Google Instant Reformats PPC Ads

[rodhull]

Has anyone else spotted this?

Google Instant reformats PPC ads

One of my colleagues noticed today that with Google Instant switched on, PPC ads on the right hand side may be reformatted by Google to show more than 35 characters in one description line or even to split the description across 3 lines.

We're based in the UK - has anyone seen this happening in the US yet?

[BradCallen]

Wow, no I had not seen that. Good eye! I don't think I would have spotted that without someone else pointing it out. I like the longer fields anyways.

[rustybrick]

Are you sure this is new? Any browser can force an ad to wrap if the window is shrunk...

[rodhull]

I'm sure this is new. Google have never wrapped the text in sponsored links before. They have always kept the 25-35-35 character format as it is. And I've never seen them display more than 35 characters on one line (except in the banner position).

If I switch Google Instant off and try the same search I get the ad as I would expect it to be displayed (25-35-35), and it does not wrap when I shrink the window. The natural listings DO wrap though (and always have).

[BradCallen]

I don't think I have seen 38 characters in the first line of the ad copy before. But then again, I don't usually count except for my own ads.

Check it out:

If you create text ads using non-Latin characters, please be aware that the character limit may vary. Ads in languages with double-byte characters, such as Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, can contain the following number of characters, including spaces: 12 characters in the title, 17 characters in each line of ad text, and 35 characters in the display URL (only single-byte characters are allowed in the display URL field). Countries that support longer text ads have higher double-byte character limits.

[dannyb]

Well spotted - hopefully Google will sort this out.

I noticed that Google instant doesn't seem to work unless logged in to your Google account? Have you noticed this?

[rodhull]

Yes, at the moment it only works when logged in. Eventually it will be rolled out to everyone.

[rodhull]

Thanks to Google Instant we now have single line ads appearing in the search results!


http://www.periscopix.co.uk/blog/index.php/single-line-ads-on-google/

This is the first time I've seen anything like this happen!