Responsive search ads are taking center stage – are you ready?

Responsive Search Ads – RSA for short – are not newbies. RSAs have been part of the PPC ecosystem for several years. That being said, RSAs were a hot topic in 2022. Why all the fuss about them now?

This summer, the previous type of ad, expanded text ads, will be phased out. This puts responsive search ads at the forefront of advertisers as the only text ad type for search campaigns. Let’s dive deeper into RSA, the change, and how you can maximize your potential with RSA.

Responsive search ads are about showing the right message at the right time. RSAs are a customizable ad experience that displays more personalized content to reach your customers. These ads tailor your text ads to closely match what someone is looking for when they search for it.

In addition, RSAs can help reduce large-scale operations and save time. Advertisers provide up to 15 headlines and up to four descriptions. All of these components can create over 40,000 possible ad permutations! Find effectiveness by evaluating ads with A/B tests and automatically determine which creative works best for different queries.

Expanded text ads will be phased out in two waves this summer. The first wave was for Google Ads on June 30^th. There will be a second wave Microsoft advertising. From August 29^thadvertisers will no longer be able to create new expanded text ads.

Pre-existing expanded text ads will continue to appear on both platforms. Note that while you can turn these ads on and off, you will no longer be able to edit them.

How can you maximize your potential with RSA? First and foremost, start implementing RSA along with your expanded text ads today, if you haven’t already. Here are some additional best practices to consider when working with RSA:

• Convert the best performing content from your existing expanded text ads into different RSA titles and descriptions.
• Make sure all of your ad groups have at least two to three responsive search ads.
• Include your top performing keywords and clear calls to action in your title and description assets.
• Create at least 11-15 titles and use a combination of short and long titles to maximize character count across all devices.

• Make the content as distinct as possible:
  • Avoid repetitive language
  • Consider additional benefits or features of the product or service
  • Try a clear call to action
  • Include shipping and return information
• Take RSA to the next level by customizing your assets:
  • Dynamic keyword insertion
• Place the Universal Event Tracking (UET) tag on your website with conversion tracking enabled to provide stronger optimization signals for the RSA algorithm.
• Review asset strength, combo reports, and other details in the Assets tab to optimize your assets with low impressions.

Responsive search ads have taken center stage in search advertising campaigns. If you’ve been sleeping on RSA before, it’s time to wake up and take notice. Start creating RSAs to launch alongside your existing expanded text ads today. Happy ad testing everyone!

About the author

Microsoft advertising connects you with more than a billion people at the right moments in work and life. Microsoft’s ecosystem provides access to an audience that has greater purchasing power, spends more online, and is more likely to engage with ads to test new offerings. Whether you’re creating a brand or performance campaign, we offer advertising solutions that drive the entire marketing funnel, including search, native, display and video – powered by the Microsoft Advertising platform and DSP, SSP and Curate ad technology . Reach people across Microsoft products including Bing, MSN, Microsoft News, Microsoft Edge and Outlook.com, partner sites like AOL, Yahoo and DuckDuckGo, or the open web with Xandr. Microsoft advertising. Great relationships start here.