: One of the best of its type. Keep and add more.
- Unrated (“—“): Rating not available due to insufficient activity, traffic, or number of similar assets to compare against.
Additionally, you’ll notice Google has an asset performance rating system:
Not every headline and/or description needs to have a call to action included, but every ad, of course, should. Pin certain components to ensure that every ad variant that’s eligible will contain a call to action.
Check the Combinations tab
Even if the benchmarks are lower than previous performance, I can guarantee you’ll soften the blow by establishing clear expectations early on. This is the key to building client relationships that last.
