Bing Will Support Expanded Text Ads

Sep 1, 2016 | Industry Updates

Last week, Bing Ads announced it would kick off a pilot program for Expanded Text Ads. This comes just after Google AdWords announced it was ramping up support for longer text ads.

 

What’s Bing Expanded Text Ads?

If all goes well in the pilot program, this means you won’t have to manage both old and new text ad formats if you advertise on both Google and Bing.

Generally, text ads on Bing have always been 25 to 71 characters long. Expanded Text Ads have stretched it to 60 to 80 characters. This means two headlines, 30 characters each, and a whopping 80 characters of ad text.

Everyone wins with more text. First and foremost, Expanded Text Ads enhance the viewer experience. It’s simple: they can see more information about where the ad is sending them. More information upfront leads to higher quality clicks. Advertisers will appreciate dialed up website traffic and, hopefully, see a boost in ad click-through rates.

 

What the Expanded Text Ads look like

It’s not hard to see the benefits of Expanded Text Ads, at a glance (literally). Here’s an example of what the ETA would look like from standard (left) to expanded (right):

Google-ETA

 

And how the ad set up would look like on Bing:

Bing-ETA-Interface

 

Benefits of Expanded Text Ads include:

  • Mobile optimization: The ads deliver a stellar viewing experience, whether on mobile, desktop or tablet
  • Stronger call to actions: Expanded Text Ads give you have a large canvas for creating enticing calls to actions
  • Drive conversions: The longer ad format gives advertisers the ability to generate interest, optimize and test—and drive increased engagement.

Juggling ads between Google and Bing just got easier. Advertisers can simply import their text ads to and from Google AdWords for a more efficient process.