Expanded Text Ad (ETA) Deprecation: The Transition to Responsive Search Ads (RSA)

We can no longer create or edit expanded text ads (ETAs) as of June 30th, 2022. It’s been a great run, ETAs, and we’ll miss you, but we’re excited about the Responsive Search Ad (RSA) takeover. As ETAs head to the Google Deprecation Zone, here are five tidbits about ETAs and RSAs that you might not have known.

1. Started From the Bottom

Back in 2016, when there was a big push to move from Standard Text Ads to Expanded Text Ads, lots of advertisers were worried about long-term performance because there were multiple situations where we’d see Standard Text Ads outperform the newer Expanded Text Ads. 

2. Using the Space

After the slow start, ETAs quickly proved their worth. Taking up more real estate in the Search Results Page really can be the difference between getting a click or just getting an impression. We all appreciated having more characters to use to highlight our products and distinguish us from our competitors. 

3. A Responsive Search Ad Future

RSAs will replace ETAs as the text ad format moving forward, and the good news is that RSAs are really, really good. Google learned from the transition from standard text ads to expanded text ads and introduced RSAs 2+ years before they deprecated ETAs.

RSAs give us a lot of creative freedom, but, more importantly, they give us lots of feedback. We can quickly see what combination of headlines and descriptions is being served the most. These powerful insights help us craft messages that resonate with our potential customers. 

4. Pinning

RSAs let us test quickly, but they also let us say what’s most important every single time. With RSAs, we have the ability to pin a particular headline or description if we know that we want to present a specific message every single time our ad is shown. 

In most cases, we like to allow Google to serve combinations to help us learn how trends evolve in the marketplace. In certain scenarios, however, pinning a headline makes a lot of sense. For some of our partners with limited-time offers, pinning headlines is a great way to make sure every customer sees that once-in-a-lifetime deal. 

5. Next Steps

You likely already have lots of RSAs in your account, but if not, don’t worry. ETAs are still around for a while longer. We just can’t edit them. Over the next few months, it’ll be important to take those learnings from your ETAs and apply them to your new RSAs. 

Once you get some headlines and descriptions together, let those RSAs run and build some data. If your experience is anything like ours, you’ll likely see those RSAs start to outperform the ETAs pretty quickly. At that point, you can pause the old ETAs, and you’ll be fully prepared for the RSA takeover.

Need Help Transitioning from ETAs to RSAs? Saltbox Solutions Can Help

At Saltbox, our pay-per-click (PPC) team has been paying close attention to the RSA takeover and can help you manage the ETA to RSA transition as smoothly as possible. Due to the potential of RSAs to give us more insights into what’s working and always deliver the most important information to viewers, we’re excited to see how they can make the clients we serve stand out even more. With our team in your corner, you can expect to receive the most value from RSAs and maximize your ROI on future advertising campaigns.

Learn more about our PPC services today. If you have any questions or want to schedule a free discovery call, please contact us.