Table of Contents
- What are Responsive Search Ads?
- Google Ads Responsive Search Ads Video Tutorial
- Responsive Search Ads Specs
- How to Create Responsive Search Ads
- 7 Responsive Search Ads Best Practices
- Benefits of Responsive Search Ads
- Responsive Search Ads Examples
- How to Create Great Google Ads Video Tutorial
- How to Improve Ad Copy With ChatGPT
- My Final Thoughts
Responsive search ads have made our lives easier as advertisers. Instead of having to create 3-4 text ads, you can create 2 responsive search ads per ad group. Google Ads will automatically test them for you to find the winning combinations.
If you are creating Google Ads search campaigns, you may be struggling to create responsive search ads. Or, you may just be looking for best practices. Writing ad copy that converts can be challenging. In addition, ad relevance is a key component of ad rank. Luckily, we have you covered in our blog post below. The video and corresponding article below will cover Google Ads responsive search ads. There are best practices and examples when you are setting up campaigns and advertisements.
What are Responsive Search Ads?
Google Responsive Search Ads are a Google Ads text ad format that allows advertisers to create multiple headlines and descriptions for a single ad. Google then tests different combinations of headlines and descriptions to optimize ad performance based on user search queries. Rather than creating 10 ad combinations with text ads in your ad groups, responsive search ads will dynamically test ad combinations for different keywords. You can enter 15 headlines and 4 description lines per responsive search ad.
Google Ads Responsive Search Ads Video Tutorial
You can watch our responsive search ads video below or directly on YouTube. In this video, I will show you exactly how to create responsive search ads, how to write ad copy that drives conversions, and best practices for testing your text ads.
Responsive Search Ads Specs
Each responsive search ad can contain the following in terms of headlines, description lines, assets, and characters.
- 15 headlines with 30 characters for each headline.
- 4 description lines with 90 characters for each description.
- Option to pin your headlines and descriptions in specific positions of your ads.
- Assets: images, sitelinks, callouts, structured snippets, promotions, prices, calls, lead forms, and apps.
- Set your display URL path. 2 fields with 15 characters each.
- Set your final URL.
- Business name and logos
Fields and options to set:
The option to pin your headlines and descriptions can help to ensure certain messages only appear in certain positions of the ads. For example, you can set if you only want certain headlines to show in headline position 1, 2, or 3.
Pin to Position Example for Responsive Search Ads:
You can see in the image below that I pinned a few of the headlines in position 1 and position 2.
How to Create Responsive Search Ads
Creating these ads is very simple. All you need to do is go to your Google Ads account, create a new campaign, or edit the existing ads in your campaign. When you click to create a new Google ad, one of the options from the Dropdown will be Responsive Search Ads. Then, you can get the most out of your advertisements by adding creative headlines and descriptions in addition to headlines that match your targeted keywords.
Here is where you can create responsive search ads in the new Google Ads interface. On the left-hand side, you can click on the Campaigns drop-down to find all of your ads. You can go to specific ad groups as well.
7 Responsive Search Ads Best Practices
You should always remember that the goal of any advertising campaign is to be as targeted as possible to your prospect’s needs. You need to show your ad to the right person at the right time and convince them you have a solution to their problem. The best practices below will help you as you create every RSA in your Google Ads search campaign.
Responsive Search Ads Best Practices Video
1. Optimize Ad Targeting
You want to make sure your ads are targeted towards search queries so you can provide a great user experience. A user’s search query should match your ads and your landing page should provide a solution.
One of the key best practices for Google Responsive Search Ads is to keep your campaigns and Ad Groups organized. By organizing your campaigns and Ad Groups effectively, you can ensure that your ads are shown to the right audience at the right time, improving the relevance and performance of your RSAs.
Your search keywords should always align with your advertisements for the best results. You can see in the example below that I’m targeting 2 keywords in my ad group. My ads and my landing page need to align with my targeting so I can drive conversions.
2. Optimize Ad Relevance
Use your targeted keywords and use the search terms report to write relevant ad copy. Your targeted keywords should be in your headlines and descriptions. It will increase the likelihood that someone clicks your ad and eventually becomes a customer. Irrelevant ads can lead to higher Google Ads costs and fewer conversions.
3. Highlight Unique Selling Points and Benefits to Customers
Now that people are seeing your ads when they search your targeted keywords, you need to convert them from prospects into customers. Don’t just simply state the features of what you are selling, sell the features as benefits. Use your headlines and description lines to tell your customers how you will make their life better and solve their problems.
4. Test Multiple Ads Per Ad Group
While responsive search ads are designed to test and optimize, you can still test multiple ads per ad group. Highlight different selling points and solve different customer pain points in different advertisements. In the long run, your campaign performance will improve if you create 2-3 responsive search ads per ad group.
5. Complete All Responsive Ad Fields
Take advantage of every headline and description line that you can. You never know what ad copy will convince a customer to convert. Therefore, it’s a best practice to not only create multiple ads per ad group, but to also create complete advertisements.
6. Create Excellent Ad Strength Ads
If your responsive search ads are considered “Poor” by Google Ads, they likely won’t convert as well as higher-rated advertisements. It is a best practice (even noted by Google) to create at least 1 advertisement that is rated “Good” or “Excellent” per ad group.
Focus on creating Excellent responsive search ads:
Improve your Poor Ad Strength Ads:
7. Use All Relevant Assets
Your ads will improve if you use image assets, sitelink assets, callout assets, structured snippets, and any other relevant assets for your advertisements. You can provide more information to users, which makes your ads even more relevant. Showcase every single benefit of your product or service with the help of assets.
Benefits of Responsive Search Ads
- Much easier to test headline and description line combinations.
- 1 responsive search ad can have hundreds of variations.
- Advertisers can include more benefits and selling points in ads.
- Advertisers can create 2-3 responsive search ads per ad group to test & optimize.
- Higher CTRs by creating more engaging text ads.
- Ads with higher conversion rates will be shown to potential customers.
Responsive Search Ads Examples
We listed a few examples below so you can see more about creating this ad format and how it works. The biggest challenge is creating as many unique headlines and descriptions as possible. You want to write compelling ad copy that will encourage people to click your ad and take advantage of an offer on your website.
The first example shows an excellent responsive search ad:
The second example shows all the fields you need to fill out including headlines, description lines, assets, images, and business name and logos:
The third example is from the Google Ads blog when they announced the release of responsive text ads:
How to Create Great Google Ads Video Tutorial
In order to improve ad relevance, improve your click-through rate, and improve your quality score, you need high-quality advertisements in each ad group. The video below will go over 10 ways to create search ads that stand out in the search results.
How to Improve Ad Copy With ChatGPT
It can be difficult to write a lot of ad copy at once. When you have to write 15 headlines and 4 description lines along with your ad assets, it’s a lot from a copywriting standpoint. The prompts below will help you create better ad copy with ChatGPT. You can use the video below to improve your Google Ads, Bing Ads, Facebook Ads, Pinterest Ads, and LinkedIn Ads ad copy. It’s an easy way to make your ads stand out and you can even test your ad copy for responsive search ads vs. ChatGPT and see what converts better.
My Final Thoughts
Google has shifted from expanded text ads to responsive search ads, which makes life easier for advertisers. I remember using Google AdWords and creating 3-4 text ads per ad group. When I would manage campaigns with hundreds of ad groups, it became a hassle to update and improve so many ads at once. The key is to set up several ads in each ad group and set your ad rotation to optimize based on the top-performing ads. From there, continuously test and improve by incorporating new advertisements. Last but not least, you can duplicate your ads, change the final URL, and test landing pages as well. The more you test, the better your conversion data will be.
