Google AdWords has launched expanded text ads for advertisers.  These expanded ads are mobile optimized for better performance with additional room for descriptions and the all important headline.  Google is also discontinuing the use of the regular text ad format later this year.

The new format adds about 50% more ad text with two headlines of 30 characters in length and a single 80 character description line. Here is an example of the regular AdWords ad on mobile and the new expanded text ads:

AdWords has been pushing to bring their ads into the mobile first world, which included today’s announcement of device bid adjustments, another feature advertisers had been requesting now that more than 50% of searches are done on mobile.

Google also announced that on October 26, 2016 that advertisers will no longer be able to create or edit standard text ads.  So advertisers should be prepared to roll their campaigns over to the new expanded text ads, however Google will continue to serve both standard text ads and expanded ones.

While expanded text ads have been tested and spotted in the wild prior to today, they are now available to all advertisers.