Write responsive search ads that earn their place before June 30
After June 30 you can no longer create or edit expanded text ads. Here is how to build responsive search ads from your best existing copy and judge them fairly.
On June 30, responsive search ads become the only Search ad type you can create or edit in standard Search campaigns. Existing expanded text ads keep serving, and you can still pause, resume or remove them, but you can't change a word. Call ads and Dynamic Search Ads are not affected. Google recommends having at least one responsive search ad in every Search ad group by that date.
If you still have ad groups running only expanded text ads, you have a few days. The goal is not to tick a box but to avoid being stuck with copy you can no longer improve.
Start from copy that already won
Responsive search ads take a pool of headlines and descriptions and assemble combinations from them. The easiest mistake is to write them from scratch. Pull the headlines and descriptions from your best expanded text ads by conversions, not click-through rate, and use them as the base. Google also suggests repurposing high-performing expanded text content for exactly this reason.
Then fill the gaps deliberately. Aim for headlines that do different jobs, because the system can only test variety you give it:
- Several that repeat the keyword theme in different wording.
- Several that state a concrete benefit or feature.
- One or two that carry a call to action or a reason to act now.
- One or two that cover brand and trust points.
Avoid near-duplicates. Ten headlines that all say the same thing with small word changes produce no useful tests.
Make every combination readable
Because headlines and descriptions are shown in many orders, each one has to make sense next to any other. Write each as a standalone phrase. Avoid headlines that depend on the one before them, and avoid repeating the same claim in two headlines that could appear together.
Pin sparingly
You can pin a headline or description to a specific position when a message must always appear, such as a legal disclaimer or a required brand name. Google's guidance is that if you pin, you should pin at least two or three options to each position so the system keeps some flexibility. Pinning everything turns a responsive ad back into a rigid one with fewer combinations. Pin what is required, nothing more.
Use ad strength as a prompt, not a target
Ad strength rates how well your assets follow Google's recommendations, and it comes with action items. Aim for Good or Excellent, since Google reports that moving an ad from Poor to Excellent is associated with about 9 percent more clicks and conversions on average. That figure is Google's own internal data and has not been independently verified. Treat ad strength as a check that you've given the system enough variety. Don't rewrite good, on-message copy into something vague just to raise the rating.
Judge them on incremental results
This is where teams go wrong. An expanded text ad is judged at the ad level on click-through rate and conversion rate. A responsive search ad enters more auctions, so its per-impression rates can look different while it adds impressions, clicks and conversions the old ad did not. Google's guidance is to evaluate at the ad group level on incremental impressions, clicks and conversions, not only ad-level rates.
Google also reports that switching from expanded text ads to responsive search ads with the same assets produced about 7 percent more conversions at a similar cost per conversion on average, and about 20 percent more in campaigns using broad match with Smart Bidding. These are Google's own figures and averages, so don't expect them in any given ad group. Judge your own data over a few weeks.
Learn from the assets report
Once ads have run, use the asset reporting to see which headlines and descriptions are rated Low and which Best. Replace the Low ones with new variations on the Best ones. Ad variations let you test a changed asset across several campaigns at once, which suits accounts with many similar ad groups.
Do this before Thursday
- List ad groups that have no responsive search ad.
- For each, build one using your best-converting expanded text copy plus new headlines for the gaps.
- Pin only what is required.
- Leave expanded text ads running alongside for now, since they keep serving.
- Set a review date a few weeks out and compare at the ad group level.
The takeaway: after June 30 your copy testing happens in the assets, so the quality and variety of what you load in now decides how much the system has to learn from.