A Change of Character?

23.02.2009 Posted in Search

Google ad titles have a maximum of 25 characters right?

Well, not anymore it would seem; witness the below ads using ‘Contemporary Oak Furniture’ in the title.

Hmm, I counted 26 characters too.

Now this may seem like a trifling matter to most but the 25 and 35 Google text ad character limits have been internalised by PPC campaign managers the world over.

Indeed it’s rumoured that many have evolved to only ever talk in 25 or 35 character bursts. This change is likely to cause feelings of insecurity and uncertainty amongst seasoned PPC’ers as we begin to question our entire belief system.

However, being generally positive types we shall just have to set about taking advantage of the situation. Something that it would appear will not be simple to do. It seems that ad titles can now run over the 25 character limit when Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI) is used in the title so long as the space the characters take up isn’t ‘too large’.

The catch here is that we can’t actually create ads with longer titles, it can only happen by happy coincidence. This is no doubt part of a test to see if user-experience is improved when ad titles fill more of the available space. Makes sense I guess, and despite the wear and tear on our fragile egos, you have to admire Google for not resting on their laurels, or as they would say ‘being in constant beta’.

In the meantime, please, if any of you see any of us Google AdWords Professionals slowly rocking in our chairs sucking our thumbs, spare us a few kind words and a reassurance that everything will be ok.