Take Control of RSAs

Take control of Responsive Search Ads

Responsive Search Ads harness the power of machine learning to optimize your ads, but take away some of the control you get with Expanded Text Ads (ETAs). Learn about how to make the most of RSAs, ahead of the June 2022 phase-out of ETAs. If you’re still using Google’s Expanded Text Ads (ETAs) then time is running out – ETAs are being phased out in mid-2022. The good news is that Responsive Search Ads (RSAs) are expected to deliver better results and can make life easier. But there are some important trade-offs that every marketer needs to understand. Google quotes an average of 7% more conversions (at a comparable cost per conversion) using the new RSA format with the same assets.That’s because RSAs use machine learning to constantly tweak the combinations of text used in your ads (based on your defined pre-sets) to ensure they are performing optimally. In addition, RSAs take care of testing and optimization, so all you have to do is set them up, check in on them, and replace poorly performing text. RSAs are the next step in terms of using AI to enhance marketing. We strongly recommend that anyone who is not already using them makes the switch – without waiting for their access to ETAs to expire in June.” Chris Lien CEO, Marin Software i Marin Software

Table of Contents Expanded Text Ads shutdown ................................. 1 What are Responsive Search Ads? .......................... 2 The benefits of RSAs ................................................. 3 How to use RSAs – the basics ....................................................... 4 Tracking the performance of your RSAs ................ 7 Marin’s top tips for RSAs .......................................... 9 About Marin ............................................................... 10 About the authors ................................................... 11 ii Marin Software

Expanded Text Ads shutdown From 30 June 2022, you won’t be able to edit your existing Google ETAs or create new ones. Any existing ETAs you have will continue to run and you will retain the ability to run reports, pause/resume, and delete as required. This change is happening to allow brands to keep up with the rapid evolution of the way that customers use search. Currently, 15% of all daily search queries on Google are completely new terms that have never been used before, making adaptability a key feature. Successful brands can stay ahead of the curve by switching to Responsive Search Ads (RSAs). The months before the June 2022 deadline give you an opportunity to continue running your ETAs, while simultaneously learning how to use RSAs. Many businesses are already using the newer RSAs to enhance their performance. What about Bing? While this article focuses on Google Responsive Search Ads, Microsoft Advertising also offers RSAs as an ad format. Bing has an audience of some 56 million people searching for products outside Google, so advertisers are wise to be leveraging both publishers with their RSAs. And in fact, Microsoft has announced that they will also retire ETAs in June of 2022 as well, so again: best to get started now! 1 Marin Software

What are Responsive Search Ads? RSA’s cater to consumer demand for more personalized marketing messages. Today, no one ad is right for everyone all of the time. So RSAs enable machine learning to drive highly personalized ads designed to resonate with search users. RSAs allow you to create an advert with a range of headlines (up to 15) and descriptions (up to 4) that are automatically tested in different combinations to find the optimal ad to show for each specific search term. Keep in mind that responsive search ads are limited to 30 characters per headline. Use punctuation creatively by incorporating dashes and colons to make the most out of the limited space. This allows your ads to compete in more auctions, while delivering the most relevant message for a variety of different queries. RSAs display three of your headlines and two of your descriptions at a time, plus a customizable URL based on your landing page path. 2 Marin Software

The benefits of RSAs RSAs offer a range of other benefits: • They adapt effectively to multiple device dimensions. • They can be tailored to customers by location, intent, and other user-specific attributes. • They allow more characters than ETAs. • Because RSA’s are intended to share the most relevant message for every search, they should - in theory - drive an increase in your click-through rate, thereby increasing your quality score. • Higher relevance increases the chance of competing in more auctions than a static ad alone . The time saving benefits of using built-in machine learning instead of manual A/B testing cannot be understated. The mental shift that marketers need to make is that there is no such thing as the ‘best’ creative. RSAs aim to deliver the right message to each individual. To put it another way, the ad delivered to Susie, when she’s at work on her laptop, is different from the message she might see on the weekend on her phone, which is entirely different from what Bob, her colleague across town, might see after doing additional research. The experience is personalized through machine learning according to what each person is learning, doing, and seeming to want to achieve in their online queries. Ultimately, the use of RSAs is expected to increase clicks and conversions, as well as ROI and revenue. However, the approach needed is slightly dif - ferent to ETAs, particularly if you want to maintain some control over the text elements that appear together in your ads. 3 Marin Software

How to use RSAs – the basics Rather than A/B testing, you create a range of headlines and descriptions (assets) in advance. You can re-use the content from your existing ETAs , as long as you remember a few simple points. For example, headlines and descriptions in RSAs can be combined in any order. You’ll need to make sure that each individual asset (headline or description) makes sense when paired with any of the other assets, and that all of the ad combinations can be viewed in any order. Pinning However, it is possible to ‘pin’ certain assets if you need to ensure that specific content is always shown. This is a particularly useful feature if you have a range of assets that you need to show in a very specific way, rather than allowing AI to test a range of combinations for you. If you have a particular need, like legal jargon, promotion specifics, or some other required notice, pinning can be a useful tool. On the whole, however, it is not considered best practice to use pinning a great deal as it limits the number of combinations possible, and therefore limits the Google algorithm’s ability to customize messaging for each user. Use this tactic judiciously for out-of-the-ordinary messaging circumstances. For example, you can pin a description to ‘ position 1 ’ and it will be shown in every RSA, regardless of the headline used with it. However, unless you need to feature something specific, such as a disclaimer, it’s wise to retain the full ability of your ads to be adapted to match a range of search terms. 4 Marin Software

You can pin up to two headlines and one description to ensure that they always show. If you pin two headlines, either the first or second will show every time. Headlines that you pin in position three, or descriptions in position two, will not show in every ad. One field pinned to one position (Limited control) Multiple fields pinned to the same position (Limited control) Pinning to all positions (Full control) Same Day Flower Delivery Delivery in Less Than 4 Hours 29/30 30/30 Headlines pinned Pinning one headline or description causes it to show only in that specific position, preventing others from showing in that position. Same Day Flower Delivery Delivery in Less Than 4 Hours 29/30 30/30 BestFlowers® Flower Delivery Fresh and Local Flowers Beautiful Flowers Bouquets 11/30 30/30 21/30 Headlines pinned If you pin multiple headlines to the same position, at least one will appear in that position in every ad. Assets won’t automatically combine If you pin your headlines to certain positions, you’ll have fewer ads and they might not reach as many potential customers 5 Marin Software

Ad Strength The benefits of RSAs are heightened with the use of Google’s Ad Strength . This feature indicates the effectiveness of a specific ad using an overall rating. It provides actionable feedback such as ‘ increase the length of your headlines ’, ‘ include more keywords ’, or ‘ make your description more unique ’ to help you improve the strength of your ads. You can make use of this feature while creating an ad, or view it in the Ads & Extensions window for current campaigns. Ad Strength Add a few more headlines Add more headlines. View ideas Make your headlines more unique. View ideas Make your descriptions more unique. View ideas GOOD 6 Marin Software

Tracking the performance of your RSAs You can view a high-level overview of the relative performance of each individual element (headline or description) of your RSAs using the asset report function. Here, you’ll be able to filter all of your ads according to performance, type, and whether or not they are currently enabled. The report shows basic information such as the text included in each asset and whether or not it is pinned. It also shows the number of impressions (how often your asset is shown on SERPs) and performance in relation to other assets within the same type in that RSA. Performance is simply designated as Low, Good, or Best. While this is not quantified clearly in terms of specific metrics, you can use this information to keep and add more of the assets that work well, while replacing poor performers. Asset performance rating Pending This asset doesn’t have any performance information yet. A performance rating for this asset will be shown once enough information has been collected. Information needed to rate this asset is still being collected. A performance rating for this asset will be shown once enough information has been collected. This asset is one of your lowest performing assets of its type. Replacing this asset could improve your local ad performance. This asset is one of your lowest performing assets of its type. Replacing this asset could improve your local ad performance. This asset is one of your best performing assets of its type. Adding more assets like this one could increase your chances for better ad performance. A dash (“--”) means that a performance rating is not available for this asset. This can happen if there are not enough assets of the same type to compare it against, the asset isn’t active or if the asset does not get enough traffic to determine its relative performance. Learning Low Good Best “--” (Unrated) Description 7 Marin Software

8 Tip: It’s important to remember that newly added assets will show a ‘pending’ or ‘learning’ status in the Performance column as they require approximately 5,000 impressions over 30 days to show results. If you don’t see a rating in the Performance column, it could be because there aren’t enough assets within the RSA to compare it with. It’s vital to remember that this is only an indication of how each headline or description performs compared with others within the same RSA group , not an indication of the overall performance of your ad.

Marin’s top tips for RSAs Our main tip is just to get started. If you are already using ETAs, you can use Google’s recommendations to take the highest performing assets in those and use them in your RSAs for an average increase in performance of 10% . Following that, here are some more useful tips: • Remember the benefit of RSAs is to provide the right message to each user, so make sure you have many different messages for Google to choose from, not just close variations on the same theme. • Also provide as much variety in your assets as you can at the start in order to give the algorithms plenty to test. This can mean trying different keywords in different positions and pinning headlines to see how they perform with different descriptions. • Use high-performing ad groups with enough weekly impressions to provide meaningful results. • Be specific and respond to your audience’s needs. Use a clear call to action that tells them what their click will do for them. • Include audiences at different stages of your sales funnel, with different problems and solutions and a range of products, services, and calls to action. • Prioritize headlines at first. Use your target keyword(s) and remember that customers are less likely to read a description if it doesn’t have a powerful, eye-catching headline to reel them in. Spend some time crafting a broad selection of solid headlines that include your top- performing keywords. 9 Marin Software

• Don’t use pinning unless you have a good reason. Remember that if you pin headlines and descriptions to every position, anything unpinned will not be used. And pinning takes away the flexibility required for Google’s machine learning to do its thing. • Keep an eye on performance . Prune any low performing assets, enhance any mid-range assets, and keep/repeat any high-performing assets. About Marin Marin Software is the digital marketing software of choice for performance-driven advertisers and agencies. Our dynamic and easy-to- use tools help digital marketers create unique audience segmentations, improve fiscal growth, and make the right pivots for company success. Marin has helped advertisers across the globe manage and optimize over $40 billion in digital advertising spend since 2007. MarinOne is the most inclusive single platform for paid search and social advertising on the market as we offer solutions that can be linked to dozens of global publishers. Test our solutions for ecommerce, display, and apps, for true omnichannel marketing. Our digital marketing experts are ready to consult with you on plans available, so you can get on the road to more simple marketing management. 10 Marin Software

About the authors Candace Boren is a Product Marketing Director at Marin Software. She has spent several years delivering marketing solutions for consumer and B2B products and services at enterprise technology companies, small businesses, and nonprofits. Outside of work, Candace enjoys walking dogs for local animal shelters and rescues. Katie Sullivan Porter has 12 years of experience in the digital marketing field, including six years in the agency space. She has worked for and with SMB, mid-size, and enterprise ecomm and B2B companies in a broad range of roles from paid media management to content writing to strategy. She is a mother of two boys and enjoys her extra time taking them to Disney theme parks. She has a passion for culture and can often be found on the weekends traveling, seeing theater productions, or attending concerts. 11 Marin Software