What is a Responsive Search Ad (RSA)?

A Search ad that's composed of up to 15 headlines, and up to 4 descriptions, to promote a specific landing page. The headlines and descriptions are shown in semi-random combinations at first, using machine learning to optimize for the combinations that are likely to get the best results. This is the main type of ad you'll be creating in a Google Ad Grant account.

Create one Responsive Search Ad per ad group.

Ignore any advice to create more than that. Even Google's own Ad Grants compliance guide is outdated and incorrectly tells you to create multiple ads. Not only would that be a waste of time, it would also slow down machine learning because each ad needs 5,000+ impressions per month to optimize properly.

Within the ad group you'll also need to add keywords, and these should be closely themed to match the text of both the ad and the landing page.

Watch the video below to learn how to create a Responsive Search Ad.

RSA headlines might now appear as descriptions

This is a recent change. Now, ads might show just one headline; and headlines can now appear where you'd expect to find only descriptions. This is not something you have control over.

If you prefer to control their placement precisely, you'd need to pin all your headlines to specific positions. I don't recommend this, because it prevents the machine learning from working optimally.

New assets (extensions) for headlines and descriptions

You can now create extensions that add up to three headlines and two descriptions at the account level. They will randomly replace the headlines and descriptions in your ads, without you having to edit the ads themselves. They can even be pinned in specific positions i.e. headline 1, 2 or 3, or description 1 or 2.

That's quite clever, and useful for short-term messaging, for example to add the words "Donations matched until Dec 31" or "November is Stomach Cancer Awareness Week". You can also use it simply to test different taglines.

What happened to the old Expanded Text Ad (ETA) format?

ETAs are no longer supported by Google and cannot be edited. Where you find them in your account, remove and replace them with a single Responsive Search Ad.

Does Ad Strength matter?

Google confirmed in early 2024 that the Ad Strength score has no direct influence over whether your ads get shown or not. So use your own best judgement. If you think an ad with a poor score is actually well written, that's ok; and conversely, don't assume that an excellent score means it is any more likely to get shown or perform well. Use Ad Strength as a guide, not a rule.

Page updated: May 2024